Hidden inside
Sep 05, 2009 in Art, My Work, Tattoo
When Paul was in high school he spent 3 months in Pushkino, Russia, (studying microbiology of all things!), and brought back an impressive collection of some really beautiful Russian folk art, including a set of the most beautiful matryoshka dolls i have ever seen.
They sit proudly on our mantle, and have given Mike Donahue’s youngest son hours of fun. Whenever they come over, the first thing he does is pull down the dolls and take them to the couch so he can open each one and put them back together again.
When it came time to decide what the next element in Paul’s sleeve would be, he thought about his fondest memories and remembered Russia. Then he thought about the dolls and how they represent a complex nature, not only because each doll contains another doll, but also because each one is a beautiful floral artwork within a simple depiction of a person. It may be that it represents his complexities, as well as his awareness of the complexity of others. We are not what we may appear to be.
I ordered special ink for this tattoo because he wanted the colors to be as bright as possible. I found a set of 3 fluorescent colors that happened to be the colors in the doll, (a pink, an orange, and a red.) However, when i started to apply the red, i quickly realized that it just did not want to stick in the skin. The pink was even worse. Plus, i couldn’t see the pink for the redness of the skin beneath. Since this is only my second color tattoo, it’s possible i just don’t know how to work with such an ink.
I quickly made the decision to lightly color the whole tattoo rather than make more of a bloody mess trying to get these stubborn colors in. In 2 weeks, after it fully heals, i will re-color the whole tattoo again to evenly deepen all the tones and bring out the super bright colors. And then, if necessary, i’ll do it again 2 weeks later. (Which will be so much fun for Paul, since the red part close to his elbow was almost unbearably painful!) =( Sorry babe!
