Happy Wednesday, ya’ll!

We had a bit of a scary experience over the weekend in our personal lives. Everyone is fine, and everyone is safe, but there was some stuff in our personal life over the weekend. I can’t share any details, but if you pray, please say a prayer for kind families, good friends, and for health and wellness.

Anyway, let’s go on to the fun stuff!

So, I have wanted a new tattoo FOREVER. I currently have FIVE tattoos. I know, most people are surprised to hear that! Most of them are small and simple. (actually, they all are small and simple!) I got my last tattoo (the music note on my back!) in 2012. As Staind would tell you, “it’s BEEEEEN awhile”.

I have wanted this tattoo forever and I finally decided I wanted to do it!

I lovelovelove body art and tattoos. I think it is such a gorgeous and lovely expression of self and the ability to have art created just for you. It’s crazy and beautiful. And even if it’s not a tattoo I would get, I can still appreciate the artistry and skill it takes to create a gorgeous new piece!

I moved up to HBG a few years ago and didn’t know any tattoo shops around, and so when I asked around, and looked on some review sites – it was OVERWHELMINGLY – you MUST go to 717 Tattoo and I was definitely sold.

I saw so many different portfolios of artists who did all different styles of work. Not only were they an AMAZING shop, 717Tattoo is DEFINITELY one of the most diverse body modification shops I’ve ever seen! They have everything from tattoo to piercing to tattoo removal to permanent makeup.

Preston and I headed to their downtown shop for my tattoo!

It was eclectic, dark, artsy, and awesome!

 

Not only do they have several shops in the HBG area, but the AMAZING owners Ella (the & Paul (also a bad ass husband and wife team!) also have expanded to being a supply shop for other tattoo artists! I got a chance to peek at their warehouse and it is endless, gorgeous, the literal cleanest place I’ve ever been, and weird!

I got to see tattoo practice skins and tons of ink and supplies and art and artifacts. Crystals and candles and sketchbooks, oh my!

Ella & Paul were so wonderful and kind and funny! Ella was the artist I got to work with on my tattoo! They both asked me plenty of questions ahead of time to know what I was looking for and asked for any preferences or style. It felt so comfortable! As a person who is a total BABY about tattoos – it was so great to have such a knowledgeable and inclusive team to make me feel totally at ease!

This was such an inclusive space! I was able to look at work that was some stunning art from the wildly imaginative tattoos to the simple clean line tattoos.

When I asked Ella what she wanted people to know most, she answered “We’re for everyone. It’s all ages and all types of people. We try to take our time to match up every client with the right artist.”

And…ya’ll. Ella was TOTALLY right.

I even got to snag one of their tees that has their perfect slogan: Look Better Naked.

 

 

Let me get onto it! I just wanted to share how wonderful my experience was with 717 Tattoo. It was so fun, with such a great vibe, and I felt so comfortable! Again, I can be such a baby, and Ella made the experience so painless!

We got to their shop, I came in (immediately was obsessed with the fox hearts and wolverine teeth in jars). I got to chat a little bit, and Ella explained everything to me ahead of time which definitely made me feel more brave!

Also, everything was very clean and safe and sterile. We sat down and got comfortable.

 

 

I have wanted these two tattoos for a long time and I decided that now was the time!

To explain in a quick Wikipedia sum-up: In 2005, during his famous commencement speech at Stanford University, Steve Jobs quoted the farewell message placed on the back cover of the 1974 edition of the Whole Earth Catalog: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

I was showed Steve Jobs commencement speech in a Leadership Class when I was in college with a professor I deeply admired. She admired his speech. She commended this idea to stay hungry and stay foolish. Stay hungry enough to set goals, meet them, set new goals, and achieve more. Don’t stop. However, sometimes you have to be foolish enough to keep trying, to forget failure and discouragement, and move on.

As a career-oriented, leader, and #GIRLBOSS – this idea has always been something I look to in times of career crisis or feeling discouraged at a personal cross roads.

So I got the quote tattooed in my parents’ handwriting. They are my twin pillars without whom I could not stand, to quote Rory Gilmore. My dad’s architect handwriting is in neat block print for Stay Hungry and my mom’s swoopy script for Stay Foolish.

I think Ella did a perfect job capturing their handwriting!

My “matching” piece on the other wrist is a quote from Patton Oswalt’s Netflix comedy special, quoting his late wife and true crime writer, “It’s chaos. Be Kind.”

His wife and author of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle Macnamara, studied horrific violence and captured some of the most warped parts of humanity. She theorized that there was no plan, there was no ‘meant to happen’, there was no fate; that it was all chaos. It’s chaos. As people the least we can do to relieve the chaos, is to be kind.

As a huge fan of true crime, this thought has rattled around in my mind in the last year or so. It is, it’s chaos.

My best friend, Maid of Honor, sister from another mister, Abby, is also a huge true crime fan and we love to read books and watch murder documentaries. She is also a pure blend of chaos and kindness and she is the most wonderful woman.

I asked her to write the quote, because between notes passed back and forth from middle school to a wedding scrapbook, seeing her handwriting has always been a reminder of home.

It’s chaos. Be kind.

Check out 717Tattoo on Social Media

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These are definitely my most special and personal and meaningful tattoos and I loved working with such an inclusive, safe, clean, fun, and comfortable shop!

Getting these quotes in small print of three VIP in my life has been so special and wonderful.

Thank you, thank you, thank you 717Tattoo for the AWESOME experience. Thank you Ella for the wonderful and personal tattoos, chatting about my fave topic (true crime), and letting us take pictures everywhere!

It was (tat)too fun!

Update: They are both healing GORGEOUSLY and literally every time I see them, I am almost tearing up.

 

*717Tattoo was kind enough to gift these tattoos for me, however all thoughts and opinions are my own! *

SO HERE’S THE “END OF BLOG” SPIEL!

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Love all you wonderful ladies (and gents!) out there!

How Very,

Abby