I did it! I got my first tattoo this week and I FUCKING LOVE IT. The bandage is still on so I don’t have the best pictures of it yet, but so many of you have messaged me about the process that I figured why not write a newsletter about it.
So here we go. I want to answer all of your questions about how I chose my design, how I chose my studio and my artist and what it was like.
First off I chose the Medusa on the Sicilian flag because it really meant something to me. I LOVE the passage in The Sicilian Inheritance about whether Medusa was a monster or a bad ass woman who was sick of men pushing her around. She is a symbol of strength and resilience and confidence to me. But how to know which design to put on my body and who should do it?
I also did a ton of research into the history of women and tattoos. Check out a little bit of it here.
I knew that I wanted a fine line tattoo, as fine a line as possible with very little shading. So I started asking around in Philly and also perusing Instagram for Philly tattoo parlors. This was one thing Instagram was truly wonderful for. It ended up being the perfect place to get to see different studios, different artists and lots of pictures of finished tattoos. I must have looked at more than 50 artists when I stumbled on Maribeth at Wild Heart. The first tattoo I saw of hers was this octopus.
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