Body modified.

In a week or so I’m going in to get the first part of my new tattoo inked.  It has been a long process. I won this as a part of my winning the Ms. San Francisco Leather title. I knew what I wanted,  but wasn’t sure how it would fallout.

After widely-spaced consultations and design talks, I still didn’t have a design. All artists work differently, and so I figured eventually it would happen, and hey, who can bitch when getting a free tattoo from a talented reputable artist?

click through for the rest....

I’d gathered various images, ideas, thoughts on what I wanted, thinking that would be what was needed to inspire a design. But that never really gelled. The more time went by, I was all over the map with teaching gigs. Life happens.  The most recent round, I gathered dozens of images, and brought them in.

I had one image, a drawing, that I kept running into. It was pretty standard in lots of ways in terms of depictions of Ganesha, but it was somehow different. Finally I realized what I loved about it was his expression. Compassionate, joyous, lively, all that I feel him to be.

SO, there it was. And we have a plan. The final design will be a little simpler. My right arm will soon undergo the process to bring Ganesha to life on my flesh for the rest of my time in it.

Exciting! I am pretty pleased. It will be so wonderful to have devotional art with me forever.