Before I went to get my first tattoo, I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I had some good ideas. It took me a while to decide, but my girlfriend and me decided to get matching tattoos to symbolize our love. We decided on a heart with crossbones. So we drew what we wanted and a couple of days later headed for State College.
At A Glance Author *ZERO* Contact *ZERO*@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Charles Verdavoir Studio Ink Inc. Location State College, PA State College is about a two-hour drive form my house in Wellsboro. The whole way there I wondered about who much it would hurt, so by the time we got there I was very nervous. My girlfriend kept telling me that it didn't hurt that bad "It's like a sunburn getting scratched" she said. Her words weren't very comforting since I'm the type of person who has to feel it for myself to believe, but my fear did not stop me.
We walked into the main room of Ink Inc. and were greeted at the door by Paul who is sitting and the counter. We explained to him what we wanted done and he gave us a form to sign and asked for our I.D. As I sat and filled out the form I just became more nervous. We handed in our forms, I paid for the tattoos, and Paul told me Charlie would be doing our work. We went and talked to Charlie and told him what we wanted and how big, and he drew it up and showed us, when we decided we where satisfied we headed to the smaller private room for the work to begin.
We decided it would be best if I went first so I wouldn't see my girlfriend making painful faces and chicken out, so Charlie shaved my inner left forearm where I decided I wanted my tattoo to go, he put some deodorant on my arm and put the transfer on. I went over and sat in the chair while he went to get the colors of ink I decided to use. He came back in the room sat across the table from me, put my arm in position, and turned on his light. He looked at me and asked me if I was nervous. I told his "yes, I have never gotten a tattoo before". He told me he was nervous every tattoo he ever got, that made me feel a little better, but I was still scared.
He poured some black ink in his little pallet thing, dipped the tattoo gun and told me "I'll start out slow till you get used to it". Then he turned on the gun and started. The pain was nowhere near as bad as I had expected, but it didn't feel good. My girlfriend started taking pictures with her digital camera she had brought along, she was laughing at me for making funny faces and taking pictures of me. While Charlie was doing my outline he talked about music, how much he liked Beck because his lyrics made no sense, while Beck and White zombie played in the background.
I was alright most of the way through the outline, then all of the sudden I got a huge adrenaline rush, I told him I needed a little break and started to black out, and almost threw up. My girlfriend went and got me some water, Charlie tried talking to me but he sounded so far off. When my girlfriend came back with the water, I drank it and started to feel better right away. I felt embarrassed about what happened, but Charlie told me ever the biggest guys have passed out getting tattoos, he said men are sissies, girls take it much better. So he continued with the outline. I felt much better through the rest of it, my girlfriend made fun of me for almost passing out though. When my outline was finally finished we took a little break and moved on to the color.
Now the color part was the easier part. Charlie sat down changed the needle, opened up some dark red and poured it into his little pallet, then some lighter red and poured that into his pallet, and finally some white. He dipped his needle into the dark red and started to do the color. The color didn't hurt at first unless he got close to the out line. We talked about his tattoos and how he got started tattooing, he talked about his son. And next thing I notice my arm is starting to hurt again, the dark red was almost finished by that time, and now I noticed I was bleeding, but I kept saying to myself the worst is over. When the dark red was finished he starter on the lighter red, which was just going to be in the middle of the heart and on the edges, so I figured it, wouldn't be so bad. When that gun hit the parts of my arm that had already gotten done it hurt so bad, because by that time my arm was starting to swell a little. But when all the red was done it was looking ni ce. Then he started to do some white in the bones which didn't take long, but it was the most sensitive part so it hurt pretty bad. Then he used some white to bring out the color in the heart, which also hurt because my ark was already swollen and sore, but it turned out really nice.
I think my first tattoo experience was a good one, and it is something I will never forget.