Thanks to you, I have my Sea Lion & Shark tattoos! <3
Remember last year when I made a blog post asking for your help to make a dream come true? No? Are you new to my blog? Please read that post before continuing this one so it can make more sense. ^_^
Or, if you prefer, I’ll do a TL;DR recap:
Young adult gets diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, has whole life upside down since then. Spends her get-back-to-Uni fund in meds, trips to Hospital and whatnot, begs the internet for help for a tattoo she wanted to make since she was 15 years old. Does this in the brink of her 31st B-day with tears in her eyes, filled with despair, shame and... well, you name it. Just doing this recap is starting to make my eyes shed a tear.
Back to now: tomorrow I’m going to be 32 years old and am here to show you what my dream came true looks like! :,)
The Sea Lion & the Shark Tattoo
Sea-lions swim away from danger very fast as soon as they spot it. Sharks are their main predator, so they zig-zag away from them unless they sense running away is of no use because the shark is too close. When that happens they just play dead in front of its mouth.
I wanted a sea-lion in one leg, and the shark in another, so they’ll always be swimming for it unless I’m stopped in my tracks. It’s a way to represent my struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, but also of how I face life.
And so I’m now swirling away like a sea-lion, with hope. Or else I’d be in play dead mode already. Something I don’t plan to do...
A note about pricing & my luck
Ah! This was done at a really neat price because I was lucky enough to find an excellent tattoo artist who read my story (that link I gave you in the top of this post) and was kind enough to tell me she’d tattoo me for the money I ended up raising.
I raised almost half of my goal (as you can see by my ko-fi page), which was based on the standard pricing for this kind of tattoos in my country with a decent (and not rookie) professional tattoo artist.
I also had a bonus tattoo with her, which wasn’t planned beforehand. At least not in the sense of planning that I had for the Sea Lion & the Shark tattoo.
It doesn’t hurt too much. But then again, due to my chronic pain my pain tolerance threshold is constantly being “upgraded”, so take that with a grain of salt.
Also, I had the chance to notice the difference between one leg and another. In my tight leg, where I have chronic paresthesia, I didn’t feel as much pain as I did in my left one, where I feel everything normal. It wasn’t until I started being tattooed in my left side that I felt the need to bite something in order not to say a swear word. Even then, I think I said it. xD
Anyway, guess it really depends on the person, tattoo artist and also on the placement of the tattoo itself.
To me, it was a piece of cake. To you it can be different. Nothing like trying it out to see, right? I mean, if you WANT a tattoo!
I’m not trying to sell the idea of having a tattoo to people who never thought about it and/or don’t like them. I’m talking to those who want/like them. :)
I always wanted to have stars in my body, nay, the whole cosmos. I also wanted to have a semicolon inked, representative of my struggle with depression and other mental health issues. So, we combined the two elements and thus my semicolon star filled with the universe came to life!
Because it’s not a dot, but a semicolon, “Your story is not over yet” is the motto of this tattoo, which is a tribute to Project Semicolon.
Thank you, everyone who donated and shared my post and RT’d, etc.
And thank you, Valentina, for the most awesome ink work I have in my skin, and for being your kind, generous and good-vibes self! I’ll always recommend your work to people!
Hey, you! Wanna get a tattoo?
Consider Valentina Gazalez Vargas, she picks up on your idea and researches everything about it so you can have something representative of your idea.
I’m talking anatomy, color symbolism, etc. She’s great with that. Also, if there are enough requests she can even travel to your country, if the expenses are met with comparable work.
If you can’t gather around many people, she’s a traveler anyway, so keep your eyes peeled on her social media feeds, like Facebook and Instagram and check if she’s going to be in your are soon and be quick in asking for an appointment. You won’t regret it!
Credits: Photos by Stran Ger, for whose work and company during those hours I also have thanks to give. A tattoo is always easier to get when you have someone to talk to. Time flew by.
Thank you for your attention if you’ve reached this far,
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P.S.: Right now I need money to be able to pay for physiotherapy, so I’ll keep my ko-fi page up.
That's how the money I get from you from now on will be spent, in my health and mobility.
