she dreams in color, she dreams in red

I had my color session with my tattoo artist Saturday afternoon. I brought him a jar of apple butter, as a peace offering, in hopes that he would take it easy on me. no such luck. we touched up the outline and shading in some places that had faded slightly and then got to work on the color. 

I had Mike take pictures after we were done, which he took in RAW format with my camera. unfortunately, those pictures are on my computer at home, and the only ones I have access to right now are the ones I converted to jpg for Facebook. I was also really bummed that the editing I performed on the photos while they were in RAW format didn't transfer over when I converted them. boo-urns.

please excuse the gross factor of some of the images - tattoos are ugly when they're freshly finished.

first up was my pretty birdie, the Oriole...

next up was the Checkerspot Butterfly...

after she was finished, we did the mallets, and then Mr Edgar Allen Poe... 

moving along to the Maryland State Flag, which has turned out to be my favorite part... 

added some red glow to the "Maryland, My Maryland" banner... 

and finally finishing up with the White Oak Leaf, which I decided to do in red instead of green, so that it would tie in nicely with the others... 

... at which point, I was DONE for the day. I was in a lot of pain, and there was no way I'd make it through the rest of the pieces, which includes two Black-Eyed Susans, the Old Bay Seasoning can, and the Maryland Blue Crab. 

I've made another appointment for November 13th to finish up the rest of the coloring. I also have to decide on other items to add into the tattoo, specifically for my elbow and my ditch (which is the part of the arm on the other side of the elbow)... I'm not looking forward to that, at all. I also want to add some lettering to the empty spaces, so I have some research to do!

I was so happy to get some work done, but the pain is crazy this time around. I'll be excited when the whole sleeve is finished, so I can move on to another project! ;)

Happy Monday!