Line & Ink

So I wanted to share this piece.

The picture on the left is the original design that I drew, and the tattoo on the right is what I ended up tattooing.

My client booked this design, and normally before I tattoo, I draw up my flash onto tracing paper before the session.

When I saw this design today, I knew I could do better.

I drew this design at the end of last year (I think) and was quite happy with it at the time. However after giving it a fresh look, and since practicing more work on my peonies, I decided to redraw it.

I'm so glad I did.

I've made a rule to be more honest with myself about when my work needs improving, or when a piece of work can be improved.

I'll be adding the colour in the next session after it's healed.

Recent work

Back at it. New magnolia piece by me.

My postpartum experience so far.

Them:"Hey! good to see you're seemingly coping well with having a new small person in your life, and whilst we understand that all babies develop at their own rate, and that's completely ok, we're sort of concerned your baby isn't clearly demonstrating to us these skills as well as we think they should be displaying.

So here are a selection of patronising leaflets to correct your bad parenting, I'll send you some websites that show you how to be a better parent.

I'll send you another link on the benefits of breastfeeding, even though you've said you can't breastfeed your child and haven't been breastfeeding and you weren't able to breastfeed the first one, we'll send it just in case you missed all the benefits we told you about for breastfeeding, because breast is best! even though it's absolutely the mother's choice whether she breastfeeds or not, statistically it's only terrible mothers who don't or can't, it's basically as bad as not vaccinating your baby, so we'll still send it to you.

I'll book you in another appointment with a different condescending health professional for three weeks time, who will just repeat everything I've already said and maybe raise some more concerns they feel that are as a result of your substandard parenting.

But how are you doing?

Everything ok? Any concerns? Any more problems you're experiencing that we'll need to correct for you?"

Me: "I cannot remember the last time I showered, I am bombarded with impossible standards of modern parenting people expect me to achieve everywhere I go, from media to family. I'm drowning. I have lost who I was and who I am, and whilst everyone sympathizes with my experience, they'd prefer me to maybe just keep it to myself and get on with it, and especially not have an episode when I'm at a social event. And make more of an effort with my appearance. And my husband wants to know when we can go back to doing normal sex things, even though I feel like my body has exploded from the inside out, I have no self confidence, and I live with a constant level of exhaustion that feels like an on going panic attack.

Them: '....yes it can be difficult.... Well! Here's a prescription for some paracetamol, and make sure you're drinking plenty of water!

Some hand drawn thank you letters for the end of the year.

Got myself organised and made some colour prints.

My wicker man inspired flash sheet.

This was the second sheet I made but the one I preferred the most.

I just want to be a mushroom. I'm sick and tired of being a grownup who has to fill in forms, make sure to meet dead lines and pay to fucking exist and breathe and not freeze to death.

I want to be a toadstool at the base of a giant oak tree near a small stream or river.

I can watch the deer as they come and drink in the morning, listen to the birds sing, and be mashed up and applied as woad to the face of some Scottish warrior before he goes into battle and kills a load of English people.

And working on flash for my return in Feb

Still working, just drawing and not tattooing.

Oh, quick update. I had my baby.

He's healthy and beautiful and wonderful and I'm loving being a new mum again.

More boxes i painted recently.

So, officially on maternity leave now, started painting small boxes whilst I wait for my son to turn up. I have this design and another box with a more botanical theme, some lemon fruit and blossom. Can't decide which style I prefer more.

Moth design by me.

I have grown obsessed recently with the smell of wooden rooms and old paper books.

Wooden Cupboards, closets, stockrooms, just smell incredible; nothing makes me more content then to just stand in those places in silence and take long inhalations.

I stopped reading a book mid story just to smell the pages. Glorious.

Finished my first back piece!!!!!