Don’t know if I could put pictures up here or not but here we go…

Like I said, this piece was designed around my friendship with my husband.

The yin yang has always had special meaning for me. I’ve always loved the fact that it is two parts, separate but completing one another with pieces intertwined. I also love its astronomical origins as I have always been fascinated and a bit of an amateur astronomer.

The pieces of this yin yang stand side by side rather than top and bottom to symbolize our standing beside one another through everything, neither dominating the other.

The pieces are not touching because at the time (and to this day) we have always been very individual and separated by many things, including distance, war and the regular separations that occur with the military. It symbolizes our ability to be our own persons.

But we will always carry pieces of each other with us. I am a Pisces, he is a Libra. Even though we don’t believe in astrology, it was a long running tradition that he would either call me or email me from wherever he was in the world and read me our horoscopes. It was just something goofy that meant a lot to me because it meant he was thinking of me no matter what. That is why I used our astrological symbols instead of the dots.

Our birth stone colors are both blue so I’ve used them in the coloring of the pieces.

The tribal, budding flower behind it represents our meeting in youth and how we have grown together. I also made it “grow” to connect both of our symbols to symbolize our connection.

We have been best friends since I was sixteen. I knew that even if our friendship dwindled and died I always wanted to remember him and all the love and support he gave me as my friend. I designed the tattoo more as a tribute to our friendship before we even got together. It kind of surprised us both when we ended up getting together and getting married.

Forgive me if the terminology is not correct.

1. The center piece and focal point of the tattoo is the yin yang, and even though I am very aware that the yin yang has Asian origins I really want to stay away from the Asian style.

2. I want to get it between my shoulder blades, above the bra-strap line and below the neck so that it’s visible only when I want it to be but can be the focal point if I purposely wear a backless dress, etc.

3. I am not happy with my version of the tribal and it doesn’t even have to be tribal. I just threw that in there as a filler but I’ve never been happy with it and this is where I need a more experienced artist to help me. I want something around the yin yang, preferably some kind of flower or representation of a flower but I’m not sure how I want it and need a good artist to help elaborate here.

4. When I think of adjectives to describe how I want the finished product to look words like, “elegant”, “beautiful”, “tasteful”, “charming”, “simple” and “touching” come to mind. I want to stay FAR away from bold, cartoon, flashy, gaudy, etc. I want to be able to proudly display this if I were to be dressed in a backless opera dress and have it compliment me, my attire and the occasion. When people see it I want them to think, “What a piece of art” rather than, “Wow, that’s a tattoo!” If that makes any sense.

5. I live in the Des Moine area of Iowa and we just moved here in February so I don’t know anyone (especially none with tattoos) and I am still very unfamiliar with the area.

Like I said, I know there’s an artist out there who can wow me and give me what I want (there are probably several) I just want to be sure I’ve found the right one.