TATTOOS!!!!

Thinking about getting a tattoo?  The first and most important thing that you have to realize is that getting a tattoo is a permenet ink on your body.  Be sure that this is something that you have though out very clearly.  If this is something that you might regret then keep this in mind a fifty dollar tattoo can cost you thousands of dollars to get removed.  A few years ago I decided to go with the crowd and put ink on my body.  At the time I was just doing it because I had seen an associate of mine with a freshly done one on her arm.  Everyone was eager-ed to get one done.  So I had the cash and I went.  Not knowing what I wanted to get or for any real reason I ended up at a tattoo palor.  My experience there was not all that professional.  The tattooist (note I said tattooist and not tattoo artist there is a difference) was more interested in flirting with my friend and I than he was about making me feel more comfortable about what I was doing.  I ended up choosing a Gemini sign with a banner with the words Gemini in the middle.  When it was all over I went home.  After taking the bandage off I noticed that the word Gemini was spelled wrong.  I called the tattooist back and he said that he could correct it once it healed.  He never did and I was stuck with this on my body.  After this I inquired to other artist about them fixing this mistake.  I felt that I was very unsure about someone else trying to ink my body so I just left it as it was.  No one made me feel comfortable enough to consider them.  Then I talked to a local mobile tattoo artist Cue.  That didn’t make me feel better at first (mobile).  As he took time out to talk to me about tattooing I became a little bit more relaxed.  I still did not want him to try.  Then he got a little personal.  He started telling me why he started tattooing in the first place.  After that he showed me his art work.  Very impressive. “How do I know that you did this pictures” I said.  “Most of the time when I have a client that comes to me with a thought or a image I usually draw it right there in front of them” He told me.  Then I saw his equipment and the first thing that I noticed was that all off his needles and supplies was all individually packaged. Never use anything twice. He showed me what they were and explained what he was going to do before he started.  I felt very comfortable and then we were off.  I stressed to him that I wanted the same design just wanted him to do something with the lettering.  He did just that.  So before deciding to get a tattoo know what you want first and please talk to the artist.  Feel comfortable.  I was very comfortable not only did Cue answered all my questions he did it in the comfort of my own home.  I would recommend anyone to him.  If you want a tattoo or just have questions about getting one he is the artist to see.  I know that you can find him on myspace.com look for oncuenyc06.  I think it would be worth anyone time if not only to talk to him.  Be sure before you ink.

JUST ANOTHER BLACK FACE

I wonder is it that where ever I go do people first just see just another black face?  When just a group of my girlfriends go out to just enjoy a nice evening or when I take my boys out to have fun.  If my girlfriends and I might go out for a quick lunch, might go see the latest play, hop to a mall to see if there are a pair of spicy pair of heels that will set of that outfit; Do I notice that at some of these establishments I seem to get that eye, that look, that I have to help you but I really don’t want to.  Sometimes I do but I really don’t look at these incidents as they are looking at just another black face.  I look at them as you are just another ignorant person.  People of all kinds have had some bad experience with someone.  Race and gender is just a way of explaining the unexplainable.  “All black people are ghetto”.  I heard that come from a young man that could not have been no older than my fourteen year old son.  I was dumbfounded.  I grew up in what some people would call the ghetto.  I grew up on the eastside of Detroit.  Now that I am older and hear how most people view this side of the city; I never felt like I was in the ghetto.  My grandmother always told us “you don’t have to become a product of your environment.  If you see it as ghetto it will be ghetto”.  I had never viewed where I stayed as ghetto.  My grandmother bought a house and made it her home for her 13 children and 16 grandchildren (not all at one time, we are all different ages of course).  The reason that I am saying this is because I recently read the article written by AOL Black voices Columnist Roy S. Johnson titled Time to look in our Ghettoized Mirror.  It kind of put me in a awe in how alot of people look at African Americans.  This article was about the behavoir of the all-star weekend in Las Vegas.  He also shared with us about Cora Daniels the author of the book GHETTO NATION.  His statement ” which she laments that ghetto no longer refers to where you live, but how you live”.  I have not yet read this book but hopfully I can get a copy I am looking forward to reading this book.  Because in my mind at the age of 33 I thought this was common knowlegde.  I would say then that having knowlegde is not all that common.  Maybe next time that I can comment I would have read the book and can give you my opinion.  Until then I am not just another black face.