Two weeks ago yesterday, I FINALLY got a new tattoo! I got my first one way back in 2014, it was a spur of the moment thing and I couldn't wait to get another one. It didn't work out quite how I wanted it to though, it's taken 3 long years and a hell of a lot of indecisiveness but it happened! I've been wanting a rose tattoo for a while now, it's changed from one rose to two roses, to traditional to realistic back to traditional again, to colour to black and grey. But I decided on two traditional in black and grey in the end and I'm so glad I did. Ive decided from now on I'm going to bite the bullet and get what I want tattooed when I want, I've spent too much time over the past few years worrying if I'm going to regret my tattoos in the future but I'm now in that mindset of 'who cares, it's my body and my tattoos will remind me of certain points in my life' sort of attitude and I'm going to make the most of it while I can.
The whole booking of the tattoo was really quick, the tattoo artist comes into the shop where I work all the time so we got to know each other a little bit over the past couple of years, I asked him one day about a tattoo and how much it would be and he told me to go and see him in his studio which is exactly what I did. Turns out he's been waiting for me to ask him about getting tattooed for ages, apparently I look like the tattoo type! I went two times, the first time it was closed for the day which was just my luck because I was dying to book it but the second time it was open and we sorted out what I wanted and booked it in. Hallelujah! He had a cancellation on the Tuesday, so after only the weekend of waiting I was heading into town to get tattooed.
I honestly think I picked the best person to get tattooed by, he made the whole 3 hours pass in an instant. I've been to a couple of studios with my friends where everyone just seems like robots. You go in, get tattooed and leave with the artist only asking you questions about how you want the tattoo. Here was different, we had conversation, we joked with the other artist in the studio and I just felt really comfortable there which is what you want really when you're repeatedly getting stabbed in the arm with a needle. I think I built up what the pain was going to be like in my head a bit too much as well, it's been 3 years since I had my first tattoo. And my swallow is tiny, it only took the artist about 30 minutes maybe even less and by the end of it I remember I was glad to be out of there because it hurt. So when my artist told me it would take about 3 hours I started panicking and wondering how I would last the entire 3 hours and how much pain I would be in for. I couldn't have been more wrong though. It took me a few minutes to get adjusted to the pain but I swear it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. We took a few breaks, like after the outline and shading of the first rose so my artist could change his ink and needles and then he wanted a coffee from across the road. I think that helped, even though it was only a couple of minutes break each time it gave my arm a bit of a rest!
I love everything about my new tattoo, I love the detailing of it especially. He only had the stencil of the roses to start off with, preferring to draw the leaves on by hand which I was perfectly fine with. He also came up with the cute idea last minute of having a branch connecting both roses and little wispy bits around it. I have to say I did put my trust in him completely and I'm so glad I did it turned out brilliant. I've had so many compliments on it already and they all love how well it's been done. I think it really pays off to have a great tattoo artist.
The healing process has been so easy! It itched for a couple of days after the first week which was so annoying I felt like I wanted to rip my arm off, but after that it was great, it's barely scabbed which was fantastic because I don't suit the snake look. It looks mostly healed now, but I know it will take a few more weeks to heal completely. The only problem now is though that I really badly want another one. I have a feeling most of my wages will inevitably be used up by new tattoos in the next year or so!
