I have always loved tattoos.  I love the way a good tattoo fits a person’s body; sometimes so well that it’s hard to believe the tattoo was not present at birth.  I love the options tattoos give us for expressing ourselves, and I love that people are willing to commit to wearing a piece of art for life.  But, mostly, I just love the idea of the body as an outward display of what is going on in our hearts and minds…an ever evolving work of art.

Last week my husband and I made a trip up to Maine so that I could get a new tattoo from Cyndi Lou at Squid & Whale Tattoo in Portland.  I met Cyndi Lou a few months ago while we were in Maine for a few days.  Scott and I wandered into the new tattoo shop Cyndi Lou, Kapten Hanna, and Nikki recently opened on Congress St.  I spoke with Cyndi Lou for a few minutes, looked at some images of her work, and immediately felt a connection. I have wanted a tattoo of the Hindu God Ganesh for a long time, and after emailing back and forth, we set up an appointment, and I felt confident enough in her skills to allow Cyndi Lou to come up with a design and surprise me with the drawing on the day of my appointment.

This is the stencil Cyndi Lou had made for my Ganesh Tattoo.  I could not have been happier with it; it was as if she knew exactly what I had envisioned! 

In this photo Cyndi Lou is applying her stencil to my arm.  This is a really important step, as the stencil will serve as a guide for the outline of the finished tattoo.

Here, Cyndi Lou is preparing her needle.

The ink is actually being applied in this picture.  The tattoo is quite large and intricate, so it took Cyndi Lou a little over 5 hours to complete the outline of the piece.

This is the finished outline for my new Ganesh Tattoo.  Since it is such a complicated design, it will take more than one session to complete, and Cyndi Lou will be adding color in a few weeks…I can’t wait!