A Pirate's Life for Me!

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This blog post contains content only suitable for adults.

Last Friday, I had my first chest tattooing session. The first 2 hours was spent reviewing drawings, designs and drawing with Sharpies and stenciling on my chest. This is a huge project which involves covering up some old tattoos. Once we were happy with the designs and their placements, I sat for a 2 hour tattooing session, complete with Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks blasting in my ear buds!

As promised, here are a few photographs. Warning, these do show my bare chest complete with mastectomy scars.

Before ~ mastectomy scars and old tattoos we're covering.

Artwork ~ designs superimposed over a photograph of my chest.
Left breast will be covered with a Kraken tentacle;
Right breast will have an open treasure chest with gold coins, the cup for the Fountain of Youth and Tia Dalma's necklace.

More artwork; The Black Pearl!!! The bow of the Flying Dutchman is in the top picture.

Stencils and lots of blue sharpie!!!

After first session. The Black Pearl is above my left breast; it's hard to see in this photo, but above my right breast is the bow of the Flying Dutchman surfacing. There will be a water vortex and waves added later. The signature Skull and Crossbones is centred on my chest with "Dead Men Tell No Tales" along my collar bone. There will be Hidden Mickey's hidden throughout the design. There is one in handle of one of the torches and there will be one hidden in the suckers on the Kraken tentacles! Jarkko is an amazing artist and came up with some "ironic" ideas for this design, like the "open chest" *smile*

Everything has healed wonderfully and the detail is amazing. It's hard to see in these photos as I'm cover in stencil and tattoo ink! I will publish detailed upclose photos when the piece is complete.

My next appointment is scheduled for August 19th...I can't wait!!!

It is not the destination so much as the journey, they say.

The above is a quote from Captain Jack Sparrow and is suiting to today's post as I embark on the final leg of my journey. Today we start my chest tattoo. My wonderful tattooist, Jarkko, has been drawing the piece and says he has some surprises for me. I'm not allowed to see until today! *smile* I'm very excited and very nervous at the same time.

I'm not sure how much we will get done today; I'm hoping we can get most of the outline done. It all depends on how my pain threshold is today. I will post before and after photos after today's session once the bandages come off; hopefully tomorrow.

Tia Dalma: You know of Davy Jones? A man of the sea, a great sailor. Until he run afoul of that which vexes all men.

Will Turner: What vexes all men?

Tia Dalma: What indeed.

Gibbs: The sea?

Pintel: Sums?

Ragetti: The dichotomy of good and evil?

Jack Sparrow: A woman.

Tia Dalma: A woman. He fell in love.

Gibbs: No, no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with.

Tia Dalma: [annoyed] Same story, different versions. And all are true. See, it was a woman as changing and harsh and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it caused was to much to live with, but not enough to cause him to die.

Will Turner: What exactly did he put into the chest?

Tia Dalma: Him heart.

Ragetti: Literally or figuratively?

Pintel: He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest. Could he?

Tia Dalma: It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings.