Tat-Two.

This weekend was stellar.  I felt so different this Sunday night vs. how I usually feel.  I, like most people, feel some sort of sadness/depression/anxiety that a new work week is about to start and that the next weekend is as far away as it can possibly be, yet this particular Sunday, I was so fulfilled by the weekend, that I was welcoming the upcoming week with open arms.  Excited for another day to come.

Friday night, Dan and I stayed in and relaxed.  Dan switched schedules with someone for the weekend, so he had to work a 24 hour shift Saturday (which frees him up for a wedding we're attending in Oct!).  When I found this out, I decided to contact my tattoo shop and see if they had any openings.  Both artists happened to have time for me, so I spent most of last week giddy like a child during the week prior to Christmas.

Me on the left, Chelsea on the right displaying her PERFECT TEETH.

Jenny and her green ribbon.

Saturday, I got up early and headed down to Seppuku Tattoo in Bloomingdale, NJ.  It's only around 2 hours away from me.  It's completely worth the drive to have these brilliant artists work on me AND to get to hang out with my wonderful gal, Chelsea.  God, had I missed her and her perfect smile.  Johnny Thief did a piece of Jenny from "The Green Ribbon" - a short story in the children's book In a Dark, Dark Room.  Long story short, Jenny grows up always wearing a green ribbon around her neck.  She'll never answer why.  Grows up, gets married, still keeps it a secret.  When she's on her deathbed, she finally asks her husband to remove the green ribbon and her head falls off.  WELL, my mom loves telling the story about how one day, when I was little, she came into the bathroom where my sister and I were happily playing in the tub with a green ribbon tied around her neck.  She says my eyes got as big as saucers.  She then kneeled down by the tub and removed the ribbon and flopped over behind the tub, so it looked, to me, that her head had fallen off.  I cried for quiet a while.  Since my mom finds this so funny (I do, too, truth be told), this was her payback.  :)  Johnny had no problem helping me get my mom back from the trauma that must've caused.

Miss Kitty.  RIP.

Once Jenny was all finished up, I headed over to Matt Lukesh's side of the studio and we geared up for my first portrait tattoo.  It's of my beautiful cat, Miss Kitty.  Matt is insanely amazing at portraits.  I had really only seen his portraits of people (which are incredible), but trusted that he would do a beautiful job capturing MK.  We bonded over a mutual love for Silence of the Lambs, and then after almost falling asleep during the outline, I kept trying to peek at the tattoo.  He mentioned a lot of people who get memorial tattoos wait until the very end so that it's a big reveal.  I decided to go with that idea, and boy...  I was blown away.  I cried looking in the mirror seeing the face of my baby, who seriously saved my life on more than one occasion, staring back at me.  I've missed her terribly, and it's so comforting to get to see her every day, now and to know that she's right there with me.  I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.  I also couldn't be more impressed with Matt as a person.  Sweet, kind, smart, funny and insanely talented.  I highly recommend the shop.  It's totally worth the drive if you're on the East Coast.

These tattoos were both family monuments.  My entire family loved each of them and got a real kick out of Jenny.  Miss Kitty was like a family member to all of us, so we all enjoyed reminiscing after the portrait was done.  It was a warm fuzzy night for all of us filled with great memories.

I heard from a good friend over the weekend, also.  Just got a nice reminder that there's still people out there who "get it".  Who understand what supporting a friend is and how to do it without even being prompted!  There are some (few) people who are just going to be there for you your whole life and you never have to second guess it.  Even if you go months without speaking, you know, that if you need anything-- they are there.  I'm so much more appreciative of this quality than ever before.  I don't think I've ever taken that attribute in my friends for granted, but now it is, above all else, more important of a quality in a true friendship, I think.  With the distance geographically between me and my friends back home, it's important to know you still have a shoulder to lean on, even if they are 6 hours away.  So that definitely sprinkled even more happy onto my weekend.

Finally, Sunday came and I woke up to a very tired Dan getting home from work and a very sore me inching my way out of bed.  I took a shower, cleaned up the tattoos, cleaned the house and started cookin'.  We had Jordan, Johnny and little baby Eleanore over for steaks.  Jordan made the most delicious peach pie w/ pecan crumble on top (holy hell).  I informed her that I wanted to marry the pie, as if I needed her permission to have it's hand in marriage.  We were married in a quiet ceremony late last night...  Nothing has ever been sweeter than the perfect marriage between woman and pie (and vanilla frozen yogurt on top).  Mmmmmm...

Aside from the lingering headache I have from the whole 3 beers I consumed yesterday, I'm a happy gal.  I always feel like a reinvented person (always for the better) after a new tattoo.  The high of two new ones has me on cloud nine...  I think I'll stay a while.

xo,
Rachael