Did that hurt? Omg can I see that? What’s your tattoo of? What does that mean? While the questions about my tattoos are sometimes annoying and obviously repetitive when you have a large body modification you have to expect that attention is coming to come with that choice. I don’t mind as long as it’s not someone creepy and as long as people don’t touch the tattoo. It’s not 3D lol it just feels like normal skin.

I thought it would be fun and informative to share the background behind my sleeve tattoo. Most of my tattoos are words. When I first started getting tattoos I didn’t want to get anything I would regret so I picked words that were meaningful to me, evoked emotion, and represented larger concepts of my general belief system and I figured a word would never really change in meaning and become outdated to me.

Then one day I decided to get my first actual tattoo that wasn’t a word but of course it had a word to go with it So before the full sleeve came my morning glory “free” tattoo.

The word free is spelled out in the vine of the morning glory and the “f” of free serves as the growth point from which the flower sprouts from. I thought it was pretty cool. It may be kinda hard to tell from the picture but that’s how they are intertwined. I chose the morning glory because I love nature and flowers. The morning glory seeds actually contain contain ergot alkaloids such as the hallucinogenic ergonovine and ergine. If you eat enough of the seeds you could essentially trip balls. Don’t try this though since the seeds at garden stores are coated with a pesticide to prevent people from eating them. You will get sick.My few experiences with psychedelics during college were extremely helpful for my development as a person and forming my overall understanding of the world. I tapped into areas of myself that scared the shit out of me but allowed me to discover how I should better myself and be the best me I can be. The only long term effects I experienced have been overwhelmingly positive. Just a tip if you are going to try to fly start from the ground instead of a skyscraper you big dummy .

I really fancied this morning glory and thought she might like a friend. So that’s when the sleeve came into play. I took a class on Native American culture during college and fell in love with “creation stories”. Both of my parents were raised Catholic as children and went to Catholic school. They did not force any religion on me as a child and we never went to church since their religious experiences were negative, oppressive and way too strict. So I don’t have much knowledge of Christianity. Jesus seems like a rad dude, but beyond that my spiritual side was somewhat underdeveloped.

Creation stories are much like the stories of how God created the Earth. My favorite creation story was from the Hopi people. The story tells us of three different worlds that the humans basically took for granted and destroyed through their disobedience and disrespect to “creator”. Even though the people acted up the most obedient were given new chances and led by the Spider Woman “creator” to the higher next level. One world was destroyed by flames, one world destroyed by water, and another destroyed by the spider twins who held up the axis of the earth. They let the earth go knocking it off its axis. With each world destruction the people were saved. One of my favorite parts of the story involves the ants. The ants helped the people survive by giving them food. They say that’s why the ants have such tiny cinched waists because they gave their food to the people. When the world was flooded by water the people were sealed up in bamboo reeds to act as boats to float down the river instead of drowning. Then they climbed the bamboo poles and emerged into the 4th world. I love the sense of helping others and I have one ant in my tattoo peeping out of a bamboo reed. He is so cute

According to the creation legend we are in our 4th world now. The last chance. It is up to us to respect our brothers and sisters and the land around us.

It is such a beautiful creative story and really fun to imagine all these things and how they offer us a useful symbology for core beliefs such as respect and perseverance. With this story on my arm for me and others to see I am reminded constantly to make my time on earth count and love those around me even if I don’t always feel kindness from others in return.

The tattoo took about a year to do due to my scheduling with college classes and work and my budget as a college student. I worked a job during college to save for the payments and would go in every few weeks for a couple hours at a time. My artist really helped bring the vision alive for me and did a wonderful job building the sleeve around the existing morning glory tattoo. I liked talking to him and hearing all the interesting stories about customers and the tattoo industry. It is a beautiful piece of artwork and I hope you have gained some insight into who I am as a person and why I decided to get such a heavy body modification.

I have endless love and hope to give the world. I would like to showcase that in as many ways as I can. And now I just have to think of an idea for the right arm

The morning glory was done by tattoo artist Bugz in Blacksburg, Virginia. Not sure where he is working these days.
The full sleeve was done by Shaun Carroll of Hot Rod Tattoo in Blacksburg, Virginia.

xoxo
GE