I be inked!

Yes, indeed, last night I finally got my tattoo, after many weeks of waiting and waiting for the appointments to come up. I am quite happy with it, though frustrated that since it's on my back I can't see it close up, but others can and I'm jealous. Really the only way I can look at it in close detail is by looking at a blown-up photo.

But anyway, I shall stop delaying and present the tattoo:



She's like the hottest librarian you've ever seen. The idea behind the whole thing is that she's a sort of alter ego, the indie retro chick I'll probably never be, but it's still an image I love. It actually came out much different than I first imagined, but that is due to the limitations of tattooing, that the lines can't be too close or they'll bleed together over time. So instead of having the glasses on, like I pictured, she's holding them, and I imagined her with long, straight, black hair, but it wouldn't have looked very good in a tattoo, blending into the body. I also thought she'd be standing, but this position works better for where I placed it, on the left side of my lower back. If she was standing, she would take up too much of my side and go up under my bra strap or a bikini strap. Her shoes are cut off in the photo, but they're these cute red pumps.

I think it's really cool how Claudia, the tattoo artist, got a light-black effect for the stockings and gloves. The hair is highlighted with an inky blue, which gives it more depth than just making it all black. And she has her own skin colour, it's not just me showing through (which would be kind of funny, that the tattoo would tan with me, if I ever got my lower back tanned, which I don't really).

As for how it all worked, we got to the shop (House of Tattoos) around 5:30 and Claudia showed me her final drawing and it looked really good. The only thing I asked to have different was taking out a heart she'd put on the front of the dress (now it just comes to a point). Then Claudia had to set up all the ink and stuff, which took about half an hour (mostly because she was talking on the phone at the same time to a guy who was going to get a tattoo from her, which was fine, it just took a bit longer). Then she pulled out the massage table they have, covered it with plastic wrap and paper, and then made a transfer version of the design. She ran it through some machine and it makes it in mirror image on a paper that transfers the design onto your skin in purple removable ink that the tattoo artist can then trace over for the outline. She put it on my back and made sure I was happy with where it sat. Then I climbed onto the table, laying on my stomach, and she got ready to make the first bit of line. Here's a photo of the tattoo early on. She's done a bit of the hair, but all the other lines are the purple from the transfer outline. (It's upside down here.)




Here is the outline finished, before she started adding colour. (Sorry the angles are odd, O couldn't really get a straight angle without being in the way.)



Claudia had already sort of worked me up about how much it would hurt, saying that going there right above your kidneys is really painful. I thought she was just making a joke at first, but she wasn't, heh. I guess I'm glad she didn't tell me about that 3 weeks ago when I decided on where I wanted the tattoo. But she first made just a little bit of a line, for me to feel what it was like, and it was fine, about what I expected. She must have done it on a less sensitive part though, because it hurt a lot more later on. The worst areas were the head, cuz it was the highest and the most off to the side, and the feet because it was nearest my spine. A couple of times she hit a spot near my spine and it would really tickle and my leg would twitch, heh. Kinda like testing your leg reflexes.

Sometimes I could lie there and feel like a few minutes had passed and I'd forgotten about the pain and what was going on, other times I was gritting my teeth from it hurting so much. But as soon as she took the needle away, it stopped hurting, so it was ok in that sense. And she didn't constantly have the needle on me, she would pick up to get a different angle, or to refresh the ink, so just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, she would stop and move to a different spot or have a few seconds pause. A lot of the time it wasn't the tattooing causing me problems, but just the ache of being on my stomach and getting my arms and neck comfortable.

The colouring was different, mostly because she was moving the needle around in a circular motion instead of making lines. It still hurt, though she said it should hurt less because the needle for doing colour is less sharp. But it still hurt plenty to me, heh. And it did feel quite sharp at times, especially when making the outline. Since I couldn't see what was going on, I just had this image that she was cutting into me with an old, ragged needlepoint and that I must be bleeding everywhere, but I was overdoing it a bit.

And I'm not bleeding everywhere here, it's just the red ink.



We did take a couple of short breaks, but in all, it took about 2 hours to do the whole tattoo. I wasn't sure what to expect, really, so it felt both long and short. After getting to have a good look at the final product (well, as good of a look as I could get while twisting and trying to look backwards at the mirror with a sore neck), Claudia put a bunch of cream on to protect the skin, and then she bandaged me, but she didn't use a bandage like I thought she would, she taped a big piece of plastic wrap to me, heh. It was a bit odd, but it kept the tattoo protected.

She's in there somewhere...



I wore the plastic overnight, which was kind of funny because I made crinkling sounds whenever I moved. I was glad to take it off this morning. Now it's rather sore, but it can go uncovered with just a bit of cream on 2-3 times a day to help it heal. It was a real pain in the ass to try to clean the tattoo and put more cream on at work today because I had to do it all in the bathroom stall without a mirror. It should be all healed in about 2 weeks though. I can't wait til it really feels a part of me. It's weird to think of now, but I'm sure before long I'll not be able to remember not having her on me. And I am considering giving her a name. Nothing right has come to me yet though.