I got a tattoo.
Yeah, I know, I thought my Mom would kill me, too.
I’ve been planning this for a while. I knew exactly what I wanted to get. So for my thirty-fourth birthday I went to River City Tattoo in Old Town Sacramento to get one made. I chose River City because of their outstanding use of color, and because the owners took their work very seriously. I wasn’t interested in just “getting a tattoo.” I wanted to have a real piece of art done.
I wanted it to be of the “dragon icon” found in the Wheel of Time books. I needed an artist to take the black-and-white design found in the books and convert it to something more colorful. I asked my friend Seamas Gallagher to do the design, and I think he did an amazing job. Here’s what he made, after we collaborated on a few versions:
I printed that image out on paper and handed it to the guy at River City Tattoo. After two trips and four total hours in the chair, this was the final result:
I’m thrilled with how it turned out.
(And my Mom didn’t mind all that much either.)
I would love to have this. I have never had a tattoo before but this grabs me. But between pain threshold, cost and copyrights I suspect it’s a non starter. Plus I would want to add the opening chapter text – the wheel of time turns etc. Still it’s fantastic.