{"id":243,"date":"2009-07-30T15:57:08","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T20:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/sketchbook\/?p=243"},"modified":"2010-08-19T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2010-08-19T21:08:05","slug":"to-tattoo-or-not-to-tattoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My new neighbor across the street is a very talented and accomplihed tattoo artist, and my wife&#8211;who&#8217;s been considering getting a tattoo for quite some time now&#8211;is suggesting that she and I both get one from our new neighbor.<\/p>\n<p>First, I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;m a &#8220;tattoo guy&#8221;.\u00a0 Second, I have no idea what I would get.<\/p>\n<p>Though&#8230;\u00a0 As a big fan of Stephen King&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephenking.com\/DarkTower\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dark Tower<\/em> books<\/a>, these designs may be a possibility:<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-243 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/keyrose.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"126\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/keyrose-126x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/crimson-eye.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/crimson-eye-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/ka.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/ka-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>The first image incorporates key symbols from the books: a key, a rose, and Roland the Gunslinger&#8217;s revolver.\u00a0 I think it would make a nice tattoo because it&#8217;s colorful.<\/p>\n<p>The second image is the <em>sigul<\/em> of the Crimson King, the force of evil and chaos in the books.\u00a0 This would make a cool-looking tattoo just because.\u00a0 I think it looks ominous&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The last image&#8211;and probably the most likely choice for a tattoo for me&#8211;is the symbol for <em>ka<\/em>, which, in its simplest definition, means destiny.\u00a0 In the books, <em>ka<\/em> is likened to a wheel (as in, &#8220;what goes around, comes around&#8221;) and also used in reference to the souls to whom we are bound in our journey (a <em>ka-tet<\/em>).\u00a0 I like its simplicity and what it represents.<\/p>\n<p>I read the first <em>Dark Tower<\/em> book, <em>The Gunslinger<\/em>, when I was eighteen; and I read the last book right when it came out: sixteen years later in the fall of 2004.\u00a0 In the span of the seven books, I went from being a relatively carefree freshman in college to a married man of nine years and a father of three&#8211;and my appreciation for the books grows the more I read them.\u00a0 It wouldn&#8217;t be an exaggeration to say they&#8217;ve had a profound influence in my life.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, I would be remiss if I were to ignore another profound influence in my life&#8211;in the form of a movie seen on a rainy Saturday afternoon back in 1977 when I was a wide-eyed seven-year old.\u00a0 So to commemorate my thirty-two-year-long fascination with <em>Star Wars<\/em>, something like this might be cool:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/sketchbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/jedi.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-252\" title=\"jedi\" src=\"http:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/sketchbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/jedi.png\" alt=\"jedi\" width=\"250\" height=\"254\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Jedi symbol&#8211;simple and straightforward.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the first and most pivotal decision is whether or not to get the tattoo at all&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My new neighbor across the street is a very talented and accomplihed tattoo artist, and my wife&#8211;who&#8217;s been considering getting a tattoo for quite some time now&#8211;is suggesting that she and I both get one from our new neighbor. First, I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;m a &#8220;tattoo guy&#8221;.\u00a0 Second, I have no idea what I would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589,"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimarusti.com\/scott\/artisticcustom\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}