I decided it was time to re-stretch the piercings in my ears (say what you want, I love the way it looks). Back in the day I was wearing a 6 gauge (4 mm for all you Europeans out there), but over the past couple of years I had gone back to wearing a standard 22-gauge (apx. 0.6 mm) all the time, so the piercings shrunk down to that size. *yawn* Boring. I don't even really know why I let them close in like that. So now I have to start the whole process over again. Ugh. I'm back up in a 14 ga (1.6 mm) and had completely forgotten about the fact that stretching is kind of uncomfortable for a couple days. Ow. It'll be good once it's all finished though...probably at some point over the summer, or maybe early into the autumn. Can't rush these things, y'know. That's just asking for trouble. You can see the 14s in the pictures further down in this post. Also partially visible in these pictures is my new haircut (Yes, the fringe is back.)
As most of you probably knew already, I have a big tattoo on my lower back that I designed when I was about 16 and got put on when I was 19. Here's a refresher.
I love love love it. My only complaints were
1. It didn't look that big on paper. I should have spent more time planning it. Though, of course I'm used to it now the way it is.
and 2. I didn't do a photo-journal of the process. I didn't even think of it.
But I learned from my mistakes and decided to not repeat them the next time I got a tattoo. Three long years passed (almost to the day, actually) and although I talked and talked about getting more tattooes and even had designs picked out, I never actually got another one. This meant that I was waaayyy past due for more. (And more and more and more). And then the opportunity presented itself. Why not get a tattoo in Dublin to sort of mark the time I spent here? This how I do souvenirs, baby! Nothing ordinary or boring, ever.
So anyways, I slightly modified a design that I had already picked out about a year ago, and then I was off to find a decent studio! I found a very good one called Snakebite Tattoo & Body Piercing in Dublin City Centre. It was reccomended to me by people who had piercings done there, and I checked out the artists' portfolios. Very impressive. Clearly these guys know what they're doing. So I went and booked my appointment. I decided that since there was a very small design that I had been wanting as a tattoo for nearly 3 years, I might as well get that done at the same time. Snakebite said they wouldn't even charge me for it because it's so small and simple. Hooray!
Once my appointment was booked, I spent a very long week looking forward to it and getting excited and then the day finally came! Hooray! I grabbed my friend Steffi, and my camera, and we headed into Dublin. We met the artist who would be doing the tattoo, and he was painfully hot, just for the record. We were thinking of ways we could steal him. Unfortunately, we didn't even get a good picture of him because he was wearing a stupid hat, so you'll just have to take my word for it. And Steffi's.
Time to get started. YAY! OMGWTFBBQ SO EXCITED! (See what I mean about his stupid hat, though? Argh!)
All stenciled up and ready to go!
Starting!
I was maybe a little white-knuckled at this point, but considering how I reacted to getting my first tattoo, I think I was very very good this time. Go team me!
Look! I was even smiling this time!
Here's the outline pretty much done.
Time for some colour! This is my first tattoo with colour. Definitely not the last.
Colour colour colour. This part hurt. Really really.
"Are we done yet?" Nope.
Highlighting time. I just had to ask for shading, didn't I?
DONE! I'm so impressed with how well this turned out.
Amazing. Most people can't even produce this on paper. This guy does it on people. This makes me so so so happy. And it'll look even better once it's all healed.
For the record, "Éire" means "Ireland" in Irish. And the bow is just because I'm girly and crafty and retro-tastic.
Now for the second one. This took about 3 minutes total from stenciling to covering. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Or so I thought. Haha. Every time he would touch my ankle with the needle, my leg would twitch. I couldn't help it. Luckily I had Steffi there to help hold me down. w00t! No pictures of the process for this one since it was over so fast. But here is the finished product. Again, it will look much nicer when it's healed.
I <3 that tattoo! Hahaha! Srsly though, I do love it. I've wanted it for a long time and I'm so glad I finally just went ahead and did it.
Now comes the worst part. The healing. So annoying. But oh well, it's worth it because it means I get to have my new art forever and ever. :)
Now to continue working on my ears...
And, to quote the wisdom of the man who did my first tattoo... "Ink is addictive. 1 lead to 2, and 2 leads to 30." Oh man, so true.
