A Little Backbone

The Tattoo Odyssey continues!

After the last session two weeks ago, Joe Rose, Tattoo Artist Extraordinaire, had reached my hip. Tonight, we plunged in again. The Wildly Humourous DVD played to distract me (or distract Joe from my squeals of agony, I'm not sure which) selected for this evening was Invador Zim. Invador Zim showed on Nickelodeon until someone there thought about just what they were exposing their juvenile audience to and pulled the plug. It is really weird! One episode we watched involved steeling organs from children and replacing them with tv remotes, cell phones, and the like. If I saw that when I was nine I'd still be having nightmares.

Anyway. Link by link, Joe set to work. First stop was the pelvic bone. Then I had a brief respite of Not Too Bad until we hit my spine, when things got Really Bad. I'd heard that taking ink over the spine was tough, but nothing could have prepared me for what I endured tonight.

Wow! That smarts!

But I've discovered this Zone, a mental state I drop into when I'm stretched out on the table. The pain just happens, but I view it as sort of a necessity. I go through it.

To a large extent, this is possible because I'm enjoying the finished product so much. It really is looking great. And I was thrilled to realize that after tonight, the tattoo will be visible over my belt. In part, this is the effect I was hoping for: a tattoo that emerges from and disappears again under my clothing, capturing (I hope) the imagination of onlookers as to just where exactly it goes in the meantime. In other words, getting people (men in particular) to be thinking about my body and what I'd look like naked.

After all, that can only be good, right?

Well, as usual after our sessions, I'm exhausted, so I'm heading to bed.

Our next session is on September 10th.

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