My First Tattoo

Hello everyone. I'm not sure how much anyone will be able to help, but I figured I'd try. Anyway . . . I'm hoping to be able to get my first tattoo done soon. I have a lot of ideas, but there are 2 that I definitely want done. The first one is an issue of where to have it done. What I want is the Elvish script from The One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. I originally wanted to put it around either one or both of my wrist(s), but I'm hesitant to do that just in case I need to cover it in the future. My question now becomes, does anyone have any ideas of where I could have this type of tattoo done that would still look good? I don't want anything too big, but I do want the letters to be legible. The other idea I had is a bit more tricky. I'd like to have something done that melds together my beliefs in Catholicism and (for lack of a better word) Wicca. I was thinking something that included a triquatra and cross, but I'm not really sure how to design it. Once again, I don't want anything too big, and I'm not really sure where this one would go, either. I realize that this isn't much to go on, but I would really appreciate any help that anyone can give. Thanks a lot. :-)

Well, we can help a bit, but the artist who you choose to do the tattoos will be a better person to brainstorm and get ideas from. Where abouts do you live?

WOW! Now wait a minute... we've got a potentially good one here... this could really be worth discussing... I'd love to hear more about how on god's blue planet you plan on reconciling beliefs in Catholicism and Wicca? That's like combining peanut butter and black licorice! You sound like an interesting person. I wanna hear more about this. And forget about the elvish crap. Trendy. This is way, way better... this could potentially be really, really cool.....

Al, ......................not entirely true, I don't know any practitioners of Wicca who F&%# their altar boys..................so the gap really isn't as big as it might seem. Huh huh..............he said GAP. TCE

HA! (lol) Good TCE... true...

First of all, I appreciate the relies. Gabe, I live in Rhode Island, and I'm not very familiar with which studios are good and which aren't around here. And I didn't realize that my beliefs would be so intriguing, Al. lol. The Elvish script idea isn't just because i've jumped on the bandwagon of a huge trend. I've always loved Tolkien and his works, even before the movies were released. I've studied him and really like his ideas. That also ties into the Catholicism/Wicca thing, too. There's a ton of reigious symbolism in Tolkien's novels, but there's also a huge understanding of and respect for nature. That actually just gives me an idea to possibly somehow include the writing from the Ring in with the Catholic/Wicca tattoo. Let me know what you guys think. I'm also going to do some research around here to try to find a good artist. Thanks again for your help. :-)

Wow. This is gonna be a good thread with some really good points. Thanks for a great discussion. My hesitation on the elvish thing comes from a couple of points... number one, no matter how much you like Tolkien, and a lot of people do, so you're not alone, but ultimately, you'll be putting somebody else's ideas on your bod. It's a tribute to a story... not to reality. Lord of the rings is just a story. Albeit, a good one, but a timely and contemporary story. Doesn't have the weight of a religeon, yet anyway, so ultimately, it's no different than putting a guns n' roses logo on your arm if you like guns n' roses. You may change your mind about it someday. Number 2, unless you are one of those crazy assed "Society for Creative Anachronisms" people, you don't want people thinking you are one of those crazy assed "Society for Creative Anachronisms" people. You know those dudes who prance around at all the rennaisance festivals saying stupid shit like "Whither for art thou milady?" and "Wouldst thou liketh to playeth my tootely flute good sir?" and "I would sooner plucketh mine own eyes out milady then allow them to fall upon the fair curve of thine bosom, for thy breath lifteth me to the heavens and stars!! Or the worst of all, "Prithee good sir" (followed by anything)... These are the same dudes that have email addresses like "Grimhelm [email removed]). These are the self-same dumbasses who use words like "Whimsical" and will ask you if they can get you a BEVERAGE, AND WHEN YOU SAY YES, THEY WILL OFFER YOU "A HEARTY MEAD" OR "SOME DIONYSIAN ELIXER" while they turn down the volume on American Idol.... Fuck! I'd like to club those fuckers in the side of the head with a leg of mutton and choke the Male minstrels with their own green and yellow diamond patterned panty hose. But I digress. Do you really want to be seen like that?? Anyway, your attempts to reconcile two diometrically opposed religeous interests are way more interesting, and ultimately say a lot more about you. I don't know how you plan on doing it... I wanna hear more about this... but no matter what, that will make for some great conversation... and ultimately some great artwork. My advice is go that way, and leave the elvish thing in the books. Or else, you're gonna be explaining what it means for the rest of your life and the feedback you get is going to sound like this: "ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL?? FUCK YEAH DUDE!!! ROCK ON!!!!! (LOL) And now, I have to run.... really, really freaking fast... because when Saiyge reads this, she is gonna gut me like a fish!!!!!!! Saiyge Baby! Don't hurt me! I still love you! (he says running and flailing his arms wildly in the air)...

ooch! ouch! ooch! ouch!!!.....

ooch! ouch! ooch! ouch!!!.....

I think that it's a great idea to create a tattoo to represent two different religious beliefs. In my mind this just shows that you're thinking outside of the box and are not limiting yourself to the confines of structured religion. Not that structured religion is a limiting to all people, but that's jut the way I view it. To Cactus Al: Personally I think that the people who do the renaissance renactments (sp?) are just re-visiting an era they find meaningful and interesting. Is that not what tattoos do...help us remember times or events that were meaningful and interesting to us? I think it's rather judgemental to put down people who are actively doing something to remember a period of time...would you put down people who renact the civil war? Yeah, it might not be your thing to speak or dress like they do, but it's not some people's thing to have tattoos. You shouldn't put down other people's way of life if you don't want people doing the same to you. Just my two cents. I do agree that you're gonna have some strange and stereotypical comments about the Lord of the Rings thing, but if that's ok with you then go for it! Dana

C'mon Dana. Have a sense of humor. Life's too short. You know what I mean. I play bagpipes in a ferociously competitive pipe band and dress out in a kilt for band competitions. If people want to make fun of me, that's fine. What's life if you can't laugh at each other and ourselves a little? Hey, know what they call a set of bagpipes that isn't working?? A blessing!!! HA! Get it??

Ha Ha? Ha?......ugh. forget it.

Personally I think the High elvish font is very classy and who gives a flyin fuck if others lump you in with the "RENNY" crowd...its YOUR bod.....Tolkien spent many years developing 8 complete langages for The trilogy and some of us ,while not fanatics, do appreciate the effort s he put into the thing...in my opinion I think Tolkien would roll over in his grave knowing how commercialized and cartoonized his epic works have become I don't know how anyone could possibly combine wicca and catholisism....thas a hard one...let me think about it!!!...TAz

It breaks my heart that our Beloved Taz disagrees with me on this point, but fuck... it had to happen sometime. It's no fun if we agree on everything. Besides! He's just a dumb ol' h8tr anyway. I revise my earlier comment though, I don't want to beat them to death with a mutton chop. I WOULDST SMITE THEM WITH A LEG OF FOWL INSTEAD AND HENCEFORTH!! I stand by what I said... But now, methinks I am feeling a bit peckish, theretofore and hitherto, I must away to acquire libations and sustinance! Clever, clever little imp!!! HA HA HA!(LOL)

Wow, I really know where you are coming from here. I come from a really multi-faithed family, my father's family are jewish, my mother's family are catholic and I delved into Wicca a few years ago because I really liked (and still do) its teachings and practices. I think the idea of merging different sets of beliefs is really profound, and you're going to need to spend a lot of time thinking about it. There are loads of things you could do here, from a pentacle lying around the base of a crucifix, to an angel cradling a triquetra. I quite like the idea of having a cross with a triple moon above it, in that way you have the christian symbol combined with the wiccan symbol for feminine energy. In answer to your first dilema, script can really be placed anywhere you want, if you don't like the idea of having it on your wrists, why not on your back, which you could easily hide. I've seen some nice script work done on the feet or you could even put a twist on your wrist idea and have it circling your ankles, which is a lot less visible than your wrists, thinking about the future. At any rate, good luck and I hope some of this helped, or at least gave you some ideas.

I wasn't trying to knock your joke, just making a point. Trust me, for someone who has two left feet like me and the memory of a sieve I definitely know how to laugh at myself. It's important to laugh, but not all people want to be laughed at....that's all I was trying to say.

Oh, fuck,allright, allright. Sorry. I'm outta line. The elvish is beautiful.

CAC AL, TOOFY FLUTE?!? Don't they sell those at the movies? J-werk, did I miss something? TCE

Not Toofy, Tootely, you know those little fucking tootely flootely flutes, what the fuck are they... recorders? Is that what they call em? Fuckin' TCE. Goofball. Love ya man.

Ahhhh, the recorder. I tried one of those back in 4th grade once, but I think mine was broke, it didn't record anything. TCE

Sure, while the whole "Only through Jesus shall you enter the gates of heaven" thing is unique to christianity, doesnt anyone remember that half the christian holidays are based on pagan rituals? I guess I opened my eyes to the brainwashing at catholic school. They actually told us that anyone not baptized would go to hell! I was like, fuck that, Im not going to hell cause Im not catholic and neither are all the chinese or native americans! Heres a link to a movie Id love to see, the God who wasnt there. I was at a cathloic funeral last month and I have never been so offended before in my life. The transparent brainwashing is one thing, but to do so when honoring the dead is practically inexcusable.

Right with ya gabe, 100%.

Oh, so I'm not alone.................. I was raised Catholic, until I was made to go to Sunday School, and was so disruptive to the class that I was not allowed to go any more. I mean, what a fucking joke! Mission accomplished!! TCE

My family was pretty much strict catholic till my cousins were molested by a priest and when absolutely nothing was done by the church heirarchy or the local authorities and this child molesting creep was STILL allowed to take kids on"camping trips" my family said..."NO MORE"

I'm really sorry to hear that Taz. It's just disgusting what people get away with in this world.

Hmmm . . . It appears I've started a theological discussion. lol. Oh well. Not to sound like a know it all, Gabe, but ALL of the Christian holidays are based on pagan rituals. They took pagan beliefs and put their own twist on them so that it would be easier to convert pagans to christians. That's why it wasn't so hard for me to meld my beliefs together. Anyway, I was playing around with designs last night, but I still haven't come across anything that I definitely like enough to have tattooed. I was thinking a Celtic cross with either a pentacle, triquatra, or triple moon in the center of the circle. I really like the design of the triquatra, but I'm hesitant to have it done because of the popularity of the show "Charmed." I really don't want to have to deal with crazed fans of the show asking me inane questions. But then again, I guess that could happen with any tattoo. Also, I was thinking last night . . . I'm overweight right now, but also working on losing it, and was wondering if I got the tattoo done while I was still heavy if it would change the way it looked once I got down to my goal weight. I would assume that it would look different, but I don't know how much. Are there any spots where it wouldn't change that much? I don't want to have this tattoo done now only to have it look like crap in a year. Well, I guess I'll go experiment with some more designs. Thanks again for the help, guys. And I'm glad I could offer such insight into the world of religion. lol.

Hey again, everyone. I don't mean to sound annoying, but I'm really having a lot of problems with this design. I tried some different ideas last night, but none of them look right. I would post them to get opinions, but I had no idea how to do that on this particular forum since there's no option to upload a file. Anyway, I just can't seem to come up with anything that's "just right." If anyone happens to be doodling or something and comes up with an idea, I would love to see it. I've even been looking around the Internet for other pics and still haven't gotten any good ideas. I don't want to keep pushing an old subject, but I think I've pretty much exhausted all of my ideas. Thanks again, guys. I really appreciate the comments. :-)

As I've told you before, the reason you are having difficulty is because you are trying to resolve two diometrically opposed religeons.... BWAAAHAAAAHAHAHHAAHHH. I hear your wicca side calling....

And as I have said before you should be consulting with a competent custom tattoo artist...its our job to create original designs for clients just like you...give it a try...if you were closer I would invite you to sit down with one of my artists and we could have ya fixed up in no time!...Good luck and keep us posted!..TAz, Painted Angel Studios

I've actually been looking around for a good artist here in Rhode Island, but I haven't actually contacted anyone yet. If anyone can refer me someplace it would be a great help. :-) And I'm not sure if anyone noticed my other post, but how much would losing weight affect a tattoo? I know gaining weight stretches it, but will losing weight shrink it? Any places where skin won't stretch/shrink that much? Like I said, I don't want to get this tattoo done now only to have it look like crap when I get down to my goal weight. And I'll be sure to keep you posted about the design I decide upon. Hopefully I can find someone close. :-)

You would have to lose a LOT of weight for it to affect your tattoo adversly