Well, I lost two friends in April, unrelated incidents. Two of my other friends are "missing". I haven't heard from them since Valentine's Day and about a month ago. One friend drew an infinite symbol, but with hearts at the ends, rather than just rounded edges. I liked the design and thought about branding it onto my leg. I changed my mind one day and decided to put it on my chest. I went to Artistics and Phil had an opening, so he drew it, and I had him add "Fate" (top) and "Destiny" (bottom). I wanted to do this as a tribute to them.
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When Three months ago Artist Phil Studio Artistic Impressions Location Niagara Falls, ON Phil asked what kind of font I wanted "Fate" and "Destiny" in and I said block letters, but him and Dane talked me into cuirsive. Phil had the design finished and sized so I went to grab cash from the closest ATM and went back. Phil set up, grabbed everything from sterile packages, disinfected the chairs, etc... and then set up his station. I had never been tattooed by Phil before. He's a really good artist though and his portfolio is excellent. I've known him for four years. I had my friend Tina with me. We were going to go to Clifton Hill and play DDR but I detoured along the way.
I wanted to get a fun piercing, but Sean wasn't in the greatest mood, so I left him alone. There were a couple of people that were being loud and obnoxious and I don't think that helped much. I was standing in Phil's booth, and took my shirt off. He said, "You do know you can't tattoo through clothes". I'm usually really weird about standing around in a bra, but fuckit, who cares anymore. Everybody there has seen my chest, anyways. (I have implants forming a diamond over my sternum.) Phil easily marked the centre of my chest because the implants made it quite easy. He got the stencil on the first try, and Tina said it looked good, and I surveyed it for a minute, and I thought it looked good.
Some kid told me, "That's going to hurt" when I told him where I was getting tattooed. I've sat through almost an entire day (eight hours) on my backpiece, which is finished. Phil was goofing around, which was pretty amusing, and everything was good to go. He asked if I was nervous, jokingly, so I said I was. Then he said, "This may hurt a bit", in a doctor type voice, and started the outline. For the first little bit I was jumpy. I take antipsychotics so I twitch, that doesn't help. I wouldn't move when the tattoo machine was on me, but when Phil wiped it with a paper towel or distilled soapy water, I'd twitch a bit. After a bit I stopped.
For the first couple minutes I just concentrated on my breathing. There was far less pain than I expected. Some parts were pain free, other parts burned a bit. A lot of people said there was a lot of pain in this area, but I didn't find it to be too terribly bad. People randomly walked by and talked to us. One woman told me I should "colour in" my branding. It took me a while to explain to her that it was supposed to look like that and I wasn't doing anything to it.
After a couple minutes Phil started telling me amusing stories. Ralph came to visit and made a couple of comments about me having big boobs. I wear baggy clothes year round, haha. Tina said the look on my face was priceless and she wished she had a pic of it. I smacked Ralph and everybody laughed. Ralph rocks. Phil was going over scars from a failed flesh staple attempt, and the lines looked a bit "wiggly" and we started making fun of various people, and stuff. Phil talks a lot, which is good, because I get really bored. Tina said I just sat there with a smile on my face. After Phil finished the outline, I assumed he wanted to go for a smoke break, but unlike everybody else I've been tattooed by, he didn't take any breaks. I'm not much of a fan of taking breaks anyways.
Phil changed the needles and the colour to red and began filling in the tattoo. The red was absolutely nothing at all, it would hurt a bit over some places. The white was another story. All of the tattoo artists I know turn up the speed of the machine to do white, and I'm told because this hammers more white into the skin and it stays whiter. I have a tattoo thats almost two years old and the white looks like it was just tattooed. I know two years isn't long enough to tell, but so far so good.
After the white was done I got up, looked at it, and Phil put Webbers on it and bandaged it. Tina and I went to my house to play DDR, and I gave up after a couple of rounds. After a couple of hours I took the bandaging off and washed it with warm water and soap, and then rinsed it with cold water. I put some Webbers on it and it was fine.
The next morning I was quite sore. I've never really been that sore from tattoos, not even my back. I'm assuming it was the area it was in, and it wil probably bruise, because all of my implants bruised really badly, and so did the flesh staple. Bruising on me doesn't show up for a couple of days. I was worked on by a heavy handed artist (from another shop) and I bruised that night. It was on the underside of my arm, halfway between my elbow and my shoulder. (It says "46&2" in shaded black.)
I'm sorry if this jumps all over the place. I'm going to have Phil design something to add to it and make it into a chest piece. Every time Phil touched an implant he'd mention it, it was funny. I get a lot of... surprised reactions to them!
All in all, it was a good experience and I can't wait to start doing more work on it.