This experience is about my first, and so far only tattoo that I have. I will start this out by giving some background information on my tattoo and how it came to be. Last summer (summer of 2005) I roofed houses all summer long. At the end of the summer I ended up with quite a bit of extra cash, so I decided on getting a tattoo. My friend Mike has always been good at drawing and he drew up a tribal design that my friends and I all liked. So after we finished roofing my house two of my friends and I got the tattoo that he had drawn.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact Josh2474@sbcglobal.net When Six months ago Artist Lisa Studio Acid Works Location Flint, Michigan To get my tattoo I went out to Acid Works and talked about the design a little bit with Lisa. Finally after getting the placement set and how much it was going to cost me (it cost me almost $300 by the way) she had me sign the papers and we got started. This being my first tattoo I had no idea what to expect pain or time wise. I asked Lisa how much time she thought it would take and about the pain. She told me that it wouldn't hurt to badly and that it would take a couple of hours to finish. When Lisa got done transferring the outline to the back of my right calf I took a look at it and checked her placement. Once she started the outline I couldn't believe how little it hurt. I had expected much more pain but it wasn't bad at all.
My tattoo ended up taking all of 3 hours to finish. The pain was minimal like I mentioned, the only thing that really bothered me was that when she would go over the edges of the muscle on my calf my leg would twitch no matter how hard I tried to control it. I'm not really sure if this is normal or not since I have no one with a calf tattoo to ask. But I am assuming that it is to be expected if the muscle on your calf sticks out quite a bit. After sitting there for 3 hours my tattoo was done. I got up and paid Lisa the $300 for my tattoo and tipped her another $20 because she did a good job and the fact that she is quite attractive also factored into her tip.
As soon as I got out of Acid Works I had a smoke and went to show my friends girlfriend who wanted to be there but couldn't. I know that before and after a tattoo the use of drugs and alcohol is not a good idea. But since I do not use drugs I thought a little alcohol would be ok. I am not 21 and I do not condone underage drinking but this was a special occasion for me and I did it regardless of what I should have done. So I went to a party and proceeded to get hammered off of a fifth of 5 'O Clock. I ended up showing off my tattoo to everyone and slept in a yard. The next morning I realized what I had done and my tattoo was scabbed over and had some grass stuck to it. Do not drink after a modification. The only thing that it brought me was a probably longer healing time and caused my tattoo to bleed.
The healing of my tattoo was an adventure all it's own. The day after I got it and sobered up some I took a hot shower to loosen up all the grass and what not in my tattoo. I then decided that it would be a good idea since it was loose to just rip out all the grass and dirt in it. Later I found out that this was most likely the reason why I had to get it touched up. Lisa had told me to put A&D ointment on my tattoo 3 times a day for 4 days. This part of the healing should have been easy enough, and it was pretty easy until I found out that the A&D caused my leg to break out into hives where I applied it. This really freaked me out because I didn't know what was happening and I called Lisa. She informed me to stop using the A&D immediately and to use some unscented lotion. This worked out much better and did not cause my leg to break out.
Finally 6 months later I have a very nice all black tribal piece for my first tattoo. I am glad that I got it but looking back on some of the things done after I got my tattoo I should have done some things differently. Thanks for reading this and I hope that I can help someone out in their research to get a tattoo. The pain is definately worth the outcome.