OK, so I got my third tattoo this past Thursday. But it wasn't anywhere local (local to me being Austin, Texas), because my sweetie took me to San Francisco for the week! We did all sorts of fun things (some, like going to Alcatraz, were terrible touristy, but still fun). While we were in the planning-ahead for the vacation stage, decided that while we were there it would be neat if I got a tattoo. I already had two (an ankh on my right thigh and a Libra symbol on the back of my neck) and I'd been wanting more, and what better way to have a permanent memento of a trip, right? So I did my research, found a place that sounded good, (Black & Blue Tattoo) checked out their website, decided which artist's style looked closest to what I had in mind, and called the studio. So I called, talked to Natalie (the artist in question), and told her what I wanted, a Celtic knotwork-embellished pentacle for my sternum. She agreed to fax me a rough draft for my approval and we made an appointment for July 5th. The draft was JUST what I wanted. Yippee!
At A Glance Author Atalanta Pendragonne Contact Atalanta Pendragonne@bme.anon Artist Natalie Studio Black and Blue Location San Francisco, California The week of our vacation came, and on the 5th we trundled on down to Black & Blue Tattoo. Also meeting up with us was a friend I'd known back when I lived in CT as a teenager (he lives in Berkeley now).
Well, we got some stuff to drink from the cafe next door, (we were WAY early) when a woman came out of Black and Blue, which wasn't even open yet, with a portable phone and said Natalie was stuck in traffic and wanted to talk to me. She said she'd be about an hour late, and apologized... points for consideration. More than I could give myself, `cuz we wandered around and I was too hyped up to give a thought to my poor buddy who didn't know about the delay... but we all got it together in the right place in the right time, so all was well.
So. At first I was told I'd only have room for one other person in the tattooing room, but as it turned out my friend and sweetie were both able to come back, which was good, because my friend could not only take pictures, but I was able to get his opinion on color... (my sweetie would have gladly done both, but he's blind, so his opinion on color is not very helpful! But he's a champ at the emotional support stuff) it took a couple of tries to mix up a just-right purple. Which was great! We wound up with a nice lavender, lighter than what I'd been picturing intially, but when I saw it I knew it would look great.
So the work itself began. Natalie actually washed off the stencil and redrew it with a finer line because she though the first was too thick. The placement was great, though, Lovely! And then she set to with the needle.
Yeeowch! I tried to be tough, tried to be stoic. Let's just say I was a bit on the reactive side. Natalie reassured me that from what she'd seen it was the second-most painful place to get tattooed (ribcage being the first) and I was doing fine, but I felt like a big ol' wuss. I had to take a few head-between-the-knees breaks, and water breaks, and replenish-my-blood-sugar-with-a-little-chocolate breaks. It would have been easier if I could have gotten it lying down, but between my ..ahem...endowment and Natalie's own, there was just no way. So I sat back in the chair, my sweetie held my head, my friend took pictures, everyone was very comforting and encouraging, I wavered between cursing and trying to hold a loud note on my exhalations to steady my breathing (which sounded weird as all hell, but it helped a little). And bit by bit, stencil was replaced by The Real Thing. After the outline was done and Natalie started in on the color, I looked down at one point and said, "The color's so light, the way the whole area's swelled up right now, I can't tell for sure which parts you've colored".
And she told me, "The ones that are bleeding".
And you know... at that point, it was true!
Oh, it's stunning, I am so pleased with it! Natalie gave me just the sort of image I wanted. So far (I got it on Thursday, and it is Sunday now) it seems to be healing well. Swelling's gone, there's a bit of redness left, but that's on the part where it hurt most getting done so it's not too surprising. Today it started peeling a little. I'm being a good girl, keeping it clean and putting on a little ointment and otherwise leaving it be (apart from gawking at it).
Afterwards was kind of fun, once I'd paid up (and got a bonus frisbee and bumper sticker!) it was time to get something to eat, and we went to Ti Couz, an *awesome* crepe place (hey, after leaving my friend waiting for us, and then having him be Photo Guy, we at least could buy him a meal, right?), and then we wandered (me with my chest all bandaged!) in and out of shops for a couple of hours, most notably Good Vibrations (where I was able to replace the copy of THE LEATHER DADDY AND THE FEMME my ex-girlfriend stole from me, *and* get a genuine Fuzuoku to replace the cheap-ass drugstore knockoff my cheap-ass ex-husband gave me), before the endorphin high crashed all at once and I needed to get back to the hotel, like, RIGHT AWAY, and curl up with some soup (which wound up being shrimp congee... I *adore* San Francisco!).
So now I have three tattoos, one of which was done by someone I'd be happy to be worked on again... too bad she's half a continent away! Oh well, one more reason to visit San Francisco.