Getting a tattoo is a permanent decision that people sometimes has mixed feelings about: you either love them or you hate them. Personally, I LOVE tattoos, and a year after getting my first one, I thought it was finally time for a second piece. Around August, I made my next appointment, and this one just happened to fall on Columbus Day where I was able to go home and go back to my tattoo shop, Fast Lane Tattoo. I wanted a big piece like my first one and I had the idea in my head for months about what exactly I wanted: a skeletal figure with flowers surrounding it. When I made the appointment, my artist, Kate, was so excited to get started.
After a few months of waiting, it was finally time to go home and get my piece done. I walked into the tattoo shop and greeted Kate and she could tell I was very excited, and nervous, for the long night ahead of me. Since it was such a big piece, it was going to take hours to finish and I didn’t know how I was going to handle it. My first tattoo that I had gotten only took an hour and a half and it wasn’t horrible, but definitely towards the end I got weary and wanted it to be over sooner, so I was scared of that happening again.
First, Kate had to place the stencil, and I admit I was SUPER annoying when it came to this. I think we placed it about three times before I was actually happy with a placement. However, it was important to me that it was just right since it would, of course, be on my body forever. After the stencil was finally placed, she took me into her room and sat me down and she got her machine running. The first five minutes were definitely the most painful and I could feel myself cringing and making faces in response to the pain. However, it really was just the first five minutes that were bad. After that, it was like I didn’t even feel it and her and I just talked about school and life. The one part I did think hurt horribly was the shading towards the end, which I think is what hurt so bad the first time as well. Kate found this surprising because almost all other clients find that shading actually hurts the least.
After three hours, she decided that we were done and that we could schedule another appointment to finish up the final few hours of shading. When I stood up and looked in the mirror I honestly didn’t know how to feel about it. I loved the design and it was everything I thought of and wanted it to be, but it was hard adjusting to me now having a giant tattoo on my arm. After a few days, however, I got used to seeing it and now I really do love everything about it.
My time at Fast Lane again with Kate was really awesome and I can definitely see myself continuing to go to her for future tattoos. Overall, I got a really beautiful piece that I can’t wait to show off.
*Photo provided by Paloski