I blinked and it’s July.

Agony Aunt Who Doesn’t Love a Good Sale ??

I blinked and it’s July.

Hey everyone,

Honestly I don’t know how the year has gone so quickly. It’s July already!! I swear it was April just last week. There’s an old saying that the older you get, the faster time goes. And it’s true, dammit. I’m getting older.

In fact, in honour of a milestone birthday upcoming for me in September, I’ve gone and done something that I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now. Something that I thought would be fitting for a birthday number that ends in “0”.

Can you guess what I did?

No, I didn’t jump out of an airplane. Or bungy-jump off a bridge. I’m not that silly. Or that gutsy. However, I did get a tattoo!!! Yep. I got inked for the first time. Yay me!! For the longest time I didn’t know what I wanted. I only knew that it had to be meaningful to me because what’s the point otherwise? A small spark of an idea eventually came to me and from there I was able to come up with the entire concept. What had started off as “I think I’ll get a small tattoo” evolved into something much “bigger” and “grander” – at least for me, the Tatt Newbie.

With no-one close by to recommend an artist, I went on the hunt for someone I could connect with, that could accurately and beautifully draw out what I envisioned and I was lucky enough to find “Chook” – a heavily drawn and pierced dude with the friendliest personality in town and nicest smile gleaming behind his bushy beard. He instantly understood what I was going for and enthusiastically included my own handwriting in the artwork, thereby making it ultra personal. I hadn’t even thought that was possible but once I’d shown him my website logo (which I’d drawn in my own hand) he immediately wanted to incorporate it. That was quite thrilling for me, I must say.

The idea behind the tattoo is based on a few things…….

My greatest achievement (my son); one of my favourite proverbs/saying which I try hard to live by; the feminine Lunar energy representing intuition (learning to trust it) and my own personal strength and resilience in a life filled with heartbreak and challenges. Basically this tattoo represents and honours what I’ve survived and learned so far in this life and my beautiful son, the greatest joy and fulfilment I could ever have been blessed with. It also reminds me to always trust my instincts, to let intuition be my guiding force.

Chook was taken aback by my reaction when he first put the needle to my skin. I had blurted out – “Is that it?” – surprised at how little it hurt as I’d been expecting it to be very painful from the get-go and it wasn’t initially but boy, did I speak too soon! By the end of the two and half hours (!!) I was very very sore and very very red. But he and my son both praised my bravery, as they rightly should – I WAS brave, I reckon.

My child took to calling me “Gangsta Zee” for a little while but I put a stop to that as I think “Gangsta Mum” sounds better. However that lasted only a week and now I’m back to plain ole Mum.

Two very odd things happened straight after I got it done. The first one is that I immediately felt I was always meant to have this tattoo. I’d lived all these years without one and figured I’d feel odd whenever I looked at it, that it would take some time to get used to it. But that didn’t happen at all. This beautiful piece of art on my arm feels completely normal and natural, like it’s always been there. Maybe in a past life, I was tattooed?

The second odd thing that happened just two days after getting it done is that I won a raffle and the prize was a $500 Tattoo Parlour Voucher!! I kid you not! I’d entered the raffle thinking “wouldn’t it be funny if I won this prize because I’m booked in to get one done this week” and Boom!! I win!! I laughed so hard when I got the news, in absolute amazement at how life works. I was definitely meant to get this tattoo and join the ranks of the beautiful inked people of the world. It was destined.

And so, that’s my big adventure…..far safer than skydiving for me. Lol. (Cartoon Mini-Me up there has no problems however).

Do check out the fantastic work of the lovely folks at Bishops Domain Ink and Tattoo and if you’re ever in Melbourne, I can highly recommend them. (Links below)

You’ll also find a picture below of a poster I designed and made of that favourite proverb. The imagery I used in creating it inspired my tattoo in parts and I believe wholeheartedly in its message and try to live by it daily.

Which of you have tattoos? Anyone game enough to show me? I’d love to see them! Or maybe you have other milestone adventures? Anyone braver than I? (Dozens of hands just shot up, I’m sure) They say that tatts are addictive, that once you get one you want more. I can actually see how that would happen but I’m not sure if that’ll happen to me – I guess we shall wait and see. In the meantime, I’ve had a lot of fun shocking the pants off friends and family. No one expected me to do this. Not one person. And if they did, not one this big! The coolest ones were proud and impressed with my “badass-ness” but the conservatives ones (and there’s too many of those) were gobsmacked! I’m still not certain if they understood the meaning of it and actually liked it or if they were just being polite. Doesn’t matter though because I love it.

Did you notice the similar colours to my website logo? Yep, that teal colour is one of my favourites and now it’s forever on my skin, an ode to my writing achievements in many ways. And funnily enough, Chook suggested that tone before he’d even seen my logo. Isn’t that wild? Another sign from the Universe, in my opinion.

Speaking of writing, I’m making slow but steady progress on book three and I’ve even begun writing something that’s vastly different from my usual genre. Hopefully when I’m done with it, I can show you and see what you think. And fingers crossed, one day, I’ll figure out what to do with my original fan fiction which is still lurking out there in cyberspace. Sigh.

You might remember from my previous blogs that I’ve had some challenges and disillusionment in the last couple years with the publishing industry so I’m treading very cautiously with any decisions I make. Even the simplest of tasks such as figuring out SEO’s on this site (endless thanks to @issy for that) becomes a big issue for me as I always need help with technical and marketing stuff. Those things are definitely not my strong suit. And after being burnt a few times, it takes a fair bit to earn my trust in these matters. So there’s progress but if you’re reading this and have marketing/digital skills and talents, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

On another topic, I’ve never wanted this blog to be only about writers and writing. There’s many, many authors out there who are far more qualified than I to teach about grammar, storytelling, editing etc and have wonderful blogs dedicated to that. My blog started off years ago being only about my books’ progress but it’s evolved into talking about things and events in my life and now I hope to continue and even expand in that vein. I have no idea what I’ll be talking about in future blogs as it’s going to be dictated by whatever is on my mind but one thing I’m sure of is that I will NOT be following the advice I was given when first approached to publish my debut novel. I was told (by the publisher) that I shouldn’t be controversial and opinionated and to stick to author “subjects”.

Pfft. I’ve done enough of that. Time for a change, I reckon. Time to spout off some opinions and discussions, controversial or not. Who’s with me?? I figure you’ll either love me or hate me for those opinions but I am what I am and that’s all that I can be.

Anyway, for now, here’s a couple of pictures that show how red my tattoo was when first finished. See? Brave indeed!