The Butterfly Circus
Tattoo by Lindsay at Niteowl Tattoo on 1/31/2020.
On a trip to Northampton last month I was doing some research on local women who were tattoo artists. Northampton has become a place that I and/or my partner run away to. It's out little moment of breath in an other wise suffocating world.
In my research I found Lindsay and knew I have to book an appt and get a tattoo in a style I hadn't yet. Lindsay prescribes to the super fun New School and slightly Neotraditional styles, fun bold colors, cartoonish features and a level of depth that I personally fins aesthetically pleasing. I met Lindsay while she was tattoo an amazing arm piece, she was great about taking time to discuss a large hand tattoo of a Morpho Butterly, I told her to basically do her thing, just cover my hand and go into my wrist if she needs to. Lindsay had an approachable, laid back vibe from the beginning. I knew I could sit with her in a t-shit and sweats and just chill while I get tattooed. Finding laid back people in this world is hard so I knew this had to happen here, with her. I spent the majority of my tattoo having my ego inflated with how well I was sitting, laughing at cute kitten videos and comparing cats with Lindsay and Billy. There is nothing more exciting than finding a group of people who understand the love of toe beans, teefes, fluffels, and cute aggression.
Blue Morpho Butterflies are incredibly laid back creatures. They eat fermented fruit nectar and the fluids of dead animals. These help spread fungi and important bacterias across the rainforest. A butterfly that eats dead things...totally my jam! I love the darkness, the depth and the energy of life ending and renewing. I'm drawn to it and I accept it now. This butterfly was named after Morpheus the god of dreams and Menelaus the Spartan King who was the husband of Helen of Troy. I could think of no better combination that the god of dreams and nightmares and the king who laid siege to an entire world. It reminds me that dreams and nightmares come from the same place and are ultimately one of the most fragile, beautiful and risky things we have as humans. I already had a bat tattoo on my left hand and I wanted to butterfly on my right, a reminder of the beauty and fragility, the strength and risk of living out dreams, allowing myself to dream even when it feels futile, and a recognition that some of us are weird, odd, living for dead things, haunted dolls and walking the path of death with clients. The inner darkness is beautiful, it's healing when you allow it to be, I get to remember that every time I look down at my right hand.
On a trip to Northampton last month I was doing some research on local women who were tattoo artists. Northampton has become a place that I and/or my partner run away to. It's out little moment of breath in an other wise suffocating world.
In my research I found Lindsay and knew I have to book an appt and get a tattoo in a style I hadn't yet. Lindsay prescribes to the super fun New School and slightly Neotraditional styles, fun bold colors, cartoonish features and a level of depth that I personally fins aesthetically pleasing. I met Lindsay while she was tattoo an amazing arm piece, she was great about taking time to discuss a large hand tattoo of a Morpho Butterly, I told her to basically do her thing, just cover my hand and go into my wrist if she needs to. Lindsay had an approachable, laid back vibe from the beginning. I knew I could sit with her in a t-shit and sweats and just chill while I get tattooed. Finding laid back people in this world is hard so I knew this had to happen here, with her. I spent the majority of my tattoo having my ego inflated with how well I was sitting, laughing at cute kitten videos and comparing cats with Lindsay and Billy. There is nothing more exciting than finding a group of people who understand the love of toe beans, teefes, fluffels, and cute aggression.
Blue Morpho Butterflies are incredibly laid back creatures. They eat fermented fruit nectar and the fluids of dead animals. These help spread fungi and important bacterias across the rainforest. A butterfly that eats dead things...totally my jam! I love the darkness, the depth and the energy of life ending and renewing. I'm drawn to it and I accept it now. This butterfly was named after Morpheus the god of dreams and Menelaus the Spartan King who was the husband of Helen of Troy. I could think of no better combination that the god of dreams and nightmares and the king who laid siege to an entire world. It reminds me that dreams and nightmares come from the same place and are ultimately one of the most fragile, beautiful and risky things we have as humans. I already had a bat tattoo on my left hand and I wanted to butterfly on my right, a reminder of the beauty and fragility, the strength and risk of living out dreams, allowing myself to dream even when it feels futile, and a recognition that some of us are weird, odd, living for dead things, haunted dolls and walking the path of death with clients. The inner darkness is beautiful, it's healing when you allow it to be, I get to remember that every time I look down at my right hand.