For Life...

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I've always liked tattoos. When it's well done, a tattoo can be very beautiful. And I deeply admire the skills of a great tattoo artist - I mean, there's no erasing when you're in this business. I have to admit, I also always thought it would an ideal job - sit around in a shop surrounded by this great, cool, modern and classic art, listening to tunes, b-s'ing with your coworkers and drawing. 

But you'd have to be really good, or it would suck. 

I used to talk about this with my buddy Matt. So much in fact, that he decided he was going to build me a tattoo gun. He's pretty awesome like that - I miss him a lot since he moved away. But, getting back to point, he was good on his word.  He built this for me, from scrap parts - he's pretty clever :)

He even decided that the gun wasn't enough, it had to come with somthing nice to carry it in:

So he swiped this little handpainted box from his Mom (she was pretty PO'd at him when she found out, and I felt bad, but then he told her to stop making him feel bad 'cause he was tryna do something nice, so she forgave him, lol.)  and he added a latch, again, from scratch :)

So, I have this to always remember him by. I think it's probably the coolest thing anyone has ever given me :D  Sadly, it's in need of repair, so it's been sitting on my bedroom shelf for some time now.... you can see the unused India Ink I stocked up on, patiently waiting for me to get a round tuit and fix the darn thing. 

Lucky me though, I did get to use it one time before the wiring came loose for good. It took a while for me to decide what I image I would use for my double-first tattoo - "double-first" because not only was it the first tattoo I ever put on my body, but it was also the first tatttoo I ever drew! It had to be something simple, something small, and something that meant something! Something that would mean something for the rest of my life... then when it came to me, it was so obvious that I couldn't believe I didn't think of it right away... 

 A double note. 

A very simple symbol of my love for music, 

doubled 'cause it's my double-first :) 

In case you're wondering, it's on my knee. 

Btw, until tonight, I had no idea just how difficult it is to photograph your own knee.