One day in April, Stephanie and I went down to a local tattoo shop we really like, Black Sphinx Tattoos. They have tons of flash, which is what we were both after, and also there is often a sphinx cat in the studio. There are apparently several sphinx cats that perch in there on a regular basis, though I’ve only met the original, Mrs Tiddies. Normally, I’ve seen her sleeping, but on this particular day, she was very active and aggressively loving. It was so very sweet!

Anyway, I always have to exclaim joy over cat things!

Stephanie and I had tried to get flash tattoos in March, but at a different (new-to-us) location that ended up being FAR too busy. We waited for an hour and found out it would be another 3-4, so we bowed out. Clearly this is a thing we’ve been trying to do for awhile! So we made the trip out again and both found flash that worked for us. I chose another small piece to add to my spoopy leg – a lollipop (in my mind, it’s a Tootsie Pop) covered in a tissue and tied to look like a ghost, with a “scary” face.

Back in 2020, in the height of the pandemic, I actually created Tootsie Pop ghosts (without faces) for Halloween. I popped them into a styrofoam block so people could grab one individually without touching any of the others and so I could sit back from the display at a proper distance. This was almost exactly the same thing, adorable and perfect for the spoopy theme, so I talked to my artist about having some of the color of the wrapper come through, plus colored-in eyes where you see the wrapper through “holes” cut into the tissue. We worked together throughout, and it ended up coming out absolutely perfect.

It’s silly, and lovely, and it’s been healing well in the three weeks since. It’s the first one I’ve gotten on my calf that didn’t hurt (much), too, so that’s nice! Usually my calf is extremely painful. I really liked the artist, and I think I might see if she wants to do one of my cat tribute tattoos before I move to Europe!