BLOGGING: Illustrated Teacup is changing direction

I've recently had a little break from blogging so posts have been a little sparse at the beginning of June - I was on holiday too but I kind of lost my mojo a little.
Anyway, whilst on my blogging break I had a little think about the direction of this blog.

I love writing about tattoos, and judging from my top ranking posts, you love reading about them too, but I also want to share other parts of my life. I guess it comes down to the future.
My home and dream is to start a family soon, and I want to be able to blog about our adventures, so I've decided to start that transition now.

I will still blog about tattoos as they are a huge part of my life, including new tattoos, interviews and conventions, but I will be posting a lot more lifestyle, fashion and beauty posts, and eventually some family orientated posts too. Think Love Taza, with a tattoo twist (I'm kind of in love with this family)!

TATTOOS: Why price isn't everything

It can be a bit of a touchy subject in  almost any situation... the question of cost.

And it is especially true when discussing tattoos.

No one wants to be ripped off, especially for something that you are going to have to live with for the rest of your life. And it is so easy to get bogged down by the price of everything in today's society.
But with tattoos, price should not be the determiner.

The saying goes

"Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good"

And to a certain extent this is very true.

Many badly designed or created tattoos are from people or 'scratchers' who have had no training, and bought a tattoo machine from the internet and are 'working' from their kitchen. In this instance, you really are paying for what you get. It will be cheap because the 'work' is likely to be substandard and potentially risky.

TATTOOS: Five things only tattooed people understand

Being a heavily tattooed person can lead to some unique situations and experiences. I
I've been heavily tattooed for three years and have experienced some strange and unusual things. 

And I'm not the only one... it seems our little community have all had our fair share of unusual things to deal with courtesy of our ink.

LIFESTYLE: The love and hate of dating a bearded man

They are quite the fashion trend right now.
And my husband has one.
Yes, a beard.

He hasn't always had a beard. In fact he's spent about 80% of our relationship clean shaven (photo below, on the left is 2008 and the right is 2015 - I really upped my eyebrow game recently!).

But last year he decided to grow a beard. I think he was inspired by the beards of stereotypical tattooed men, and the increase in cool beard products.

So over a year later and he still loves his beard. And I have to admit, I do too.

So I thought I would share some of the great things and not so great things about living with a bearded man.

TATTOOS: How I prepare for a tattoo session

So after many many tattoos in my seven year history of collecting, I've  learnt a few tricks of the trade when it comes to sitting through some of the longer, tougher sessions. 

I'm  pretty much a complete wuss when it comes to tattoos. My pain threshold is pretty minimal. I mean indigestion has me in tears... I am a huge cry baby. 

Anyway, in my time I have successfully sat for a number of tattoos lasting longer than three hours. In fact, I'm  currently writing this post whilst sitting through a three hour tattoo. My longest tattoo session was six hours. I'm  not going to lie to you.. it was f**king tough, and really hard work. I've  also cried during two tattoos (I did keep going) and have come close a number of times to just stopping midway through  a session (but I persevered through to the end!), so I do know what many of you will be thinking  and going through.