Progress Update

This past month I began to design the cross I'll be getting and had some conversations with my parents about it. They are okay with the idea of it and I managed to reassure my dad about the safety precautions that the tattoo parlours take. The only disagreement we have so far is about the size, and we agreed that we'll discuss it after I choose a design. 

The thing with designing it is that it doesn't have to be PERFECTLY precise. You can just come up with the general idea and the artists will make it symmetrical and perfect it. The designs I've made were mainly coptic crosses with a regular cross incorporated in the middle somehow. I'm not sure if I really like that but the idea is to try to get both in one because they are both important to me. The designs I've done so far haven't really fully pleased me so I'll keep working on them. At this point however, it's looking like I might stick with the typical orthodox cross (regular cross but 3 circles at each end.) This way, I get the look and feel of the regular cross but the orthodox aspect is not forgotten. Altogether, I still have some thinking to do about it yet, and I'll talk to my mentor and maybe my priest about what they think.

One obstacle I've been facing is laziness. I keep telling my self that this is something easy and that I'll be able to finish it in no time, but last week, when I was actually designing during my free time, I sort of remembered that I'm a perfectionist and the tiniest errors annoy me. This means I'll have to really work hard and have time set aside for this and not let it slip away till exams are just around the corner.

So far, there hasn't been much for my mentor to do. Designing the cross is more of a personal thing for me and once that's done then I'll really need his help with picking a place and finding quality work at a reasonable price. I know that some tattoo parlours price by the piece so after I'm done designing it I'll visit those places to get a quote and see if it costs less than the other places that price by the hour. 

One more thing is that my cousin has been wanting get the coptic cross tattoo as well and wants to come with me. After we both choose our designs we've decided to call the places again and see if we could both get our tattoos in the same hour to have the price combined for us both since this tattoo will likely only take about 15 minutes or less. I don't really think they'd be willing to do that but there's no harm in asking! 

In my next couple posts, I'll share the rough designs I had so far, and I'll also share the story of how the coptic cross tattoo came to be a 'thing' in the first place.