I heard about Shelley Jackson's Skin project just a few days before Saram's column on BME. I was intrigued by the concept and was toying with the idea of participating even though the article I read didn't provide much information about it (it was more of a news blurb). So I shelved it under "look into this" and didn't immediately do anything. Of course it wasn't long before I loaded BME to find that more information was waiting for me on the front page, in the form of a personal experience no less. After reading the column it was decided, I was applying. I spent a day or two doing research and called home to warn my mom I may get another tattoo. After a long explanation my mom not only decided she actually liked the idea of me doing this, but that she too wanted to participate. Unfortunately my mom was battling cancer at the time, and getting a tattoo would not just be bad for her immune system but one of the last things on her mind.
At A Glance Author UberKitty Contact UberKitty@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Mike Studio Dogstar Location Durham, NC I emailed Shelley with a mini essay on why I wanted to participate. What it all came down to was that with my love of books, it seemed very appropriate for me to become a part of one. Within a few days she had responded saying that I could participate and a contract was emailed to me a few days later. It was pretty standard, the "I am not being coerced, I'm old enough to do this" etc and also stated I could not share the story with anyone. I printed it off and sent it in.
In the time between sending the contract and receiving a word I was very nervous and excited. I had already decided the tattoo would be on my hip, but I was of course concerned with what my word would be. I stated making wagers with my friends on it, would it be capitalized? Include punctuation? Would it be a short common world like "a, is, be" or something more off the wall like "windmill"? If I ended up with a terrible word would I still go through with it? In the end I decided I would get it done no matter what, I just loved the concept too much to abandon it for some superficial reason.
A couple of weeks went by with my checking the mail 3 times a day before I finally got the letter. I frantically ran upstairs to my room (trying to open it without tearing it apart the entire way) and announced to my roommate I received my word. It was "together," I called my family and some of the people who knew about the project to tell them the news and arranged for John, a friend of mine, to take me to Dogstar Tattoo the next day. (I really can"t recommend them enough, they are wonderful)
I played around on in a word document attempting to find a book font and point size that appealed to me. I decided on Book Antiqua and printed a page of "together," in a variety of different sizes so the tattoo artist, Mike, could help me decide on the right size.
John and I made it into Dogstar just after it opened. Mike looked over the printout and recommended the largest version, partially because larger tattoos just look better and partially because I was getting it done on my lower stomach/hip. He explained that this area was difficult because of the strong reflect to "jump" and pull away from the needle and that book fonts are not forgiving in this. I agreed with him and he left to prepare the stencil and room.
After a few minutes John and I were invited back into Mike's work room. The place was immaculate; everything was covered in a combination of plastic and disposable paper sheets. All the tools were laid out still in there packets and the ink was waiting to be placed in individual wells. John sat in the corner and I began to get undressed. I must have not been paying attention because Mike had to call out to me to get me to watch him take the tools out of the packets and explain to me what he was doing. He changed gloves, cleaned the area to be tattooed and had me stand so he could place the stencil, he wasn't happy with the placement at first so he washed it off and did it again before I looked in the mirror and gave my approval. I moved to lie down and Mike changed gloves again to put the ink in the wells and put the gun together. Mike warned me again of the reflex to jump and said I needed to concentrate on staying still and breathing normally. He stared on the comma then w orked his way in. It did take quite a bit of effort to keep still, my body didn't want to cooperate so easily and I had to force it. Mike told me as he finished each letter. Despite the concentration it took to stay still we did talk a bit, about the meaning of life of all things. It took only about 15-20 minutes to finish. After which I was cleaned and bandaged up. Mike explained the aftercare to me and gave me a pamphlet to reference. He said that given the location of my tattoo, sometimes more ink is pulled out than normal due to movement and clothing but that Dogstar has a 6 month free touch up policy if I needed it. The aftercare recommend was a variation of the "put lotion on it" method which included the addition of antibacterial ointment for the first 3 days. I put lotion on it 3 times and day for about two weeks and wore loose clothes. Healing was very uneventful. The black is very even and didn't require any touch ups.
The one thing about having a tattoo as a part of the Skin project I soon found is that I will always have to explain "why?" in much more detail than any other piercing or tattoo I have. It's the first thing people ask about when finding out my list of mods. "Why do you have a tattoo of together with a comma?" Well, ultimately I love it.