When I closed The Zen Leaf in 2023, I had four tattoos. There were the original two I got back in 2013/2014, the second of which was such a bad experience that it took me nine years to try again. Then in June 2023, I got a larger back tattoo done with frames for eventual cat portraits. And I got a silly one on my calf that was a Three of Swords mixed with a Vday conversation heart.

Since then, I’ve gotten a LOT more tattoos. I mentioned on my hello post when I restarted this blog in January that I was up to 15. Well, I’m now up to 18…and I figured it was time to do a tattoo tour. But only one tattoo at a time because then I can write little posts, which is just about what I’m mentally prepared for these days. Heh.

Tattoo No.5 was a little flash tattoo for Friday the 13th in October 2023. One of the tattoo shops I go to was having a sale – tattoos were $13, which was insane. I had wanted to try a specific artist there, Keith, because I want him to do one of my cat portraits and I wanted to get a feel for how he tattoos. His flash included these little conversation hearts, which I thought would be perfect for my calf. I decided this would be my spoopy leg, for all the silly spooky tattoos.

Keith did a good job though I learned a thing that I would mostly continue learning as I went along on this tattoo journey – male tattoo artists tend to go deeper into my skin than female artists, causing both more pain and less-clean lines. Within a month or two, the hearts looked older than the big heart. I was told by other artists that the smaller tattoo will look better in time…but it’s now been 1.5 years, and the smaller one still looks older and muddier than the big one.

Not that Dead Cute tattoo looks bad or blown out! It looks fine, I just prefer a lighter hand with tattoos, and my skin prefers it too. (Also, I always read this as “dead but cute” rather than “dead cute,” so do with that what you will.)

Okay! I’ll be back another time with Tattoo no.6, which I got on my Mediterranean cruise in October 2023!