Ahhh.... tattoo....

Saturday May 31st 2008. 7 am. I woke up really early to practice my yoga. Forty five minutes later, I did my last pose, the savasan pose (corpse) and with that, I finished my practice for the day. After a nice shower, I looked at my filo fax, today's the day I'm doing my tattoo. Received a call from Mum, dear old Mother is going to the Thean Hou temple along Old Klang Road for Old white tiger deity prayers. I have to pray to this deity, seeking his blessings and protection as the Rat this year faces a lot of unusual events and incidents.

Left the temple at half past nine, drove to Lorong Syed Putra Kiri and headed to the Tattooist's place. Nervous... really nervous as this is going to be my first experience about tattooing. Met the tattoo artist, a nice girl. She prepped me on the basics of what to expect (the pain) ~gulp!, and how to take care of the tattoo... She' very knowledgeable about the skin. She even told me after the first few pricks, she would know if my skin's base is good or bad. She was smiling when she was doing my tattoo, she said I have good skin.  As I lay on the reclining leather chair, in the darkened room, with a bright spot light focused on my right arm, I could hear myself saying, relax.... relax.... relax... and I heard the tattoo needle machine making funny sounds.. Then the 1st prick! I thought it would be such immense pain. I was rather surprised that the sensation was like having a knife's blunt edge scratching on your skin harshly. Oh.. so that's how it felt... 

As she continued to do the outlines of the main design, which is the Dorje; I realized that different part of my skin produced different sensations. Some were numb, some where sharp distinctive needle pricks, other parts felt like a pen knife scrapping my skin. We had a break and I decided to take a smoke, I went out of the place and she followed, she was pleased with the outline, She took a picture of it. She even admitted it was a nice design. I was happy inside.... We continued doing the the other parts of the tattoo... It took about 3 hours to have it done... She told me that I was very patient and I was motionless. So it was easy for her to work on the tattoo. By the 2nd hour, I was so used to the sensation and I did get a bit of 'high' each time the needle pricks into my skin... :D I felt so sadistic... *loud eerie laughter*

Well, when it was completed, she took a mirror and positioned it for me to see.. I was pleased with what I saw... This is what the end result for the day was:

There is more to do, First; She wants to touch up the fire background with orange and yellow so the fire will be more significant. The Dorje's back ground will be painted with turquoise so it will accentuate the simple design in black. I am so looking forward to my next appointment with the tattoo artist. So was she.. she's looking forward to work on it too. Now, she says its' a matter of keeping my hands off as it will start to itch. And she said to becareful when I shower and not to be too harsh on the tattooed area as this will influence the color and may have the not so nice to see tattoo colors later. I've always wanted to do this for ten years now. I'm glad I did it. I like my tattoo!