The Story of my New Tattoo
Another Kind of Creative Expression
Dreaming things up and then making them is one of the processes I live for. And having some control over how I look, like what I wear and how I do my hair, gives me a sense of agency and control that I cherish. Usually the things I make are clothes, food, and photographs, and I get that agency from dressing just how I like and getting my hair cut. But I got the idea to change my appearance in another, more permanent way and the concept really stuck. Remember how I said I was really feeling into florals lately?
I’m gonna admit that this started with an image I saw on Pinterest. It was a tattoo featuring a bicep band with flowers kind of popping out from behind it. I saved that picture and then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I’m pretty sure that was over a year ago and since then, I’ve been refining this concept. The more I meditated on it, the more it appealed to me to be adorned with representations of plants, particularly ones that I feel connected to here on Vancouver Island. And doing it to mark my fortieth birthday felt like a perfect celebration.
Andrea from the back. Her right arm is raised above her head displaying a tattoo around her forearm with camas and salal flowers and a dark, shaded fern. An empty band separates the tattoo into two parts.
About the Art
The illustration represents connection, community, and my own artistic vision because it was a collaborative effort between me, my sister-in-law, Nalisha, my partner, and the tattoo artist, TJ Osprey.
I started by sorting through the many, many pictures of plants I’ve taken over the past few years and picking a handful of them that brought me joy. I passed them onto Nalisha, who created a first illustration, a beautiful bundle of camas, blueberry, salal, yarrow, and blue harebell. I used an app on my tablet, Procreate to fuss over that drawing for endless hours, adding in my own ideas, expanding, removing, and cropping.
When I finally started to feel satisfied, I shared it with my partner, a knowledgeable botany enthusiast and artist. His contribution was to simplify the drawing and make adjustments so that all the plants are botanically accurate.
Next it was time to get input from TJ, the actual tattoo artist. They could tell right away that it wouldn’t be wide enough to fit around my whole arm, and took on the task of drawing the sweet Nootka rose to expand it. After just a few more tweaks, I was ready to add it to my body for the rest of my life!
My tattoo appointment took three hours and since I know somebody is going to ask, yes it did hurt, but not as much as a regular scrape-y cleaning at the dentist.
Andrea from the back. Her forearm has a line drawing tattoo of a Nootka rose and other plants around a blank band.
Andrea from the back. Her forearm has a line drawing tattoo of a camas flowers and other plants around a blank band.
The plants
Below are all the photos used as reference. They’re all ones I feel a particular affection for and all but the blueberries are native to Vancouver Island. Some grow in pots on my balcony and some are just ubiquitous around the island.
They’re all a reminder to me of how I’m a being among other beings. Seeing these plants brings me a sense of kinship and joy, so having a representation of them always present on my body feels like a celebration and a call to be in awe of the world I’m a part of.
Closeup of a cluster of camas flowers that are a particularly pale, soft lavender colour. There are closed flowers at the bottom of the stalk, wide open ones in the middle, and unopened buds at the top.
Delicate periwinkle purple harebell flowers are just dangling off slender green stems.
Two roses in different shades of pink cuddle together with crinkled petals touching. Their centres are bright gold.
Closeup of the underside of a sword fern covered in orange sori.
Off white bell-shaped blueberry flowers and buds clustered together in front of green leaves.
Furry white salal flowers dangling from red stems in front of green leaves.
About Getting a Tattoo
I like the idea of tattoos. The aesthetic is something that appeals to me and I’ve admired them on other people. I even have one other — a small wedding band.
But there’s something very intimidating about deciding to put any art in a very visible place on my body, especially something so big. It was important to me that I be able to see it without a mirror because I want to be able to enjoy it. But how can I expect that art I like today will be the same art I’ll like in five or ten years? How can I trust my taste that much? And how can I decide on just one thing? What if the day after I get it permanently affixed to my skin, I think of something better??
Those questions kept me contemplating this move for a pretty long time after I’d finished the draft of my illustration. But I kept going back and looking at it, and every time I did, the more I liked it. When I finally decided to go through with it, I felt empowered. I do trust myself.
I expect that in ten years I won’t have the same taste as I do now, but I think that’s beautiful too. I hope that having this art go through life with me will be grounding, something that will remind me to practice gratitude for my community, including the other kinds of beings I’m surrounded with, and the people who helped me get my artistic vision onto my arm.
Do you have tattoos? Tell me about them in the comments!
Andrea holding up her right arm in front of her face. Only her forearm is in focus and it’s covered in a floral, black line tattoo.
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