Annette:A Photo essay.
This is my friend Annette.She turned 65 the other day and came around to show me her birthday present to herself- some new ink and a major overhaul and recolour of most of her tattoos which she has collected over the years.
She had been thru 2 days of three hour sessions with her tattoo artist, whom she has been with for over thirty years, and as you'd expect she was wrapped to the max and in a piece of pain.I asked her if I could photograph her art,even though it was still raw and bleeding in places and mostly wrapped-I found it beautiful in its' rawness and the Tim Burton inspired figures (her "girls")are to me exquisite. She agreed and was happy for me to take some images that she could keep of her birthday present tattooing in it's brand new state after so many years of fading. Who says you are too old to get new ink??
Annette loves travel and has been inspired by Goth art and fashion since her teens. She sells her unique fashion styled items at markets and loves collecting clothes,shoes and jewelry. She hasn't been able to travel for a year because of damned Covid so she thought spending some money on her tattoos would be the best gift she could give herself. I agree-they look beautiful after the new recolour,and the new ones are awesome in their detail.Some of here earlier tattoos were inspired by travels in Morocco and Egypt.
One of her Burton inspired "girls"-very shy.
Some more detail of her recoluoring.Still under wraps.
Some habits die hard-a smoke after the session to ease the pain.
These are her nails-all real under the lacquer.
A recolour of an old favourite.
A peek at her new "girl"-all bright and shiny under wraps.
Another old favourite gets a makeover-still a bit bloody round the lips.
How damn cute !
Annette looking a bit weary after the last session but you can see she is very happy to have given her collection a beautiful makeover-Happy Birthday!
She says she doesn't have to tell her grandchildren bedtime stories-they make up stories about her "girls" instead-just hope they don't get nightmares😮
