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tyggerjaiSo, after years of messing about, I have a tattoo. For, say, 10 years I've known pretty much what I want, and where I want it. I've played with the design - adding bits, taking bits away, but I finally bit the bullet, and stripped it right back to the single essential element of the design.
Wandered into Tattoo Magic on Thursday, chatted to the guys there, made an appointment for Saturday. Went in Saturday, the guy I wanted was busy (Not necessarily a bad sign, since I'd made a random appointment with whoever was available), so they offered me a visiting Japanese tattoist instead. I asked to see his portfolio, and ... wow. All that beautiful color, shading, the traditional full-sleeve dragons, all that intricate Japanese stuff. So I figured he could handle my design :)
Does it hurt? Yes. Unescapably. But it doesn't hurt *much* And it is a good kind of hurt :) Will I get another one? Yup :) Now I've broken the seal, I'll be planning embellishments, and whole new designs.
But for the moment, this one is enough to make me happy. And![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bunnikins asks what it means, other than being the diamond of Solitaire, but that's impossible to explain. I tried, once, 10 years ago, so you can have that too, for what it's worth. And I won't apologise for being young :)
"In the times before the Younger Gods,
there was and there was not only One,
who stood apart and alone. Born of a greater mother, he stood upon a
void and thought of shape. A glittering path rose up before him, and
he walked upon it. When he grew tired of walking he rested by a lake,
and there became a glade of sheltering trees to shade him from the
new-born sun. After drinking from the lake he continued walking, and
came at last to a door. He sat before the door for many years, asking
it and testing it to find a way through. But the door would not reply,
neither would it let him through.
And in the years he sat there he forgot who he was, and where he had come
from, and where he was going. And in the instant he forgot his
destination, the Portal opened, and he passed through into a gleaming
tower of gold. And in his cage of gold Solitaire dwelt for untold
aeons, amusing himself, it is told, by creating creatures of his mind;
giving life to aspects of his light and darker selves. And he desired
a companion, with whom he could share the beauty and bounty of his
universe. And he created a lover, born of purest opposites, of whom
little is told for fear of reawakening the ancient pain of he who watches.
She was created as his lover, in his image. She held within her all his
brightness, all his light but also all his darkness, all his sorrow
and his pain. She could never blend the two, she was dark or light,
bright or sorrowful. And between the contrast there was nothing,
and she moved from one to one in the blinking of the soul's mirror,
and never was there balance, and never was there unity. She was his
sorora mystica, the tear upon his other cheek. In time she tired of the
balanced life within the Tower, and she became a raven and a dove, and
Solitaire awoke one pale dawn to find upon his balcony a feather black
and feather white, and upon the one there stood a crystal tear, upon
the other hung a quivering ruby blooddrop. And the dove became Casper
the Traveller and the raven D'Akasha the Gypsy, who will wander the
earth for ever and ever, to be one with him again only if he be judged
and reconciled. And Solitaire's heart became crystal cold within him,
and he left his tower, and walked through the world he had created, and
found it lonesome and sorrowful. And so he called forth the Younger Gods;
Xia, whose wings are green for rebirth, blue for purity and turquoise
for hope: Mali, a complex tapestry too rich to analyse, but with a
common thread of the purple of desire, and burgundy for compassion:
and Jinki, purple and crimson,
for sorrow. Solitaire dwelt for a time with the Younger Gods, until he
tired of their joy and company. So he plaited fresh travelling feathers
through his hair, and donned his manchild Panchild scragamuffin Harlequin
travelling coat and said goodbye, leaving only this note
" I would rather die than live unchanging, and this something yet
inchoate means I cannot rest until... I know not when. But beyond that far horizon
there lie still more worlds, and a dream achieved is something stripped
of worth. And every hello is a goodbye yearning for its freedom...."
And he left the Younger Gods and called into being Man and Woman to
be his
companion. But he looked upon this new creation, and found them strange
and incomprehensible, and retired from them to live once more within
his golden Tower. And so he is called now Solitaire, He Who Watches,
and by these signs shall you know him;
By his colours, which are the raven's black and the dove's white,
in memory of
his traveller, and as reminder that grey balance is something to pass
through on the way to an extreme.
By his symbol, which is the quartered Diamond, sable and argent,
because tho'
it may take eternity for salt water to wear away a block of granite,
it takes longer than forever for tears of salt to scar a heart of Diamond.
By his familiar shape, which is the Tomcat, warrior and poet of the
night,
hunter and prey, curious and immortal. "
Solitaire.
.
Wandered into Tattoo Magic on Thursday, chatted to the guys there, made an appointment for Saturday. Went in Saturday, the guy I wanted was busy (Not necessarily a bad sign, since I'd made a random appointment with whoever was available), so they offered me a visiting Japanese tattoist instead. I asked to see his portfolio, and ... wow. All that beautiful color, shading, the traditional full-sleeve dragons, all that intricate Japanese stuff. So I figured he could handle my design :)
Does it hurt? Yes. Unescapably. But it doesn't hurt *much* And it is a good kind of hurt :) Will I get another one? Yup :) Now I've broken the seal, I'll be planning embellishments, and whole new designs.
But for the moment, this one is enough to make me happy. And
bunnikins asks what it means, other than being the diamond of Solitaire, but that's impossible to explain. I tried, once, 10 years ago, so you can have that too, for what it's worth. And I won't apologise for being young :)"In the times before the Younger Gods,
there was and there was not only One,
who stood apart and alone. Born of a greater mother, he stood upon a
void and thought of shape. A glittering path rose up before him, and
he walked upon it. When he grew tired of walking he rested by a lake,
and there became a glade of sheltering trees to shade him from the
new-born sun. After drinking from the lake he continued walking, and
came at last to a door. He sat before the door for many years, asking
it and testing it to find a way through. But the door would not reply,
neither would it let him through.
And in the years he sat there he forgot who he was, and where he had come
from, and where he was going. And in the instant he forgot his
destination, the Portal opened, and he passed through into a gleaming
tower of gold. And in his cage of gold Solitaire dwelt for untold
aeons, amusing himself, it is told, by creating creatures of his mind;
giving life to aspects of his light and darker selves. And he desired
a companion, with whom he could share the beauty and bounty of his
universe. And he created a lover, born of purest opposites, of whom
little is told for fear of reawakening the ancient pain of he who watches.
She was created as his lover, in his image. She held within her all his
brightness, all his light but also all his darkness, all his sorrow
and his pain. She could never blend the two, she was dark or light,
bright or sorrowful. And between the contrast there was nothing,
and she moved from one to one in the blinking of the soul's mirror,
and never was there balance, and never was there unity. She was his
sorora mystica, the tear upon his other cheek. In time she tired of the
balanced life within the Tower, and she became a raven and a dove, and
Solitaire awoke one pale dawn to find upon his balcony a feather black
and feather white, and upon the one there stood a crystal tear, upon
the other hung a quivering ruby blooddrop. And the dove became Casper
the Traveller and the raven D'Akasha the Gypsy, who will wander the
earth for ever and ever, to be one with him again only if he be judged
and reconciled. And Solitaire's heart became crystal cold within him,
and he left his tower, and walked through the world he had created, and
found it lonesome and sorrowful. And so he called forth the Younger Gods;
Xia, whose wings are green for rebirth, blue for purity and turquoise
for hope: Mali, a complex tapestry too rich to analyse, but with a
common thread of the purple of desire, and burgundy for compassion:
and Jinki, purple and crimson,
for sorrow. Solitaire dwelt for a time with the Younger Gods, until he
tired of their joy and company. So he plaited fresh travelling feathers
through his hair, and donned his manchild Panchild scragamuffin Harlequin
travelling coat and said goodbye, leaving only this note
" I would rather die than live unchanging, and this something yet
inchoate means I cannot rest until... I know not when. But beyond that far horizon
there lie still more worlds, and a dream achieved is something stripped
of worth. And every hello is a goodbye yearning for its freedom...."
And he left the Younger Gods and called into being Man and Woman to
be his
companion. But he looked upon this new creation, and found them strange
and incomprehensible, and retired from them to live once more within
his golden Tower. And so he is called now Solitaire, He Who Watches,
and by these signs shall you know him;
By his colours, which are the raven's black and the dove's white,
in memory of
his traveller, and as reminder that grey balance is something to pass
through on the way to an extreme.
By his symbol, which is the quartered Diamond, sable and argent,
because tho'
it may take eternity for salt water to wear away a block of granite,
it takes longer than forever for tears of salt to scar a heart of Diamond.
By his familiar shape, which is the Tomcat, warrior and poet of the
night,
hunter and prey, curious and immortal. "
Solitaire.
.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 11:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 02:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 10:05 am (UTC)sol.
.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 06:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 10:03 am (UTC)Though it was tempting, after seeing the guys work, to get him to do the same design on the left arm, but in the japanese style, with the shady, scaly, cloudy colors.
sol.
.
I have only one thing to say
Date: 2006-03-14 12:12 am (UTC)Re: I have only one thing to say
Date: 2006-03-14 10:00 am (UTC)sol.
.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-28 01:02 am (UTC)Japanese tat artists are amazing with colours. I got my third tat purely because I saw one guys colour work and fell in love with it. I'd never been one for colour tats before then either. I get sooooo many comments on the colour of it.