I went through my old calendar and new calendar as well as my blog posts to figure out all the dates of body artwork/ink. The main purpose of this was to be able to celebrate anniversaries of the ideas and general reasons I got the tattoo in the first place. Obviously this will change each year, but I was inspired by my experience around Christmas and my general idea I reviewed last night about a virtual wedding for Ckwal towards the end of the year in 2018. I think it didn’t really happen because some workers at the shelter got married and I was respecting the cultural rule of waiting until most of your body is covered before you get any hand tattoo. Not everyone follows this rule. You can see the post I talked about some of this on May 30th, 2018. Below I have recalled most of the dates. I am throwing the idea out there for anyone getting stuff done to keep a journal online through social networks or a personal one at home to remember at least the dates. Then you can grow with your artwork and evolve into new ideas to celebrate every now and then. After awhile the days mix into each other and you forget the meaning. No matter how cheap or expensive, how simple of complex, how deeply meaningful or surface you may never know when a certain piece will move into place in your existence that makes a big difference.
Adding anniversary post links after artist with number of years. Ex: 1 year = 1 (update 12.15.19)
#1 December 15th, 2017 – Undisclosed by Church Hill 2 2b
#2 March 14th, 2018 – 绝 对素食着 (Vegan in Chinese*) by Church Hill
#3 Sometime shortly after April 26th, 2018 – Red Cross logo from the Red Cross app by Church Hill
#4 July 1st, 2018 – Sasuke from Naruto Shippuden by Joshua Rivas 1
#5 September 26th, 2018 – Bird by Brandon Madrid 1
#6 November 4th, 2018 – Diamond by Michael Hoffman 1
#7 Just before November 11th, 2018 – Oasis logo in Korean 오아시스 by Bear 1. September 15th, 2022 – Used the red pill machine and Dynamic’s Turquoise both of which I bought on and before the trip to Jacksonville when the working in China mission failed due to Coronavirus delays to highlight the text. I also filled in the rectangle around the text with Mom’s Blue Smoke (Blacklight sensitive ink from the Nuclear Colors line).
#8 December 26th, 2018 – “Pinky” by Antone Pham
#9 January 13th, 2019 – Undisclosed by Alan Benavides
#10 February 9th, 2019 – Orchid and three bees by Alan Benavides
#11 March 7th, 2019 – Two more Pac-man ghosts by “Enthy”
#12 May 11th, 2019 – Black leaves adapted from Viveros’ paintings and yellow diamond from Kill the Noise’s Black Magic Remixes album cover by Justin Redsky 3
#13 June 9th, 2019 – Original Bandana by Marlo Marquise at Houston’s Villain Arts Convention. September 15th, 2022 – Filled in 29 droplets with Dynamic’s Hot Pink to represent blood donation units to this date. I did not include the convalescent plasma donation as I was thinking to use an orange juice looking color.
#14 June 30th, 2019 – Dragon fireball sun by Jacob Young
#15 July 28th, 2019 – Che (started outline and some shading) Post Mention. August 1st, 2019 – Che (finished) by Miguel Gamez (Rockstar Tattoo in Houston, Texas)
#16 September 7th, 2019 – ‘Los Celos’ by Miguel (Rockstar Tattoo)
#17 October 4th, 2019 – フィオナ (Fiona in Japanese) by Miguel Gamez (Rockstar Tattoo in Houston, Texas). Inspired by Fiona Glenanne in Burn Notice.
#18 June 5th, 2020 – Exquisite Dragon Tribal by Miguel Gamez Banda (Rockstar Tattoo in Houston, Texas). Artwork by Pomidor4eg.
#19 November 16th, 2020 – ‘Mandy’ by Self. Saint Augustine, Florida.
#20 January 20th, 2021 – Mad Hatter Foods logo by Self. Saint Augustine, Florida.
#21 February 13th, 2021 – ‘Alien’ by Self. Saint Augustine, Florida.
#22 February 15th, 2021 mini c2 by Self. Saint Augustine, Florida.
#23 & #24 & touch-up of #22 March 2nd, 2021 – mini c’s star and text ‘mini c2’. March 9th, 2021 – Touch-up and added stripes to the ‘2’. March 27th, 2021 – More fill on and around mini c2. Saint Augustine, Florida.
#25 March 31st, 2021 – Vampire fangs on spade by Mike Franco. Flash design from a table book at shop (Copper Coil in Saint Augustine, Florida).
#26 April 11th, 2021 – Five hearts by Self. Saint Augustine, Florida.
#27 February 6th, 2022. Tlaloc in Goddess form by Jr. Drawing from back wall in shop (Rockstar Tattoo in Houston, Texas).
#28 February 7th, 2022 – जैतून (A kind of olive in Hindi) by bb (Prosper Tattoo, Houston, Texas). Inspired by Olivia Dunham in Fringe.
#29 April 7th, 2023 – Fish by Vincent from Puerto Rico (Shaw’s Tattoo Studio in Houston, Texas). Design is a Gilt-head Bream (Dorada) from this post in memory of my Uncle Tim; text I may try to get added later. Ukrainian artist of artwork used, screen-named “Alexander_P”, found and licensed through Shutterstock. Linked here.
#30 April 8th, 2023 – “The LORD is my strength and my shield.” Bible quote using Middle Ages font by Måns Grebäck. Tattoo done by Darian at Rockstar Tattoo, Houston.
#31 May 10th, 2023 – Original drawing by Kad (Victory Tattoo Studio on Tanao Road near Khaosan Rd. in Bangkok, Thailand).
*During three year vegan anniversary activities (9/2019), findings concluded that 绝对素食者 is a more acceptable translation using these characters. Source: James J. Wang (Author of several ‘Chinese Slang’ books).