Jounetsu/Passion

So, I made an appointment for my tattoo–it’s going to be on Wednesday, April 28th (yes, the same day I start my photography course). I’m really excited, but nervous, about it. For one, I’m excited because getting a tattoo is something I’ve wanted to do since I was sixteen–and after having had six years to sit and wait and ponder the decision, I still want one–so clearly I do actually want one and it’s not just some teenage rebellion thing.

I’m extremely nervous, however, because someone’s going to be stabbing ink into my skin over and over and over again. That’s terrifying. Not necessarily because of the pain but because I’m a really big baby and build things up in my head. The day before I get this done, I’m going to be telling myself that everything that could possibly go wrong will and that I’ll have a terrible experience. I’ve done the same thing with the multiple piercings I’ve had–even though every single one of them has been fine. I’m ridiculous, but I’m still nervous.

But there’s not much I can do about the nerves, I suppose.

In any case, here’s what I’m getting tattooed onto myself (on my right shoulder):

Exciting, isn’t it? That, my dear friends, is a camera aperture. I thought it apropos since the chances are I’m going to be deeply in love with photography for the rest of my natural life. Not to mention, I actually find the symbol for a camera aperture generally quite beautiful–especially in black and white (at the moment, I have a black tattoos-only rule for myself). Gorgeous, no? I’m excited about it.

Reed sitting by Neal’s wood stove.

Reed and I have spent the past two days sanding, priming, and painting the walls of his older brother Neal’s residence, because Neal finally decided that instead of living on a mattress on the floor and watching movies on a laptop (as he’s been doing for two months now), he’d like to renovate it and finally move in fully.

Reed and I are thrilled to help him since we spend a fair amount of our time in Hanmer out at Neal’s place, but the work sure does get long sometimes.

Personally though, I’m really excited to see what he’ll do with the space. He picked out an absolutely gorgeous colour for the walls (called Rapture), which should look rather good with the black and red theme he wants. The only thing he’ll really have to watch out for would be putting too many other colours (in terms of couches and such) around the room and distracting people from the red and black. But that’s just me, I guess.