My little sister and I have been sitting on a couple of gift cards to a local tattoo parlor for months, and had been putting off a plan to go get the tattoos done for almost as long. Something always came up, or one of us was sick, or the weekend was just too busy. Well finally early this week she texted me asking if she took Wednesday off if we could finally go get our tattoos. As Wednesday is my day off (I work 4×10 MTThF at the moment) I was in.
We agreed to meet at Defining Skin at noon on Wednesday since that was when they opened, and we would figure things out from there. I was, of course, twenty minutes early as is only right and proper so I sat in my car taking selfies until Traci arrived. It turns out she had the foresight to call ahead and Charles Martin (@tmberwolf) would be able to get us in, but not until 1:30. That meant we had some time to kill.
Traci hadn’t eaten yet and I only had maple pecan puffs, so we decided to go get something to eat and since Brewdog Franklinton was nearby it seemed an obvious choice to us. Because you have to get a beer if you go to Brewdog I decided to try their Franklinton Dumpster Fire (The night before this location opened the dumpster caught fire very dramatically and they thought they may not get to open) which is a sour gose. It was delicious with berry and a lovely smoky aftertaste. Traci got a Sucker Punch Cider from Mad Moon, which was delicious and much too easy to drink. For lunch I got cauliflower wings with blue cheese dip. They were so good. I could have moved into that dish and lived happily for some time.
We headed back over to Defining skin where we filled out all our paperwork and waited for Charlie to be ready for us. Traci and I were both getting text; Traci a quote from Kingdom Hearts – “One Sky One Destiny” and for me one of my favorite words and a tattoo I had wanted for a long time “Bibliophile.” I wanted mine to look as much like typeset as possible, and Traci wanted hers to be script. He got them together, made the stencils and I was up first. I was afraid that the wrist would be super sensitive and uncomfortable, but it really wasn’t bad at all. All in all the whole tattoo took about 15 minutes, which is so much quicker than all my other pieces. Traci was up next and she wanted hers on her chest under her collar bones. He got it lined up and spaced out, and then got to work on her. Hers took 30 minutes or so, not very long at all. She said the chest didn’t hurt badly either, but I don’t know if I believe her.
We are both so happy with our new ink. The only sad thing about it is that I am going to a pool party tonight and I can’t get in the pool with my fresh ink. Oh,well. It is worth it for the awesome. I am just going to put my feet in and look at my beautiful and long time coming tattoo.
Betsy Snow White Bibliophile 