Got a new tattoo

So the tattoo shop celebrated its 13th anniversary yesterday. 

In honour of the occasion, all the tattoo artists (and me) contributed designs of the number 13. 

The idea was that on Friday the 13th, for $13 you could pick a 13 design and have it tattooed on you, to mark the 13th anniversary of Cottage 13. When I got up this morning I had the notion that I would get Bryce, the very talented apprentice, to do one of Andrew’s designs on my right ankle. 

I had a bunch of running around to do, and showed up at the shop around 17:00. Had a beer, ate some food. Sat around and chatted with everyone, laughed, ate some more, had another beer. Was delighted to learn that two of my contributions had been chosen and permanently marked on customers. Somehow or other during all this the subject of letting the son of the owners have a go injecting some ink into my skin was broached. Either he suggested it, I suggested it, I don’t recall. “When Bryce is tattooing me, I’ll let you take the machine and give it a try.” I believe another beer or three was consumed. He took one of the designs that Bryce had done and with some tracing paper went over it. The idea of him having a go wielding a tattoo machine kept being discussed. His dad took the design that he had traced, showed him how to make a stencil, which he then placed on my left ankle. 

With a liner (a thin marker) and a shader (a thick marker) he went over the design. He confessed that it made him a little nervous and that it made his hands a little shaky. 

But he did okay.

An idea that may have been said slightly in jest originally, became just perfect. It wasn’t the design I had originally contemplated, it certainly wasn’t the artist I had originally contemplated, it wasn’t even on the side I had originally contemplated, but...it was magically right.

I have known him since he was born. I love him more than anything in the world. I have known his parents for a long time. They mean the world to me. I have been affiliated in some small way with the shop since day 1. The place means a great deal to me.

This was not a design that necessarily fits into the grand scheme of designs I have plotted out for my body. It’s a fun souvenir piece, something to mark a place that means something to us on a significant milestone. 

Getting him to do it was... really perfect. There were six supremely talented artists there who could have done it. I chose my 9 year old pal to do it. I asked his parents and everyone else if they were okay with him doing it. No one raised any objections. The stencil was prepared and put on, and Andrew showed him how a machine was set up.

I really wasn’t in the least bit worried about any of it. I wasn’t expecting perfection, to be honest, some errors would add to the charm of the piece. And his dad was right there to take over if he wasn’t up to the task, but we were all quite willing to give him a shot. Let him gain an understanding of what it is the tattooing process is all about. He dipped the tip of the machine in the cap of ink, pressed the pedal, and....started tattooing me. 

He was a bit hesitant at first....

...there were times when he didn’t even get the needles in all the way.

But he got the hang of it.

Because of the spot it’s in, I couldn’t help but have an involuntary twitch a few times. I was admonished to hold my foot still. Wait’ll you get a tattoo there, little buddy.

Dad showing him some techniques (and doing the outlining on some of the trickier serifs.)

Give it a wipe.

Dad supervising.

Bryce the apprentice looking on to see how it’s done. I don’t recall who but one wag got a good laugh out of everyone when he cracked “Lookit! Those lines are almost as good as what Bryce is doing.” I think a good portion of an apprenticeship consists of being ribbed as often as possible.

Put on some Vaseline.

 The artist himself.

I gave him the $13 plus a $7 tip and a big hug.

And the finished results the next morning. He went beyond the line in a few places, he missed a few spots, but I don’t care in the least. Its “imperfection” makes it perfect to me. It’s a fun souvenir, and has more to do with a time and place and the person who did it than anything else. I figure it’s good to give him an opportunity, and hope it gives him an appreciation and understanding of what his dad and other artists do. I suppose there aren’t many 9 year olds who can claim to have done a tattoo.

Triskaidekaphilia

When Cottage 13 got its start (mind you, in a different guise than what it is now) {well, technically it isn’t the original Cottage 13}) it got me looking into the number the 13 and all the mystique surrounding it. 

We found out that a triskaidekaphobe is afraid of 13, so I guess that makes us triskaidekaphiles.

• 13 lunar cycles in a year
• 13 witches in a coven
• 13th guest at the Last Supper was Judas
• 13th floor is invariably always missing
• 13 Colonies
• Luft Stalag 13
• Prohibition lasted 13 years in the US
• Minnesota 13 was a corn whisky popular during Prohibition
• Odin’s son Balder, the god of peace and light went to a banquet in Valhalla. Loki, god of discord, was the uninvited 13th guest. He tricked Hoder, the blind symbol of darkness. to shoot and kill Balder with an arrow of mistletoe
• 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, was the abolition of slavery
• The Alamo lasted 13 days
• Bakers dozen
• On the masonic inspired US Great Seal, the pyramid has 13 steps, the eagle is clutching 13 arrows, the olive branch has 13 berries and 13 leaves, there are 13 feathers in the eagles tail and 13 stars over the eagles head, and 13 clouds around the stars. E Pluribus Unum and Annuit Coeptus both have 13 letters.
• Dionysus, the 13th god, the god of wine, ritual madness and ecstasy
• Constantine called himself the 13th apostle
• 13 is the atomic number of aluminum on the periodic table of elements
• Apollo 13, launched at 13:13 hours from rocket pad 39 and was aborted on April 13, 1970
• Friday the 13th – a year can have no more than 3, and some have only 1 (Months with a Friday the 13th always begin on a Sunday. Friggatriskaidekaphobia is fear of Friday the 13th.)
• The missing ingredient in LSD is POC 13
• 13 Years War 
• There were 13 Pope Leos and 13 Pope Innocents
• The Egyptians saw life as a ladder with twelve steps. There was an invisible 13th step which was the step souls took into the afterlife
• 13 twists in a hangmans noose
• 13 steps to the gallows
• 13 feet for a guillotine to fall
• 13th card in a tarot deck is the death card
• 13 players in a rugby league team
• 13 cards in a suit, representing the 13 months in a lunar year.
• The Browning Hi-Power pistol holds 13 rounds. (At an inquest following the shooting of 3 IRA members in Gibraltar by the SAS, one of the soldiers was asked why he had pumped 13 bullets into one of the terrorists. He very drolly replied that it only held 13 rounds.)
• Two Formula 1 drivers were killed in crashes in cars with the #13. Now, there are no more Formula 1 cars with the #13.
• Pillar 13 at Place de l’Alma, Paris, was what the car with Princess Diana in it hit. 
• The controversy about the Procter & Gamble logo was in part about the 13 stars. 
• In Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, the 13th district has been completely destroyed for their rebellion.
• Bohlen–Pierce scale, a musical scale not built upon a standard octave but a different arrangement of 13 ascending tones. 
• The Winchester Mystery House, built by Sarah L. Winchester, lunatic heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune. Started in 1884, construction continued non-stop until her death in 1922, eventually topping out at 160 rooms. She thought that she was haunted by all the people killed by Winchester rifles and that she could evade their ghosts in the labyrinthian twists and turns. Perhaps not surprisingly, the number 13 played an important role. A partial list:
  - 13 cement blocks in the carriage entrance hall
  - 13 blue and amber stones in the spiderweb windows
  - 13 bathrooms
  - 13 panels in the wall by the 13th bathroom
  - 13 windows in the 13th bathroom
  - 13 steps into the 13th bathroom
  - 13 windows & doors in the old sewing room
  - 13 hooks in the seance room
  - 13 Ever-Flow drain holes in the Italian sink
  - 13 rails by the spy hole in the south conservatory
  - 13 steps on the last flight to the 4th floor
  - 13 ceiling panels in the entrance hallway
  - 13 subpanels in the ballroom ceiling panels
  - 13 glass cupolas in the greenhouse
  - 13 holes in the drainhole cover
  - 13 gas jets on the ballroom chandelier
  - 13 stones in the Oriental bedroom windows
  - 13 squares on each side of the Otis electric elevator
  - 13 armed channdelier
  - Every Friday the 13th, a bell is rung 13 times at 13:00
  
  Her will had thirteen parts, and her signature appeared in it thirteen times.
  
• American poet John Hollander has a poem called “Powers of Thirteen” that is 169 (13 x 13) stanzas consisting of 13 lines of 13 syllables each, resulting in a poem of 28,561 words (13⁴). It specifically examines  the nature of the number 13.
• American poet Wallace Stevens has a haiku influenced poem called “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” 
• American poet Ogden Nash has a poem called “A Tale of the Thirteenth Floor.”
• Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” is a monumental sculptural piece, featuring a triangular table, with 39 important women featured (3 x 13).