Friday  Mar 03, 2006

Every BODY Has a Story: The Garden

"Because my mother was very ill her whole life, she was constantly kept indoors. The only thing she ever complained about missing was the chance to be outside. She loved to walk in the garden, to smell the flowers and to see the change of the seasons. Because she was bedridden, it was impossible for her to be outside for any period of time, and gardening was impossible. My mother had a gift however, she was an artist. I really think this was the thing that keep her spirit alive. She painted picture after picture of what she imagined lay outside her window. Tangles of vines and blossoms, butterflies sipping at nectar, forest paths that lead away into the horizon- this was my mother’s best medicine.

She died about thirty years ago, and the week after she died I started my tattoo of a garden. Little by little it grew over my body in memory of my mother. I ending up leaving the tattoo unfinished for many years but about five years ago I decided to complete it. At the time, I was working for Precision Cast Parts running machines and working on the assembly line cleaning parts. I was nearing retirement when I went in to have the tattoo finished. I had a woman I did not know start the tattoo and as she was working, I realized that I couldn’t stand the way she was making the tattoo look. In a flash I thought- I could do a better job than that!

Though I hadn’t done art professionally before this time, I felt my mom behind me and I left my factory job and started apprenticing as a tattoo artist. I had the tattoo finished by an artist that I thought did the image justice, and opened my own shop, Tattoos By Lori soon after that.

I feel like I have made it into the garden."

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Posted by: milcke at March 4, 2006 11:31 AM

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