Lotana's My Tattoo

So I have a tattoo. It's something that surprises a lot of people about me because apparently I 'don't seem the type' but I'm not really sure what type of person is supposed to have a tattoo compared the type of person who isn't. That just makes no sense to me. I had wanted a tattoo for about four years before being brave enough to go through with it, and yes it hurt A LOT but that's probably because I had something quite big for my first ever tattoo, and I had it in some of the most painful places.

The picture uploaded with this is my tattoo, if that wasn't obvious, and it was taken about ten minutes after it was completed, maybe a little bit less time than that. It took three sessions in total the first of which was 8 hours long and eventually I was in the chair being tattooed for 16 hours. When people see my tattoo the first thing they ask about is cost, and yes it was expensive. I think overall I spent about £600 on this piece of art but I'm not at all sorry that I spent that money. To me this tattoo IS a piece of art that I will be carrying with me forever. I don't regret it like a lot of people do their first tattoos and I think I waited long enough before having it done. So now you know all that I guess it's time to explain my tattoo.

The first part of it is the flowers. They are a very particular type of rainforest orchid that are rare in the wild. They only grow in very particular soil but they're amazingly strong as flowers go. Once an orchid of this breed has its roots down it could survive and stay growing there indefinitely which I think is pretty amazing. The flowers themselves really are that vibrant pink and for good reason, they're mostly poisonous to most animals. They might not kill you but you won't be happy after eating one and if you certainly wouldn't want to try it out again. This little flower that is so beautiful is one of the strongest and sturdiest on the planet and that's saying something when you think about how many flowers are out there. Not only are they beautiful and strong but they smell really good, this flower really can't get any better and I had them tattooed on me because I aspire very much to being like an orchid.

The writing is hard to read in the picture but it says 'how dreary to be somebody, how public like a frog' which is a passage from an Emily Dickinson poem called 'I'm Nobody. For years it's been my favourite poem so I thought I would have it put with my orchids because I wanted to remind myself that I need to not be somebody because that would make me worse than I am. I am unique, we all are, and being someone is not a thing to aspire to if it means you want to be like everyone else. The last part of my tattoo, the butterflies, are really very simple. I have four, one for each of my sisters and they are each in that sister's favourite colour. I wanted to have something about my family put on me because I don't live all that near to them anymore and it felt like the design needed something else so it got butterflies.

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