sleeve - Cursing Cats and Other Curiosities

Tattoo Sleeve Sessions 5 & 6

Posted on December 9, 2023 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

My shoulder is complete! I just scrolled back and I didn’t post session 5. That’s because I didn’t get any pictures of session 5 after it was complete the day of and then it was under second skin and then peeling and so I never got any good photos. As you’ll recall (click here) after session 4, we had added the blue flowers and outlined the entire top. Session 5 was doing the front flowers and some of the vine on the back. First, pictures:

This session was really exciting! Look at those colors! I originally wanted to do oranges and reds. But I’m so glad we added the blues. And look at that purple dahlia! She did such an amazing job! The flowers just look amazing! Red poppies too. It’s stunning. I can’t believe the colors. I never thought I’d want flowers as a tattoo, really. They’re just part of the sleeve. But, damn. I see why flowers are such a common tattoo theme. They’re just so gorgeous. And look at my curly green vine! So cute!

So yesterday, we had session 6. We finished up everything we had outlined and added the bats. I had worried about the pumpkin lid being too bright, but it look great! And having the full shoulder done just looks AWESOME. It’s exactly what I wanted. The exact coverage I wanted swinging down o my should blade. She referred to it as a “shawl” kinda coverage. But I think of it more as part of the arm. Like I keep saying, if you had an arm replaced cybernetically or even just a prosthetic, the shoulder is involved. So I wanted that. I want the entire arm/should. And I GOT IT!

I’m in love! Look at the vine on the back! I got my swirlies! Love the pumpkins vine on my back. I made sure to get her to send me the photos this time. And yes, Jacks face looks washed out. But keep in mind these are tattoos. Jacks face is over a year old so 100% healed with 30 layers of dead skin cells over it, as your skin should be — it’s natural protection. The front is only a month old so new skin, and the new work is FRESH ink. It will all be similar brightness when it heals.

Oh and the bats look whacky here. My neck was NOT happy about them. So they are actually very swollen and red. The ink is purple and grey and they fade out at the bottom. So they look super dark, but they are not. The top outline is solid but then they fade out in purple and grey — so very ethereal. Today, the swelling is down and the color is lighter, but my skin is still inflamed and there’s blood around them under the second skin so not gonna show you. She said we’d probably have to touch the bats up because my skin was so angry, she doesn’t think it will hold the ink well.

Nothing like the pain of a neck tattoo that might need to be redone! I’d say as far as pain goes, the front shoulder was probably the worst session so far. Tattooing the collar bone and that close to the neck was not pleasant. There’s also the INSANE sensation of hearing your skeleton resonating with the tattoo machine. It’s the same speed of the machine — which is right in your ear — but you’re hearing it from INSIDE your body and it’s an insanely deep, low sound. I asked her if that’s what I was hearing and she was like “yeah, isn’t it wild!” It was so weird. Like it hurt like hell, but I kinda wanted to hear it again just to experience it and be like “wow, that’s insane.” I got to hear it a lot that day. Sometimes I had to remind myself to breathe on that one.

Also, the leaves closest to my armpits were pretty painful. I can see why they say the armpits are the most painful to get tattooed. Which I find really weird because why do we need that many nerves in your arm pit? Seriously, I’m asking. It’s just as bad as the neck. Also the healing after session 5 (the front) was the most painful. It was like my ankle when it healed — NO TOUCH. The skin was very much sore and unhappy.

Today doesn’t feel bad so I think it will be a better healing experience. So yeah, I’m super thrilled with it. So thrilled than when I get done, I think I want a photoshoot. Seriously. A photo shoot to show off my tattoo. Here’s an action shot I took yesterday. I’m covering Devon’s face because I didn’t ask her permission to post this. My bro said I looked like I was having a lot of fun. Fun is not what I would call it. I was just excited and happy. These are long ass days of driving two hours there, hours of pain and sitting still, then a two hour drive home. But, I love the results!

So another hiatus on the tattoo for now. Per my agreement with husband, I need to replace the money in my savings that I spent in the deck and pool pump. Then we can finish. We did an outline / trace / mold for her to work from next time. We’re gonna add more to the arm to beef it up and give it more of a wrap around look. I thought we were just going to add the the back, but Devon wants to add to the front and back. Just some more leaves to widen it out. Then at that appointment we will plan the lover arm. It won’t be much — but it will bring it to about a 3/4 sleeve — maybe a bit longer with a trickle of vine. It’ll be pumpkin vine swirls and some of the colorful stuff from the top.

I’m so in love with it!

The artist is Devon Greig of Alchemy Nashville Tattoo. Also known as theswiftstorm on Instagram.

Tattoo Sleeve Session 4

Posted on October 8, 2023 | by cursingcats.com | 3 Comments

So the pool cover was put on yesterday. This perfectly coincided with my first tattoo appointment of the off season. I have three appointments booked right now. Yesterday, November, and December. Yesterday we designed the top and got it stenciled, traced, and started. We hope to be able to finish the coloring in in the next two long sessions. I made a deal with my husband that I wouldn’t schedule any new appointments in exchange for letting me build the deck this summer. When I restore my savings from the deck cost, I can schedule more appointments to finish the tattoo. It will have more to beef up the back of my arm and go on down my forearm as well. It’s a great motivation to spend less!

We started texting back and forth Friday night about the design. I know this is how every tattoo artist does it. You schedule your appointment a year in advance but they don’t sketch it until the night before which is insanely stressful. She sent me this:

I had notes. Why re the berries so big? They’re as big as Jack’s eyes! Bigger, actually! I looked down at my arm and his eyes are pretty big. But she said that if we went any smaller they wouldn’t read as berries. Also a red rose? *wretching noises* Can you get more stereotypical tattoo? In her defense, I get where she got it though. The berries were from my wedding bouquet as are some of the flowers that will make an appearance below the elbow. My bouquet had red and orange roses in it. Red roses are romantic. That is the only sense that I like them in – pure love. When my husband gives me red roses, it’s romantic. That’s the only time I should ever see red roses (my favorite roses are actually the orange ones with a pink border).

So she decides to just redo the front completely. She nailed the back though. Look at those swirly vines!

I’m also real worried about that pumpkin lid there (Jack O Lantern lid). Even after I went and sacrificed one of my porch pumpkins to show her want I meant by Jack O Lantern Lid.

But I’m gonna have to trust her on that. She told me to trust her so fine. She’s got an art degree and way too many years of tattooing under her belt. Still, now we’re in the evening before my tattoo and don’t have a front! So she’s like well what flowers DO you like? Fuck. So I’m frantically googling “Fall flowers” over here and sending her pictures and names.

Well, the red poppies are from momma. She loved red poppies. She had already loved them, but then we went to Italy and she saw the fields of wild poppies in person. It was a memory and a connection and I loved to paint her poppies or give her poppies. Once, I even pulled over on the side of the road and picked a huge handfuls of wild poppies for her. The city had seeded them in the median as an alternative to mowing grass.

So red poppies. Who doesn’t love a fucking dahlia? K and I have even discussed getting matching dahlia tattoos in different colors. Fucking beautiful flowers. Oh and I love those yellow pompoms. Craspedia. AKA “Drumstick” or “Billy Button” flowers. I love when there’s like 3 tall ones in a mixed arrangement. I have some on my counter right now! So I’m just throwing flowers at her. Here’s some cosmos (I was actually thinking of reddish brown “chocolate cosmos”). However, cosmos come in a variety of colors so I was like hey, if you want to add colors, here. I mean the tattoo is looking very brown as it stands.

Then I waited anxiously. Very anxiously. Had I made her mad? WHAT’S HAPPENING?

Then she sends this:

First, note all the watermarks. Dude, I’ve paid you a ton of money. I have an appointment in like 15 hours. I’m not gonna steal your work. BUT

I kinda love it. Would I have EVER said put blue flowers in it? Fuck no. But I like them. It’s a very nice pop of color and contrast. And look at momma’s poppies and my yellow pompoms! She does have a good eye for color. We had a little more back and forth about the pumpkin lid. She smoothed it out a lot. But I’m just gonna have to trust.

I’m the one who wanted a Jack O Lantern lid. One, I’m not a super big flower person. Well, I mean I actually love flowers. Momma was an AVID gardener and we went to the botanical gardens almost weekly growing up. But like – pumpkins. I’m a pumpkin person. And I LOVE the 2 pumpkins she did. But they’re not hugely prominent. They’re kinda small. Like I need more pumpkin. So I thought — Jack O Lantern. I fucking love Halloween and Fall and carving pumpkins. But how can we put a Jack O Lantern in this gorgeous very artistic tattoo without it look cheesy? Then it hit me — Jack O Lantern LID. A nod to Jack O Lanterns. I AM A GENIUS. Anyway, we’ll see how she executes it. She reminds me that these pictures are just references. OK.

Saturday morning I wake up bright and early so I can eat before I head out. She’s two hours away and it’ll be past dinner time before I get home. Here’s the Saturday morning “before” shot. Note: I’ve bought two strapless bras for the healing process. We’re going hard with three months back to back, so it’ll need 3 months of no bra strap.

I watched “6 Underground” on Netflix while she worked. It was a good movie. I love Ryan Reynolds. While she was making the stencils she said we’d have to trace them out this time. Now, I did hate being a coloring book last time she did that. However, I had already decided I’d let her choose how to do it since these appointments are so close together. She was piecing together MULTIPLE stencils to follow my body contours. Plus doing some hand drawing where they connect. So she said this is just too much to do multiple times. Yeah, OK. So first she tattooed the stencils on:

Originally, there wasn’t supposed to be so much on my chest. Of course she disagreed and that this was always the case. I have photo evidence that it was not, but I aint picking fights with my artist. I actually like it. I despise that sleeves usually cut off at the shoulder where I call “the Barbie seam”. Like, if you have a cybernetic arm or a prosthetic, that shits gonna include your shoulder joint. So should your sleeve. So after studying the stencil for a long time… fuck it, let’s do it.

The outlining took ages. So we didn’t get as much coloring in done as I expected. Jack got his catholic halo (not that that’s the intention LOL — I just wanted a frame around him so he would really POP). It is solid green, but in the photos it looks very mottled. She was REALLY packing in the color (as she should), and my skin was angry. She commented on how pissed my skin was and that if it heals patchy, we might have to go over it again. I’m not worried. She also colored two more leaves and she did two of the blue cosmos. I kinda love these cosmos! She wants to go back and do more detail on the frame around Jack, but I’m not positive I want it.

So for reference, here it is this morning from front and back so you can see where it falls on my body:

The bats have not been abandoned, but they will not be stenciled. They will be hand placed. Also probably more on my back now and at least one that peeps up on my neck.

I’m THRILLED with where this is going. I’m in love with it. I got a little anxious when I showed husband. There was a lot of miscommunication about me have THREE appointments already scheduled (BEFORE the deck was ever started). Also that it would go further down my arm (was always the intention. In fact, it was originally suppose to wrap around my arm too). And I think the bats on the neck scares him. But like, they make amazing tattoo makeup now. The only time I’d ever need t cover it up would be like court or an interview. Hell, I can pop a zit cover over a small bat. It’s fine. His words were “It’s a lot.”

So that brought me down. But I get it. It IS a lot. Especially when 2 years ago I didn’t have any tattoos. Now I’m like, INK ME. But yall know me, I like to do it right. And to me, asymmetry is gorgeous in tattoos. And I love sleeves. I don’t like the patchwork look of tattoos placed wherever there is space (though, some people love that and I do think those sticker sleeves are adorable. Lets all just be happy with our ink).

I even took this picture to show Devon (though I did not). It’s all the work tank tops I bought this year:

Listen, I still kinda hate my big fat arms. BUT after that surgery, they don’t jiggle and sag so much. And I could have NEVER done something like this before. And I have LOVED this tattoo for almost a year now (yes, his face is a year healed in these pictures). I haven’t regretted it for one second. It took a part of me I hated and made it something I wanna show off. I keep telling people, I’m drawing your attention away from my bald spots to my cleavage and tattoos.

And I don’t like people, but damn I love all the comments people make about it. Do I want to see photos of your cat? I like cats. “Did you see her bad ass tattoo?” Heh. This is art. ON ME. On my ugly body. This and the tummy tuck and boobs were like the best decisions ever.

If I was willing to wear a wig and do my makeup, this would BY FAR be my hottest era.

My mother-in-law is gonna LOVE IT.

Tattoo Update – Sleeve Session 3

Posted on April 16, 2023 | by cursingcats.com | Leave a Comment

Friday, we did a bit more work on the tattoo sleeve. I haven’t been excited for this session for two reasons. One, it was small session to finish up what we didn’t last session before we break for summer. Two, It was gonna hurt. Elbow and inner elbow. Yikes. We had done the pumpkin “shard” in this area last session and it was the most painful bit so far. So it was safe to assume this whole appointment was going to suck. Also, the last one hadn’t went that great. But a tattooin’ I went.

I was right, it hurt. Surprisingly the elbow more than the inner elbow. But jack has a tail now and some bright red leaves. We’re breaking for summer now so I can heal up and use my pool!

Tattoo by Devon Greig of Alchemy Tattoo.

So after last session, it was clear we weren’t on the same page of where this tattoo was going. So I told her that after this session, I wanted to get some sharpies out so we were on the same page when we pick up in October. Well, she wanted to do that FIRST (that’s why you see all the sharpie on my shoulder in that picture). If she used the sharpies after I was tattooed, she’d have to toss them because of contamination. So we played around with markers beforehand.

We had a pretty solid concept of what was going on above Jack, and that is next place we’re going. I also came around to the idea that it doesn’t have to wrap around my arm. I love the sharp relief of the detailed leaves againt my bare skin. Also, it’s pretty damn impactful and distracts from my scars as it is. Plus the detail is so fine that I wondered if it would get muddied and lost with too much. And you’ll also recall, I wasn’t thrilled with adding more “stuff” I didn’t care about just to take up space.

We had discussed a squash vine below — going down my arm with squash blossoms. However, I had a better idea. If we’re doing flowers, why not do flowers I liked? Also K and I discussed doing matching dahlias or poppies. So I thought, yeah I could do fall flowers… like… from MY WEDDING BOUQUET. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about celebrating my wedding (though I do love my sweetie). It’s about how gorgeous that bouquet was and how it was totally my ascetic. It would look great with this tattoo. So I pulled up some pictures. She was completely onboard! So this appointment was like the opposite of last.

So we decided to pull a flower in the top (it’s still mostly leaves) and some berries so it would be cohesive. We added swirls. More leaves. Bats! We bulked up the design towards the back of my arm. I told her the areas I wanted to cover (apparently this is a surprise to some. I don’t like when sleeves just cut off at the top of your arm. I’m not a barbie doll with a removable arm seam. I like the idea of how robotic arms connect — like the shoulder is part of the whole thing. Or as I’ve said, raglan sleeves. So my vision was always it going up onto my shoulder). So she played around with sharpies for almost an hour.

Not only did this get us on the same page, but she was able to sketch to fit my anatomy and take pictures for when she does the actual templates to apply in Fall. Also, this made me SO EXCITED. I am so sad we can’t fit in another session before summer! Look how AMAZING this is going to look:

Tattoo and sketches by Devon Greig of Alchemy Tattoo.

As you can see, we played around with the front a lot. Turns out I wanted less there than I thought. I am IN LOVE with the back. My swirls! I’m also confident the green frame behind Jack was an excellent choice.

So I am pumped. We scheduled my appointments for October, November, and December to get the top done (I hope?). Then we can schedule some Spring appointments to get working on the lower arm. I’m very thrilled with where this is going.

Sleeve Tattoo Session #2

Posted on February 19, 2023 | by cursingcats.com | 3 Comments

Friday, I had my second tattoo session on my sleeve. Poor Jack has only been a head since November. Now he has his body and his precious bowtie!

As you can see by the outline (yeah, that’s tattooed), we bit off more than we could chew. But to her credit, my artist pursued a lot longer than she wanted to to get the pumpkins done. Apparently, after 3 or 4 hours, your skin starts to turn too red and my artist doesn’t like to go longer than that. That sucks because I have to drive to Nashville and I’d happily sit for as long as she’d tattoo for. So I’m a bit disappointed that we won’t be able to work behind his head until Fall. In April, we’re going to finish up what we outlined — a few more leaves and his tail and then break for summer. She doesn’t want to do more than that so he looks like a completed piece over the summer.

It was a bit of an awkward session. There was miscommunication on what I wanted, apparently. I’m not sure how it happened as on my tattoo page that I originally sent (click here to see our communications page), I stated that I wanted a half to 3/4 length sleeve. Maybe that means different things to different people? But she wasn’t aware I wanted it to wrap around my arm and she didn’t know I wanted it past my elbow and up onto my shoulder. I think she thought I was “adding on” to my original request and she wasn’t happy about it because she wants to make one big cohesive piece and not something that just keeps getting added onto.

So I felt bad ’cause she seemed irritated. But I assumed “sleeve” meant it wrapped around? And I said between half and 3/4 so isn’t 3/4 below your elbow? I get the shoulder thing — I guess I never spelled that out, or if I did, it didn’t hit. But I love a raglan sleeve. I also don’t like how shoulder/sleeve tattoos just round off at the shoulder. I’d like it to be more like a raglan sleeve. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE when tattoos have a little peekaboo on the neck line. Like just a few swirls showing under your shirt making people wonder what’s there. I’ve seen this a few times and it’s always been part of the visual in my mind. I’m not getting tattoo greedy, but I don’t think she knew that, I guess?

We figured it out. We’re going to add pumpkin vines with some squash blossoms below the elbow. As far as the wrap around, she says just leaves will look bad. So I need to do something else inside the arm. She suggested his favorite toy, but 1 — this isn’t ALL about Jack. And 2, his favorite toy was a banana. So not on theme there. So, I don’t know what the fuck’s going to happen there. I’m almost playing with maybe it shouldn’t wrap and close inside? I don’t know. I always figured it would but I don’t like the idea of more stuff being inside the tattoo. But we played with the idea of more fall stuff — maybe more pumpkins? But how would that work? Anyway, we can do a shit ton more on the tattoo before we figure that out. We got the lower part and the shoulder part. We can do those first.

I also wasn’t aware of the 4 hour “limit” thing. I get that my skin was discoloring but like I kinda wanted to ask if we could do the tail. But she had already cursed at my tattoo three times in frustration. Combine that with the awkward misunderstanding and I was just like OK, whatever. Plus she said she had to do some drawings for the next day. So it was a frustrating appointment. I’m worried that she’s not enthused about what I want vs what she originally envisioned. Yall know how anxious I get!

All that said, we got some great shit done. Look at those pumpkins! And I love the leaf towards my back with all the different colors. Her work is stunning. There’s a lot of oranges – I really wanna get some more reds in there. There will be plenty of green as this is her current sketch of where we’re going:

So. I’m very anxious because the appointment didn’t go great. However, I’m in love with the tattoo. It over doubled in size and I love it! Its big and impactful and gorgeous. It’s going to show in all my short sleeve tops this summer and I’m just going to have to buy more professional tank tops. It has to happen. I never thought I could have an arm tattoo — much less such gorgeous work! I love him.

I’ve also already jumped the shark and ordered some rash guards for summer. Can’t have it fading before it’s even finished!

I started my sleeve! (Sleeve Session 1)

Posted on November 6, 2022 | by cursingcats.com | 2 Comments

Yesterday, I finally got to start my tattoo sleeve! It’s going to take a good while to finish because I didn’t book any more appointments in advance and we’ll have to break for summer (cause I’m not missing pool time to heal). It’s going to be the adorable bow-tie photo of Jack on a background of Fall leaves with pumpkins in front of him around the bottom. It’ll be a 3/4 sleeve. That way I can roll up my sleeves a bit and still not show if it’s for a job interview. Also, I just love raglan sleeves and the 3/4 length of them so yeah.

Reminder of the photo:

So I chose the absolutely fabulous Devon Greig in Nashville for the job (she did my goomba when we consulted for the sleeve). This is her first photo realism portrait but you’d never know it. She’s amazing. Look at this:

It looks like a painting! I’m blown away. I couldn’t have asked for better! I am in love with it. It’s my Jack!

She chose to just focus on the face in this session since it was so detailed. It took just around 4 hours of tattooing. I scheduled appointments in February and in April to do more work on it. The plan is to get his body and pumpkins in before summer. Then finish it out Next Fall/Winter. I’m so excited! Here’s the progress shots I took while she worked on it. He kinda looks like a terminator Jack with half a face here:

Man, her skill just blows me away. I could paint this, sure — but I can go over spots again and again to get them right. I can’t imagine doing it with a tattoo gun and not being able to revise any mistakes! And her FIRST realism tattoo. Damn, girl! Amazing.

She’s a pleasure to work with too! I told her I wanted to cover up my elbow fat lump because I hate it so much. I feel like if we did the half sleeve above the elbow, it would stand out even more. She was like yeah, we’ll just put a pumpkin there! Excellent. I am psyched.

Also, this didn’t hurt half as much as my ankle tattoo. The ankle felt like having a freshly skinned knee for a few days and a lot of burning as it went in. This felt like scratching sure, but tolerable. I mean, yeah it’s gonna hurt, but I expected worse. The only part that hurt the most was the closer she got to my collar bone — so that ear. The mid face was totally fine. I suspect the REAL pain will be when we get to the elbow and especially my scar. But for now, it doesn’t even feel like anythings there. So awesome.

In between chatting with Devon, I watched Enola Holmes on my phone. It’s got Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter. It took a good bit to get going, but once it did it was awesome.

FUCK

I just looked it up to get the spelling of the actors names and I watched the SEQUEL yesterday. No wonder if took a while to get going. Fuck me, I watched them out of order. I guess I’ll be watching the first one today then…