Parting is such sweet sorrow... Shakespeare

August Moon finally took off at the end of September from Delaware back to Florida. His game plan for now is a bit of a mystery but it will be either he stays in Florida or plans on returning to Delaware in the winter or spring to set up shop here once again. I am hoping for the later because this gal loves his work, his smart ass way of doing things HIS way, his humanity and not pretending to be something he is not. What you see is what you get. M.I. greatly respects independent and creative folks like that. Makes the world a much more interesting and fun place to be.

Naturally I had to have one more piece from August before he left. (No not a piece of that..... talking about INK! Get your filthy minds out of the gutter....we only talked briefly about ball gags one time...OK maybe swapped some restraining techniques, but that was it!) My birthday was at the end of September and my beloved hubby was gracious enough to give me some new ink for this blessed occasion.

I wanted ravens, bad. I have Native American roots as well and Irish and Scottish. Ravens are my Native American Totem or like an astrological symbol which is very similar to my Libra sign. And it also represents freedom in the Celtic world. But I didn't know how I wanted to represent the raven. I went on a search for ravens and ideas on the web. It was a bit tough, as it is hard to get a lot of detail or a desired pose with something that unless stuffed and mounted constantly moves, flies and is completely black. Then I came across this picture above. I immediately loved the concept of the birds escaping the cage and their more abstract look. I sent it over to August and told him to see what he could do with it, but to ditch the bitch and explained to him the significance of all the symbolism it represented for me. This recent event and post on my blog explains some of it, if you are interested. How ironic it would all come up so harshly less than a month after receiving my ravens. And believe me, looking in the mirror at my ravens over the past few weeks has been helpful to me, healing...a reminder of how far I have come and the strength I still have in me.

Needless to say my master of pain delivered as promised. He replaced the girl with just a few small links of chain that was broken, indicating this was a message of freedom. And he went with the abstract birds except for the large one on the bottom that had more detail to it.

When I arrived he had all of the elements drawn up. He cut out each bird and we began (should I say he did cause I get spanked if I question his judgement!!!) :) He carefully placed each bird until it was "just right." And damn if he didn't get it just right. This was my largest commitment to skin I have made yet and he did an incredible job!

So here it is, the ravens for the raven haired one. I cannot begin to tell you how many compliments I have had bestowed upon me thus far. I have no problem in sporting a spaghetti string tank top whenever possible to show off the treasures on my back with pride.

I already mentioned the chain, which August threw in because he "gets" me. The abstract birds escaping one at time represents the many different oppressions in my life and that to free yourself you never get out in one whole piece, but in stages as we are much more complex than one bird, but many. Such as the common analogy of an onion with many layers. You cannot get to the next until you peel away the first and so on.

I should be hearing from August soon with his new location and adventures (trust me, everything with August is an adventure.) When I hear from him, I'll post the news. I just hope the move back went well and that things are starting to settle for him. It is never easy to move, especially with the way the world and economy is right now.

The plan is eventually to have August's wife to start feeding me information and desires for this blog and help to maintain it or whatever it is they want for me to do. It is my pleasure to do so. It is strange how you develop a bond with someone who permanently alters your body for life. He and his wife are very lovely and unique individuals who I do hope to work with personally again and not just through the Internet.

And Gus...I really do hope we see you back up here. I am addicted, and you are to blame. How can one settle for less now??