A couple of weekends ago, I spent some time flipping through magazines and ripping out images that inspired me. I keep them in a pile that is waiting to be included in my style file. But as I was going through my small pile of clippings from that weekend, I was struck with how easy it is to see the evolution of my style. And apparently, lots of black and white stripes are in my near future.

I'd say I'm typically an intrinsically motivated person, but when it comes to inspiration, I would be lost without all of the influences I find in the world around me. For about a year now, I've been following Waterhalo, and I must say that perusing Jaime's surprisingly fresh notebooks always spurs my own creative juices. Her experimental style and use of collected items is so wonderful… it makes me want to pull out my own stash of scraps and keep a journal style notebook of my own.

I thought you might enjoy viewing some of the spreads she created, but if you really want to dive in, check out the Waterhalo blog!

Without further ado, I give you…. My tattoo! Like I mentioned in the previous post, Hayley and I are discussing our experiences on getting our first tattoos on her blog. A tattoo is such a controversial little bugger (or big bugger, if you’re me!) and I find it quite interesting how everyone has different opinions on the subject and different experiences when getting them.

I would first like to say that yes! I do know that this tattoo is big. Everyone was shocked that I got such a large tattoo for my first one. And I did think about getting a smaller one first. However, this is the one I have been dreaming of and I knew what I wanted. I don’t think tattoos should be entered into lightly and have sort of set up my own personal tattoo guidelines:

I didn’t want a popular design or something that would seem silly five, ten, or fifty years from now. I have been thinking about getting a cross stitched saying on my forearm, but then I thought… will I still like this when I’m 35? The jury’s still out on that one.

Designs are trendy, but so are tattoo locations. For instance… anybody remember the tramp stamps on the lower back? Anybody have one? I almost got one when I graduated high school. Whew!

Flowers are about as timeless as it gets. But I also wanted something vintage. So I found this huge vintage floral engraving and trimmed and repieced it in photoshop. I also photoshopped it onto a photo so that I could see what it would look like. I stared at the photo for days and days.

I’ve been thinking of getting a tattoo for the past six years. For the past two years, I knew I wanted something floral and vintage. And… for the past year I’ve been staring at the very same vintage floral engraving which now resides on my shoulder. After so long of dreaming, I knew it had to be the one.

One of the reasons I’ve been waiting to get a tattoo is that I kept setting goals for myself that I had to accomplish first. Now I realize that’s just silly. For one- I’m horrible at completing goals. Obviously… or I would’ve had my tattoo before now. And two- I want to get a tattoo because I want a tattoo. Not because I finished a silly goal.

So. That’s my tattoo story. What’s yours?