The Family Tattoo: Jupey

I find myself to be drawn to good art much like most people I like pretty things. I also happen to like to collect a very specific type of art on my body tattoos. I started my collection when I was 18 years old and honestly did not know much about this art medium. I openly admit that as my first tattoo is a poorly done lion on my back I named Leo. Now everyone has to start somewhere and while my lion is not the best quality it reminds me to seek out better artists as much as possible for my future collecting. My second tattoo was a learning experience as well because I was very specific on what I wanted leaving the artist (who is amazing by the way) little room for creativity and I simply did not listen to him when he told me numerous times to go with black ink and not brown as it would fade. Guess what it totally did over the years. Recently though in the past 3 years I hit the art jackpot for collecting true art with Greg at Endless Expansion Tattoo. You can look here to see my amazing owl back piece which I named Willow he did for my 30th birthday. Recently my grandfather Jupe past and I knew I wanted to expand on my wrist tattoo Greg started almost 10 years ago with the brown ink. That tattoo was for myself and my grandmother Emer. I thought this is the perfect time to speak to Greg and come up with a family tattoo that I can look at daily and will bring me piece and joy in my hard moments. This piece named Jupey is my latest collection of art and my first color piece. I sit here typing it as it is healing I have to hold my hand in a strange angle to type but I am okay with that. I wanted to get my thoughts on the tattoo process out on paper. I often get told "I do not like tattoos but I like yours." I always find this comment interesting because I do not get these tattoos for other people I get them for me and honestly I often feel uncomfortable explaining the meanings of my tattoos to people. Do you walk into someones house and ask them to describe all the art on their walls? I will say this about my most recent addition. For me this is my most personal tattoo yet. My lion was for myself to bring me strength, my owl for myself to help me feel more free and be myself... This tattoo is the only memorial tattoo and family tattoo I will ever get. It brought me great peace to meet with Greg and throw all of my jumble of ideas at him and for him to create an art piece out of my thoughts and dreams. I came into the shop on Thursday a bit worried my vision would not translate to Greg because I often have too much going on in my head but he was able to illustrate what my heart needed for healing and forward movement in the most beautiful way. Let me be very clear I actually hate being tattooed. It is hard for my to sit still for so many hours (5 hours this time), I have zero pain tolerance and I complain a lot through the healing process. But I do it for the art and the fact I get to keep this with me till I die and I love that about this art medium.  This art piece I call the family tattoo because pieces of it are for my Grandpa Jupe (the bird), my Grandmother Emer (the butterfly) and many other small flowers remind me of dear family members... I saw the clover and think of my husband, the flowers for my mom and Ryan's mother. It's funny that I gave Greg complete freedom here with this piece and it just fits what I needed and wanted so well. I highly recommend Greg by the way he is always gentle and very professional. His art is breathtakingly beautiful and I just trust his vision when I collect a piece from him.

In closing I know this was a bit of a wall of text. I hope when you see someone with a tattoo you learn to appreciate what it takes to sit through that process for that art in the future and learn to not always ask what they all mean all the time. Just appreciate the art for what it is. Here are some pictures of my tattoo courtesy of Greg at Endless Expansion.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily