More Revelatory, Less Ranting

This is my tattoo. It is my only tattoo, and obviously it is somewhat large. Compared to comedian
Margaret Cho's tattoo, it is not at all large, but it's large compared to the tiny butterflies or mini hearts that demurely adorn so many women's ankles and pelvises.

It was done for me by a woman artist in Los Angeles; her name is April Love. For planning the piece, I brought her several stems of the orchids on our first meeting and we talked; next, she did a colored pencil drawing from there, on some kind of very thin, translucent paper, almost like vellum, but less crisp and more like fabric. That took a few weeks. I then visited the studio again, and that time she cut around the drawing and placed it on my body, moved it around, looked, moved it around some more, decided to take one leaf off the original drawing, and then finally on my third visit she did the tattoo. It's very uncommon to see a soft gray outline instead of black. We wanted the tattoo to be feminine and soft and to look like the original drawing, as if it were done with colored pencil, pastel, or watercolor rather than a more traditional type of tattoo with a distinct outline. She tells me it's one of her favorite pieces she's done. I love it and feel like it's really become a part of me over time.