This One's Gonna Hurt.

The stencil

I want to share a secret with you.  I like tattoos, and I love a little bit of pain.  Not the agonizing pain of an injury, but the good kind of pain that gives you a rush of adrenaline and is a reminder that you are alive.  I am a major daydreamer who has trouble living in the present.  A little bit of pain - at the right moment - focuses my attention and brings me back to earth.  Like the pain from a bee sting.  Or a tattoo.

Thanks for taking photos, Mel!

This is Ryan from High Priestess.  He understood my ideas immediately and created an absolutely perfect custom design for me.  I have a temporary designer-of-my-tattoo/inflictor-of-pain crush on him.  And the best part...
he agreed to design the labels for my honey jars!!!

To me, a well-designed tattoo has deep meaning and beautifully fits the part of your body where it’s placed.  I normally prefer to keep things like this hidden, but it just made sense to put it here.   I think a beekeeper’s most valuable tools are their hands, and when you work without gloves you constantly feel bees walking over your hands and wrists.  The meaning is obvious.  Beekeeping has brought me back to life.   

So here she is, born of a thousand little stings on my wrist, close to my most valuable beekeeping tool, where she will be walked upon by real bees from my hives.  She is a lovely little creature reminiscent of old entomology textbooks, beautifully symmetrical, presented as if pinned in a display case.  In plain sight.