I began looking at tattoo magazines and searching out shops locally back in 1995, then after going to a Female Tattoo Artist show sponsored by a local lady, I got up the guts to finally go and do it. I was lucky enough to find EXACTLY what I had been looking for in a file in Deana's shop, but I was hesitant being as she was out of town so her assistant Ricky would be doing the work. I hung out for a while and decided to just go for it. This was the day my centerpiece sun/moon yin and yang design was born. I must admit between fear and a bit of pain, I nearly passed out several times, but a nice man who was a regular at the shop went and bought me a pack of gum and talked me thru the whole adventure.

After two years of happy marriage with my simple back piece, I decided it was time to add a border to it. I was lucky enough to have connections at another shop where I was going to get a super duper deal on the piece. This was a long long process as I wanted a relatively large piece done and they were going to need several hours, but whenever I was free, they weren't. Finally on my third trip a very nice man named Brian who was a visiting artist from New York had some time after the shop was closed and he put down the basic outline for my flowers and vines around the sun/moon. I cried and cried on this one, the pain on the ribcage when he was working was close to unbearable, plus the fact that the piece turned out twice the size I had imagined it being!!! I never thought I would make it thru this, but somehow once he started I knew I had to just go with it, because I knew in the end it would be a gorgeous part of me.

Fast forward another year, and I had recovered enough to want to add some shading and color to the tattoo. One problem though, tattoo artists DO NOT like to work on other people's work, and Brian had long gone back to New York. After visiting shop after shop begging for someone to work on the color and shading, I found a friend of Brian's who was an artist at yet ANOTHER shop who was willing to do the work. I must say, Chad scared me at first, he is a big guy who is covered in tattoos himself, but in fact he's just a big ol puppy dog!!! He put the shading on one side, then a few months later, the other. Now we are finally into the coloring and I am almost done (finally!!!). We have one side colored in, and one still to go. With the sheer size of the piece, I can only take 2-3 hours of work at a time painwise and moneywise, so I have to save save save to get it finished, hopefully in the very near future!!!

When this one is all finished will I do another? This is what I ask myself constantly....the answer is yes, I think so. Right now I am thinking of putting my libra symbol on my ankle, but only time can tell, I have to finish what I've started first!!!