isobelll - with 3 l

This is one of the best decisions I've ever made I think, I'm madly in love with it! I've been thinking about getting a tree for quite a while now, letting the idea so to say "grow on me". And I finally decided when my old friend and tattooist came back to Stockholm. I'm gonna do it! First he filled in my old ones. I've got one of my first pet rat (which also is a symbol of Ying and Yang + its got a water sign at the very bottom) on my lower back and a stamp on my ass saying "Made in germany" (Yes, I'm not kidding and I love it!)

Then I hit the drawing board thinking it should be rather easy to get it out of my head and on to paper but oh no, I was proven wrong. I'd taken about a 150 photographs from all over the world of trees that I liked and downloaded about 50 or so more. Researching all the different types and discarding sketch after sketch. I had a photograph of my back which I was able to pin my ideas on in Adobe Illustrator (man am I glad I actually learnt that program even though I hated the teacher). And with the help of my sweet computer I had a design after about one week of solid work and virtually no sleep. But as I got the print in my hands I just wanted to make some quick changes... Which turned into 22 sketches (might have been more) and another week of hard work.

I saw trees everywhere, they were nailed to my eye lids and as I closed them at yoga class, meditating or dance class I really couldn't focus on anything else but getting that last branch just a tad more to the left. I ended up with a tree that was completely different from what I originally thought I would and got quite nervous. But as I sat, once again, up until 4 AM in the morning the day before my opointment (falling asleep with the pencil in my hand - again!) I finally fell in love with it. Could feel it literary growing on me. And of course it hurt getting it inked but it healed quickly and now a week later its only a bit itchy still. Going back for a fill and more work though. And I'm looking forward to using a bra this weekend, which of obvious reasons hasn't been an option lately.

So what does it mean? Why a tree? Well, I've always been, as Spikey in Nelson so nicely put it, a "nature girl". I'm a environmentalist, a vegan, a veggie, an animal lover and so on. I've not taken any existing tree but worked with my own. Its tilted to the left cause the Swedish socialist anarchist communist political parties are all to the left and as you might know I'm all the way out on the left side. Of course there are lots of private and hidden meanings within. In fact, I ended up writing a whole list of stuff on my wall. I can just say, I'm falling in love with it just a wee bit more for each day. =)

Soundtrack: Yann Tiersen - La Corde
The complete album I've had on repeat is here if you've got spotify.