Does My New Skull Tattoo Make My Chanel Earrings Look Hardcore?

I went into Chanel 5th Avenue but I didn't WANT to go in to Chanel 5th Avenue. High end shops make me feel inferior and angry.

Given the once over by a sales assistant. Disdain on both sides. Two years ago Dave and I came to New York together and he bought a nice suit from Yves Saint Laurent. To balance his guilt, he dragged me into Chanel to buy ME something but I didn't want anything. Ended up buying the cheapest thing there, a pair of sandals. Also some earrings.

We got home and I broke the sandals and lost an earring - I seriously cannot have nice things.

Packing for this trip, Dave's like, "Hey let's take those broken Chanel sandals back and exchange them." Which just seemed like the logical thing to do. (I could never throw them away so they've sat in my cupboard for two years.)

There was no way I was walking into Chanel with broken sandals like an underdressed slack-jawed yokel. Dave doesn't care about high-end shops ... just walks in and starts talking to the doorman, the sales assistant - ANYBODY. And I stand back and feel shame. 

Chanel offered a full refund on my sandals, so I had to walk around and pick something else and it made me feel angry. All the pretty things in the exclusive shop. I chose some new earrings and a necklace as quick as I could. Asked if I could take a photo and the lady said yes and then right as I was about to take it, security came up to me and said "MA'AM YOU CANNOT TAKE PHOTOS IN THIS STORE."

Everybody looked so I stood there like an IDIOT and almost said "Mate, I don't even want to BE in your store." 

If you ever want me to do something? Tell me I'm not allowed to do it. Stuff your rules, Chanel.

Behold, forbidden pictures.

Thing is, I'm quite partial to my new Chanel earrings and necklace and I'm disgusted in myself. A few months ago I was in Africa for World Vision documenting a food crisis and now I have pretty shiny things in my ears and neck. What would Cate Bolt think of my new Chanel earrings? I daresay she'd sell them in a Foundation 18 auction quicker than you can say "materialistic wanker." And I just might.  Or I might not.

God DAMN you Chanel.

Next logical thing to do on this trip that will not end ... is get the biggest tattoo of my life.

Sure. My friend Morgan recommended Daredevil Tattoo over on the Lower East Side. Dave went there for his last week, and he took me in yesterday for mine. Which I tried to back out of, because my headspace at the moment is not great and I just thought what a waste of money it was to get a tattoo that will end up being cremated or rotting in the ground because one day I'll be dead.

Welcome!

The very cool and talented Diego Mannino drew up a design based on what I wanted and BAM. Starts the tattoo.

He had done one long line of the skull outline and I thought, maybe I could just have that? One long line, symbolising my big wait at the Empire State the other day? No. I just sat there for an hour and a half while he drilled needles and ink into my skin.

ARGHH, ME HEARTIES!

Diego is such a lovely and talented guy ... I even met his wife Lolly. You can contact him HERE and his blog is HERE. If you're ever in the market for a tatt while in NYC, he's your guy.

His favourite Australian band is the Saints - so cool. Dave and I told him we'll sponsor him to come to Australia to tattoo all our friends. Mum? You in?

There's my girl.
 

So I'm freshly tattooed wearing Chanel, walking around NYC and have been really, really ready to go home for about a week now. There was this kind of emergency that impacted my children so my sister Leigh took a four-hour trip yesterday afternoon to go pick them up and now they're at her house, waiting for us to get home. Sorry kids - mummy's wearing Chanel getting a new tattoo because mummy is forty years old! I feel like the mother from Flowers in the Attic. I feel like a mother who doesn't care. Leigh, I owe you. I OWE YOU SO BAD. Thank god for my family. I love them. I'm planning some kind of trip that we can all go on. Me and mum and my sisters. And you. Do you want to come? You should come. Did you know your comments single-handedly helped my mother keep her head above water the other week, as she lay next to her husband waiting for him to die? Yeah. Blogs can do that.

Leigh text me last night telling me she'd just tucked Rocco up in bed with some Mario toys and a weeny puppy dog toy. And she told me that if he shits in her house, she will kill me.

We're flying back tomorrow. There will be one more blog post while I'm in America, something I've been working on since I've been here.

Jim would have been proud of it.

What did I do during said emergency yesterday? Why, went to see a Broadway show of course! I rang my other sister Linda and told her I didn't WANT to see a Broadway show. I don't want to do anything. The whole reason I came to New York is because I didn't want to be anywhere, so I may as well not want to be anywhere in NYC, right?

She replied back that there's no point trying to enjoy myself anymore, and to just eat my way through the remainder of my trip.

My sisters are the boss of me.

::

I have been flown to NYC for BlogHer 2012 courtesy of Maybelline NY .... the makeup counters are AWESOME over here and I keep adding to my collection. Especially the Tattoo Eyeshadow.