Tattoo

A tattoo...I've only talked about getting one for about 10 years or so. In 2000 I almost got it. I watched a friend get one, I had my design with, I talked to a guy about it, only problem, I was going to Cancun in 4 days...not a good time to get a tattoo. Then I never went back. Over the time since then, the design slightly changed, so I'm glad now that I didn't do it then because, OK, yes, I'm a girl, but I didn't want a "girly" tattoo. I have wanted a dolphin, mainly because dolphins have been my favorite animal pretty much all my life. A part of me wanted to go into marine biology to work with dolphins. In 2000 I swam with them in Cancun. In 2000 I also swam with them in Hawaii. In Cancun I paid money, in Hawaii I swam offshore into a sheltered cove and had the experience of swimming with a wild spinner dolphin pod of about 30, with 2 or 3, 3 month olds with them...it was very cool. I also wanted something a bit more...I'm a Taurus and I found the Chinese symbol for Taurus is a circle with horns...so I decided a dolphin jumping through that was what I wanted. I also have an artistic side, so I wanted my design, done on my body...of course the artist was going to have the final say in coloring and all that, but I had the basic drawn up of what I wanted. Then I really got the push for it this year...I don't know why exactly but with a lot of the things that have been going on, I just wanted it, and I wanted it under the sign of Taurus, preferably on or before my birthday...but I didn't have an artist...I ended up talking to one guy and wasn't sure about him, but then I found a fantastic artist, that bless his heart, what tough guy tattoo artist wants to do yet another dolphin, but while he teased me about it, he did a very good job. My big thing was not wanting something "cartoony" which I have seen on some people. I wanted realistic looking and nice...Tony did a fantastic job...especially after I hemmed and hawed about it when I realized it was going to be bigger than I wanted...but I went with it...

The tattoo transferred onto my skin.



The Taurus symbol filled in. Originally I was thinking black for that, but he went with blues and coloring it the way it is to go for an "ocean" feel which I like much better than I would've had we gone just black.

The final result.

Immediately after it was done.

So the experience was interesting. It wasn't too bad, a few spots hurt worse than others, but for the most part it was bearable. I love the way it looks and now it only feels, as most people told me it would, like a sunburn. I didn't have any problems sleeping, and while I started thinking maybe it should've been just a little bit higher, I'm actually glad it's not because it's not being rubbed by waistbands of pants like it otherwise might have been. I had one friend come with me for it then I went to see another friend after and I told my sister and one other friend I was getting it today. Other than that, no one has seen it or knows that I have one other than my friends in blogland...and it's in an area that no one has to see it if I don't want them to, which I really like.