Ursa Major and Polaris
For my twentieth birthday, I got my first tattoo, exactly five years after I saw the design on Maui. I had heard once that you should wait at least five years before making any actual ink commitments so that you wouldn’t regret a hasty decision. Being a planner and a more practical than spontaneous I waited exactly five years and then walked into Rick’s Tattoos in Arlington, Virginia a tattoo virgin and walked out swearing I’d never do it again.
Actually I loved the result, I just hated the actual process.
It’s been nearly ten years (ugh, that means that I’m almost thirty… 30!). I have to admit that the years have glossed over the actual process, and I’ve been planning my next ink for at least another five years. The design is sparked from a fascination that I’ve always had with Ursa Major. It was on my ceiling in glow-in-the-dark stars as a kid. But it was when I realized that had four freckles on my left knee that formed the bowl of the Big Dipper that I really started thinking about tattoos. I’ve almost decided to take it one tiny step further and extend the design out to Polaris as well. From what I’ve mocked up, I think Polaris will fall somewhere on the outside of my upper calf.
My biggest decision at the moment is the design of the stars. My first choice is derived from the font Superstarlike. All the stars are different, and scaled to more realistic sizes from the heavens. The biggest fault of that design is that I’m pretty sure the average size of each star works out to be about 0.22″ x 0.22″. I’m not sure how small a design can be and still get good detail. My second choice design is comprised of just plain five-pointed stars.
Here are some mock-ups:
Which is your favorite?!?
Edit: Oh, how could I have possibly forgot that it was two of my twitter buddies who have inspired me to really start thinking about my next tattoo. Thanks @jonsinger and Melissa! You both are my inspiration. (Eek, now why are you both too far away to hold my hand when I actually do this craziness?!?) I’m also counting on everyone to not make fun of my horribly funny-looking knees. I so desperately wanted everyone’s opinion about the tattoo that I put aside my “knee fear” and posted my naked knee on the web. ;-)
I like the SuperStarLike stars the best. If they need to be bigger (only a little bigger, since you only have so much knee), you could always trace them in a draw application and resize them.
Cool idea for a tatt!
so. cool. I love how subtle it is!! I never thought of turning freckles into stars before but wow – i love it. I love the idea of the different stars too – it’s hard for me to see the detail in the picture, but I think you have plenty of concept to take to your tattoo artist to get his expert take on it. I can’t wait until you get it! *virtually holds your hand*
(and there is nothing wrong with your knees, btw! Mine are covered in freckles – my mom calls them “cute” but she’s the only one)
I want to start off by saying I love the concept and the idea for different styles of stars. Do the same design for every star would be a mistake IMO. I have a tattoo and have already planned my next 2 tattoos. Just waiting on the funds for them.
A tattoo of just the constellation is probably going to be too abstract for anyone to understand what it is. Look at this picture. It just looks like a weird connect-the-dots tattoo instead of a cool artistic representation of a constellation.
See how bad this looks?
http://www.ratemyink.com/?action=ssp&pid=34638
Or look at how bad this is….
http://news.bmezine.com/2005/10/21/more-constellation-tattoos/
The concept is there, but without something for the viewer to catch onto the meaning is lost and others will view your tattoo as a mistake and a hasty choice.
If you want Ursa and Polaris this this is what I suggest. You get the image of the bear and everyone understands that it is a constellation that means something instead of a bunch of dots and lines.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/skytellers/polaris/images/fig1.jpg
Plus with this you can have the artist make it really artistic and beautiful instead of just a constellation.
This example is not ideal, but here is an example of Leo…
http://images.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=tbn&q=http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A61204/high/bmepb403700.jpg&usg=AFQjCNEqbzj8qHJkou_STkQS3caNzZAfog
If you were just doing something like the big dipper on your shoulder or something, everyone would probably know what that was.
FYI, Here is my tattoo……
http://carbonfly.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/chi-ro/
I’m definitely going for subtle here. I even want the artist to do the stars in brown so that they match my freckles! I think that the whole constellation of Ursa Major is probably a bit much for my knee (my legs aren’t that big, thank God!) so I’m just focusing on the Big Dipper right now. I wanted to add in Polaris as sort of a bonus and leave room for expansion if I wanted to.
Thanks for everyone’s great comments so far!!! I don’t take tattoos lightly so your input is vastly helpful!
I think that the best advice I could give is to have you ask your tattoo artist. You should have a good relationship with your artist and it shouldn’t be something where you just show up and get inked. Since you do take your tats so seriously then I’m sure this is what you are going to do.
My artist changed my original design from something that was cool on paper but wouldn’t work on skin into something that was bold and artful with its simplicity.
When it comes to tattoos I really believe that the artist knows best. My philosophy now when getting tattoos is to not control the process or show up with the exact design I want, but give them my concept and have them develop it into something that will work.
I’m interested to hear what your qualms are with the tattoo process. I loved the process. My tattoo actually felt awesome. My wife said that hers felt like a massage. I think that having that good relationship with your artist will make the process quite enjoyable.
Good Luck!
My first tattoo is on my lower back (I was horrified to find that some people call them “tramp stamps” since it’s not at all something that you would pick off of a wall). It was so painful I literally almost passed out. I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance too, so I was surprised that it bothered me so much.
The other qualms come with dealing with my family. My mother is MASSIVELY opposed to tattooing (she’s an artist, so you’d think she could see the creative qualities that come with designing and defining tattoos). I’ve heard the “skin is so beautiful” speech entirely too many times and don’t really care to hear it again. She and my father insist that I keep any ink that goes on my body a deep dark secret from our family. It’s shameful or something to them. Which is why this post is under lock and key. My father’s side of the family is much more open, but he’s so embarrassed that I would “do something so stupid” that he can’t bring himself to allow me to be who I am. I don’t think that anything I would ever put on my body is tasteless or offensive, but they don’t see it that way.
And while all of this may seem incredibly ridiculous, my family is my family and I love them dearly (even though they can be closed-minded on some topics). So I’m looking for subtle expression so as not to greatly offend anyone!
I’ve got the freckled shoulders that are “cute.”
Ah yes, I have been down that road with my family. My mom had almost the same response. Well actually her response was…”Well now you can go move in to the trailer park with the rest of the tattoo trash.” Keep in mind that this was talking to her on the phone and she had never even seen the tat yet. It’s been 6 months since I got the tattoo and they still won’t even acknowledge it. My mom or dad has not once looked at it. The don’t even know what the symbol means.
So this Christmas when we went to church I noticed that the Chi Ro symbol was on the altar of my parents’ church. I pointed to it and then to my arm in front of my mom as we took communion. LOL! I show my tat proudly, now matter who is around or who disapproves. Did I mention that I’m a church youth leader? The parents of the children I lead love the tat. Haha, my church is so cool.
Also, don’t worry about the tramp stamp moniker. Its just because that turned about the be a populat place for girls to get their tattoos. And of course if you have a tattoo or piercing other than your ears that means you are loose right? Do what makes you happy. I feel the need to warn you though that “stars” are the new fad right now in tattoos. Especially standard 5 point stars. That’s why I suggest the asymmetrical stars for your tat.
Example of the fad (i personally think its really cool though):
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6271/star8km3.jpg
I’m leaning towards the asymmetrical stars. That was my original design, but I was so worried that since they’re so small they’d lose their shape and just look like blobs. The five-pointed star is a back up design just in case.
Just contacted a local artist to get her opinion of the “doability” of the design. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I can’t wait to hear what your artist says about it! Tristan, I checked out your tattoo – nice work! I fully believe what you say about having a great relationship with the artist. It takes a lot of trust and their expert knowledge is crucial. I don’t agree they feel good while getting, though I have a crazy fear of needles (you’d never know it to see my tattoos and piercings, though.)
Here are mine if anyone’s curious:
http://melissaoh.com/2008/12/wearing-my-heart-on-my-sleeve-or-my-turtle-on-my-back/
I can’t wait to hear what my artist has to say about it either! After the flurry of comments at the beginning of the week, I rushed right out and sent the design to two different artists to get their opinions on it. Unfortunately, they’ve been completely silent since then!! I’ve been checking my email like a super-obsessive girlfriend waiting for her boyfriend to check in. Every time I hear my iPhone ding I whip it out to look and see if one of the artists wrote back telling me that they’d be thrilled to ink me! Unfortunately, it’s been mostly junk mail with a smattering of other things that I did need to attend to in a timely manner.
How long should I wait before I call or send more emails?!?