My not-so-little mermaid

I've had a completely crap day (week) comprised of unlucky breaks and compounded by lousy customer service, so in an attempt to cheer myself up before I dream of murder and mayhem, I'm posting this picture - this, ladies and gentlemen, is my back.

She may look familiar as she is based on the painting in my header by Pixie's Whimsy, and she was done in about 10 hours (3 separate sessions) by Megan Hoogland at Steady Tattoo. Clearly we changed and adapted a few things, i.e. I dislike extraneous fins on my mermaids, and I wanted the tail to be much more prominent, and I think the end product is pretty impressive. Megan was excellent, had great ideas when I was at a loss, and was FAST, which I put right up near sainthood after this experience. I would highly recommend her if you are crazy enough to follow this path (Q: did it hurt? A: why yes, I'd say it was pretty darned near unbearable, especially the last session where she colored in all that lovely tail curling down my SPINE). Megan currently splits her time between Steady (on the U of MN Campus) and Cactus (in Mankato) and she seems to do a ton of shows and conventions all over the world too. If you google her, you'll find her in the leagues of Kim Saigh and Hannah Atchinson (formerly of LA Ink!), and she seems pretty universally regarded.

Looking at it makes me feel pretty darned tough, and puts all the other pain and upset in my life in perspective - once you've endured this, you can take about anything the world throws at you :)