Home

Home, a set on Flickr.

This is a project I did for my Kent Connections lecture @ Canterbury Christ Church University. It had to be images of our home, and what made it home for us. A little background info for you: my mother and her partner run a pub in Dartford, and that is where I consider my home to be. It is a lovely pub that I have ten years of memories of.

The meaning behind the ink

A friend recently asked me what the meaning was behind my tattoos, and I didn't know how to reply. I chose and designed my tattoos instinctively, and although I spent many months laboriously designing them, the original idea remained the same.

My first tattoo, was four coloured stars behind my ear. I always wanted something small for my first tattoo, and somewhere I could hide it. (I got this one in Stars and Swallows, Dartford, http://www.localstore.co.uk/store/729449/stars-and-swallows/dartford/)

Don't get me wrong: I love my tattoos and am proud of them. However, some people don't agree. Luckily, my workplace don't mind my tattoos as they are not offensive. And how could they be: I've got stars and butterflies.

The stars, which I got as a present from my step-father, represent my climb to success. I started university last September, so my eighteenth birthday was even more important, because it meant I was going to be on my way forward to an adventure I would never forget.

My second tattoo, I got at the beginning of 2013, is a butterfly on a vine on my right shoulder. I love this, and spent a long time deciding where this butterfly should perch on my skin. This one is blue and purple merged, with green leaves on the vines.

My third tattoo, is something I had always wanted but never been brave enough to get: a wrist tattoo. My wrist butterfly is on a beautiful curve of vines, and has the same colours as her sister on my shoulder.



My two butterfly tattoos, I acquired when living in Folkestone, http://www.bigtattooplanet.com/directory/clothing/deadmans-body-piercing-tattooing.


 I have always loved butterflies. I think they are delicate and graceful, and symbolic.

Butterflies mean change to me: they are born humble caterpillars, and then they cocoon, learn the ways of the world, and the meaning of growth, and emerge these beautiful flying creatures with bright colours; flying around the world showing off their wings. I think butterflies are proud: they have changed for the better, there's nothing wrong with that.

I think I have butterflies because life is always changing, we as people are always changing, and we should embrace it, not stay caterpillars and hide away in our dusty cocoons.

So, my friend, and my dear readers, my tattoos represent me: aiming for the stars, and forever changing. Happy with that answer, society?

I don't get homesick....

I don't get homesick, I didnt think I would. I don't miss the town, or the streets, or the places. I don't miss the noise, or even the people. I miss leaving my home and knowing someone out there, in that ignorant little town, would be someone to recognise. A friend, family, a hate, a love.

But maybe, that is why I'm not homesick - because Im not the sad little girl that they remember. And I never will be.

The Stage Door, March 2013