St. James
Here is the other tattoo story I told you I would get to. It’s about my leg. Well my leg is where it landed, the tattoo was happening regardless. This tattoo idea actually started way back in the early 2000’s. If you are a Louisville native then you probably have heard of the St. James Art Show. I used to go every day, every year.
The Chins
I stopped to see works by an artist Ric Chin. Ric was born in Hong Kong and grew up in New York City. When I spoke with him, he was living in Greensboro, North Carolina. I’m sad to report that since the original writing of this article, Ric has also left this world.
Now when I would go to the local art festival, I would stop into his tent which he occupied with his wife, on more than one occasion for years. He specialized in oriental pieces, mostly watercolors. Every chance I could until he and his wife stopped coming, I would visit Ric. He and I had many conversations about his life and life in general. He was a very talented and interesting man.
The Idea About My Leg
One year, he had made small prints of several paintings and he was writing names on them with a paint pen for a price. He explained to me that there were no kanji symbols equal to names in traditional Chinese. Kanji has phonetics and therefore the symbols he wrote were to be sounded out but he guaranteed his work. As we also talked in length about tattoos. He loved the art. He was also a consultant. In Greensboro especially, tattoo studios would send him what the client wanted written and he would send it back in traditional Chinese for a fee. So I asked him to write mine, Eric’s, and Emily’s names.
I hung them in the hallway of our house for many years. They hung with other artwork I had purchased from Ric. When we moved in 2019, I didn’t hang much on the walls so everything remained stored. Once I returned and found them I knew I wanted mine and Eric’s name tattooed on me with his cremains mixed in. Now to find an artist.
An Artist for My Leg
I knew the exact person for the job. My friend Kaitlin Fox down at Sacred Art Tattoo & Piercing in New Port Richey, Florida. I hit her up and lucky for me, she was excited to do it.
This would be Kaitlin’s first time working with cremains so about 48 hours of heavy research went into the process. Eric had worked with cremains before and from what I knew, it wasn’t as straightforward as it might seem. Once we both understood the ink mixing process it was time to get started.
Strange Events
The whole tattoo took less than an hour I believe. A strange thing happened when I opened the urn. An electricity spun up out of the urn and traveled through the air. The air became light and almost took on a different hue. That feeling surrounded us and stayed with us until the end. Then it was suddenly gone as quickly as it arrived. We both noticed it, we both felt it.
Reflections
I’m so excited to wear this tattoo and my lower thigh was the perfect spot. Kaitlin did a stellar job making Ric’s brush strokes look exact. I couldn’t be more pleased. I’m so proud of it and it’s so original. I smile every single time I look at it.
So that’s it. That’s my story. While a few other unexplained, strange phenomenon happened in the studio that day, I’m going to leave you here. If you want to know you may ask but you must keep an open mind. It’s not for the faint of heart. Thank you Kaitlin, thank you Ric, and thank you for reading. xxooC
