A New Tattoo!

A few weeks ago I got a new tattoo. I had booked the appointment way back in March when I was trying to help out my tattoo artist by giving her some money when she couldn't work. I paid a deposit and told her what I wanted, and at the time August seemed forever away and I thought for sure Covid would all be over by then and my appointment would be fine. Of course, when it rolled around we were in that mid-lockdown place and things were open again but I wasn't going many places myself. But, well, a tattoo shop is one of the cleanest places anyway, and if it isn't, you shouldn't be getting tattooed there. Remember, please, that you're paying money and you need to feel comfortable wherever you go. I have had most of my tattoos done by Nini at The Ink Station because I like it and trust them and I prefer to get tattooed by women (and also support self-employed women while I'm at it). 

So I felt okay going. They had things in place to stop there being a lot of people in the shop, and there was a plastic screen between me and the rest of the shop, and Nini was wearing a visor. It was well organised and felt okay but I think at the moment everyone's lines are different. I don't want to be in busy places, but I trust Nini.

I think this is my twentieth tattoo, although I'm not sure without counting. I have a list somewhere in one of my bullet journals (I'm one of those people, although mine is a lot less complicated and time consuming than some). It might be more. About three quarters of them have been done by Nini. My first ones were done elsewhere, Lee's friend tattooed me once in Ipswich, and I've had one done by a different artist at The Ink Station, but by and large Nini has done them. She's very talented and she's fast, which I appreciate because I HATE the pain of tattoos. She's also put up with me for years now, tattooing the odd lyrics I have, putting up with me fussing about fonts and so on. She's good, if you're in need of a tattooist in West Yorkshire I recommend her!

I had been wanting a Star Wars tattoo for ages, and I've seen some really cool ones with galaxies in, so I knew I wanted that. I like the Rebel Alliance symbol so I decided on that. I asked Nini to put a TIE fighter in it. That's as far as we got before I turned up at the studio. We talked about putting a Millenium Falcon in, but the problem is that a Millenium Falcon in silhouette just looks like a blob. So she said what about a bigger star, and I said, well Tatooine has two suns, so how about two of them? Nini drew them on, made up the stencil and she got started. She wanted a lighter lilac around the TIE fighter so that it stood out, and I said I was happy for her to choose the colours. 

It took around 90 minutes, which is getting on towards my tolerance for tattoos. I don't have a very high pain tolerance at the best of times, and by the time you're there in tattooing the artist is going back over bits that have already been tattooed, which I HATE. I dunno why I keep putting myself through it again, but I love tattoos and the pretty pictures on my body. 

So, here's my Rebel Alliance tattoo with TIE fighter and a galaxy. The rebel scum is part of the alliance, and she's here to stay!

Photo was taken just after tattooing, so it's very raised and sore, but you get the idea!