When I stopped Tattoo Tuesday in May after doing it for over two years (123 of them, never skipping a week!), I fully intended to bring it back once fall came around. At the time though it had grown stale, my enthusiasm for it totally gone. And I think it showed. All summer I thought about when I would want to bring it back, and I realized as more time passed that this feature was done. It had run its course. It was an amazing 2+ years and I feel so happy with its outcome; I love that I was able to feature so many amazing people and their beautiful artwork, start a dialogue about tattoos, and maybe even smash one or two preconceived notions about "tattooed people." I featured mothers, fathers, doctors, lawyers, dancers, teachers, artists, bloggers, a police woman, hair stylists and even an archaeologist. It was awesome.
And now a few months after stopping the feature, I realize that it just needs to be what it is and was, a wonderful thing I did, but not something I will continue. I never want to do anything half-assed here, or do something I don't enjoy. And to be honest, I stopped enjoying it a long time ago. I get emails, messages and tweets almost every single day about Tattoo Tuesday (where is it? when am I bringing it back?) so I thought it was time to finally address it.
Thank you so much to all of you who participated, for those I featured and for those I never got a chance to post. I appreciate all of you taking the time to share little bits of your world with me and the audience here. And thank you to all of you who made this feature such a success.
I'm waxing a bit poetic in this post I know (I tend to be a little over dramatic at times anyway), but it is kind of a big deal to me to just stop because it was such a large part of this blog for so long.
The archives will always be up, of course. Farewell Tattoo Tuesday, it's been a good run!