Secret Underworld of the Suburban Mom REVEALED!

So the time has come when I feel like I must post about why I called my blog "On the Needles". My husband and I were setting up the blog and I had to come up with a blog name and I was all under pressure and it was the best I could come up with at the time. Sort of the first thing I could come up with that wasn't already taken. When I chose that name I wasn't aware of how common that term is amongst the knitting community. So many times I have wished that I could change the name - but that seems like more hassle than it is worth and also, once you have an "identity" on the net you are kind of stuck with it. So for better or worse it's On the Needles.

It wasn't totally a random choice though. I thought "On the Needles" was a term which, for me had several layers of meaning. I have many "talents" that involve needles. I knit and crochet (okay it's a hook but it totally counts). I'm a fair sewer and hand quilter. I have made tapestries using bead weaving. I can do needlepoint and embroidery in just about all of it's many forms. (In fact I spent a good ten years doing needlepoint before my lifestyle changed - I had kids - and switched to the more portable knitting as my main obsession.) So I wanted the title of my blog to be able to cover all of the needles I might use.

I also liked the fact that if I were referring to writing about any of my needle centered life I would be writing "on the needles" ie. writing about whatever I was doing with a needle.

I also thought that if you were hooked on a needle centered craft you could be termed to be "on the needles". As in an addiction. Which I'm sure we all agree that it is!

But the reason for my post today is because Chittavrtti aka Nancy Alice, my friend from KTC, posted that she was researching tattooing for a melodrama character. Her post prompted me to reveal my other, jokingly secret, needle related talent - I'm a trained tattoo artist. I also did body piercing as well. So I'm outing myself! The secret life of a suburban soccer mom revealed! LOL!

I haven't tattooed in a long time. I chose not to make it my career (and believe me you can make serious bank as a tattoo artist) because I didn't want to deal with the rampant sexism in that culture. Also, I didn't want to spend 90% of my time tattooing Tazmanian Devils on obnoxious frat boys and teeny weeny shoulder roses on the girls and only 10% of my time creating real living art. Not too many people are really into tattoos enough to give you very much of their body space and if they are, you have to cross your fingers and hope they have good taste, hope they are willing to listen to you about what works and what doesn't work on skin, hope they sit well etc...

Oh well. I'm sure I haven't done my last tattoo. I still have all my equipment and someday I will fire it up again. Tattooing expanded my life in a lot of ways and I do miss it a bit.

BTW - my hubby was my first victim. Long, long before we ever dated each other. But I guess those hours he spent being tortured by the tattoo needles were successfully blocked out of his mind by the fact that I was leaning over with my cleavage in his face the whole time! LOL! There is a whole set of mythologies in the tattooing world about the bond between the artist and those on whom the artist makes a mark (going under the needle) - well maybe the myth came true in my case. :)