I enjoyed looking at fellow twatter’s tattoos, so I thought I’d share mine too! Exciting, yes?

SO.

The first tattoo I ever got was three stars on my lower back. Yep. Tramp stamp. I haz one. Anyway, I was 19 and star tattoos were all the rage. And I really like stars. Don’t ask why. I shit you not, I went on my PC, opened up Publisher, used the “star” tool, made three stars and printed it. I then brought it to a tattoo place not far from my apartment (Ink Lab on Lake Street) and said “I want this.” The guy (who’s name I don’t recall because I didn’t care) honestly said “Stars are hard to do because they’re so precise.” Did this make me stray? NO. I was like, “Oh, well…do the best you can!” an hour (and $150!!) later, I had three stars on my back. One of them is wonky. But I had a tattoo. I hid it for a while from my parents until I hugged someone in front of them, up came the shirt, and there it was for all to see. Whatevs.

My second tattoo was the cherry blossom branches surrounding my lame stars, which I had done in the summer of 2006. I was lucky enough to have Jon at Uptown Tattoo do it for me (his waiting list is almost a year now). I love my branches. (The picture above was taken shortly after I had it done, complete with tape marks on my back.) I’m obsessed with Japanese art, and cherry blossoms rank pretty high on that list. This tattoo took three hours. THREE HOURS. I did pretty well though, until the last 30 minutes. I could barely tolerate the pain anymore. But I love them. The edges of the tattoo wrap onto my hips a bit and have not been saved from pregnancy stretch marks, but they’re still pretty.

The last tattoo I got was on my foot in October of 2008. I got it for two reasons; one was for my aunt Julie, who had passed away earlier in the year after a battle with breast cancer, and the other was because a month earlier I had walked over 60 miles in the Breast Cancer 3-Day. I had initially planned on a 1/4 – 1/2 sleeve of a geisha (she loved Japanese art too), but I freaked out. It was going to be $800 (which I didn’t have) and take 8 hours. A huge commitment, both time AND skin-wise, and I wasn’t ready yet. So I used my appointment with Zack at Uptown Tattoo to have this done instead. It’s a pink ribbon in the shape of a J (for Julie) “pinned” to my foot, for the 3-day.

I love this tattoo a lot. It only took about 40 minutes but OH MY GOD do foot tattoos hurt. See the ribbon curling up on the right side of my foot? I almost cried. That part of your foot has NO FAT and is like, straight bone. And apparently eleventy BILLION nerve endings. But so worth it.

So, those are my tattoos! I’m still wanting about a billion more, so when I do – of COURSE I’ll let you know. I have a few in mind I would like to have done soon. That geisha 1/2 sleeve is still calling to me.