what i just submitted to bme
i'll teach you to turn away.
[-----]
Skull tattooing - that's ON my skull, not OF a skull.
It was late 1996 when I first desired to decorate the left side of my
head with a tattoo. At the time, I kept the lower sides & back of my
head shaved & couldn't come up with a design I liked - I later
realized this was because I would've been decorating for my haircut,
not for the shape of my skull. So I put the desire on a back burner, &
waited until my progression through hairdos led to one that would
facilitate such a modification.
Seven years later, in 2003, I was mostly finished growing out a
"stealth mohawk" from a shaven head. (Basically this: I couldn't shave
a mohawk because it wouldn't be appropriate for my office, & I have a
job I love that I don't mind making small compromises for. So, as the
hair on the top of my head grew out, I allowed growth down the back,
hidden beneath the longer hair on top, until I achieved a 'hawk that
looked like a bob or pageboy when parted.) Looking at the side of my
head at this stage, I realized I had plenty of scalp visible to make a
decision on decorating my head without being affected by a haircut. I
started planning my design in May of that year.
I believe that all facial & neck work should be tribal, because that
is the only style of art that can so enhance such a detailed area of
the body without overwhelming it. (I differentiate between true tribal
art - by tribes who give more meaning to each line than current-day
cultures could even think to - & the spiky black stuff popular today
with the addition of the prefix "neo", or by dismissing it as "tribal"
altogether & simply calling it "blackwork".) For a tattoo in such
close proximity to my face, I decided these rules also applied, & I
began designing accordingly.
I took inspiration from several blackwork pieces I'd seen over the
years & loved - loved mostly because of how they fit the particular
body part for which they'd been designed, but also for the stylistic
intricacies which attracted my eye. I enlisted the help of some
friends familiar with fitting artwork to the body, & I stared at
medical drawings of the skull bones in comparison to photos of my own
head. I analyzed the dimensions of my skull & the points at which the
hair grew into different directions & I sized & re-sized & changed the
angles of the piece accordingly. I used Photoshop layers & a whole lot
of transform commands to fit the piece to a scale picture of the side
of my head, exactly the way I wanted to see it applied. This process
took a total of thirteen months - no tattoo design or decision should
be rushed, but I was definitely going to put a lot of special
attention & time into this one.
With the design complete, I concentrated on coloration. I'm of the
opinion that some things are, by nature, attention-grabbing enough
that some subtleties should be taken when possible. For example,
though I wear a red & black streaked mohawk, I've only spiked it for
one tattoo convention. It's unnecessary for me to do so outside of
such a venue. Similarly, a tattoo on the side of my head is
in-your-face enough - it doesn't need to be stark black as well.
(Everyone does things that draw attention, & yes, I receive plenty for
my visible modifications. However, it is important to be certain
you're modifying yourself despite this, not because of it. Though I
say "in-your-face", it's self-referential - I did not want a piece on
my head that stood out to ME as much as black ink would cause it to.)
I wanted the piece to look like it had grown out of my head, not like
it had been slapped onto me. Thus, a shade between fresh-scar deep
pink & brownish-red mole would be my goal. Since I'm not great with
color selections past the basic ideas, I would leave the specific
choices to the artist I trusted for the application of my design:
Scott White of Altered State Tattoo. I'd been to him before for some
touch-ups on early pieces - the large, solid areas & straight, clean
lines in his portfolios had impressed me when I was in the shop being
worked on by his partner, Pooch. For most tattoos, but a neo-tribal
piece in particular, it's all about solid fills & clean lines. Scott
was also familiar with working on scalp tissue, so in January of this
year I told him I'd be back in summer for a headpiece. He was excited.
The night before my appointment, I razored the sides of my head down
to the skin & washed my hair thoroughly, since I knew I wouldn't want
to get shampoo near the wound for a couple days. I printed both the
design by itself & the Photoshop overlay for Scott's reference, as
well as some color examples I liked. I stuffed several hair clips into
a pocket & was ready.
In the shop, Scott made a transfer from my design, which indeed proved
to fit my head perfectly without resizing. When asked about colors, I
explained about the "growing out of my head" idea, showed a couple
other pictures I'd printed of fresh scars on myself, & said I trusted
him to choose something in that range that would also work with my
skin's coloration. He's the artist, after all - I'm just the canvas
here.
I laid on my side for the tattooing, facing away from Scott. The first
half of the process felt almost like nothing - certainly less painful
than receiving the small black lizard that adorns the back of my head
& neck, & that's due to artist ability. For the bulk of it, Scott used
a 9-needle flat, & though the pain was intense through the second
half, it immediately stopped hurting when he stopped. The sensation
was similar to the vibrations caused by hair clippers, but with some
pain. It felt so similar in fact, that at one point - for only a split
second - I couldn't figure out why my head was hurting when all I was
doing was getting my hair cut. I revealed this stray thought to the
friends who'd attended the sitting & everyone had a nice
soda-through-the-nose chortle at my expense. It was then determined
that tattooing my skull had lowered my IQ by twenty points.
(Fortunately, I could easily afford such a loss. har!)
Nearly an hour later, we were finished. I looked in a hand mirror
aimed at a wall mirror, & saw something I'd been indistinctly
envisioning for eight years. I utterly loved the colors Scott had
chosen, the placement (which I okayed at the stencil stage) was
perfect, the lines were crisp & exactly as I'd laid out. I couldn't've
been happier with it & I gave Scott almost a 40% tip. (I had a number
in my head for what the tattooing itself would be worth financially, &
when he undercut that, I added the difference to the tip. Isn't that
how it should be?)
Of course I followed my own healing instructions, located at
http://compunction.dyndns.org/healing.txt. Even presuming that a scalp
tattoo wouldn't swell much since it's so far above the heart, I still
overestimated how much swelling there would be. The thing barely
tingled on the way home, hardly leaked any lymph at all, & required
almost no care through the healing. I kept my hair out of it & it was
plenty happy to heal on its own.
Two points of interest: a) hair-washing; 2) scab flaking.
To avoid sloppy-wet scabs which can cause a loss of ink, I washed my
hair only when absolutely necessary (a half-step away from total
greaseball) by washing under a faucet & away from the fresh tattoo. It
wasn't exactly easy, but it worked. I skipped the conditioner for a
week.
Letting the scabs fall off naturally, as is mandated for all other
tattoos, isn't really an option with scalp tattoos where hair grows.
Since hair will grow faster than a tattoo will heal, when the scabs DO
come off the piece, they will inevitably be grown-through with hair &
will remain attached to the head. It's important to know your body
well enough to judge when the scabs can come off without causing
damage, unless you care to wait a month until there's visible space
between the tattoo & the scab - blech.
There was one odd hiccup with the process. Somehow, even with four
people in the room, one of them being my OCD/anal-neurotic self, no
one noticed that a small piece of my design went missing from the
stencil. The very last bit of the back curl was completely left off. I
was apparently too happy with the placement & coloring to see that a
chunk was just GONE. I didn't notice until the next morning when I was
going through the procedural photos for a THIRD time & thought to
myself, "That back part looks more open than I remember." After
staring for a half hour, I decided I DID want the piece put back into
my design. As it happened, my friends & I were in the vicinity of the
tattoo studio the very next day, so Scott added the last piece then
(without fee). The tattoo proper is seen in the fresh photos on BME,
but not in the procedurals. It was odd, but hey, better an omission
than an unrequested addition.
I'm incredibly pleased with Scott's work & with myself for waiting so
long & working so hard to create for myself the perfect design to live
with forever. Comments/questions/ass-kissing can be directed to the
email address above & you can visit my website for other images of my
work, my piercings healing text & other info at
http://compunction.dyndns.org. Watch my art page for links to the
photos when they're available on BME.
links:
Scott White: http://www.visualvortex.com
Altered State Tattoo: http://www.alteredstate.net
my tattoo healing text: http://compunction.dyndns.org/healing.txt
my piercings healing text: http://compunction.dyndns.org/healing2.txt
other images of my work: http://compunction.dyndns.org/art.html
[-----]
lish "you still don't understand the reason
cr...@got.net you've been treated so unkind?" -ftf
40.1% / 30 RANA 125 / 68
Keith Alexander®
away.) wrote:
> you want on-topic, you vultures? i Provide.
*** Outstanding.
---
k e i t h a l e x a n d e r
http://www.nootrope.net
http://www.modernamerican.com
aim: nootrope9 cake/death
- - e n d t r a n s m i s s i o n - -
i'll teach you to turn away.
KA> On 20 Jun 2004 19:51:23 GMT, cr...@got.net (i'll teach you to turn
>> you want on-topic, you vultures? i Provide.
thank you.
you've always appreciated my writing. ps, i swear i am not
working on a sixth script.
lish "figured out what you're good for:
cr...@got.net making anything look better." -uc
Keith Alexander®
away.) wrote:
> you've always appreciated my writing. ps, i swear i am not
>working on a sixth script.
*** I'm sure.
A dearth of memorable personalities.
Richard Hunter
turn away.) coughed and sputtered, and managed to choke out these
words:
>ps, i swear i am not
>working on a sixth script.
when will it be finished? :D
david
i'll teach you to turn away.
RH> On 20 Jun 2004 21:57:33 GMT, cr...@got.net (i'll teach you to
>>ps, i swear i am not working on a sixth script.
what do you care? keep going as you are & you won't have
anything interesting to say in it anyhow.
well, except for all that stuff i've already written for you.
but none of it is about you, per se. :D
lish "we don't even care
cr...@got.net whether or not we care." -ma