For my seventh tattoo, I booked with a woman named Kristin who does fine line ink at Twisted Tattoo in San Antonio. (Notably, this is also where Keith, who did my Dead Cute tattoo, has his studio.) I’d wanted to get this tattoo done pre-Oct-2023-cruise, particularly because it would be visible on my hand even if I wore long sleeves. I was really looking for visible indicators of queerness as I was embracing my personal identity more and more. I know a tattoo doesn’t say much, but I also know that when I see people with lots of tattoos, I’m more inclined to trust them above other people. So.

I didn’t know exactly what I wanted when I started out. Mostly, I just wanted something easily visible and that would fit my personal style. I’d seen Kristin do a lot of little ephemeral dragons that I adored, and I had some ideas of willow leaves and moons and stars. I prefer bats to dragons, and so I sent a bunch of reference photos, including ones from tattoos that Kristin had done, and I let her put together a design for me.

She didn’t want to do the tattoo before I traveled. The healing time would not work well with travel ahead, and it might be difficult especially with the sun traveling through the Mediterranean. We instead scheduled for November after I got home.

So…finger tattoos HURT. And they fade really easily. I have a couple photos of the tattoo when it was first done (one pictured above), and then I have a couple from when it was touched up eight months later (left). Now, a year after the touchups, one of the finger tattoos is almost gone again, and of course some of the sharpness of the original tattoo has softened. That’s to be expected and it still looks absolutely lovely. Kristin did a phenomenal job!

Speaking of which, I’ve had more compliments about this tattoo than any of the others I’ve gotten, even other visible ones. I’m really hoping to one day do a full half-sleeve on that arm that will integrate this tattoo, or wrap around it and the infinity sign on the inner wrist!

Little notes: Tattoo ink interferes with heartrate watches like Apple Watch or Fitbits. I can’t get an accurate read from those kinds of watches anymore. Oh well. Also, I know one day I might need surgery on this wrist again, as the surgery from 2021 didn’t actually get the root of the ganglion cyst in there, and I’m really sad about that because I have a feeling it’s going to completely fuck up the artwork. Boo.