Pugilist

Man, I have posted this elsewhere, but I work as a professor and I keep my tattoos covered at all times at work (and have not gone onto visible spots like forearms, calves, etc. yet so that it's easy to cover up). As a woman who looks pretty young for her age, it is already really difficult to have my students and colleagues take me seriously as an "authority" in what I do, and so I am very careful to make sure my appearance makes me fit in and look as "professorial" as I can. I always joke that once I have the requisite grey hair required to make me look more like a professor, maybe I'll start flashing my tattoos in class :) That said, I noticed this morning that one of my grad students got a little tattoo on her thumb! I assumed it was fake and chatted her up about it, and it turns out it's real, which got us into a conversation about tattoo geekery, which led to my confessing my own obsession with tattoos. Obviously the students that took part in this conversation were kind of wowed by this sudden admission that their straight-laced prof spends her downtime in tattoo shops, but I am regretting the interaction a bit now! I feel like I just opened some floodgates. Eep.

I absolutely love this!

Awwwwwwwww thanks. She is the best. :)

I agree with folks who say the dryness shouldn't be a problem for healing, but when I've had those experiences of a new tattoo drying out super easily, I do know that I wanted to use a bit more moisturizer just to keep it comfortable for myself. The only advice I have is to maybe use a heavier duty moisturizer. We're pretty loyal to Aveeno in our household, and they have a super-super-super dry skin formula that likely won't solve the problem, but might make you just that little bit more comfortable. ETA: This won't help you now, but in general another thing I try to do is to moisturize the skin pretty consistently in the days leading up to my tattoo appointment, my logic being that the better shape it's in, the smoother the process is likely to be. Preventative care and all that.

Else, welcome, and I loved your post. I am glad tattoos can be so transformative for you. While I am not dealing with anything on the scale of what you're dealing with, I feel like getting tattooed has changed my own relationship with my body too, only for the better. Taking ownership and all that. Can't wait to see what you get!

Congress Street Tattoo and Hobo's are awesome shops in Portsmouth, NH, with awesome people working and guesting there, and it's an hour away from Boston!

Ah yes, yet another tattoo that I geek out over on IG ends up on an LST-er. Of course.

Whatevs, someone is just nervous that he is not going to hold up as well when getting those spots done as his super tuff wife. :)

Ooh I am going to go back and add a bunch of you. If you like photos of cats and dogs, and occasional travels, but mostly cats and dogs, feel free to add me. My username is catmischief.

Hahaha. A common scenario. Sounds like you got "Hoopered".

Goddamnit I am a Hooper fan generally (as we all are) but @CercleRouge that piece blows my mind even more than usual! It's just beautiful. You must be thrilled. Can I ask you about how long that took?

Like @Graeme said, I rarely get this one anymore because we live in a neighborhood where it's more common to be tattooed than not. I also keep my tattoos covered up a lot of the time. Usually when people do ask, it's because they are friends or acquaintances who know I've recently gotten tattooed and want to see and are curious. I would say that most of my tattoos do have meaning to me, but not in the literal, very specific way that they're represented on TV. For example, when I recently got a dragon on my thigh, it was because I'd been feeling really drawn to dragon imagery for how it depicts both luck and strength, and I'd been feeling like I needed a bit of both on me. I think of my dragon tattoo as my little good luck charm. Also I just really loved the design and couldn't get it out of my head! It was the right thing at the right time. I think when serious tattoo folks talk about tattoos having meaning, it's often in that way--some really beautiful imagery that just speaks to you and feels right on your body, like just what you need. Even my less obviously meaning-laden tattoos are still meaningful because they serve as reminders of the time/place I was in when I got them, and who I was at that time. These meanings are often pretty ethereal or abstract. When we make fun of the LA Ink style meaning thing, it's often because people go so literal, rather than letting the power of tattoo imagery speak for itself. All that to say that when folks ask me about what my tattoos mean, I am happy to get into it if it's close friends, but it is pretty annoying if it's people I don't know very well. Because there's no good answer. If I say it doesn't mean anything, then that's alarming to the tattoo noob (I think they mix up meaning or lack thereof with how seriously you took the decision to get tattooed, as though if it isn't obviously meaningful, then you must not take tattoos very seriously. So misguided.). But if the tattoo is super meaningful to me, then why on earth would I want to share such super personal stuff with someone I don't know very well? Part of the tattoo TV problem is that it assumes that even if we are getting tattoos that are profoundly meaningful, that we're also all super confessional exhibitionists who like, want to announce all this shit to any stranger we meet. Nope.

Looks like you could maybe do that thing with a long shape, like a dagger or snake, where it starts on one side, "pierces" the skin when it reaches the wheels of the plane, and then comes out the other side.

Aww @missStark I'm glad that story has such a happy ending! We rescued a stray dog this summer who had clearly been intentionally abandoned. (Someone had tied him to the stairs in our back yard! Seriously!) It still makes me feel crazy when I think about it. Luckily he was the was the cutest puppy in the universe and we managed to place him with a rescue almost immediately. And he found his forever home within a week. Yay for good dog stories. :) - - - Updated - - - Aww @missStark I'm glad that story has such a happy ending! We rescued a stray dog this summer who had clearly been intentionally abandoned. (Someone had tied him to the stairs in our back yard! Seriously!) It still makes me feel crazy when I think about it. Luckily he was the was the cutest puppy in the universe and we managed to place him with a rescue almost immediately. And he found his forever home within a week. Yay for good dog stories. :)

Congrats to your wife Hogg! And to you too--all partners of dissertation writers are saints. For real. I did my PhD in the UK but have been back in Canada for a few years now, so defending meant a whirlwind trip back to the UK (I arrived last Thursday morning for my Friday defense and just got back yesterday), which I am still recovering from. INTENSE.

Congratulations @irezumi !

This makes me feel insane.

History! And thank you.

Just had a double Laphraoig to celebrate my phd defense and it was the best one I've ever tasted. :)

Reviving this thread partly 'cause I love it, partly because I have something to add in terms of awesome things I've done recently. This afternoon I successfully defended my PhD! Yikes! I am still kind of wrapping my head around the enormity of it, and so spewing my crazy wired energy wherever I can. :)

LOVE the dog talk in this thread. @Graeme is correct about greyhounds. :) I am missing ours hardcore right now as I'm travelling in the UK, and then on my way to some tiny little village this afternoon we passed someone walking two beautiful big black greys and it made my heart swell. @Our Endless Days if you want to talk either of us about greyhound adoption, feel free to PM us! We are so in love with our Daisy and I do a bunch of volunteering for our local rescue. They are very particular, but really amazing and sweet dogs.

Yeah, any time I've heard of/seen dogs that hang out in shops, it's usually fairly controlled--like in a front or back room, not in the tattooing area. It's hard to object to that. Mostly, I just wish I could have my dog with me while I was getting tattooed. She'd be a great relaxation tool. :)

I must concur with you all that the itchiness sucks! I am the biggest baby about itchiness.

This thread got weird. In an awesome way.

Yes. (But careful not to sweat too much onto those fresh tattoos.)