Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Great Debate Continued...

The debate was not over whether or not Mike got a tattoo. I like the design he chose, but didn't agree with where he wanted to put it. Mike has another tattoo on his left arm. It's hidden unless he's wearing a cut-off tee. It's of a gulper eel, and was done about 10 years ago. Mike wanted to put both tattoo's on the same arm. I didn't agree, thus the great debate.


Now, in all fairness, Mike has been talking about getting this tattoo for almost a year. He didn't want to do it in the summer due to it being dried out. The same excuse came in the winter of last year. I guess I had had enough of hearing about it, and said just go! I had done some research and called some places in town to see prices, procedures, times, etc. I had planned on getting him a gift certificate for Valentines' Day, but there came some doubt on his part, and so I didn't do that. Anyway, I told him what I had found out and he made decision. He went and talked to the artist last week, and made the appointment for yesterday. Mike chose Marvel Tattoo. He really liked the guy, and was confident in Half-Pint. It just so happened that Half-pint is a Native American, which kind of helped the symbolism of what Mike was getting.


So I bugged Mike all day long yesterday about placement. I didn't agree with putting both on the same arm. I don't think one has anything to do with the other. And, I felt that if he shrunk the new tattoo enough to fit under a t-shirt, that it would be too small to translate, and that as he aged, it would shrink and stretch and be unrecognizable. He finally listened to reason, and realized that I may have a point. In the end he did it on the other arm. It turned out really great, although he says that the shading was the worst part.


Ché and I were on our own, so we went and had dinner, and then Ché kept asking where Daddy was, so I took him to see. Ché had a really great time watching the tattoo being done, and playing peek-a-boo with one half of the lesbian couple that was down at the other end. He didn't want to leave, and thought that the books of all the tattoos are great.


So, here are both tattoos. He now has one on each arm. The new one is significantly larger than the first. I can't wait till his Mom finds out...


Right Arm (New Tattoo)

Left Arm (Old Tattoo)

4 comments:

Mikeropod said...

Thanks again for talking about me, I'm feeling rather sheepish.

Anywho, the new item is a series of Mayan glyphs I picked out from an academic book. I was going for the meanings rather than their pronounce-ability (very hard), and while #3 in the "gang of 8" sorta freaks me out (looks like a soul-sucking succubus?), its got an important meaning.

So we've got Ché's birthdate along the top in Mayan numerals 11/18/2005, a bar=5, a dot=1, and the shell=20, or in the last placement with the bar above it, 2000 years.

The "gang of 8" is simply read L-R, 2 at a time.
12
34
56
78

We've got:
"child of" | "tree"
(my wife's nickname for me)
"blessed" | "sprout"
(Ché, heh)
"quetzal" | "birth"
(my favorite of the animal glpyhs, and an important cultural symbol)
"arrive" | "home"
(pretty self-explanatory)

So we've got Ché's arrival "home" at the bottom, 12/21/2006, a bar=5, a dot=1, open dot=placeholder and the shell=20, or in the last placement with the bar above it, 2000 years. Note the bottom bar now has a dot on it, meaning 2005+1=2006.
The placeholder is sometimes used, as 3 dots is apparently preferred aesthetically (max of 4 dots before it becomes a bar). I liked the way it looked.

Last thing I'll say is the shading needle (more like a 'fan' of 4-5 pricks) is something I would love to avoid in the future. Ouch.

/gotta go put some Eucerin on.

Mikeropod said...

I noticed that I misspelled "glyphs" in the 5th paragraph and now I can't change it. It will drive me crazy thusly.

Resplendentquetzal said...

Thanks for the explanation.
I didn't feel like I needed to do that much explaining.

AAWG said...

Well, Jeez, Mike - hope you saved some room for the next kid. HA! Way cool.