On her personal page I told you what the word 'irie' means, remember?
Well, over the years I feel that this word fits our little Black 'n' Silver girl even more and more. She's like a good wine becoming better and better as time goes by.
Also with the birth and arriving of Irie a whole new fase of life started of which I am very grateful.
All 'n' all good reasons for me to let Irie become kind of immortal.

©Ingrid den Boer

I could choose to buy me a personally made jewel which would be created in name of Irie, but that wasn't it. I can loose it ( and I am extremely gifted when it comes to loosing items that are valuable to me ). Also as you know you have to take off all jewellery in a lot of important situations and to me that feels like leaving behind...
So: No option!!!

Thanks to my sweet sister and talented photographer Ingrid den Boer I do have beautiful pictures of Irie - as well as her off spring - but as you know photo-albums can burn, computers can crash etc. etc. Also I have to leave them behind in all sorts occasions...
THAT WOULD BE AWFUL!!!

©Ingrid den Boer

Now, for a long time I had this idea and it grew in proportions more and more. In September 2010 it was high time to realize my wish and Ingrid and I went tattoo-shopping. Tattoo-shopping? Yes, to find out which artist would be able to create Irie in the right way. Each artist has his/her own style and not every painter is a Rembrandt, right?

After some serious research and shop-visits we ended up in Hoek van Holland. From the very first moment we entered the shop both Ingrid and I felt to be at the right place. Tattoo-artists/shop owners Tim and Annemarie Mansveld and Niels de Kok not only made us feel welcome but also understood exactly why, what, where and of course how!!!

Again, each artist - so also a tattoo-artist - has a specialty and for this piece of art Niels would be the one who would do the creating, drawing and finally tattooing.

Prior to this date Niels had drawn the tattoo of Irie.

This drawing had to be placed in exactly the right spot. Not too high, not too low, bit more rotated (because Irie of course needs to stand on her feet, right?), bit more on the ankle etc etc.

Finally everyone involved was pleased with the place of the tattoo and Niels could start the actual tattooing.

First Niels carefully drew the lines and after that he started to fill in the spaces...
Well, that does sound like throw in a bucket of tattoo-paint and let it dry but that's far from the truth! Each hair, each shadow, each place is actually drawn one by one...

He was very accurate and really into details. Niels took as much time for the actual tattooing as for cleaning up, overlooking the whole tattoo and move on.

Was it painful?
I found the actual tattooing not painful, but I know it depends on the spot. To me it felt like heavy scratching and I can imagine there are bodyparts where for instance the skin is thinner and the tattooing therefor is more painful.
To my suprprise more painful to me was the sitting without any movement.

Niels patiently kept on adjusting until he was finally satisfied and happy with it. Ingrid who watched Irie came to "life" was also and after seeing the result I was too!
FABULOUS WORK NIELS!!!