chest tattoo - FINISHED! Also, bonus bloody boobs pictures.

Welp, if you are one of the new followers I have around these parts maybe you don't know about all the awesomeness that is my chest tattoo. Yesterday at work Colin had a cancellation, and so we actually had time to finish the thing! There was only about an hour's worth of work left to be done since the last session, so it was really no big deal for me to sit for it and then go back to work/answer the phone while getting tattooed (haha)...until I got up and looked in the mirror and saw this.

The pic

Yep, that is a big deal, actually. I am in love with my own chest right now. The pictures don't even do it justice, it's so striking, and the colors are so bright, it's crazy!

I swear it felt like Colin was tattooing my neck when he was coloring in the top of the poppy and the leaf on my collarbone. The body does weird things with pain sometimes.

I like how it goes with the mummy on my arm. (Mummy tattoo by Bryan J. Turnbull) They just kind of fit together naturally. And really, why wouldn't a giant bee attend a mummy/my little pony tea party?

Hey...Boo-bee. Get it? Just thought I'd make the joke first so you guys don't feel the need to in the comments section. And now for the aforementioned bloody boob pics...

I was on the bus like this, all shiny and leaky. Ew! Good thing my sweater was covering all the gore. Anyone else get any tattoos recently? I've been going nuts lately with them...remember this? and this?

Pets with disabilities. And more!

Get ready for your heart to explode, everybody. These pictures were taken by Carli Davidson and are the most heart warming cute-sad things you've ever seen. Ready?

Here we go:

OH MY GOD THAT PUG'S FACE! AAAGH I LOVE IT. For more, click here.

She's also got some amazing albums, like a horribly graphic one called Bison Butchering, a super cute one called Pride 2010 Pet Photo Booth, a hilarious one called Shake, and an amazing one called Elephant Painting. Oh, and this dog with only two legs named Ramen Noodle.

And uh....this. 

Did you see the nipple? Now you can't unsee it.

Silverfish

I do not know why they are called silverfish, but I do know that they are one of the very few bugs that make my hair stand on end when I see them run. Something about the way they move/look just creeps me right out. I've been told that in Toronto they grow to over two inches long. YUCK!

Diptych: apples and balloons

lately...

Reading: I just finished Tina Fey's Bossypants.  Ryan got it for me for my birthday...I read 80 pages in the hour or so between my bus stop and starting work the day after I got it. It's so funny. I love her writing style. I only wish it were like ten times as long, it was such a quick read! If you like the show 30 Rock, you will like this book.

I also got a Kobo e-reader for my birthday from my dad and step-mom. And I am loving it. It does everything it should. I only wish I was more of a jet-setter, because when you connect to the internet on it, it automatically knows where you are and tells you where all the restaurants and hotels and stuff are. But the BEST THING is I can borrow library books on it. Free. Books. Forever. I just finished a David Sedaris book and right now I'm reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, AND I put myself on the list to read all the Game of Thrones books. Yay! :)

Watching: Breaking Bad every Sunday, and the first three seasons of The Wire. Don't tell me what happens in the season finale of Breaking Bad, we have it PVR-ed but the kids are around like, 24-7, and we've been to sick to stay up later than they do. But soon, my precious, soon. Update: WE JUST WATCHED IT AND AAAAAH to that one thing that happened with Gus, you all know what I'm talking about. AAAHHHH!

Listening:You know what? Tattoo shops KILL music. You listen to all the good albums all day long every day at work and eventually you are sick and tired of everything. I've started keeping albums for myself, and not debuting them at work until I'm already over the love stage because of this. I've also been venturing pretty far off my usual guitar-y metal music path into some...interesting world music choices. Chinese opera anyone?

Actually though, I am finally beginning to like ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. I hated them for so long because their name sounds SO METAL but their music does not. But I'm over it and they're actually a really great band.

Eating: Well we had Canadian Thanksgiving a week ago and let me tell you it was AMAZING. Ryan worked super hard all day, slaving over a hot Tofurky...we had the works. I love all-vegetarian Thanksgivings, it's so much easier and more delicious! Other than that we're doing a lot of pizza and hot dogs and macaroni. Not too exciting.

Loving: making friendship bracelets. I need to take up crochet or something because it turns out I am really into this whole 'craft' thing.

Looking forward to: Halloween! I'm gonna be papa smurf this year if I'm brave enough, can find any reason to actually dress up, and can find red pants that will fit me and a white beard that doesn't smell funny. Here is a strategically positioned photo of me in our back yard a couple years ago wearing the costume. I am standing so you can't see half my bum hanging out of the pants that were obviously made to fit a 12 year old boy:

Note the blue t-shirt hanging out the bottom of the smurf body? Because the costume is way too small, I have to wear extra clothes underneath. But still like, the best thrift store score on earth. That's right, we found this at a thrift store for like ten bucks. AMAZING.

Hahaha...Smurfs like mushrooms, right? I don't know. And this next one still makes me laugh. I didn't know how to pose, so I just pretended to pick up that rock?

So yeah, I need to get me a pair of red pants that fit, and soon. LOL. I'm already embarrassed, thinking about the bus ride to work.

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Enough about me, what's new with you?

ZOMG ISF!

 

I have a little gang of internet super friends (ISFs) and mother fuckin' @_coreygirl_ just sent me like a billion candies and a book too! My favorite things! Also? Postcards and a head massager that looks like it might get caught in my hair, if I know me. Which I do.

Some of these candies are very mysterious and I'm a little scared of them. Double Decker? Salty licorice? Random candy from  the Arabian veggie market that was probably in Eckel's jacket pocket for three weeks? Mysterious German candy?

Sure, whatever. I'll eat the crap out of that candy. And Corey gave me written permission to not share any of it with anybody, and I may just exercise that right.

Here are pictures of my amazing haul. I feel like I just went trick or treating. In case you're wondering, I took them out to the front of our house because indoors was too dark. DAMN YOU, WINTER EVENING LIGHTING!

Thank you Corey! I haven't read this book yet, so that's an extra mega cool treat! :)

Want to get to know this cool lady? Okay, click here to see her twitter, and here to see her blog!

diptych: yellows and greys, you know, for autumn.

Things I Love Thursday

 I love that I have friends from high school who are even cooler now than we all thought we were back then. I also love...

Documerica - amazing photos of the USA

The arrow of time - a really cool family photo project.

I love that my name in Hopi means "one who chases butterflies"! Find out what yours means here. 

45 things you can learn online for free! 

This made me wish I was a smoker so I could try it. How has this never crossed my mind?

Truths for mature humans.

Do you have a moment for pure genius? I'm sure I'd be one of the people who just walks past. I never make eye contact with or give money to street performers, haha.

The most elaborate light painting I have ever seen.

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Before I die by Candy Chang. 

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"Naked City Spleen" - basically, it's really neat naked self-portraits in various urban environments. 

If I were to ever get married there would be a photo booth, a candy station and something like this.

How to do many different things all at once.

Learn something every day. 

100 things to draw.

The infographic of infographics. 

Where the internet is taking us - so true! haha

The phraseology project. 

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These photos taken of drops of water refracting cool images! 

For more, click here.

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Invitation to an assassination.

Quirky travel tips.

How to make a life list you'll actually do. 

National Geographic - an article on Child Brides

Diana F+ camera and friendship bracelets. Together at last.

Q: What do you do when you have too many friendship bracelets and not enough friends? 

A: Tie them all together for a makeshift camera strap of course! 

I love my Diana F+ camera, especially since Erin sent me a 35mm back for it, but the strap it came with? No thank you. It's a stiff hard plastic that is awkward and sharp. So I cut that bitch off and made my own very soft and kind of silly strap. But let's be honest here, Diana cameras are not meant to be taken seriously in the first place, are they?

diptych: cat and candy

Shut up and look out the window.

I found this passage in an article on cultural faux pas in NYC*, but I love it so much I just thought I should share it with everybody...I think it applies anywhere public, crowded or otherwise.

This one is absolutely vital - don't interfere with others' privacy. New York is a very crowded place. The way people deal with it is to create their own space. Thus, what outsiders often see as aloofness and isolation is, in fact, a sign of community; there is a shared ethos that everyone respects others' privacy and expects others to respect his own. This is chiefly communicated through eye contact. If you stare at someone on the subway: if you linger in looking out your window into someone else's bedroom; if you react to or interrupt a celebrity; or if you seem to be intentionally listening in to another's conversation, you are violating one of New York's most sacred unwritten rules. Keep yourself to yourself, buddy, and let others do the same.

I read this and automatically thought of the bus here in Victoria. Daily bus-commuters share this community of mind-your-own-business mindset. I can immediately spot people who aren't used to taking the bus because they're looking at people too much, talking too loudly or too much, or listening/trying to join in on conversations that have nothing to do with them.

Just something to think about next time you're out in public. 


*article found via Nubby Twiglet

diptych: waiting for the bus

diptych: in the tattoo shop

I hate public bathrooms because I see how many people suck at washing their hands. Did you know that I haven't had a cold in almost a year and a half? I credit that to proper and frequent hand washing. Really, if you just do the hands under the faucet for two seconds thing, you are disgusting. You know who you are. Use some fucking soap.

I wash my hands after being in public, after touching anything 'dirty', after playing with the dog, after cleaning the cat litter, before touching the clean dishes in the dishwasher, before touching food... maybe it's not common sense, but because I've always worked with food and then at a tattoo shop, but HELLO, it's called CROSS CONTAMINATION people. 

Anyway...that's the end of my rant. Wash your hands often. That is all.

***update***

How's this for irony? The day after I wrote this (Wednesday) I caught a disgusting head cold and a killer sore throat/cough attack and it's still going strong. FFFUUUUUUUUUUUCK. So there goes the hand washing theory. You may as well disregard everything I just said above.It doesn't work. Blow your nose directly onto your hands and lick stripper poles for all I care.