My Tattoo

I'm 24 years old and I finally got my first tattoo! I knew I'd wanted one for a long time; I also knew my first tattoo would be influenced by Harry Potter.

Go ahead, you may think it's silly, but Harry Potter has been more than just a series of books to me. I will be forever grateful to JK Rowling for writing the books that carried me through my childhood and adolescence.

Harry Potter gave me my love for reading, something crucial to being a teacher. I used to dread reading anything unless it was a Nickelodeon Magazine, until my mom bought me that first Potter book. Since then, I've loved to read in my spare time which is something I'm proud of in this day and age of video games and electronics.

It's been even more than that, though. Adolescence is a crazy, confusing, scary, and sometimes terrible time in a person's life, especially for a person who doesn't have any older siblings to confide in. I can remember no matter what was going on, I could pick up one of the books and escape. I learned lessons from so many of the characters' experiences, examples, and choices that I'd like to share with you.

James Potter: Mistakes from your past do not define who you are.
Lily Potter: There is good in everyone, no matter how dark someone may seem.
Rubeus Hagrid: Love all creatures of the earth (Ron and I are still working on appreciating spiders...we're trying, Hagrid!)
Molly Weasley: You don't have to be a child's biological mother to give them the motherly love they need.
Dobby: Be loyal.
Ginny Weasley: The best things in life are worth waiting for.
Fred and George Weasley: There is always a reason to smile.
Sirius Black: It's okay, and sometimes even wonderful, to be different from your family.
Voldemort: Through his mistakes, I've seen that there is no life without love.
Severus Snape: Heroes don't always look like Superman.
Albus Dumbledore: "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." 
Neville Longbottom: Stand up for what you believe in, even if it means standing up to your friends.
Luna Lovegood: She is my favorite character. Embrace yourself and all of your quirks. Never change for anyone.
Hermione Granger: Treat everyone with kindness, compassion, and respect.
Ron Weasley: No matter what, your true friends will always be there for you.
Harry Potter: More often than not, doing what is right is not what is easy.

 These characters have made me who I am today.

 Now to explain the chess pieces. I didn't want a tattoo that everyone else has...we all know the ones I'm talking about. I don't mean to be offensive because I love them all! However, like Luna, I take pride in my differences so I wanted an original idea. I began to think of how I could represent the Golden Trio when I remembered the chapter "Through the Trapdoor" in The Sorcerer's Stone.

 There you have it. Harry the Bishop, Ron the knight, and Hermione the castle.

 If you took the time to read this, I deeply appreciate it, and I'm happy to have shared this with you.

xoChristie

Homemade Temporary Tattoo

How to Make a Custom Temporary Tattoo

The reason I'm posting this is because almost all of the "How-To"s I found involved either Temporary Tattoo Paper (very expensive) or sharpies. The reason I didn't like the sharpies is I wanted to test the tattoo out on my back (yes, the picture is on my arm, but that was because I wanted a quick test, I didn't think this method would actually work!) Needless to say, I don't trust my so very mature (yeah, right) boyfriend, Tom, drawing with sharpies on my back. This is the method I'll be sharing with you today. Just making sure to give proper credit. I'd appreciate you reading mine as well, though! :)

Here is what you will need:

-Your image
-Printer
-Backside of a used sheet of stickers (where the stickers stick to)
-Glue stick
-Scissors
-Fine point sharpie (optional)

1. My original design was one I drew, see!

As you can see, that's a dime for perspective purposes.

2. I sent the image from my phone to my computer. I cut out the dime and edited the picture as best I could to make the paper as white as possible and the pencil as black as possible. I did this by experimenting with the brightness and contrast settings in plain ol' Microsoft Word.

3. Unless your image is perfectly symmetrical, you need to flip your it so it's a mirror image of the original. I hope that's not confusing.

4. Take your sticker paper, make sure this is NOTHING on it. No stickers, or that annoying outline of sticker that no one ever uses. This should be a glossy sheet of thin paper.

5. Load it into the printer making sure it will print on the GLOSSY side. Fortunately the backs of stickers are so easy and cheap to come by, it's no big deal if you mess up. I did, three times! :)

6. Who can guess what's next? Print!

7. Spread some glue from your glue stick on your skin where you want the tattoo to be.

8. Cut out your printed image, making sure not to smudge it, it will be wet for a while.

9. Place your image printed-side-down on top of the glued patch of skin. 

10. Hold it there for a good 10-20 seconds and carefully peel off.

There you go! Your own temporary tattoo without all the waterslide paper nonsense. (It was funny to see people's faces when asking for this at Staples or AC Moore). I did notice that mine came out more grey than black so since my test spot was on my arm, I could easily go over the design with a sharpie fine point marker and darken it up, but it's up to you. Play around with the length of time holding it on your skin, if the ink is dry or wet, and maybe even wiggling it around to get more of the ink from the sheet to your skin.

Thanks for reading! If you like my posts, I definitely suggest that you...