Almost Inked

I got my first piercing on a whim. I was a freshman in college- and although 'out on my own in the world' consisted of being on the far side of my hometown from my parents, I felt a certain amount of freedom at the time, yet was curiously reticent to push myself to do anything. But one day, I went downtown, took a deep breath and came out a few minutes later with an eyebrow ring. Which worked out just fine until economic circumstances forced me into working at the evil corporate empire that is Wal-Mart (and they aren't cool with piercings. Uncle Sam don't swing that way...)

Curiously enough, I got my second piercing- also on a whim. I had some time to kill downtown one night before I went to my Portuguese conversation hour, took a deep breath, walked in and walked out with a hoop in my left nipple. (A Frat Guy was all like 'dude, this guy's totally getting his nipple pierced!' and wanted to know all about the pain afterwards.) That one didn't want to heal up right, so after some awkward questions at airport security and a refusal to unscrew itself, it took a set of pliers in my Uncle's garden shed in the UK to get it gone.

Yet despite that, I've always been somewhat cautious when it comes to tattoos. The Missus has plenty- everyone I know with only one or two exceptions has at least one tattoo somewhere- and I knew that I wanted to do it- I just wanted to be sure about what I was going to get. Ali answered that question for me one sunny summer afternoon in Spirit Lake- getting a chili pepper, the 'symbol of our love,' (Tom and Ali = tomali! (or tamale, rather- but a dried corn husk full o'stuff doesn't make for a good tattoo, so we expropriated a chili pepper) She got hers then and so today, I went down to Nemesis Studios in Iowa City and got my chili pepper. (3 years to the day after we first met-- our 'other' anniversary...)

Almost.

It was, as Old School Jeff, my artist remarked, more uncomfortable than painful. Like someone was drawing on my back with a really sharp pencil and digging in. He started with a short line to get me used to the sensation and then we were off to the races- and for the vast majority of the time, I was totally cool. The long lines weren't that fun and for some reason, some areas of my back were more sensitive than others- so there were some lines that really made me grit my teeth, but overall- the pain wasn't unbearable- not by a long shot.

Old School Jeff told me he was almost done and just had to go back through and bold up some lines, then we'd take a break and he'd color it all in. And so, after the initial round, he went back to work- and had almost finished up, when it hit me in a rush. I got hot, then cold, then light headed- Ali said she saw me 'get really pale and then I thought 'oh shit'' He let me sit up and I proceeded to almost pass out- then puke in his garbage can.

So no color yet. But the basic outline is done and it's a big 'un- probably a little too big for the first tattoo, but overall, it looks pretty kick-ass nonetheless. I can't say I'll ever become a huge tattoo freak, but I will, at the very least, finish this one. (And hopefully not pass out/puke when I do so-- though props to Old School Jeff for taking it all in stride- guess that does happen now and again.)