Showing posts with label Body Image. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Body Image. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 January 2022

My Tattoos - A Spotter's Guide Part 2

 


Hi guys as promised I'm treating you to the sequel to my 2013 My Tattoos - A Spotter's Guide blog. The original blog covered my first set of tattoos so I won't go into them here but here's a quick recap. 

In 2007 I declared that I was freezable for up to 3 months

In 2012 I got my Sugar Skull and 30 Seconds To Mars Triad (The skull turns 10 at the end of the month hence the recap blog).

I still love this despite the world and his wife now all having Sugar Skull tattoos, and yes those are the 30 Seconds To Mars glyphs.

Le Triad


In 2013 I got my birds and then bunny tattoos -

A Kingfisher for my Grandma

Some Rockabilly vibes with my Swallow and Cherries

The Bunny is a combination of my girls Estelle & Esme and the symbol is my Chinese Zodiac sign Rabbit.

All together


My next set of tattoos were done in 2015 also on my upper left arm. They were a Butterfly, White Feather and Ladybird.  

A better view of the feather
The Ladybird and Feather represent two very special ladies. Ladybird is the nickname of my best friend Helen which was given to her by Kay many years ago. The white feather is for Kay as she always believed that if you saw a white feather then someone was watching over you. Since Kay passed away in 2016 I've seen so many white feathers so I know she's still with me 💖






The Butterfly has no deep meaning as such but I just think they're such beautiful creatures and remind me of summer.

Not the clearest picture but you can see how they all fit together, the rabbit symbol can just be seen between the swallow and the butterfly


In 2016 Kay made the incredibly brave decision to cease her palliative cancer treatment so that the time she had left was of better quality. One consequence of her ending her treatment was that she was allowed to have tattoos done again so we ended up with matching ones. Kay always used to tell me "I love you to the moon and back" so a rabbit perched on the moon seemed like the perfect design. Kay was as bunny mad as I am and we actually met because she followed Estelle & Esme on Twitter.


                                                      I miss you

For my 30th birthday the next year I went into Alice In Wonderland overdrive with an Alice In Wonderland Themed Party and got a big Alice tattoo on my leg just above the bunny. It's based on the 1865 illustrations by John Tenniel which I love. I think it was a pretty good birthday present to myself in my humble opinion.....








In the same session I got a couple of small tattoos, one is a music note behind my ear (the least painful one I've had) so that I always have music near my ears. 



I also got an arrow inspired by a quote that my Dad once sent me "An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming." to remind me when times are tough. 



I got another music related tattoo in 2018 inspired by Lady GaGa's song Born This Way which is all about loving yourself and being proud of who you are. It's under the arrow to reinforce the message of staying strong. 





Last year I finally took the plunge and got a tattoo related to my plane geeking. The moment that the Red Arrows shoot over the crowd at Eastbourne's Airbourne airshow is always the highlight of my year. I plan to add other aircraft to the sleeve hopefully based on some photos I've taken, watch this space ......

First sitting

Second sitting

Finished!

At Bournemouth airshow showing the design off during the Red Arrows display

I got a couple of other tattoos in 2021.

I don't normally do 'spur of the moment' tattoos but for Fri 13th Aug the studio did a special range of 13 inspired tattoos and since 13 is our family's lucky number I indulged. 


The Greek symbol for Eos

This Eye Of Horus tattoo was for Helen's 50th birthday as she loves Ancient Egypt

My final tattoo in of the year was this Halloween Bunny tattoo, you can read about it in my blog here

I hope you guys have enjoyed my blog. I have some ideas for new tattoos; I want something navy related for both my Grandads as they served on aircraft carriers during World War 2. I'd also like something to represent my friends and also some witchy symbols.

I'll keep you posted!

Love Jen
XxxX












Friday, 11 June 2021

Painting A Picture - Fun with hair and make-up

The best way to celebrate finally getting the hair you want is with a cuppa on the beach!

If the Covid pandemic has taught me anything over the last year, it's the power of "Fuck It", prior to the lockdown putting make-up on to go out felt like a chore and something my brain just couldn't cope with on top of leaving the house. I started to really miss popping lip stick and eyeliner on to go to town and taking Eos to the local field didn't really justify a full face of make-up with my scruffy dog-walking clothes. 

I also got fed up with looking at the beautiful goth influencers I follow (check out Toxic Tears , Emily Boo and Black Friday) and wishing I had the guts to do their crazy, gorgeous make-up and cool alternative clothes on a daily basis. So I did. As soon as we were let out last summer to meet up with friends and family outside I wore black lipstick to the park (hayfever scuppered my eyeliner each time but hey I tried 😆) 

Eyeliner in place for all of 5 minutes despite hayfever tablet and nose spray. 



Some more black lippie pics -

Pretending to be an OOTD blogger - I was dressed for a walk in the woods .......




The best goth accessory is always a cocktail



Or a large gobful of cakeshake .............




A punky OOTD 

I've hair my undercut dyed for a few years now and really like putting fun colours on it

I couldn't decide what colour to do it .........


More of that later ....

Once I got to the stage that wearing dark or black lippie was the same as putting on clear lipgloss I started experimenting with my eyeshadow too (not just as an excuse to buy the Revolution Nightmare Before Christmas range honest!). 


I called this look 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge' as it had a My Chemical Romance vibe to it


Admittedly I probably do have a slight problem with the amount of make-up I own now but the best thing about make-up is that it fits no matter how fat I get! The same goes for piercings and I finally got the septum piercing (along with an additional nostril piercing to keep things matching) that I'd promised myself after I had to give up work.

Ta Dah!

Earlier this spring my lovely friend and hairdresser Ian suggested that we split dyed my hair and kept it it's normal black on one side and bleach the other so that I could eventually dye the other side a bright, fun colour. Which is great in theory apart from the living with blonde hair for 2 months.... I have a complicated history with blonde hair, when I was in Year 8 (second year of secondary school so I was about 13ish) I had highlights and bright streaks at the front to try and look more like the 'cool' in-crowd *epic fail* For some unknown reason I also tried it again, with added red streaks (those were cool though in my humble opinion) when I was 16.

Definitely not the Prom Queen!




Mum and me at my 16th with 'the hair'

You'dve thought I would have learned my lesson but no, I tried lightning it again a few years back and it went rather, er, ginger .......


Yesssssssss

I found that when my hair is a light colour I just don't feel like 'me', I used to try dressing rockabilly/vintage but it was the same, it just didn't feel right. So after that I went back to the comforting arms of the 'dark side' and reembraced my gothy self and we've been very happy together ever since. 

So going temporarily blonde was a really big deal for me, but I'm glad I took the plunge as the eventual result is worth the identity crisis and gritting my teeth whenever people complimented my 'change of look' or telling me how much it suited me. 



A studded hairband, Border Collie, fun lipstick and pretty background helps.  

I was blonde for my Halloween birthday party but I made sure I did some black and orange to make up for it. As an aside I think Halloween should be celebrated in the summer from now on - it's far more fun drinking vast amounts of Ophir in a decorated garden bar rather than shivering in the Autumn. 


Black and Orange! 




Halloween came early to the bar




Earlier this week I had my final blonding -


The next day ....on went the colour ....





There are 3 colours - a blue undercut, purple main section and pink in my fringe. 

Hooray! (Spot the Border Collie)

I'm glad that I've pushed myself into experimenting more with hair and make-up, it's helping me sculpt myself into the aesthetic I've always wanted to have (aside from the fat obvs) - a don't give a fuck alternative dresser (plus people leave you alone when you look like me - win!). Next up my Red Arrows tattoo!

Love Jen
XxxX

PS For those of you who made it to the end here are some of my favourite make-up products!

(Plus any brand with this as it's logo gets my vote)



My Suavecita Bride Of Frankenstein Lip Duo https://www.suavecito.com/products/bride-of-frankenstein-bundle

And last up my go to eyeliner NYX Epic Wear (in black obvs) https://www.nyxcosmetics.co.uk/eyes/eyeliner/epic-wear-liquid-liner/NYX_806.html

Oh and all my choices are bunny friendly!

Yes, I approve!


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