All my tattoos are deeply personal and have a symbolic meaning to me – they are not just there for the looks. Which is one of the reasons I prefer not to reveal the motif to people before getting the tattoo. It’s easier to motivate and explain once it is in place, plus I like to surprise people. But since I have designed (or in the case of Frankenstein/Einstein, heavily manipulated) them all myself, the design is always shared with a few people for feedback before immortalizing it.

I have three scheduled tattoo sessions for four tattoos this spring. All sessions will take about four hours each.

This Wednesday I will get one on each inner upper arm (that’s really gonna hurt).

In May, I will get one on me left chest (also a painful place, I’ve heard).

In April I’ve had an appointment since October or something. When I first started to sketch about a year ago, the motif were supposed to be organic. A number of variants have gone through (biological/technological/numerical/math/art/pop culture reference), but none have felt so right or so personal as the one I’ve finally decided to do (though most people will not understand why). Aside from a much needed reminder it has a deep connection to a certain condition that will always be with me. I’m 90% certain it will be placed around my left elbow and move down the lower arm. Preliminary sketches indicate it will look good. Really good. I will do some more photo manipulations (Frank <3 Photoshop) to decide on final size and angle.

This will be interesting.