**Hahaha realized in the middle of the freaking night (thanks, insomnia brain!) that I had accidentally numbered this one wrong and forgot to fix it :)
So here we are, another of the ‘pre-boat’ tattoos that I got in the few months between deciding to live on the boat and actually leaving Oklahoma (and my favorite tattoo guy.) Patrick @serapium bought me a gift card for tattoos for Mother’s Day or my birthday or something… probably the first gift I really REALLY loved, used and didn’t lose. We have a history of umm... 'sad' gift giving, or even awesome gift giving, but then I lose the gift (like the diamond ring I lost on the bus sob)
Anyway, this post is about tattoos, not gifts, so let’s continue with the story, shall we?
So here with start with another cartoon themed tattoo. Much like the Where the Wild Things Are Tattoo, this was partially inspired by one of my favorite childhood books: Harold and the Purple Crayon. Unlike the Wild Things tattoo, this one really doesn't relate to my own children at all. This is much more about ME and my own life/childhood/choices.
I was an avid reader as a child and even more so as a teen. I always used books as a way to escape in my teen years because in addition to all of the early childhood bullshit, my step dad during my teen years was an abusive asshole (I don’t know how to say that in a nicer way, and in fact, that IS the nice way to describe him.) I read all the time and especially loved books that were about using your imagination to really escape. Harold and the Purple Crayon really fueled my creative side. Even when I was far "too old" to read this kind of book, I still found myself thinking about it. I don't even remember where I would have seen the book in later years, but it is a pretty clear memory... and whenever I would get lost in my imagination (which was OFTEN) I would imagine how amazing it would be to be able to have a magic crayon to create my own reality. Of course thinking about it now, I guess with the dissociative identity disorder, that was already something I was capable of without even realizing it at the time!
ANYWAY In the book, Harold has a purple crayon that is magical. Anything that he draws becomes real. He draws a bed, draws covers over himself and goes to sleep.
In this particular part of the story, he drew a tree that had yummy apples on it. Then he drew a monster to guard the apples so that no one would steal them. The monster scared him so much that his hand started shaking and the line started waving… making water. As he started to sink into the water, he decided to draw a boat to get to safety.
So, again, this related to my childhood/teen years of wanting to find a way to escape. In addition to that, I chose this tattoo for other reasons as well… more of my ‘adult reasons. One of them involved my very first tattoo as well. I thought it would be cool to add this to my back tattoo… in case I ever get the design figured out for a cover up of my first tattoo. I want to do a coverup with some sort of monster to represent the fact that I have overcome so much since that long ago time at age 18 when I got that messed up heart.
But ALSO… I want to always embrace the side of myself that paints cartoons on my grown up walls, because that is one of my favorite things about myself. I don’t care about doing what you’re “supposed” to do and I don’t care about filling my home with “children’s” things!
Then, of course, I chose the sailboat photo from the book, because we were getting ready to leave on our sailboat journey. Regardless of how it would turn out, I didn’t care so much, but I knew that it was worth representing in a tattoo! The only regret I have about this tattoo is the placement... even though the placement of this was very specifically chosen for a very good reason (and I'm glad I did it this way) at the same time, I kind of regret the fact that I never get to SEE this one unless it is in a photo!
Other tattoos:
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