Tattoo-Worthy

Me1 Me! Me!!! Pick me!

I actually have several tattoos. I have a few others that are planned in the near future.

My tat-worthy dream is to travel the world and meet different cultures. Something I would consider doing is inking the word love on my body in each country in their native language. :)

I can’t wait for my daughters to tell the story of my journey to my grandchildren when I am too old to share anymore. My daughters will know my story, their story, our History because it will be inked on my body.

my big tat-worthy dream would be to sell one (or many) of my songs to someone- in order to do this, i’d have to get my stuff in the hands of big important people…which feels equivalent to winning the lottery.

Hey, hey, Teevee! —

Thanks for going first! Glad you’re here. I appreciate the renegade who breaks in the comment box for the others. :)

I actually clicked over to your blog through the CommentLuv link and saw in your sidebar that one of your most popular posts is about your tattoos, so I read it. And I liked it.

As I said, I’m not tattooed. But my brother *heavily* is, and so is his wife. Their 3-year old daughter learned the word “tattoo” early, and has always stuck stickers on her arms {and on others’ arms} to replicate them. {Didn’t realize what she doing until she was old enough to say the word “tattoo.” We just thought she liked to share her stickers.}

Your idea of the word “love” in many languages is appealing. If you ever start doing that, please hook us up with a pictorial. I’ve always thought if I WERE to ever get a tat {no, Mom, I really *won’t*} it would definitely be a word. Fun to think about.

Hoping your presence here will bring more men out of the woodwork!

— Abby

Hi, Kerri —

That is a very tat-worthy dream! What genre of music do you create and perform? Can you compare your style to anyone else’s?

I’ve been involved in a Money Class hosted via teleseminar by Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz and Sinclair from Self Activator. {Two amazing teachers that you should check out if you don’t already.} A lot of the work we did around our money issues was based on neuroscientific findings. *Very* hot stuff. One of the exercises involved seeing, feeling, and experiencing ourselves IN our Money Outcome — vividly conjuring up the place we’d be standing, who’d be with us, what we’d look like, what we’d be doing, and actually FEELING physically {as well as we could} what it’d feel like to be there.

THEN..after you’re in that place…you look BACKWARD and you see the PATH you took to get there. What were the exact steps you took and in what exact order? What were the decisions you made? What were the meetings you had? And you see, choice by choice, *exactly* how you arrived at your Money Outcome. This is not that woo-woo; it’s about creating a new neural pathway in your brain to get it ready for the Outcome you *will* have. I believe it’s gonna work!

Sharing this because I thought it might be an interesting exercise for you to try with your Music Outcome. :)

Thanks for being here, Kerri!

— Abby

What Abby says works amazingly well. I am pretty well studied in those kinds of processes and can speak to their effectiveness.

There are several musical websites that allow you to share your music and sell it as well. There are tons of people out there that love independent musicians like yourself. I personally would love to hear your music and would be happy to buy a song from you.

Thank you for checking out my site! :) I will definitely be posting images of this journey as it happens.

As for the men coming out of the woodworks… I would love to do that for you . That’s kind of tricky but I accept your challenge since I am trying to do the same thing for the PTA at my daughters’ school.

Wondering if my rather feminine site design makes some men opt-out. But it’s still super early so I’m not too worried.

Meanwhile, thanks for being my token male reader. :)

Saw the comment about “feminine site design” and had to chuckle…being in the antique/vintage world, I think of men who sell at the flea markets or are pickers…I would not imagine they would FB, Tweet, or Blog…my students are going to be researching “He said, she said” this fall, and I imagine the gender discussions will be dynamite…but I believe we ARE different…even as everyone has tried to use the “tramp stamp” as my students call it to be different…”everyone” ended up with tatoos…so maybe the dream Tatoo would be “me 2” :-)

Thanks so much for the shout out Abby dearest! :D So glad to see you’re paying the Whopper forward! lol

Don’t count me as an entry, but I’d say a tat worthy dream of mine would be to publish a record. Not necessarily to be a big singer, but simply because I love to sing (whether or not I’m any good is debatable!) and it’d be awesome to record my own album someday just to say I did. That would definitely be ink worthy.

In fact, ink is already on my agenda, in the form of my two babies and their names. I’m thinking one down the bottom of each forearm! ;) But so far, I’m still a little wary of the pain. lol

c

Susan —

I do sometimes think about what my generation and younger will look like when we’re all 80 years+. Those shriveled up tattoos sure will look interesting!

— Abby

Cori —

Do you karaoke?

BTW, I’m secretly a singer in my fantasies, too. Never had any vocal training but I think I may have some decent raw facility.

— Abby

Hi Abby,

I think what you’ve decided to do with all your gifts is fabulous! It’s incredible to think that you could meld being a small business owner, writer, teacher, closet singer…and create Abby Kerr Ink. It’s genius. So here I am, a 30-something mother of three who started in on entrepreneurship by chance. I have always loved decorating, saw a sign at a local home and garden shop advertising dealer space, and jumped in thinking that selling some revived antique furniture and boutiquish (is that even a word?) wholesale smalls would be a great hobby.

Here I am almost three years later just coming out of some serious debt that I got myself into when I realized that in order to sell stuff, you need to continue to buy stuff. My little hobby turned into a brief solo shop effort, then a short-lived partnership, and here I am back in a group shop because I don’t have the guts to just get out of the business. There is something about being a dealer that feeds my secret addiction to shopping and decorating – but that’s for another post.

Like you, I was an English Major in college, have a MA in Teaching high school English, and another partially completed MA in writing and publishing. In the six years that I have been home with my kids, I have written for a local newspaper, been a Sunday school teacher, and of course, served as dreamer in my confused dependence (oops) I mean business, Thistlebees. While I am not a tat-girl myself, if I could figure out how to meld my talents and joys into one meaningful, powerful force that combines writing, decorating, gardening/farming (yes, I have always wanted a few chickens and a couple pygmy goats running around the place) with oodles of English Breakfast tea , I would ink the hell of out of a piece of paper and tape it to my arm. I’m sorry. I just can’t do the tat-thing but I’d be ever-so-happy to “pay it forward,” and have a free tattoo giveaway open to all my loyal customers/followers of my shop/tea house/flower farm/web publication/magazine.

Best,

Amy

We will be little raisins full of stories. I imagine courses on the art of deciphering them.

Ps
love being a token.

Um, Amy, could we possibly be related? Because we have so much in common it’s eerie! Your comment had me laughing out loud in several parts {love the “I would ink the hell out of a piece of paper and tape it to my arm”}. Going to visit your blog so I can read more stuff like *that*!

In all seriousness, why is it that when some of us [ahem–me and you–ahem] enter retail, we don’t seem to understand that replenishment at a sustainable pace is the biggest battle? I remember telling my mom on Day One of my shop: “If I sell it for more than I bought it for, that’s called profit!” Oh, I had sooooo much to learn.

Very glad you’re here, and please know that I will support the hell out of your future shop/tea house/flower farm/web publication/magazine. Let me know what you’d like more of around here.

— Abby

Only once or twice have I karaoked! Mainly because I can’t seem to get anyone to go with me, and I’m too chicken to go alone! LOL Come visit and we’ll do a karaoke girls night. ;)

I’ve had a bit of training here and there, but nothing major to sneeze at. It’s simply something I love to do.

C

Well Abby, I already have one of those stamps on my ankle. It’s a couple small feathers tied to a circle, sort of like a dreamcatcher.
My tat worthy dream would include my hand painted gifts being sold nationwide.
The dream goes like this… I get the financing to mass produce a line of gift items, cutesy, fun, girly, and whimsical personalized items, this will enable me to sell nationwide. My company becomes wildly successful. My hubby quits his very hard, physical labor job, and comes to work for me (you should see the UNIFORM I have in mind for him!). We work and are profitable together, he has time for golf and we all get to vacation a couple times a year. Eventually someone will buy my company and we retire together. So perhaps the word TOGETHER would be my tat!

Hazel{have I mentioned that I love your name?} —

I admire how clear you are on your tat-worthy dream. You are SO much closer to realizing it when you can see, feel, and taste yourself there, right down to your husband’s uniform. ;)

— Abby

No tats here either. I do have a dream that I am currently working to make a reality. My tat worthy dream is an online boutique – I like to think of it as a “lifestyle” brand more than a shop because the idea of a brand has such a bigger presence. There are thousands of little online shops, mine will be a brand. The dream of my brand is based around creating the life I want to live. I want the freedom to CHOOSE. I am going to pick this time. I get to decide, and create the life I desire. This is good stuff right?
I am obsessed with the French language, culture, and lifestyle, I want a simple life. I want to live anywhere I choose – or stay right where I am if that’s best. I want to have a flexible schedule so I can be with my husband and children. I like beautiful things. I want to spend time as much time as possible in France. My right people are out there, they have the same obessessions, and there are lots of them.
My husband I have run a small business for seven years . I have the skills and knowledge to do this and the resources (Abby Kerr Ink for example) to learn what I don’t know. When I make it a reality I think I’ll make my tat a word too, I’ll make it a french word and I’ll get it in Paris (my favorite city). I’ve already picked the artist :)

Hey, Signe —

Another great name! How do you pronounce it? SIG-nee?

Very smart of you to recognize even before beginning that these days, an online shop has to be so much more than just selling stuff. It’s got to be a brand that taps into its visitors aspirations. Lots of layers of psychology involved, I have to think, when getting people to part with their hard-earned money for non-essentials, especially these days. {Hence, my note about figuring out what your right people WANT as opposed to need in my “What Does Your Marketplace Look Like?” post.}

As for a location-independent lifestyle, have you checked our Everett Bogue’s blog, Far Beyond the Stars? http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/He and his 0 partner live a location-independent life and he runs his business entirely online. But I think he only lives with 50 things, so that’s a bit of a different mindset than running an online boutique. :) Still might be worth checking out, though. His posts are thoughtful and practical at the same time.

Glad you’re here, Signe!

— Abby

I have several random tat-worthy dreams:

1. owning a bakery that sells the most exquisitely decorated treats and confections. and the goods wouldn’t just look nice, they’d taste heavenly too. i’d call the shop “the plump toad.”

2. owning a shop w/ stationary, wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and so forth. i’m talking about really great stuff too – not your typical curling ribbon and basic paper, but ribbons in all textures and materials, paper that looks good enough to be put on a wall, etc. the shop would promote the “art” of gift wrapping & old-fashioned, hand-written correspondence!

3. performing on broadway. singing + dancing. i’d love to just put it all out there and express myself. some of my best memories are from performing in shows back in high school. now i just perform in my living room while watching ‘glee’ ;)

Hey, Francie —

So glad you’re here! I’ve known you for a while but I had *no idea* you had any of the dreams you shared. And they are *all* so tat-worthy! I really like the bakery being called The Plump Toad. I dig unexpected names. Any backstory on this one?

And next time I’m watching “Glee,” you better believe I’ll be envisioning you in your living room mixing it up!

— Abby

Backstory :: Remember when you were little and everyone had to have a favorite animal? Well, mine was always frogs. I’m not really sure why – I didn’t have a pet toad or frog, and, though I was always on the look-out, I didn’t even see them outside very often. But for whatever reason, I decided I liked them. I did projects about poison dart frogs for school, collected all sorts of frog figurines, and even made this hideous clay frog in art class when I was like seven years old (which I still have!).

Anyway, though my collection is now packed away in boxes, I continue to get a kick out of these guys! My husband also shares my affinity for amphibians, and our first pet was the *coolest* tree frog ever. Before I digress too far on the saga of Bubs the Tree Frog though, suffice it to say this is my backstory!

Well, whether it is feminine or not, I totally dig your site. But then again, I did write an entire post on the fact that I’m a grown married man with kids…who loves unicorns. Ha!

My background is this:
Artist, singer, designer, techie, public speaker, and writer. As you might imagine, there is a lot of visual work done on computer with a strong emphasis on communication and marketing. A year ago when I was part of a mass layoff, I realized I wanted nothing to do with corporate America anymore. Having a family, I am still in corporate America but for only a short time more.

Which brings me to my dream:
I love people. I absolutely love them and want to help those who are hurting and feel trapped in their life. I believe that we don’t have to stay victims to the circumstances we’ve found ourselves in. My goal is to bring that message to as many people as I can. The “right people” are those who are willing to look at their life, accept responsibility for what they CAN change, and are willing TO change. I believe leaders are grown, not born. I want to create leaders who can then go in to their spheres of influence and bring the same message to the hurting people THEY encounter.

The first phase of my dream is to create an online brand to demonstrate that I care about people and that I have had success in this message that I am preaching. The next phase will be to begin coaching people more closely so that I can provide an additional set of eyes to their circumstances and help them to see the areas that they can be free from. As I progress through that phase, I intend to document as much as possible and identify the trends that people repeat. From that, I will begin to format my teaching (AND what I’ve learned) in to a format that can be consumed by a larger audience without the need for my direct intervention.

In addition to what I just listed, I will be focusing a fair amount of energy on creating products that appeal to very specific niches. They will be niches that already spend money and look for new ways to do so. The reason for this is to fuel my main dream.

Long term, I hope to be able to speak publicly and provide inspiration to those who are still captive to their circumstances. If we are dreaming big here, I am shooting for book deals long term too. Why not, right? It’s MY dream. :)

My motivation for all of this is that I want to provide the best possible life for my beautiful wife and gorgeous daughters. I want them to live knowing that they ARE amazing “snowflakes” and that they have been created unique; that NO ONE will ever be like them and that means that they have such an amazing gift to give the world. I consider them royalty and want them to always know that is how I view them. I want to be a man that makes a difference when most of the men in my life did not.

So that is a quick view in to my background, dream, and reason for it all.

I love that you asked this question!

@David – And I love that this question resonated for you! With your passion and commitment, I KNOW that you will see all this come to pass and more than you even expected! I admire how you have a very clear picture of where you want to go and why.

Question for you: is there anything you can share with us to help those of us who have a general idea of what interests us but for some reason can’t get clarity and direction? What’s your secret?

Is your wife a blogger, too? Just curious.

Oh, this is a good one! Abby, I love your site and I love what you’re doing here.
My tat-worthy dream (one of them, anyway) is publishing my novel to rave reviews.

Thanks, Emma! So glad you’re here and having fun.

P.S. {Your tat-worthy dream is one of mine, too.}

Hi Abby—OK here goes. My tat worthy dream is to help people going through hard times. By hard times I mean after losing a loved one. I have been writing a book in my head for a few years now. The backstory is this—a little over three years ago I lost my son to suicide. He had suffered from depression for about ten years and finally could not take it anymore. That is where this story begins. After his death I went through the stages of grief. Then depression and finally recovery-still going through recovery and maybe always will be. I want to help others who have been through similer experiences. I think death is the last taboo subject in the world today and we don’t know how to talk about it, but it helps to talk about it. I think creating a blog would be a great way to do this. I’m stuck on a blog/website name so if anyone out there has any ideas I would appreciate the feedback ( I would like to keep it a positive name so I don’t scare people away). After my son died I started crocheting again which led to sewing and beading. I now sell my items in a few local stores but would also like to incorporate a boutique on my web-site. So when this dream is a reality and I am blogging daily and helping people with my insight, I will be deciding on the type of tat I want to get(that is if I can stand the pain, I really don’t like pain). If I were to get one it would probley be angels wings with my son Ben’s name curving around the one side of the wings. That’s my tat worthy dream. Thanks for asking.

Thanks Abby—Your e-course and links to other blogs have helped already. Keep the info coming and we will see my dream become a reality together.
Annette