What is it about sitting down in a chair and having a needle repeatedly pierce your skin that is so appealing? Nothing really. And yet, I continue to find myself in that chair, the familiar hum of the tattoo gun in my ear. People always say that you can't get just one tattoo because it's an addiction and I can tell you that is absolutely true. I know of only one person who has just a single tattoo in my inner circle but I know of several who said they would never get a second one and now have several. I guess the little masochist in people enjoys the pain and the rush of the process. I don't fully understand it myself and I'm into the double digits in tattoos already.
I've wanted a tattoo since I was a kid and I couldn't tell you why. My uncle is a tattoo artist so I'm sure seeing him come home at the end of the day with all of his paraphernalia and stencils contributed to my desire to have one (he used to do the most awesome fake designs on us). Thankfully I waited until I had enough sense to know not to get stupid stuff permanently inked on my body before I got my first tattoo. Every single one of mine means something to me and most of them were done during a significant time of my life. I've spent the better part of my 20's piercing stuff and getting inked but I was 95% sure that the last tattoo I got about eight months ago was actually the last one. I was mistaken.
During our trip to New Orleans my friends and I have seen the sights, had some awesome conversations, eaten too much, had way too much to drink (I swear one of my friends was drunk the entire trip, you know who you are) and nearly burned down our kitchen. We went out walking the streets the other day and passed a tattoo shop and one of my friends (who said she would never get a second tattoo and now has four) decided she wanted to get some new ink in memory of her brother. So we all wander into the tattoo shop (yes, we were sober at the time) planning to hang out while she gets her new artwork. But we couldn't just sit down and talk about something non-tattoo related, nooo, we had to talk about whether or not we intended to get anymore and what we would get. By the time we left the joint four of us had new tattoos. Some had been planning on getting something new for awhile and figured no time like the present while others (aka me) had no real solid plans to get anything new but had been flirting with a design for the past few months.
I'm not gonna say this is the last one cuz obviously that's one thing I can't commit to, so I'll just say it's the last one of 2010 since that seems doable. I've blogged before that my mother hates my tattoos (or any body modification really) with such a passion that she no longer wishes to hear when I add to my collection (as she puts it, I'm her baby and she didn't make no mistakes so why do I have to go out and alter her creation). I don't intend to tell her about this one, however one of my friends took a picture of me while I was getting it done and I have a feeling he intends to use it for blackmail of some sort. So if she finds out about this, I'll know where to find the dude that sold me out. That's not a threat, mind you. Just a hypothetical...
