To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo

I kinda love that title.

In any case, Hey Folks!

I have been notoriously bad about gifts for my sister for her birthday or for Christmas or whatever. It's not that I don't love her, because I definitely do, but money's sometimes tight, or I don't see her right on the day or basically other bad excuses.

Well, when she turned 18, I told her that I would purchase her a tattoo, and that I would get a matching one. She really liked that idea, and so we planned on it. It's now 2 years later. I finally have a little bit of money, or at least...enough money to purchase completely frivolous things like tattoos. So, about a week ago, I told her that it was time, and we got together to talk about what we'd like to get. (It not necessarily having to match, but at least be cohesively themed.) We got together on Sunday and talked it over. After some discussion about initials or horses or some such, we came upon the idea of Koi fish.

Why Koi Fish? Well... A number of reasons I guess. We both liked the idea of doing a traditional type tattoo, and Koi are pretty traditional. Some people would say that "Traditional" in this case is code for "Common", and maybe there are a lot of Koi tattoos around, but we also really liked the symbolism of the Koi. It represents perseverance, family, loyalty...those kinds of fun things. I mean... I'll be honest, there hasn't been a lot that she and I have had to "persevere" over together, though we all have stuff individually, right? Still... "Family" and "Loyalty" are good things. Plus, there's a huge amount of variation that can go into a Koi fish, which gives us a modicum of individuality within our cohesive theme.

So anyway, I have a friend from my Starbucks days named Sarah, and she dates a REALLY good tattoo artist. He's a good dude too, so I figured I may as well give him my business. It's kinda hard to argue with the "nice and extremely talented" combination. So tonight Briana (sister) and I (and her boyfriend Drew) went out to Milford to meet up with Jake (the artist) and talk to him about placement, price, and style. After talking for a bit, I settled on a black, blue, and white fish (the colors that, when in Koi form, represent the 'masculine') and Briana chose something a little softer with Reds and Pinks (feminine).

I gotta tell you... I'm really excited. We don't have our appointment for a couple of weeks. (Jake is both busy and not often there), but I think it's gonna be pretty awesome.

I hope Briana likes her 18th birthday present... 2 years late.

Didn't really have that much to say tonight, so you're stuck with the details of my tattoo preparation. My bad.

Below is a drawing by Chris Garver from Miami Ink. It's...a Koi Fish.