Clarence Universe

Can I TELL you the story of how I got this tattoo??

Starting in April of this year, I was kind of obsessed with trying to figure out which tattoo artist was going to do what specific projects on my body. And when I say which tattoo artist I mean I checked globally and have found artists that I want to put ink on me from Portland to Mexico to Russia. One of the major things that I want tattooed on me are my favorite cartoon characters. Cartoons have been a huge influence in my life, on both my personality and my passion. I'm incredibly picky about how I want them to be portrayed visually because not a lot of cartoon tattoos look very good, in my opinion. They're usually either way too dark in color or they just don't look accurate. So during my search I found Chris 51 who works out of Springfield, OR. And, if you haven't guessed by his city of location, he does a bunch of Simpsons tattoos for obvious reasons. After viewing his dazzling portfolio I immediately knew I wanted him to do ALL of my cartoon themed tattoos.

Fast forward to Friday the 13th in July of 2018, the luckiest Friday the 13th I have ever endured. When I was at work that morning, I randomly remembered that Chris made an Instagram post earlier that week that included his email address, which was not publicly declared in his bio. I went back to look at the original post, got the email address and shot him a message. When it comes to planning and organizing things ahead of time, I am kind of the queen. I was just curious about pricing because I already knew I wanted him to do work on me and exactly what work I wanted done. I wanted to plan out my trip to go fly out there to get work done sometime in the next year or two whenever I found the money and time to do this. 

When I got off work that day I experienced probably one of the greatest encounters of my life by pushing myself out of my comfort zone and going to a women's meet up for lunch. After receiving the highest form of high from absorbing all the positive energy in meeting all these beautiful souls at that event, I went home and checked my email, something I do not normally do outside of my work schedule. There was one new email in my inbox, and the message was from Chris — or rather Chris's scheduler, Katie. She said that Chris was coming to Orlando in a few weeks for a convention and would love to do this tattoo on me.

...I'm sorry. What did you just say? The universe wants this to happen sooner than later??

I don't know about you but I know for a fact there is a force in this universe that you just gotta' ride with. You just got to. Do you know how much more expensive it would have been if I flew out there? The flight, the room, the sustenance — the neeeeed to satisfy my sheer crave of exploration in a new city? Do you know how much longer I would have waited and how much more complicated and lonely it would've been? I am a huge bitch when it comes to getting inked, especially when there's shading involved. This is crazy. The whole thing is crazy... or is it?  Each day's a new adventure and each day I grow just more and more grateful for everything that happens to me. Even the bad things I'm grateful for. There's always something to be learned from and have gratitude towards in all experiences, and this one just happens to be my most favorite of all so far.