Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Wrong Way

Once upon a time, less than a week ago, I had this line bunny on my wrist. You can see it below, peeking out at the bottom of the picture. Feel free to marvel over the sheer size of that apple while you're at it.


This bunny I used to love so much has now been covered up. Gone. Finished. I said my sorrowful goodbyes. You might be wondering, why I got it covered with the bigger more badass bunny and the answer is simple.

It was the wrong way.

Many, many moons ago, when I first got this tattoo, no one told me how sleeves were built. My artist didn't sit me down and explain what upside-down meant. Or would mean later on in life. Okay, I am not a complete idiot, I know what upside-down is, but I didn't understand how it could be applicable to a silly line drawing on my wrist. Then the Sidekick came along. It took all of two minutes for me to understand why my wrist tattoos were upside-down and needed to be covered. And I have spent nearly two years brooding over this. For my obsessive compulsive brain, these 180 degrees have been most annoying, not only because I now understand why it should be facing the other direction, but because no one ever told me! Not the first artist who did the bunny. Or the second one who did my cat.

Bullshit.

All it took from my Sidekick was one simple question, when are you going to stop? Let's say you went and paid for a tattoo artist to put the word 'love' on your wrist and you insist is has to be facing you. Maybe you even have a good reason, like it's 'just for you' and you 'don't care if other people won't be able to read it', or because you 'want to see/read it'. Well, are you going to stop with that one tattoo? What if you want a feather under the first one? Will that be upside-down too? And the next? Are you going to have a bunch of upside-down tattoos all the way up your arm? Won't that look ridiculous? Eventually you are going to want to turn it around, but when? Halfway up your forearm? At your elbow? The armpit? Sure, you might be sitting there thinking 'but I only want the one tattoo' and sleeves aren't for you.

Well, take it from me. Don't risk it. Because one day, you might want a super cool sleeve and have a stupid tree facing the wrong direction on your forearm. Save you tattoo artist the pain of trying to explain to you why it's wrong. Go ahead and sit there and tell me it isn't 'wrong', that this is all just a matter of preference, but before you do, answer me this one simple question. When you look at someone who has a sleeve, what way are their tattoos facing? The right way. So, that makes any other way, the WRONG way.

With my Sidekick's simple knowledge, I saw the light. Unfortunately, it was way too late. So, I needed a cover-up. Let's just hope you won't need one too. Maybe I can save you the annoyance of having to look at an upside-down tattoo and kicking yourself because you're kind of a dummy. Trust me, you'll still be able to see/read it, even if it is pointing away from you. Besides, you already know what it says and looks like, right?

I mean, if you got it on your back you'd never see it anyhow.

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