thank you miss Sylvia [Plath] i think i will do just that.

so one of the questions that was asked on the “Ask Us Anything” ravelry thread was in regard to my tattoos.

“I see you have tattoos, and I’m just wondering if you could share the meanings of them.” 

thank you for the question Monica!  i’m happy to share that with you in bits and pieces as i do have quite a few.

disclaimer: i am 200% in the mindset of loving tattoos just for the art of them and not all of my tattoos necessarily have a deep existential meaning behind them.  

i think for this post i will start with the tattoos you guys see the most during the podcast episodes…

so the one i inadvertently flash to you guys the most is my little cursive “s” on my right ring finger.  i got this guy in Key West on our honeymoon [yes it was totally planned and not a mimosa induced snap decision- though i wouldn’t have been opposed to it happening that way either]. the “s” is for my maiden name [stokes] and it’s lower case because i have a thing about lower case letters…if you watch the podcast you know why, if you don’t go watch episode 12 and you’ll hear about my bizarre aesthetic-based quirk.

 

the next one that has been featured on the small screen pretty frequently is my olive branch.  this one actually does hold a lot of emotional weight for me.  i got this almost exactly a year ago at a point in my life where i could really use some peace. Justin and i had lost more than a handful of very important people in our life within a couple weeks time and wore more black than i knew i owned and cried more tears than i knew the human body could produce.  those are just the parts of that timeframe that i’m comfortable sharing but it is safe to say that after having to learn how to cope with large amounts of loss in a short amount of time my proverbial plate was full and lying on the proverbial floor smashed to a few hundred pieces. now that you have a bit of a back story, let’s get to the ink.

i [personally] quite enjoy the process of getting tattoos [for anyone out there that has them i’m sure you know what i mean] the pain isn’t [always] painful, which sounds absurd to anyone that hasn’t experienced it, but i promise it’s true.  i spent the entirety of this appointment reflecting about all of the things and really finding peace not only literally in the moment but figuratively in the form of the beautiful artwork i carry with me every day.

i am planning on growing this into a half sleeve from just below my elbow to my wrist in the very near future.  all different flowers with all different meanings- super pumped on it.  will definitely show the progress on the podcast as i work on it.

 

okay let’s shake off the serious and get to the fun new ones… a couple of months ago Justin and i spent the day in Bushwick because one of his all time favorite tattoo artists
was doing a residency at a shop there so i of course volunteered to go with him and make an appointment of my own at a different shop. [he couldn’t have all the fun, amirite?] so i got a few fun little diddies on my arm.

the crown is from the well known and well loved children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are”. commonly referred to as the “Max Crown”, this design is a popular one [at least from what i’ve seen] that people decide to get tattooed quite frequently.  Maurice Sendak was nothing short of a genius and a Nutmegger to boot! the story is multi-layered in examining the development of children and their emotions, originally semi-controversial, and gorgeously illustrated.

i honestly needed to get a previous tattoo covered up because it never healed well, and i liked the story, and i liked the image, and i wanted a tattoo.

the dancer is a little more self explanatory… again- if you watch the podcast you know i was a very serious dancer for the vast majority of my young and adult life. i went to school in rhode island and worked to receive my bachelor’s degree in dance performance.  dance is something i’ll never lose sight of or appreciation for, right now i just consider myself to be on a hiatus for an undetermined amount of time.

the line work on this tattoo definitely needs some touch ups so i will get that done in the near future and also continue to work on developing the design on this arm in a more linear themed direction.

so there ya go guys!  not exactly knitting content, but it was a question that was asked and i thought it might be a fun “extra” for anyone that was interested.  now it’s time for me to get back to the knitting- i’ve gone all day sans knitting and i am just not okay with that, so excuse me while raise my needles and WIP some yarn around. [see what i did there?]

thanks for reading and happy knitting, needles up!