I hope you all have a marvellous start to your winter, a happy Christmas and are enjoying your New Years. To be honest, I'm kinda happy to be leaving this year behind and looking forward to the adventure of next year. But more on that in a later newsletter, for now here's a round up of my month.
My December included the end of my trip home (the UK), a nasty cold, and a very peaceful quiet Christmas, with a bunch of lovely tattoos in between…
Mary-Anne
I can't thank her enough for trusting me with something so deeply personal 🖤🌿 (this was also her first tattoo!).
A Brief Interlude
And yup one tattoo in and illness strikes! I had to take a few days off with a nasty ole' cold, and my clients were so, so lovely about me having to reschedule. A few of them are coming in in January now, so you'll have to wait for next month (and next year, weird) for those.
Baba enjoyed me being home with her at least, and I did get to watch allllllll the trashy netflix Christmas movies.... Our Little Secret, Merry Gentlemen, Meet Me Next Christmas, Hot Frosty, you name it, I was ill and I watched it.
Brian
After a week of convalescence I was back to it with Brian's new tattoo addition.
This design was a one-off from my newsletter, and Brian snapped it up! We adjusted the layout to flow perfectly with the two flash pieces I did for him two years ago.
The hackberry butterfly is native to Ontario, and with the hackberry branch and caterpillar, it makes a beautiful ode to the butterfly’s lifecycle. Brian wanted his tattoos to feel like a naturalist’s notebook, with individual patchwork-style tattoos —and I love how it’s coming together!
If you want to see future one-off designs make sure to sign up to my newsletter!
Nelissa
Nelissa and I have been discussing her cover up for while, as she was having laser sessions to lighten a tattoo she really disliked, so that we could transform it into this elegant floral design.
We freehanded this beautiful new peony piece, and ’m so glad we could create something she loves 🖤. So pretty!
Serena
This goldfish and floral thigh tattoo holds a special meaning Serena, honouring the fish she's kept over the years. She suggested the cosmic stream detail, and I love how it creates a dreamy, balanced design.
We specifically designed this tattoo to pair with a tattoo of her two cats on the other leg (by another artist), so this piece completes a heartfelt tribute to her beloved pets. Next up is her doggo.
Malvina
HO HO HO
I had a lovely quiet Christmas, mostly spent under my new electric blanket, eating good cheese, and spoiling the princess (who was on her heating pad - god knows what my electricity bill will be 😂). J and I did drag ourselves out to The Drake Hotel for Christmas Lunch, which was really lovely, but the real highlight was their apple pie margarita.
I also made it to the Distillery District Christmas Market, with Stacy on the Monday before Christmas, where it snowed and we ate raclette and drank tiny hot chocolate's that were actually just pots of melted chocolate (delicious).
Tatiane
After Christmas was wrapped up (pun not intended, but it's staying), I got to tattoo Tatiane.
Tatiane had 6 laser sessions to lighten her old tattoo before we transformed it into this beautiful blackberry-inspired floral chest piece. 🌿. It's amazing what patience and planning can achieve! Her original tattoos were green and purple, and would have been very difficult to cover in my style.
I really love the asymmetry of these pieces and how they fit in with her existing collection of tattoos.
Dan
Dan was my last client of 2024. He had two back-to-back sittings, and we finished his octopus and heron leg piece, and added some last bits to his sleeve, so you get two photos for him!
The octopus in his leg piece is 2 months healed. In his sleeve the swallows are over a year healed, the skull around 10 months and the snakes and lower roses are 6 months healed. Only top rose, rose on inside of his wrist, and some of the leaves have added darker shading from this session.
And that's it for December tattoos, between my visit home to the UK, illness and Christmas I only had a little bit of tattoo time, but don't worry I'll be back in full force in January!
In Other News
I very quietly became a Canadian Citizen in December!!! It's something I've been working towards for the last 8 years (and a huge life goal for me), so I am very happy and grateful to finally be here (don't get me wrong). But it turns out the ceremonies are now done via zoom, plus J was back in the UK (we tag-team visits for Baba). So that, combined with it being right when I started to feel under the weather, did mean it kind of went by a little under then radar. But don't worry my bff Stacy and I celebrated with Veuve Cliquot (sooo fancy), Housewives of Salt Lake City and SO MUCH CAKE.
I've been watching
- Supernatural - started randomly rewatching this over the Christmas break, I can't believe it fist came out in 2005 💀
I've been reading:
I've been doing
- Much scrabble playing (back in the UK - it's my family tradition).
- I also found a jigsaw puzzle of Hieronymus Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly delights' which was a big highlight of my trip 😂
And that's all I've got for now. I'm planning on sending out another newsletter soon with a bit of a review of 2024 and my plans for 2025 🥰.
Thanks for reading!
Talk soon,
Lu