At long last, my tattoo is complete!

 Guess what I did yesterday?!? That's right, I finally got my right hip tattooed! My plan all along was to have the tattoo wrap around both hips, but my artist Muriel Zao went on maternity leave so she could have a really cute baby, and then she came back right before Tribal Fest and I was like "nope, no money for a tattoo now!" and then when I finally made an appointment she was booked months out, because she's in demand.

So when I first started my tattoo, I thought long and hard about it, found a beetle species I liked, researched the heck out of it. But beyond that I was a little unsure what I wanted. I knew I wanted vines, but what sort of vines? And should they have some sort of decoration on them? So when I showed up for that appointment, Muriel had a book full of vine borders to look through, and I chose a style I liked and she used it as the inspiration for the pattern that would go over my left hip.

The original plan was to do a "same but different" vine over my right hip. Then I toyed with the idea of a peacock feather worked into the vine, but discarded it. But I still felt like I wanted something other than just a vine, because after all, it's my RIGHT hip and I'm pretty right-dominant in my dance, so it's going to be in pictures a lot. So then I thought maybe a cactus flower, because cactus grow in the desert and they're pretty, but it would have looked weird on a vine, because cacti aren't vines. Then my brilliant friend Jen suggested passionflower, because it grows on a vine, grows in the desert, and is beautiful.

Pro tip: Don't ever get a passionflower tattooed on your hip unless you actually like pain. It hurt a lot. I have still maintained my record of not cursing or crying while getting tattooed, but those little white details all over the flower were the closest I've come.

Second pro tip: Always work with an awesome artist. I told Muriel that I wanted a passionflower and sent her a couple pics I'd found on Google, then when I arrived she pulled up an image search on her iPad and we worked together to choose a couple flowers to combine to get the ideal shape/angle and the colors that would compliment the red-purple accents already in my vine, which makes it look like we planned this all along.

And here's the original beetle, the vine from the second appointment, and the vine from yesterday. It's fun to see how the colors mellow as it heals!

I'm pretty excited because the timing worked out perfectly, I don't have a performance until Open Stage at the start of October, and this beautiful flower will be just freshly healed then, ready for me to show it off! Yay! Thank you Muriel!

Professional Photos -- A Worthy Investment!

This past weekend I finally took the plunge and invested in a professional photo session with my dear friend Liora K Photography. Liora's been getting a lot of attention from the media lately for her feminist photo series and the Attractive + Fat photos that she took for The Militant Baker, and for good reason. She's great at what she does.

It's hard to make the decision to invest in professional photos as a semi-pro dancer. The majority of my gigs are still unpaid, and my main investment of course has to be my education, followed by the occasional new costume piece (or, if I'm at Tribal Fest, a whole BUNCH of costume pieces since I could try them all on). However, I felt like the time had come to make sure that I had a great headshot (see above!!!) and plenty of beautiful photos for my website, blog, and any promotional materials I might need to make. Since I had a bunch of great new costumes and Liora and I both had a weekend free, it was time.

The great thing about Liora is not only is she a true professional with a dedicated home studio, professional backdrops and lighting (not to mention training and mad skillz), but since she's also a bellydancer, she gave great directions, like "Channel Mardi Love" or "Give me a really big right maya." She knows the terminology, she knows what looks good on a dancer's body, and she didn't try to direct me into any cheezy stereotypical Egyptic poses.

I love the above photo, because not only is it pretty, but I think it really captures my dance persona, ethereal, mysterious, and probably daydreaming or plotting something.

I am really excited to share more of these photos with you in the future. And be sure to come back tomorrow to see what else we did while I was in her studio! I think you'll love it!