I Value the Thorns

Poppy flower. I got this when I graduated from graduate school. It’s a cover-up tattoo. What was covered up was very terrible in my life. I found an artist that was really into Alfons Mucha. I wanted an Alfons Mucha-inspired tattoo. We put this together. She drew all this for me and it took about 5 hours. She told me areas that were going to hurt badly, which was great because she was also covered in tattoos. She gave me a good warning. It had a lot of the line work from Art Nouveau/Alfons Mucha. It still looks perfect after 13 years. I got it in 2010.

This is also Alfons Mucha. “I am I am I am” is from a poem by Sylvia Plath. This is my, “I survived my divorce” tattoo. To me, it is representative of “I am still alive, I am still here, I survived this thing, I am holding onto my identity, and growing as a person.” The flower is an iris which is also common in Alfons Mucha’s work. This is only a year and a half old.

I got this tattoo when I was about 20 years old. It is the character Delirium from Sandman. Jill Thompson did an art piece where they were all babies. This is based on that artwork. I got done in 2001. Sandman the comic had a huge impact on my life when I was 15. It changed my life forever. I needed a Sandman tattoo and this one was super cute.

Scissors with a rose. It’s a subtle Morticia tattoo. If you watch the original series and the movie, you will know that Morticia loves growing roses and cuts the heads off the roses. This is because she values the thorns over the beautiful roses. My vibe is very Morticia-inspired. My wedding dress was Morticia-inspired. She is a loving mother and a wonderful wife. Happy stable person, but also dark and spooky at the same time. My partner and I are also very Morticia-and-Gomez over the top in love. I kind of got it for them, but mainly got it for me.

This is not a tattoo. This is an experiment with nitrogen branding. You put a wire in liquid nitrogen for 30 seconds. It will look scary. Then I hold it to my skin for 3 seconds. It will leave a scar on your body. It can last from six months to a year.

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