Today was our trip to Asheville. Aunt Tudi, Steph, and I hit the road a little late this morning, but still in enough time to make it to
Liquid Dragon by the time they opened at Noon. The artist on duty today was Sean, and he was perfect for a number of reasons. First off, I'd noticed on the site that he leaned toward green hues in his art, and the tat I wanted is primarily green. Second, he turned out to be a Pagan, a follower of The Green Man. Third, he wasn't much younger than I, so we grokked on that level. He came out about the Paganism almost instantly because he noticed my Triskele tattoo, pendant, and ring. He asked me if I were Irish and I told him I was actually Welsh and Scottish primarily. We flew from there. We hit it off so well that, before he started on Steph's tattoo, he called me to the back to show me a piece of art he's currently working on, which is a rendering of Lugh, the Celtic sun god. It was astoundingly lovely.
It took about thirty-five minutes for Sean to ink me and we chattered like two auctioneers the entire time, mainly about the religious hypocrisy of people in the Upstate and the financial hypocrisy of people in Asheville. He had some intricate work to do on me, especially with where I wanted the tattoo, so I'm sure I tried his patience right from the get-go, and I was his first customer for the day. At least he got some good conversation out of it, besides the payment for the tattoo. Because of where I wanted the symbol and the size it was, there were some alterations that had to be made to the thickness of the perpetual motion zig-zag so that, when the inevitable bleed occurs, the symbol doesn't become this unintelligible blob. Sean had to take a little bit of artistic license in order to generate the needed changes. I will also need to go back for a couple of wee touch-ups, once the ink settles down. Once that's done, I'll take a picture of the truly finished product.
All that said, here's the Everything that Rises Must Converge logo, in a good Shriek-y reptilian green.
( taking the bandage from the eye )Steph got a tattoo of her dad's name on her left leg with an accompanying cross. She seemed really happy with it. I don't want to say much about it, 'cos I think she's wanting to keep it on the down low until the right moment. Once I get permission, I'll take a picture and post it.
That mission was accomplished, but the remainder of the mission will have to wait for another day. After we visited a couple of shops on Lexington, Aunt Tudi's heart couldn't take anymore walking up hill (and my knees weren't very happy with me at all), so we stopped short of anything else, got in the car and left downtown. Stephanie had to be home by a certain time, so I didn't have time to visit the Gnomon and hopefully meet the creator of the garden, whom I think I went to middle school with. I won't know for certain until I'm face to face with him. I also did not get a chance to talk to the manager at Malaprops. I'm hoping for a better chance when we return home in the very near future.
I found a DVD about Asheville for Aunt Tudi for super cheap, and she was able to bring part of our home back down here to the Armpit of Hell. She's watching it as I write this. At almost the exact time I found the DVD, she found the Ultimate Fridge Magnet for me. It's white and red writing on a pitch background, and it says "I hate everyone. Please make note of it." That pretty much says it all. Aunt Tudi wrote my name in silver marker at the bottom of the magnet, like the declarative statement was signed by me. And it may as well have been.
We've already decided to go back as soon as we can. We hadn't been home in almost two years. In just those two years, so much has changed. I don't want us to encounter so much change after expecting things to be a certain way (like our favourite restaurant being gone!). One thing that hasn't changed, though, is the Ashevillian sense of outspokenness and irreverence. To best communicate this, I present the following photie.
( the bumper sticker car )When we got in, we only had one message, from UPS in the UK. The lady needed some information about whether not the items in Barry's package had been owned by anyone else, and if the shipment was a gift or something else. She left the phone number to call as well as her email address. I'll be emailing her with the information she needs here in a little while. Hopefully my being gone won't postpone B's receipt of the box on Tuesday. I'm going to ask her that specifically in the email I send her.
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