I got my first tattoo right after my 19th birthday, although I had wanted one since the summer before. The previous summer I had gone with my friends and been the supportive one while they got tattoos, and as much as I had wanted to get a big strawberry tattooed on my butt, I realized that my mother would most likely disown me. So, I waited.
At A Glance Author Daisy Contact Daisy@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist the old guy (?) Studio Indy Tattoo Works Location Indianapolis, IN I went off to college that fall not wanting a tattoo as badly, until I met a girl who lived in my dorm who had a tattoo that wasn't the normal flower/tribal that everyone and their mom gets on their lower backs nowadays. But still I waited, for I wanted to make sure of what I wanted. I surfed the BMEzine galleries and for a while wanted a fish, but eventually settled on a single music note. However, it was not until semester break when I got up the nerve to go get tattooed.
It took me a while to decide on where to get my music note. I needed a place where my mother would never see it, and wouldn't stretch out if I were to ever have children. Thus I decided on an unusual spot, up on my left side on top of my ribs/next to my left boob. I went to the local tattoo parlor, Indy Tattoo Works, where my friends had gotten their tattoos the summer before. The guy that worked there was certainly not the most personable person I had ever met, but he was polite enough and rather helpful in picking out a flash and modifying it to my needs. The original flash was of Beethoven with a few music notes coming out of his baton. The notes looked just how I had envisioned my tattoo, so we used a single note from it. We ended up enlarging it so that the note was about an inch high. I told him I wanted my tattoo to be all black.
He then told me to sit tight in his tattooing chair while he scrubbed his hands, put on gloves, readied the ink and needles and other supplies. Everything was very clean, and there was no surface he touched with his bare hands on the table. Then I lifted up my shirt so he could shave me and place the stencil. I had never noticed just how many little baby hairs I had on my torso until he shaved the spot where my tattoo would go. He put the stencil on and I liked the placement on the first try, so he went to work.
I wasn't sure of what to expect pain-wise. Some people describe it as when a rubber band gets caught in your arm hairs and others say it's like a million wasp stings at once. Personally, the pain was not nearly as bad as I had expected. It felt a little bit like bee stings to begin with, but soon I became accustomed to it and only felt the vibration. I had vowed beforehand not to cringe or cry or show that it hurt in any way, so I didn't, although it was hard not to cringe when the outlining went over one of my ribs.
He finished the outlining and asked me if I wanted to fill in the notehead with black or fade it or leave it empty. I told him to fill it all in with black, so he did. He went over it quite a few times to make sure it was all filled in, then put on an ointment and bandaged me up. I was surprised that my tattoo took 10 minutes from inking start to bandage. He gave me a rather long sheet of aftercare instructions and reviewed them all with me as well as sold me a pot of something called Ink Fixx, which he said could be substituted for the bacitracin ointment. I thanked him, paid him and tipped him, and went on my merry way home to not tell my mother about what I had done.
I wasn't really sure how much I was allowed to move with a fresh tattoo, so I tried to keep my left arm from touching the bandage, and sleeping was a little interesting the first night. The next morning I removed the bandage and marveled at my new skin art. I felt so cool for having something that was secret and unique to me.
My tiny little tattoo cost $35, which was the minimum for the shop. After following all of the aftercare instructions, it turned out rather nicely. Whenever I show people my tattoo, I get comments about how unique and unusual it is, as well as questions about how much it hurt to get it done where I did. (It didn't)
It is true what they say about tattoos being addicting, for now I am addicted. But that's a whole nother story. ;)