All of my tattoos are my favorites, but…

… every new tattoo I just get is my FAVORITE favorite!

Let me just tell you before we get to the pictures… as usual, I went to Sleepy Dave (Anthem Tattoo, Gainesville Florida) with an idea, and he doubled my creativity and made it exactly what I wanted. There was even a blank space at the bottom of the lamppost and when I said “how much would you hate me if I wanted to add “Watership Down” here?” he said he wouldn’t hate me at all, and in ten minutes there was a new sign. I love it so much!

Now… let’s get straight to the gallery, then I’ll natter on a little underneath that (so you can skip reading it if you want) about physical abilities/limitations.

(I’m using a new gallery editor; these should have arrows and/or thumbnails of the photos beneath the large one – if it doesn’t, then it’s set to fade and change through the whole 25-photo gallery)

Readers Digest Condensed Version, for new friends: in mid-May of last year I thought I had the flu. When I was not getting better and not getting better, my housemate took me to the hospital, where it was discovered that what I really had was a septic kidney infection. The kind of high-strength antibiotics they needed to use, they couldn’t use on me the way they would on “normal” people because I only have one kidney, and a side effect of this antibiotic is kidney damage. So it was a delicate walk back and forth in the hospital for almost a week, juggling “not letting me die from blood poisoning” with “not letting me die from sudden kidney damage”. Good times, yo! Anyway, my immune system was knocked out by that, so while I was physically recovering well enough, I got Covid for the first time, and it was a doozy. That has knocked me almost back to square one, and even though that was in mid-August, I still get winded if I do anything like climb a flight of stairs, walk too quickly, carry or move anything more than about ten pounds. Even wedging clay tires me out!

So I was a little worried about a long sitting for the tattoo, and if it would tire me out too much. It didn’t, at the time, but today? Lawd have mercy. Everything hurts from laying on my stomach in one stretched-weird position for six hours, I’m a little dehydrated even though I tried to drink more than enough water, and because of that, my head is pounding. I’d get up and get more coffee and some Tylenol, but I have Sleepy Girl Paralysis….

I’ve found that for about every two hours of me standing up and painting/glazing or handbuilding, I need to sit down and chill for about 10-15 minutes. If I’m doing just office work, or stuff I’m sitting down for (writing, wrapping soap, slow/close-up detail painting), I can go all day. Today was supposed to be a heavy glazing day… instead, today I will be drinking a lot of water, resting more than I thought I would and not doing as much work as I hoped. But! I will be taking care of myself and listening to my body when I need to rest. Even though I should be super-human and resting is bullshit! (Kidding. Sort of.) And of course, I will be admiring my new tattoo. It’s still wrapped in Second Skin, but that will come off Monday morning and I’ll switch to slathering goo on it a couple of times a day.

A’right, y’all. I don’t know how it got to be 10 AM already – I’ve just been sitting here under the girls, writing this, and staring at the window at the birdfeeder….! But I suppose I’d best get up and start my day.

Thanks for reading, y’all! I hope you love my new tattoo as much as I do!

PS. I’m so chuffed that one of my friends in my Patreon Hangout last night saw it and gasped at the one that says “Island of Conclusions” – that was one I thought I’d be forever explaining so I love that someone else knows The Phantom Tollbooth! <3