i 'inked' myself

i got myself a tattoo today.

the whole experience was really interesting. i had a chance to flip through the numerous art book which contained all sorts of designs (i was looking into tribal designs). shortlisted them, then of course i had some friends over for the emotional support. met with my tattoo artist. interogated him thoroughly from the type of needles used to the type of disinfectant used.

so, decided my design. got it stenciled onto my lower back...very happy with the position. and in came my tattoo artist. he opened the steriled needles in front of me...told me what he was going to do, poured out black ink into a little holder...and also some oil...wasn't too sure what oil it was. but anyway, he took out his tattoo machine...and he was ready to 'paint' me. told me to relax and enjoy the process...it was more of like a torture to me....now i'm very sure i'm not into s&m.

he used two types of needles. a fine and a slightly thicker one. the fine one was used to outline the design and thicker one was to fill in the rest of the colors. boy did it hurt. it felt like getting an injection. hahaha. seriouly. i felt pain when he was outlining...but i read it somewhere if i started to breath slowly my body would release some hormone that is supposed to block out the pain...i think i was breathing as if i was going into labour. 10 minutes into it, i felt cold sweat. hehehe, bad pain threshold i supposed. but anyway, the entire process took less than an hour (as i was told that the design i chose would take about an hour to complete).

i was bandaged. the after feeling is like there's a thousand scratch and a stinging sensation. hahaha, but it was definately an experience. i might even consider extending my design in future as my tattoo artist told me that the design i chose is definately extendable....woo hoo...let's see what i'm up to next.

the design below is supposed to be seen in horizontal manner as the tattoo artist took it from a vertical angle. so, what do you guys think?