What is Mikey's Yarn Tattoo?

Marly Bird planted the idea of doing a tattoo. I have two but are in positions of my body that you only see them if I am topless or wearing a tank top, which is rarely to never. I did it there so I could be professional and hide the tattoos from judgement.

Previous Tattoo

What people don't realize is that the painting Daniel and I did when we were first met in 2009, we did an exercise of painting a 6 foot x 4 foot mural on canvas. The Celtic Moon on the upper left is my pride tattoo that is on my upper left arm. It's hidden most of the time.

My first partner, Keith and I, share the same tattoo. We had a short stent together. Though I was 28 years old, he was 21 and we were too far apart in life experiences and interest to make us work. Our goals were not aligned. It taught me to stay within my own age of dating so I wasn't haviing to educate my partner what the 80s were like. Daniel and I are just a year difference and I am older than him.

Daniel was in a state of confusion and trying to find himself with the clouds over his head of thoughts. His mother died a few months before I met him. At the time, both of us lost as I was just out of a long term relationship and not sure what is next for me.

Karen and I thought about tattoos earlier in 2025 and I thought. I'm at the point where if I get a tattoo that is visible, it's in 2026, who cares. Most of my life is now lived as the rest of my journey is shorter than my experiences of the past.

On The Down Low with Marly Bird

Daniel and I met up with Marly Bird and her husband, John, in early fall 2025 right here in Nova Scotia. Both of us kept this quiet. I didn't snap any photography of our visit. It was the first time seeing Marly without work or a group of crocheters and knitters behind us. It was enjoyable.

I didn't want to turn this visit into a social media opportunity, nor did Marly. We were just ourselves sharing experiences in and out of our professions.

John had a tattoo on board Virgin Voyages that was docked in Nova Scotia and it was impressive. It was detailed and art all to itself. It planted the seed.

It also opened up the question, based on Marly's experience on board Virgin about enquiring if Virgin is right for The Crochet Cruises. She had honest, no filters, point of view. I even told her to look around and speak to someone about her hosting her own party on board the vessel in the future.

We talked to our agent and inquired if we could do a Crochet Cruise on board Virgin Voyages.

Virgin Voyages invited us to come down for a tour and a short 4-night voyage which is the first of the two runs of a crochet cruise for 2027. For transparency, this was not a free thing to do but gave us tour operator rates. We toured the ship for two-hours with two Virgin Voyages Rep to go through meeting spaces, activities and things we can do together. We will have more details about this at a later time.

Setting Up Appointment & AI Image

Knowing we were there for a short cruise, I was in line at the on-board tattoo parlour when they opened up. I presented an idea of what I was looking for. Haley greeted me and heard my goals. She snapped a photograph of my concept and set me up for the next day. Quoting 3 to 4 hours due to the detail.

I gave instructions with an AI photograph that I generated in 2025. I asked AI to show me a yarn watch that is focused around social media. It gave me several options and I really like this but without the blue neon. I wanted the logos of social media icons somehow incorporated onto the social media watch and onto the band itself.

Social Media Watch

I'm just calling this the social media watch as I wanted it around my wrist as if it's a real watch, not like the AI Image. The watch has meaning for me which I will share later.

Haley, drew out a very close representation and had knowledge about sizing so her image was the right size for my wrist. I changed a couple things which I will tell you about.

I wanted the centre of the heart to have a thumbs up for Facebook. I only put on the logo representing YouTube and Instagram. I'll tell you why later. I don't use Tik Tok as I think the USA will one day ban it and I don't want that on my body to be permanent. I didn't use the Facebook logo as I though the thumbs up in the positioning was enough of a representation.

Colouring

I told Haley she is the artist that I didn't want my tattoo to be on the nose gay. Mix up the colours to be random as I struggle with random but love it. I left the colouring to her imagination on what worked best.

Haley lightly did the gears in the watch that mean something to me with the heart being a focal point. With notifications coming off the sides as my life revolves around goals and social media updates.

The tattoo is two stencils of her imagined watch and something she had match the indentation needed to make the watch stand off.

Haley lightly shaded some areas and highlighted others. It turned out magnificent. I was done by the end of this, four hours was a long time and I grew tired of resisting the pricks of the needles.

Haley has done only another watch in her career and she said it wasn't as nearly as detailed. She was genuinely excited to execute my vision and also use her own creativity for colouring.

The Meaning of My Tattoo

I didn't want a crochet hook or any words applied to my body. I enjoy knitting, loom knitting, weaving and crochet. I didn't want to make it crochet centric.

• The band represents community in how we are intertwined with each other. With colouring being random, a reflection that each of us around unique and figure out how to work it out for connectivity.
• In the band are YouTube and Instagram representations. Both are meaningful for me as community within those platforms mean a lot to me. I wanted to see YouTube first when I see my arm as I have to turn my arm slightly over for Instagram.
• The heart, an organized heart yarn ball. Diversity and pride centric without being in any order as I don't organize people in order of their lives. We find diversity.
• Behind the heart are the gears. A bit chaotic, not completely defined but there as I am still trying to figure out my life. The mechanics of life swirling in my head.
• The white circle is the circle of The Crochet Crowd logo of encompassing community, connected to together for the love of yarn.
• The notifications reminding me I am accountable to create content but also stay up to date, not just in crochet or yarn, but in life. Don't get trapped within a bubble, which I struggle with.
• The white thumbs up is a symbolism of the like button on Facebook but for me in this watch, it's a reminder to like myself and realize though negativity comes my way, I need to find a way to find the lesson, learn from it and to not be too hard on myself.
• There's always time to create, a time to disengage from social media. A time to doom scroll and a time to put the social media away and create something tangible with my hands.
• The twisting dial on the side is to figure out sometimes, I need to reset myself and give it a wind to continue onward.

Daniel Doesn't Like Tattoos

Daniel doesn't like tattoos but is contiplating one for himself, in a meaning that represents him. His body is his own choice. I know whatever he decides, it will reasonate for him. Him wearing my watch as a tattoo has zero meaning for him.

Do what makes you happy. I didn't ask for the pattern she used to make this watch as I think whatever you do, don't duplicate, make it your own.

Show me your yarn related tatoo below.