I have been wanting a half sleeve since I was 18 years old (7years) but I’m not the type to do something so permanent like a tattoo without having it meaningful and perfect so I've held off. After I had the twins I knew I wanted the tattoo to revolve around them, but was still indecisive.
Two years ago I finally figured out what I wanted but then came the challenge of finding someone to do it. I wanted someone good, a perfectionist like me and someone who excelled in realistic type tattoos. Last month I found Chris. He use to own his own tattoo shop and has recently ventured out on his own to spend more time with his twin boys so he opened a private shop in Tempe. As soon as I saw his port I knew I wanted to use him so I made an appt right away. He stays booked for months in advanced but I got lucky with a cancelation. it took us 4 hours to do online research about everything I wanted to incorporate into my tat and then 8 hours to do all the outline and a lot of the color. My tattoo will need one more session, since I decided to go for something more realistic with lots of detail its been pretty time consuming. I love how patient and detail oriented he is.
The back ground of my tattoo is a cherry blossom tree. In japan the cherry blossom trees, called "sakura," and cherry blossom flowers themselves are held in the highest esteem. For thousands of years, the Japanese people have celebrated hanami annually. Hanami is basically parties organized to view blossoming cherry trees.
Originally, the purpose of hanami excursions was to ponder the transient nature of life, as the cherry blossom blooming season is so short. This concept ties in with Buddhist thinking about the nature of cherishing life because it’s so short lived. To me this also takes on an even deeper meaning. Since the tattoo is all about my kids, to me it means to cherish every moment you have with you children, love them, hug them, play with them because they grow up so quickly.
I knew I wanted butterflies to represent the kids. I LOVE butterflies. they are all so unique in their own way.the butterflies life cycle is the most intence and time cosuming of any other creature, much like having a baby. Most/all animals/insects either birth or lay eggs. A butterfly lays its eggs that then turn into caterpillars. The caterpillar then nestles itself into a cocoon till its ready to show the world its new found beauty, as a butterfly. This represents how my beautiful children came about. Its hard to imagine they started off as something so small, even before they were a fetus. It took me nine months to nourish and cuddle them before they were ready. When it came to that day I was blessed with something so incredibly beautiful, its really surreal.
the type of butterfly I chose is by far my favorite. It is so unique, beautiful and fun, it represents my babies perfectly. Its called an 88 butterfly or Diaethria clymena. they are the most exotic and mysterious butterflies that are considered natural treasures of the sub-tropical Amazon rainforest. The number 88 are seen in their wings and this comes naturally. Instead of the original 88 that is seen in its wings I put the birth years of my kiddoes, so 06, 06 and 08.
heres the outline of it all before we started coloring it.
it is still a work in progress. we have to finish the rest of the color and then im doing some background shading with greens, purples and blues(you can get an idea of it if you look at the big flower). thats Ridges 08 (88) butterfly on the very top
you can also see the 88 butterflies cocoon close to my arm pit
lots more work to do
heres the 88 butterfly caterpillar. i love his pose
i have one more session to do. it will prob take another 8 hours and then i should be done. ill be sure to post pics with the finished product.
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