I started asking around about pain levels and shops. Everyone told me something different about pain, but so many people kept telling to to the new shop one town over. At the same time I had been joking with a friend about how it would be great to get tattooed by Anam, this girl I went to HS with who was an AMAZING artist.
Well, a week after my birthday, one of my customers came in with a new peircing and I asked her about it. She said she was the manager of the new shop that had been recommended to me and gave me her card. I asked about her tattoo artists and she kept RAVING about this one girl.
So, I called to make an appointment the next day and she says "Well, come in and we can show Anam what you want so we can decide on a time.". I was like "You mean Anam Qureshi?" She said yes and I got really excited. I went in with my mom and step-dad the next day. Anam greeted me cheerfully and we looked at the tattoo. She said that she was unfortunately booked and we'd prolly have to go with another artist, but she really liked the design. After a few more minutes of mulling it over, she cancelled one of her appointments to fit me in. It was lucky that I knew her personally, and that my step-dad had been her morals teacher for three years xd
For a week, I agonised over the thought of getting it. I was soooooo worried about pain. I kept hearing different stories.
I finally went in a week later and she was still sketching the tattoo and copying it with the inky stuff (they hadn;t received a machine as of yet). It was all painstakingly done by hand. We had originally told her that we wanted it about half the size (mainly cause I was scared shitless of pain) but she said we'd have to keep the original size if I wanted to retain all the detail. So, I agreed.
Nervously, I sat down in the big chair. She placed the design and I squeezed my eyes shut while she tattooed a small line. I oepned my eyes a few seconds later with a sigh of relief and asked "Is that all?"
An hour and a half of stimulating convo between Anam, myself, my mom and step-dad, and the manager who came into my store, the tat was done.
I was sooooo happy with it. And still am. I LOVE showing it off. It's gorgeous.
My second tattoo...
I decided a little while ago that I wanted another tattoo. I really wanted something that would represent my childhood and give me a feeling of nostalgia whenever I looked at it. I chose a chibi of Sailor Jupiter; a Naoko Takeuchi original, to boot. So, I went to all the local shops (all but one) and decided on a guy with a nice portfolio and he was really friendly. We set a date and I was really excited about. I told everyone but my mom because she didn't want me to get another til the summer, and I'm living in another province for the school year.
I brought my friend with me and we chatted while I was getting it done. An hour later (yeah, it took a while for such a small tat) I looked down. I was horrified. The eye was.....not an anime eye gonk I guided him in fixing it until I got fed up, pretended to be pleased, paid (no tip, ha!) and left. I kept assuring myself it would look better after it healed and peeled.
The healing process took soooooooooo freaking long. Finally, it's healed and..... well, it looks a bit better but I still hate it. I'm going to get it fixed by Anam when I go home in June.
My mom eventually found out, too, and she saw it the last time I was down. She hates it, too Now that I think back, I should have taken alot more time researching different artists. Infact, I should have waited the 5 months til I went home and got it done by Anam. And my mom wouldn't have cut off some of my monthly funds either, if I had just listened to her. gonk xd
