Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Steve Jobs – he resigned as CEO of Apple last week because of health reasons. He is such a visionary from concept to execution the ultimate role model in getting things done.
Fat Joe, rapper from the Bronx lost over 100 pounds recently. He says the turning point for him was going to his friends funeral who died from complications from being overweight. He wanted to see his little girls grow up.
Brother’s in the hood are now running and they are not being chased by the police. Haha!! One dude explained, “I am on the Fat Joe Wave”.
Inspiration in unlikely places, get it where you can. Next week, I am on the “Fat Joe Wave”.
Well, I did it. On August 23, 2011 at 4:00 pm, I got another tattoo. I like it but I don’t love it. Let me explain:
I went to the shop on August 22, 2011, fully intending to make an appointment with Gabe for sometime in the future. Then, Natasha, the shop girl, suggested someone else. I meet and talked to Vince Yue about the tattoo. He seemed to know what he was talking about. I looked at his book and it was solid work. But, something just didn’t feel right, but I ignored it and made an appointment for the next day.
Same night, I am looking through some random magazine and there was this story about the image I wanted for my tattoo.
“Since the unification of China by the first Emperor Qinshihuang in 221 BC, chinese coins have used the square-in-the-circle design. The circle represents heaven and the square represents earth. When these coins are used by man, the three represent the perfect cosmic trinity of “Heavan-Earth-Man”.
Good sign that I was getting the right tattoo. With my addition of the chinese characters for Faith-Happiness-Passion-Love. It is a brilliant and inspirational tattoo. Right? Right! Great concept.
But, still a little hesitation. So, I turned to expert advice. I sent out a little question to the two people I thought would answer my tattoo questions and Luke Wessman answered on Twitter. Very cool.
Tweet Convo:
Michelle – How do I know if a tattoo artist is good? Is it enough that he is part of shop that is owned by a great artist?
Luke – research to a point of recognizing quality and skill. No it doesn’t matter how good the owner is each artist has own talent level
Luke – generally a good owner/tattooer will only hire other good tattooers or tattoers better then themselves.
Michelle – that’s what I am counting on. His book was solid. But how much can you trust that. He screws up, will you fix it? Smile!
Luke – trust you intuition. Or You can send me a link of his work somewhere and I can give u my opinion.
**So cool of him to answer my questions. I should have listened to his advice.
I got my tattoo and through out the whole thing, I just didn’t love it. I like it now, after three days, but I don’t love it and I wanted to love it. It’s not like CJ. It isn’t perfect. CJ is perfect.
I saw Gabe before I was getting started with Vince and he seemed a little disappointed that I wasn’t getting tattooed by him. I am disappointed that I didn’t wait for him either. But, I did think that if he hired someone to work in his shop, that they would be quality.
Lesson learned. What I like about:
The concept, the small spot of shading underneath (just love that), the location, the shape, the size. All great.
What I don’t like:
I hate the characters. He didn’t do what I said regarding the characters and that is what I am pissed about. And, I didn’t stop him even though I knew it wasn’t going to look correct. He messed up on the love character then tried to cover it up with shading and tell me it made it look better.
So, we are going to let it heal and then go back and see if Gabe will fix it. If he won’t, then maybe I will have to track down my new tattoo guru, Luke Wessman to fix it when I leave this God forsaken region of the world.
Bottom line is that I was looking for something to distract me and allow me to be into my self for a bit. It accomplished that. I don’t regret getting it and I do think it can be fixed. I will show before and after photos as soon as it heals. But, I need to be patient and listen to my intuition. It was screaming at me those two days and I didn’t listen.
Luke Wessman – ‘Self Made’ – He is another artist that I admire. More so because he is all about his friends and family and he seems to understand how blessed he is to be able to what he does so well.
Check ou his website. Lukewessman.com
I am sitting in my office. Probably playing Mahjong for the third or fourth time and DOI comes in and says, you are not going to believe what just happen. He is on the phone trying to arrange for the outside staff to come pick the kids up from the pool. While on the phone, the outside operations guys come down to the pool. DOI told outside operations guy that the juniors will be ready in ten minutes. What does the outside operations guy do? Sits and waits, no! Goes to grab a bit to eat in the canteen, no! He proceeds to take off his clothes, right there next to the pool and then dives in. He actually dives into the pool! In his boxer shorts! Just thinks to himself, I have a couple of minutes, why don’t I go for a dip. In the hotel pool. Now, this may seem elitist, but her in China, outside operations workers who make 2,000 RMB per month, just don’t go swimming in the pool of the 5 star hotel that they work at. They just don’t. In what universe did he think that is was ok for him to do that? What the hell was he thinking? Literally thinking, he was off duty and wanted to take a dip. Amazing! DOI said he didn’t do anything because he thought it was a culture thing. WTF!!!!
Chinese people never cease to amaze me. It was damn bold if you ask me. At first when DOI told me about it, I just sat there with my mouth open. An hour later, I start laughing so hard, that I started to cry. Now, I am just crying. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SMH and HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sydney Aaliyah Michelle 