This is something I have wanted for quite awhile. I have been putting it off for awhile as well. The reason is due to training. I am a Mixed-Martial Arts fighter (UFC, Pride, etc) and it is hard to get ink done in a place that will be hit a lot. The problem with this is that I didn't see it looking right anywhere but the back of my head. Of course when you work on things people grab the back of your head constantly. So of course when the first chance that I didn't have to train for a couple weeks came up, I got it! I have a friend who does tattoos. Yes, he does them professionally incase anyone was wondering. I talked to him about the design for awhile and he mapped it out and messed with it a bit to get it a good size. He told me he would have to do that so I took the basic concept for it that I had drawn up and left it with him.
At A Glance Author Lord Abortion Contact Lord Abortion@bme.anon IAM Lord_Abortion When A month ago Artist Jason During those few days that he had it I was really excited about getting this piece done! I had saw it in my mind so many times. For like 2 years I had been considering this one design and finally I had the chance to get it. I told pretty much everyone I knew about it and showed them some of the other concepts I had come up with and they seemed pretty positive with the whole thing. My dad was one of the first people I discussed the idea with and he was pretty excited as well that I was finally having it done. The day before arrived and I figured I should do some preparing. I normally shave every part of my body anyway but I figured I would go ahead and shave my head again to make it easier on him. I knew he would have to shave it again before he did it just to make sure but it needed shaved anyway!
I woke up about noon the day of the procedure. I was now just like pumped! I am not a very patient man and I knew I had 10 hours to kill. Which this wasn't a very fun period for me. I just sat around biting my nails until about 8 PM that night. I figured I would go hang out with him until they closed up. It was a 45 min drive down there which isn't that bad. I wanted to be even more pumped by the time I got there so I put on some Lamb of God for the drive. It took me a little longer than usual and I arrived at about 5 minutes until 9. He really wasn't doing anything but sitting around so we went outside for a cigarette. I went out first and Jason came a few minutes after with the design he had came up with. I saw it and fell in love! It was my same design with the tribal wings and the pentagram but his looked better. Not sure how to describe it but it was a lot more edgy than mine. It just had a sharper look which accented the pentagram perfectly. We walked back inside into the waiting lobby where the movie they had on was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Talk about something making you lose all that intense energy you had. We watched that until they closed at 10 PM.
It was about five after 10 so we figured we should get started. He began setting everything up and getting the ink ready. He had to do quite a bit so I went out back and had another smoke knowing that it would be quite awhile before I would have another. By the time I came back in everything was nearly ready. Then, as I had suspected, he shaved that area of my head again. I just sat there talking to him while he was doing this. Then he finished and put the design on the back of my head and it was time to start.
I had expected a lot more pain than any other tattoo I have because this was my head but it really wasn't. It really didn't hurt any more or less than it usually does. I sort of like the pain from tattoos. I always describe it like an old friend you never want to see again but it's pretty cool when you run into him again. He started with the pentagram portion of it first. That was, as I said, the same old pain. He finished that part after awhile and let me look at it. It was amazing! I always see pentagram tattoos and the circle is never a perfect circle and the lines in the star are often times a bit shaky. There was none of those traits in my piece so I was very happy with it.
He started on the wing type part of the design and it started to hurt a bit more. Not really much more but I noticed a small increase in the pain. It stayed about the same for the remainder of the outline until he reached the part right behind my ears. This was bad, not unbearable but it was pretty bad. The pain got quite a bit worse in this part but I stayed extremely still to make his job easier. It wasn't some ungodly pain just a lot worse than the middle. Not even something that would make you jump or anything. He finished that side and moved on to the other side. That was more or less the same. Except, call me crazy, when he got behind this ear, it hurt worse than the other side. I know that sounds weird but it did. Again, not terrible but just worse. It wasn't a lot worse than the other side but I did notice more pain that I had on the previous side. It wasn't even the pain that was the thing, I just found it odd that one side of my head hurts worse. After he finished I told him about it and he said it's actually pretty common but we both laughed about it. He said he stopped for a minute to wipe it and looked at my face through the mirror. He said I was making one of the funniest faces he had ever seen and it was hard to do the rest without laughing at me. Of course after that he filled everything in and it was pretty much the same as everything else. Hurt the same as the outline, and more on the one side even. The fill is a lot duller though, it's the same amount of pain but it's more easily dealt with than the outline.
The whole process took about 4 hours and when I looked in the mirror I was amazed! It is a very nice design and I am very pleased with his work. He did very good on all my other black work and my Zelda tattoos so I knew this one wouldn't be any different. However, I was still shocked to see how good it turned out. I handed him $60 which was hard to even get him to take. Then I drove home just dying to get home with two mirrors and stare at it.
The next day was awesome! I showed my friends, my parents, and my training buddies. They all thought it was a very cool piece and was inked very well. I have no fading at all in it and it still looks the same as it did. I had no complications sleeping on it but I sleep on my side. It was a little sore for a week or so. I waited a couple weeks before I started training again and it everything healed fine. I had no problems with it once I was back training again either.
So in conclusion, I recommend head tattoos. They are easy to deal with and probably more practical than any other place on your body. I would say to really consider anything before getting it done but if not, the head is a good place. You can always grow hair over it. My hair is a bit longer than usual now and I can barely see it. I love to shave my head and show it off though, I am just very lazy. Either way, if you are considering a head tattoo I can't say anything negative about it. It isn't nearly as painful as you would think!