*photo by Rez Graham

Here it is, my latest tattoo of the Hindu Goddess Saraswati. She is the goddess of knowledge, music, and art.

A few months ago, I finally drew a design I was happy with:

Goddess Saraswati design

The most important part of the story though, is that the phenomenal Angelique Sanders of Maryland was spending some time in San Francisco. She was a guest artist at my favorite tattoo shop: One Shot Tattoo which conveniently is located a mere 4 blocks from my home! So after trading emails for 6 months we finally met. She took my original artwork and did her magic! I was lucky enough to get a day she didn’t have any appointments…really just a few before she was leaving San Francisco.

I spent 6 hours chatting with Angel as she worked on my arm. She did it all in one sitting. This is my fourth tattoo and the first by a female tattoo artist. It was an awesome experience. Most of the time I could barely feel the needle. However, I also finally learned first-hand, that getting inked over bone is not pleasant at all. This is the first time I’ve had a needlework over the wrist-bone as well as near the elbow. Not fun…though now that I’ve been through it – I know I could endure it on my other arm. Not only did she have the magic touch, but the healing process was much quicker this time. It was all healed up about a week later. Usually, my tattoos have taken closer to 14or 17 days to completely heal.

 

I continue to work on the designs for my sleeves and can’t wait to get worked on again by Angel! She’s got a great sense of humor. She’s an amazing painter and tattoo artist. I’m looking forward to her next California trip.

“Desi” (sounds kinda like “they see”) in several Indian languages refers to people or things from India. It can roughly be translated also as “native”.