I got inked!!

Ok, this color is a fib because I'm not wearing purple shoes today... I'm wearing the same gold sandals I've been wearing for a couple days now because...

I got my tattoo last week! I completely meant to blog about it sooner, but I was just a teensy bit preoccupied... agreed?

So, here's the way it all went down...

A month and a half ago or so, I decided to get my tattoo. I knew I wanted a turtle on my foot, but I didn't know which exact design I wanted. So, I went online and printed up a couple pictures of Green Sea Turtles (I knew I wanted that particular species, remember?) and took them to Curren's good friend Sean, the artist we picked for the job. I explained exactly what I wanted, and told him to be creative with the rest. He said he'd have a drawing in about a week.

So, a week later, we went back and I looked at what he'd drawn up, told him what I liked and didn't like and he said to give him another week on it. When we went back the next week, it was exactly what I wanted. Better still, it's a completely original design that no body in the whole world has. Yay! He'd also drawn Curren's wheel of war that he was getting on his right shoulder.

So, we made appointments for the next Tuesday... and waited...

Finally Tuesday came!

Now, I'll be honest. I had no idea how I was going to react to this whole thing. My two biggest fears were throwing up and fainting (in that order). Sean assured me that if I vomited, he had a trash can for me and if I fainted they'd catch me (Curren was there too, having just gotten his wheel of war before me).

I was slightly reassured, and approached the whole thing with a smile and a laugh... until he turned the needle on. I'll tell you, that is the worst sound I've ever heard! It's like the dentist drill x 1.000.000.000!!!

The first time the needle went in, it hurt. Duh. He started out by outlining the whole design, but by the time I got "used to" that pain, he added 2 more needles in the instrument to do the coloring in... Ow. The top of my foot was bearable but, I'll tell you, when he got down to the side of my foot near the sole it hurt like mad! Poor Curren had no blood flow in his hand by the time Sean had finished that flipper. The whole thing was over in about 35-40 min. It felt like it went a lot faster, thank goodness!

So, it's been healing for a week now, and it's run the gamut from being totally bruised and swollen (which is why I didn't do Millie Thursday... I was icing the foot) to being scabbed, and now the scab is flaking off. Yay! I've been extra nice to it, keeping a healing ointment on it, keeping it covered with plastic and elevated when I sleep. Pretty soon I'll be back to wearing normal shoes! It should be completely healed in about a week,a t which point I have to remember to always put sunscreen on it (luckily my lotion is already SPF 28) and keep it moisturized well.

If you're wondering, I'm still glad I did it :o)

Here's a picture of it Tuesday night, about 4 hours after I had it done... I'll take another picture when it's totally healed so you can see the detail!