At A Glance
Author	vkd
Contact	vkd@bme.anon
IAM	vicky-dreamer
When	A week ago
Artist	Mike
Studio	Colour Me Custom
Location	Banbury, England

Mike was the only person in that universe that I would ever let come close to my body with a tattoo gun, I'd seen his work numerous times and he'd even inked members of my family. I had watched him work on people I knew and if I couldn't get an appointment with Mike then I wasn't going to lose my ink virginity.
His work is amazing, some of the best I've ever seen and I trusted him. He's performed both of my facial piercings and I was dead set on him performing my first tattoo.

Three months prior to my appointment I'd paid a visit to the studio to look at the flash and see if any of the designs were similar to what I wanted. In my mind I already knew what I wanted. The design I held in my head was of a small (approximately 3inch square) butterfly, in black and purple inks. This design, although not totally unique reflected a part of me, the freedom of flight that a butterfly has, their unique colours, their dreamy mystical appearance – all of these are things that I love.

As I was browsing the catalogues crammed full of flash designs I turned the leaf of the page and there was that tattoo that I wanted; it was beautiful, simple but exactly as I had wanted; it was almost as if that design had been made especially for me, I felt as though he'd delved into my mind and drawn it for me and only me.
I knew that this was the tattoo I wanted, and so I knocked on the studio door to get Mike's attention. After a few minutes of waiting in the waiting room he came out to help; I asked if it would be possible to make an appointment for the tattoo and showed him the flash that I had found.
The studio is very popular and has a large waiting list, the soonest I could be fitted in was May 17th so, although somewhat disheartened by the length of the wait, I made my appointment and left the studio.

In the weeks prior to losing my tattoo virginity I was calm and found myself looking forward to receiving this beautiful design; I wasn't nervous about any amount of pain or worried about the healing process; just relaxed and happily waiting for the days to pass.

On the morning of May 17th I woke up early, my nerves had kicked in and suddenly I had a hundred and one questions in my head;
Did I really want to do this?
How much would it hurt?
What if it looked horrid?
Where am I going to have it placed?
All of those silly self doubts that I'm sure everyone is prone to prior to getting any new, permanent body modification.

Luckily for me, my appointment wasn't until 2pm, so I had plenty of time to relax and calm my rampaging nerves.

I couldn't decide where exactly I wanted my tattoo to be placed; I thought either my hip, shoulder, back of neck or arm. For me the hardest part of getting my tattoo was deciding on the placement.
I didn't want to have my tattoo in a place that was going to hurt a lot, but I did want to be happy with the placement, after all if I wasn't going to be happy with it then what was the point in deciding to get a tattoo in the first place?
After a lot of thinking I kicked myself into place and opted to get the tattoo at the base of my neck, I chose this location knowing that it was going to hurt more than a simple arm placement, but also knowing that it would suit the actual design, I could show it off when I wanted, cover it up when I wanted and generally be totally happy with every aspect of that tattoo.

Later that day we set off on the journey to the studio, somehow I'd managed to persuade my brother to go with me to the studio; he even drove me there which helped to calm my nerves. Knowing I wasn't going to be alone and in pain was defiantly a comfort.

We arrived at the studio early, so sat in the waiting room browsing the flash; once again I picked up the catalogue which I knew contained "my" tattoo and I kept looking at it, knowing that within an hour that beautiful design would be etched into my skin forever.

As 2pm approached Mike popped out from his studio and apologized, explaining that he was behind and would I mind waiting, or changing my appointment for the week after.
I thought to myself, I'd waited 3 months to receive this tattoo, so a few more minutes wouldn't make any difference, so I opted to wait for him to finish and continued to browse the rest of the flash catalogues.

The minutes of waiting soon turned into an hour, and then another 30 minutes passed and finally, after nearly two hours of waiting the customer left and Mike appeared from his studio once again.
We spoke for a few minutes and then he vanished back into his studio to clear up his work station, it was in these few final minutes prior to receiving my first tattoo that my nerves catapulted my mind into unreal, stupid nervousness; the excitement was too much and nerves took over the control of my body. My hands started to shake and the palms started to sweat, my head went fuzzy and I just knew I was losing my composure.
"Relax, damn it!" I told myself, and I started the breathing techniques that I used to use when preparing for a class presentation as high-school, long deep, soothing breaths of air, inhale, exhale... I continued this until I was called into his studio.

I stepped into the room, closing the door behind me and forgetting to continue my breathing techniques. I produced my driver's license to confirm my identity and age and then discussed the tattoo with Mike. It was only a small room, with a green leather chair, a cross between a dentists chair and a doctor's bed, the autoclave was in the corner and cabinets on the wall.

Because I'd chosen to have the tattoo at the base of my neck / top of my back I removed my jacket and sat in the rather uncomfortable looking chair; mike lifted the right arm off of the chair and asked me to swivel around so that my legs were under the left arm and my back was facing him.
I did as I was asked and the process began. With my back facing him, Mike asked me to tilt my head as he shaved the area of my back where the stencil was to be applied.
He applied the purple stencil to my skin and then gave me a hand mirror so that I could check the placement was as I wanted it; it was perfect, just as I'd imagined so he spun the chair back around and raised the height of it so he could comfortably work on me.

I couldn't see what was going on behind me so I won't pretend I know what was happening. After about 5 minutes Mike asked if I was ready, to which I simply nodded; he explained that he was going to work the outlines first and that they would hurt the most, and not to worry because once they were over, the rest of the tattoo would be relatively pain free.
I lowered my head as requested and braced myself, I didn't know what level of pain or discomfort to expect and then, right at that moment I felt the needles enter my skin.
It's a hard feeling to describe, a cross between burning and multiple injections, I can only summarize it as feeling like I was having needles dragged through my skin – which I obviously was.

Due to the small size of my tattoo the outlining took no longer that 10 or 15 minutes, thank fully! This was not something that I was prepared to go through for a long, dawn out period of time; I was not coping at all well.
I began to feel unwell within the first few minutes of the work, I felt the blood drop out of my body, and I could feel myself become light headed as I started to over heat and nearly passed out. The sweat was running from my forehead, down my nose and dripping onto the arm of the chair; I could feel it running down my body, as though I was outside in the rain, and I could even feel it run down the crack of my butt!
I continued in this state for a few minutes, then Mike prompted me to take some deep breaths and relax; as soon as I'd settled my breathing I started to feel well again, I managed to regain my composure and my mind was no longer fixed on the etching that was going on behind me.

The filling in of the tattoo and shading was relatively pain free compared to the outlining, each time he drew the needles closer to my spine I would flinch and start to wonder if I'd ever be able to put myself through that kind of discomfort again.
After 30 minutes of work my beautiful butterfly was complete, he spun my around in the chair and handed me a small mirror so I could see the finished design; I was absolutely delighted and grinned from hear to ear.
Mike then took some cream, (Savlon antiseptic) and smothered the tattoo in it to help with the healing, and then he covered the tattoo in a dressing to keep it clean on my journey back home.

Before I left the studio, I got my Labret pierced and once everything was done we went over the aftercare procedure one again, then I paid my money and left.
Now, nearly two weeks later my tattoo has healed beautifully, the colours have faded and I am considering returning in a few weeks to get it touched up slightly, but it is still an amazing tattoo.
The amount of detail it astonishing and I didn't think that it would ever look as good as it does.