Inked!
 

Ladies and Gents,

I'm getting inked!

My brother and sister conspired to get me a Christmas / Birthday gift that would be very special, so they are going to pay for me to have a tattoo done! My brother, sister, and 15 year old nephew all have tattoos, so they thought it was only fair that I have one also.

It's kinda becoming a tradition for the younger generations of my family (and many other Hawaiians and Polynesians) to get Hawaiian / Polynesian inspired tattoos as a way to acknowledge our Polynesian heritage and to pay respect to friends and ancestors. Much about the traditions behind tattooing has been lost in the Hawaiian culture, but is slowly making a resurgence.

I had been thinking of getting a tattoo done for a couple of years, but never really put any ideas down until recently. I think it is why my sister and brother came up with this gift idea. In the tattoo I will have done there will be three circular windows on a shield-like background. Each window will have a theme. The center window will have a Hawaiian fish hook. This will pay homage to my father. He loves to fish and my favorite gift I have got from him was a Hawaiian fish hook necklace. The right window will have a Honu (turtle). This is a symbol for good luck. It is also on my brother's and my nephew's tattoo, so it will be a nod to them as well. In the left window will be a depiction of the Island of Kauai. It will have a pattern of waves in the foreground to represent all of the years I used to body surf. I spent much of my best days of my youth body surfing. Above the island will be the symbol of a bird repeated six times. The symbol of the bird signifies returning home from where ever the person my be. Each bird symbol will represent a member of my immediate family (my father, mother, brother, sister, nephew, and myself), as we will all return to Kauai someday.

The tattoo session will take place tomorrow and will be done by a close friend of the family who has done both my brother's and my nephew's tattoos, so I know it will be done well and look great. I'm very excited about this! I will try to post pictures of the tattoo as soon as I can. Wish me luck for a relatively painless session!;) :cheers:

Good luck! :)

Ouuuuch!

Glad you have a design that resonates for you. So many people I know get a tattoo just because they want a tattoo and so just pick some flash from the artists wall.

Yours sounds pretty large and complex. Where are you getting it?

It's about time for me to get a new one and I have a design in mind that will pretty much cover my entire thigh (and maybe a small honu somewhere to go with Lani's much larger honu that covers her entire shoulder). But my general practice is that I have to sit with a design for six months or so to make sure I'm happy with it (plus I don't have the cash for such a large tattoo any time soon).

Someday I will stumble onto what I want for my full back piece and then I'll lay out some serious cash.

It sounds like a beautiful design full of meaning. One day I will find the thing that resonates with me - and continues to resonate after a year of thought - and do it. But, it hasn't happened in the 25 years I've been thinking about it so don't hold your breath.

LOL! I totally forgot to mention where the tattoo will go! I'm having it done in a band at the mid point of my left calf. The shield will also have a band of protection (a series of downward pointing black triangles) under a tapa inspired band that will connect in the back of my calf with the Ni'ihau tapa symbol for a honu.

Yes, it will be a large tattoo, so it will have a lot of impact when I wear shorts. And I do wear shorts very often!:cool:

nice. Ive been wanting a tat of somekind for years. my dad had a ton of em and its always been something I 'wanted' but couldnt ever decide one that I thought I could spend the rest of my days with.
Im still there...still dunno.
definitely pics when its done (and no longer bleeding) :P

I say if you're going to get one, get a big one. Take good care of it, especially if you wear shorts a lot you will need to be very good about using sunscreen on it. The artist will probably include a touch up down the road to fill in any missed spots or places the ink didn't take as well, but make sure you discuss it now.

One of the nice things about running half marathons is that I spend plenty of time in shorts with people behind me with nothing to do but chatter. Get plenty of compliments.

Here's the gecko on my calf:



And the piece on my back (it's about 4 inches in diameter):

Yay! Enjoy the rush when it's over. :D (I sat in rush hour traffic for my post-tat euphoria and it kind of sucked.) The design sounds so cool! I can't wait for pictures!

Ray! :) You're finally getting your tattoo! You've wanted that design for almost as long as I've known you! I'm so very excited for you. Promise you'll call me when you're all through getting "inked"! :snap:

I am disappointed, however, that you aren't getting the same tattoos that I have and display proudly. You know, my reaper tearing through my left shoulder blade with a sickle? Then, there's that serpent that wraps up my thigh. You know, the one where he's using his tongue to strike at my naughty bits? And of course, my favorite- "Los Angeles Crips" inked in blue old english script (it was my tribute to Tookie) smack on the middle of my bags. Oh, well. I was hoping we could get the sad, juggling jack-in-the-box with the phrase "SMILE NOW, CRY LATER" on our right shoulders together. You break my heart. :(

Golly, I'm kidding! :p

I have one tattoo, that's not visible unless I'm stretching in low-rise jeans. I have two teeny (the size of a dime each) adjoining hearts on my right hip. I wanted something that I would love, and something classic that I would never tire of. Nothing trendy!

And no initials in those hearts! Though that was originally my plan when I got my tattoo..wow! Almost 8 years ago! :eek:

I had a boyfriend who actually saw my tattoo and told me, after a week of dating, that "as soon as we're together for a year, you're going to get our initials in those hearts."

I wanted to die. I smiled kindly all the while thinking, "muthertrucker, please! We dated ten years ago and didn't stretch beyond a month! I'd sooner get that reaper on my shoulder". :(

Rock on, tat brother...

Here's the one I've got so far - I'm gonna get "July 17, 2005 - I Was There" around it in a couple months.
My wife's got five, and she's getting number 6 this fall.