As my followers on Instagram know, I had a tattoo done when I was in Bali to commemorate my travels so far and plan those still to come.
The basis of the tattoo was a black line drawing with the word ‘Explore’ joined into it and a black plane coming off it.
Having an Adventure
Whilst there I also had a little black icon to signify Bali; in this case a pair of temple gates.
Now it was time to add some more icons to the design representing many of the countries that I have visited in my life. The intention is to keep adding little ‘stamps’ until I have listed every place, almost like a walking passport.
Finding recognisable black line icons for everywhere I have been was more than a little difficult. Sure, the eco-trees of Singapore or Mont Blanc were easy, but let me tell you that Slovenia and Hungary were not easy at all!
Vilnius, Lithuania and Notre Dame, Paris
I managed to find a handful of places that I wanted to start with and sent them off to the tattooist who was going to be doing the work. When it was time for my appointment, I sat with Szymon to discuss which icons I wanted to do first and he explained that several of them may pose more than a little problem.
The detail on some of the icons was so involved and delicate that he felt in a year or two they could be nothing more than a blurry mess.
He had a point and of course, no one wants their tattoos to become unrecognisable, so I agreed that couple would have to be more simplified.
I thought that I was perfectly happy with that, and so we went ahead.
Without the Drawing
Now to be fair, I didn’t feel pressured or coerced to do something different. The tattooist didn’t want me to be unhappy further down the line and I took that advice.
And for 95% of my end result, I was more than happy with. The one icon that I am not so happy with (Notre Dame) can easily be rectified with a couple of additional lines when I get a few more icons added.
Please ignore my attempts at drawing!
So, that is the negative part. Now for the positive.
I had a total of six icons tattooed in one go. Four buildings, One Scenery and one entirely different.
A Butterfly.
My Mum LOVED butterflies and had a tattoo on her upper arm of a purple and pink one. When we laid her ashes to rest in Corfu, we were followed by a butterfly and we saw several around the place where she spent her time.
Six New Icons
So, instead of a building for Corfu, I chose a butterfly in hot pink/purple whilst everything else was going to be black.
The six tattoos were for Chicago, Corfu, Paris, Switzerland, Lithuania and Singapore.
More specifically Marina City, Pink Butterfly, Notre Dame, Mont Blanc, Vilnius Cathedral and three Supertrees.
Taking the advice of the tattooist, I will also be looking at the other icons I had selected to make sure they are not too intricate, or at least make several options for each country.
The Next Batch?
That could take me a while as I have Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Florida, Egypt, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Tunisia, Germany, Poland and Croatia still to add.
Oh and then going to Finland and Luxembourg this year will increase it even more!
