(Sorry about the dearth of photos – we’re trying to talk someone with nicer fingernails than I do into modeling. Trust me on this one; no one wants to see close up pictures of my fingernails. I’ll update this as soon as they’re available.)
The Development
I generally like tattoos. I love hearing why people decided on them, how they picked an artist to work with, how they picked locations and colors and so on and so forth. I’ve considered getting them myself. I’ve been playing music in one form or another since I was about three, and having a permanent marker of it has its appeal. There’s a common tattoo I’ve seen on string musicians, of a pair of F-Holes situated somewhere on their body. On women, it’s oftentimes across the back, in homage to Man Ray’s iconic photograph of his model, Kiki.
But there’s a tricky little twist. I hate the idea of the actual tattoo process; I’m absolutely terrified of needles. I don’t know why. With some of my other phobias (ie: Dentists) there’s a hilarious series of events, but I’ve never had a particularly unpleasant experience with syringes. My veins are remarkably easy to find, and my pain threshold is pretty high. The actual puncturing experience doesn’t bother me very much. But holding still while someone comes at me with a syringe is one of those teeth-grinding, slow breathing experiences usually reserved for New Wave French Horror films. Phlebotomists have to double their efforts to make comforting, cooing noises when I end up in their chair. Nurses are encouraged to put up with my terrified nonsense. Tattoo artists are noticeably less tolerant.
Clearly a compromise was required, so I got out the graph paper and got to doodling. An evening of stitching later, and I had an f-hole gauntlet. I decided to put F-Holes on either side of the hand – partly so I could justify fair-isleing them, partly so that I could wave to people, partly so I didn’t have to pay too much attention when I was putting them on to which hands were which.
This is a quick weekend project for fairly abbreviated gloves, though you can continue the ribbing as far up the wrist as you’d like. Ribbing forgives most sins. The purl eyelet castoffs are not particularly stylish, but I like for the cast-off edges to have some give to them.
