Goals

Photo by: Michael Barton Art

It is good to have goals... in life,in business, in anything you do. It gives you that next level to reach for, the next step to take the next direction you need to push for.  I ,for the past 10 months,have kind of been treading water.  Mostly because of the unfinished state of my tattoo. I haven't been PUSHING. I have been doing shoots as they come up, and not really searching for them. I have been doing lots of Art Modeling,because then it is the purely up to the artist at hand if the tattoos are to even be included in the piece. ( not to mention that it is paid)
 
As I look at the tattoo being done in a couple weeks,what ARE my goals for this year? What is my next step.  ( and some of these I have touched on before,but here, I clarify them in my own mind)

1. To be in a print magazine,that can be found in a bookstore or newsstand.  ( or even more than one) A Tattoo magazine, a photography magazine.  Something that anyone could just buy, or subscribe to and have it come in the mail)

2. To be in one of the amazing online magazines, like Dark Beauty, or Giuseppina Magazine that focuses on amazing art photography.

3.To get a cover, of any magazine.  ( I know better than to be picky)

4. To work on more collaborations with clothes designers, accessory designers. I will be working with the amazing Econica very soon, but I want to do more

5.  More paid bookings.  ( MORE is such a nebulous word, what does it mean...for me,MORE is at least one paid shoot a month, every month...maybe even 2) This is, after all how I pay for groceries.  I LOVE TFP type shoots, mostly because it seems that there is more give and take between the photographer and myself, there is more of a willingness to just see where things go. BUT running with what is needed for a specific use, or the photographers vision, or a companies vision, that is good as well.  I need more bookings.

6. Stretch more, explore more,do more that I have not tried before.  Things like underwater photography, wind / motion/ fabric photography, Extreme make up/ body paint photography. Editorial photography, couture photography.... the list goes on of things that I want to try, things I want to do.

Realistically, will  all of this happen this year? Probably not, but if they don't, they roll over to next year, and if they do... well then ,I have to set higher goals for myself !  

  

Tattoo session

                            Photo by G& D Studios 


I am continuing work on the large tattoo of a Dragon and a Phoenix you see in this photoshoot.   Since this shoot in December, The Phoenix ( on my stomach)  has been completely colored in.  The next session is March 7th, where we will work on finishing the dragon on my leg.

Most of the time,I sit rather well for tattoos...I don't squirm,or yell, faint or puke.  ( Yes,ask your tattoo artists,they most likely have had ALL of these things happen to them at one time or another) Now granted, on the whole this has been a tough tattoo...it goes to my lower ribs at the front, from hip bone to hip bone, around the ribs on my side,and down to my upper thigh....most,if not all of these spots tend to be painful ones.  ( more than ,typically a shoulder, an arm etc)

My sitting yesterday did not go well.  I seemed to be just super sensitive,so had to break every half an hour or so...I spent a good portion of time having to bite my own knuckles ( I did avoid screaming and crying,though there was some soft cursing and grunts- The whole screaming thing tends to frighten other clients in the shop...I try to avoid that )  The goal for the day was to finish up the wing on my ribs and the tail feathers ( except for little bits of extra color) We did indeed make it through... Though by the end of the thigh, and the session ,  I could feel the muscles, especially in my leg, start to jump and twitch.  ( an aside, Miles Maniaci at Deluxe Tattoo is very calming and mellow...and certainly helped me make it through)

By the time I walked in the door at home,I was not feeling well ( after an hour drive) I was shaky, woozy, and shivering.  I managed to get up the stairs and hit the couch before I quite literally fell over.  I think I was actually shocky.  I ate a steak salad and an Atkins snack bar and felt reasonably better, though I almost puked twice, and spent the majority of the evening laying on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, with a cat curled up next to me,and a cup of hot tea in my hand.  It wan't until this morning that I felt "myself" again.

What was wrong, what was different, what was the problem? What is the lesson here?  EAT.  I had eaten my normal breakfast/ lunch( or my normal lately, as I am working on getting back down to my modeling weight) So I had had 2 cups of tea, lots of water and a large apple  ( and ran 2.5 miles) before going in.  Apparently this was not enough.  Now I know. Don't eat heavy...but don't eat too lightly either.