First, getting a tattoo is a serious proposition. Once you've got ink under the skin, there's no going back. Once you have a kid, there's no going back either. Either way, you have something that, like it or not, you're stuck with for life. Obviously a lifetime decision is not one to be entered into lightly. However, getting a tattoo, just like knocking a girl up, happens a lot when people have been drinking.
Anyway, I've been planning out my next tattoo for some time now. It's a lengthy process that takes time, and I've struggled with different concepts. I've thought about using my totem animal (the coyote) or sticking with the bones theme I've got going. I haven't tried to force it, because tattooing is an art, and I feel that, as with most art forms, when you come across the right thing it may just suddenly click. That's what happened here. I was listening to Social Distortion's "Winner's and Losers" and heard the following line: "There's lovers and haters/The strong, the week will all have their day/we're devils and angels/Which one will I be today?"
That like stuck in my head like Velcro. It ruminated for a while in the back of my mind, then popped up like toast with an image attached. We always have the angel and devil on our shoulders, whispering their messages in our ears. Freud called it the Superego and the Id. The question is, which one wins out? That second piece of cake may be angel's food, but it's probably not the angel telling you to go ahead and eat it. I can definitely tell you the devil has a lot of sway when I drive. So I wanted to go with the angel and devil theme. I searched and searched for just the right image for my style. I found a lot of them, mostly really realistic looking artwork like this, or super sexy vintage-pinups like this, pleasantly skanky like this, or really skanky like this or this.
In the end I really liked this one. This one ties my angel/devil, good/evil idea together with my cartoon/comic book theme. It's just more in keeping with my style.
This will go on my left, or sinister, shoulder. I could not find the equivalent artwork for the angel, so I'll have to have the tattoo artist draw it up, reverse it and put it on my right shoulder.
Alternately, the same site has this one of the devil gal driving a car, which, as I mentioned, is when the devil wins me over the most.
I'll probably get this done later this year - Maybe around Thanksgiving. So, there's the first half of my new tattoo journey with more to come later after the I get the artwork finished and decide on an artist.
If you get a chance, check out Social D's "Sex, Love and Rock & Roll." It's a good album! I like "Winners and Losers," "Live Before You Die," and "Nickels and Dimes" the most, but the whole album rocks. And you never know what it might inspire you to do!
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