what ho, my dears! in about fifty hours, the missus and i will wing our way from NYC to iceland; i've been devouring guidebooks, practicing my wintery rolled Rs, freshening up my loudest clothing, and working like mad to finish war and peace, for there's no way i'm bringing that mother across the atlantic. i've also finally gotten serious about tattoo-in-reykjavik planning; i made my appointment a month ago, but i'd stalled on paging through snow crystals and deciding which of w.a. bentley's little darlings is to be inked. i finally made the second round of cuts last night, and it was rough: choosing the loveliest snowflake of all sounds like the finest job ever, but there were two thousand of them. i'm now down to eight.
{background: wilson bentley was a farmer and self-taught photomicrography pioneer who figured out how to photograph single snowflakes by mashing up a microscope and a bellows camera; he took the first of these photographs in 1885. a bentley snowflake is just symmetrical enough, a fitting reminder of my eight years of wanting this trip, and most of all, a product of outsider enthusiasm. what up, my hobbyist.}
{more background: the snowflake tattoo will be about 3" in diameter, inked in black, and just above this 4" cross. know that if you follow that link you will see a back.}
so. which beautiful and unique snowflake should i, you know, reproduce?
31 comments:
the.......
last one.
2nd down on the left (the center is the coolest). [BTW I totally thought this would be a picture of your ass, given your tweet.] I like the bottom one on the left too, but all that shading might lose something in the translation.
the first few times i tried to take it it was a picture of my ass. (i don't know how to work the timer on my camera, and joe wasn't home.)
last down on the right is amazing.
4th row; 2nd column!
Bottom first column strikes me as very 'crusade-ish', and would look wonderful next to your cross. But the first one on the left reminds me of a William Morris design, and for that reason is my favorite.
Bottom right, I think. Although it is kinda hard to choose. I think the one directly above that one is a contender as well. I am more excited about your Iceland trip than a mere spectator has a right to be.
D is contemplating some serious inking. He has his design all drawn up and he's spent the last 6 months researching tattoo artists. He's convinced that he has to fly to Chicago. We live in LA. There must be a plethora of decent tattoists here, right? Although I'm impressed by his patience and diligence.
geez... i thought i was going to be all original with "bottom right". but seriously, it's the one.
oh, i love the william morris angle! there is something old-school floral about that one. this is tough. i change my mind every time i look at them. (i want to decide before we leave, so that i can give the artist a blow-up of whichever one i choose to sketch with when we meet him this thurs or fri.)
by the way, internet, note how mellow my excellent mum is about a third tattoo for the daughter who got her first tattoo on the sly (on the back of her neck, which sort of cancels out the sly) senior year of high school.
i would imagine there are good artists in LA, but i can totally understand D being particular. also getting to the tattoo is sometimes a big part of the process. i hope you tell us what he gets if he goes for it!
I like the first (top left) and the last (bottom right). I feel like they will translate the best.
top row, left.
as george notes, flipping the images to ink with black would make them look a bit more like this; i was originally thinking i would ask sindri to trace around the white areas, but having looked at that effect as well, i think simple repolarization looks a bit better. inclining now toward 6 and 7, but still all over the place. perhaps i should just get a spineful of them?
top left or bottom right. love the inverted images on flickr, btw. can't wait to see how it turns out.
we'll have to come up with a sneaky way for me to flash you at wabes's bridal shower.
i just couldn't get past the non-inverted color, and was compelled to fix it. this... should not surprise you. as noted in my email to you, 6 and 7 are my favorites.
now that you mention it, however, a spineful of them could be EXCELLENT.
poor, tattoo-disliking joe.
i vote 4 or 6.
0?: Some of the later flakes have such defined and geometrically appealing centers that they seem almost too awesome, if you know what I mean (unless that sounds ludicrous, in which case banish this comment from thought). I like the top right because it has a nice, broad, chaotic central area and exudes a nice, creditable snowflakeyness, all the more accommodating for its subtlety. But have you considered a “Snoopy”? 0?: I think we can all agree with one of Sir Mix-a-lot’s less sensational observations that baby got a back. (Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her back. It is so conspicuously tattooed. She looks like one of those tattoo enthusiasts…”)
I think the antepenultimate (i.e., sixth) is the one. But they are all Quite Fine.
(Adjusted for spelling.)
Bottom right. Fo' sho'. ;)
I cannot make these decisions without a schema. Too many variables shifting along too many axes. Therefore I would optimize for whatever would show up most clearly as the tattoo blurs, over the years. Which brings me to either 1L or 2L. Either way, isn't 3 inches rather, um, large? said the old lady. Don't worry. I know the answer.
wtf is Milkmaid's dumb friend babbling about?
you know, my back.
Um, guest is me, Lisa.
Ooh .. looking at them inverted kind of changes the game. I still love the last one, but I like the top two a lot as well. A spineful would be amazing, but not if they were all three inches (even though I'm pretty sure that as a fellow long torsoed person, you have a relatively long spine).
I'm sure you'll hear about it when it happens! It will be the (pretty large) start of a full sleeve and in full color. It is day of the dead themed and pretty awesome.
I, meanwhile, am contemplated an embarrassingly convention wrist tattoo, with our initials in calligraphy. I'm wondering if this is just a reaction to wanting to get married and if I should wait.
4 and 7. no doubt. 4 because of the uneven spikes coming off of each of the 6 arms, and 7 because of the middle. both are beautiful.
and hey, just think -- i won't have a chance to spoil this tattoo for you and tell mom since she already knows! sorry bout that.
I'm really hoping that you got them all, scattered across your back like a christmas card.
(i'm glad I read this after you went to Iceland (BEHIND) because I couldn't have picked one)
i want them all now, i think; will work on joe, who took some convincing for this one (but seems fond of it).
i feel strongly about impulsive tattoos keeping us honest as we age, so i'd say...wait just long enough to know it's not a momentary thing, but not so long that the thrill of the notion has worn away. calligraphy looks beautiful on skin.
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