At A Glance
Author	aniorange
Contact	aniorange@bme.anon
IAM	aniorange
When	Five years ago
Location	Dallas Texas

Shortly after getting my first tattoo I started thinking, what next? Just like so many others, it was very addicting and I wanted more. I had taken my first steps into the tattooed world with flash. I had to start somewhere. Now that I had dipped my toes in the water, I realized whatever I did next would need to have deep meaning. It would have to be something that was not likely to change in my life. It would need to be something that was not going to fall out of fashion or favor in a couple of years.

I began to think of many things. I like tribal designs, but I did not understand them. They had no personal meaning. No identity with who I am. I played around in Microsoft paint and created some odd little graphics that I could perhaps use. I was mostly just proud of being able to create something neat, but still not something good enough to tattoo on. I thought about wings on my back, but was I ready for such a big step. Was I sure that is what I wanted?. The mere idea that I had to ask, was I sure, let me know I was not. I can not remember all of the thoughts that came and went, until one day.

I stumbled across a replication of Pac Man and Ms Pac Man for the computer. It took me just a little while but I realized that this was one of those things that would be with me forever. I loved playing Pac Man as a kid, I grew up with it. I still loved to play it today. I got excited when I saw the game at the back of an arcade or in the corner of a laundry mat. I had found something with meaning.

I stumbled around a bit and tried to think, what was I going to get tattooed? I thought about getting part of the game board tattooed on me. I wanted to have it done on my shoulder and upper arm. I thought perhaps I would just get a corner of the game, perhaps top left corner. I would capture part of the maze and one of the big blinking dots. You know the big dots that turn all the ghosts blue. I would have the ghost chasing me and perhaps a cherry floating around in there too somewhere. Or perhaps I would have the ghost blue and running from me. Maybe some of them normal color and some blue. Then I thought, would it be Pac Man or Ms Pac Man? So many decisions to be made.

I thought perhaps if I drew part of the maze and saw it, I would have a better idea of what I wanted. I am terrible at drawing. I had an idea. I dug around the internet looking for Pac Man pictures, screen shots and drawings. I saved some things to my computer. I printed some things out. I taped the printouts to a window and tried to trace off the things I was looking for onto a new sheet. No real luck there. I tried.

Thanks to life this idea was shuffled to the back of my mind as I found myself falling in love and moving to Oklahoma. A few years past with little time to think about a tattoo. I eventually found myself living on my own again. I found myself with more time to think about my next tattoo. I had time to think about my Pac Man tattoo.

Shortly after moving out on my own, I stumbled across a single tattoo artist in Texas. Single as in not in a relationship. We did a lot of talking and decided we wanted to meet each other. I decided to drive down to Texas on my days off. We also talked about my wanting to get a Pac Man tattoo. She told me she could "hook me up" while I was down there and to bring some of the stuff I had drawn and printed out for ideas. I still had some of the sheets I had printed out from years ago. I also went online again to find some more pictures and screen captures.

Her and I met up in Texas. After a few other things unimportant to this story, we talked about my tattoo. I told her about my idea of getting the top corner of the play field tattooed on my shoulder. After looking at some of the pictures and such that I brought, she though maybe it would be better to get the entire board tattooed on my back. That would be a lot of work, a lot of black work. I did not have the time or money for that yet.

We did some more talking and we ended up coming up with and idea for an armband. I started to buy into this idea because it would be a small and easy to afford. It would be a start that I could add to later. We came up with the idea of using a screen shot from Ms Pac Man. After you beat the first board a couple of times and you get that little intermission. At the end of it Pac Man and Ms Pac Man run into each other face to face and a little heart pops up overhead. I wanted that as a centerpiece and to go around my arm we came up with the idea of using the pellets. Every so often there would be a super pellet. It seemed pretty simple yet pretty neat.

A few short hours later I found myself at her shop. We waited around for a bit until the artist shows up. She took the time to redraw and trace out my idea. What she brought back looked good except for one thing. The super pellets where drawn a little funny. I told her I did not like the way it looked and she said to trust her. So I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

While we waited, she decided to give me a gift. She wanted to give me a piercing. We discussed a few different ones and decided on a nape piercing. That is another story however. Before we knew it, it was time to get inked.

It had been a while since I had been tattooed. I had forgotten what it felt like. I was seated, shaved and stenciled in no time. My artist (who's name shall remain anonymous) got his gloves on and ink set out. They wanted to mix a little blue with white ink to make the dots stand out. I trusted them to do the job.

Things got off to a bit of a rough start. It hurt a bit more than I remembered. It seemed as if something was wrong. My artist would start to trace a line, and then stop to make adjustments. He did this several times before he took of the needle and replaced it. He did not say much to me. He may not have spoke English, I am not sure. But my lady friend told me that he thinks something was wrong with the needle. After he changed it things seems to go a bit smoother. Work progressed and it was not as sharp a pain. It was not long before he was nearing my under arm. That was the best part. It hurt a bit more and tickled at the same time. I wanted to laugh like a madman but I held it back, for the most part.

The outline was finished and needle changed. It was time to add some color. The whole process did not take that long. It would have been faster if not for the rough start. I looked at it and was mostly pleased. I did express some concern about how you could see my freckles though the ink in several places. It seemed though that the light colors (yellow and pink) did not hide everything. It did not quite turn out to be the great tattoo I was hoping for, but not all is lost. I did not want to insult anyone complaining about it too much. I decided to chalk this one up as another lessoned learned when trusting people you do not ask many questions of.

Healing was easy. All and all, not that much of me was tattooed. I just washed it lightly in the shower and rubbed bacatracin in it at least once a day. I still plan to add more to it someday. I will be a bit conscious of who I let ink me this time. I hope to be able to touch up what I have a little to make it look better. The relationship I had with the young lady in Texas did not last. I look back now and see some red flags I did not see before. I flat out trusted her and did not ask the right questions. I did not take the time to do any research. The artist that did my tattoo also did a lot of her work. A lot of the things he had tattooed on her looked great so I was inspired. I do not really know what went wrong. I have had a few other artist look at it and have heard their opinions. There have remarks about cheap ink and bad quality needs. Oh well.

I am not ashamed of my tattoo. I love it really. I know that someday I will be able to clean it up and add to it. I can't wait to change the skin I am in.