Just for the record, five hours of tattooing is a lot. A whole lot. This is my third tattoo, and by a mile the most extensive. I went in wanting something to symbolize rebirth and transformation as I move from one career into another one entirely. So I looked around for a while before I decided on a tattoo shop, Fu’s Custom Tattoo’s here in Charlotte. I met with Christian Dunn, set an appointment and gave him a piece of reference art to think about.

We started here.

Or more specifically, here, because as much as I love Jean Grey, she wasn’t what I was shooting for.

only without the ginormous boobs. I love boobs, but I don’t want them tattooed on my shoulder.

I left that with Christian to think about, and we scheduled an appointment. I’ll admit to a certain level of nerves when he said that I should come in at 12:30 in the afternoon and that I would be his only appointment that day, because it would be extremely detailed. And a very long process. And take multiple sessions.

I was nervous because I knew what that meant. Pain. Lots of Pain.

I was right. After about an hour and a half of drawing, we were ready to start the outline. Yep, it took over an hour of freehanded drawing before we actually got to any tattoing. Another two hours of needle work, and we had this.

Two hours of having a needle jabbed into my flesh at a bajillion times per minute. A pretty good start. We took a dinner break, and I returned for the last three hours.

Three more hours of having a needle jabbed into my flesh at a bajillion times per minute. And honestly, Christian had a pretty light touch. There were only a few spots where I wanted to cry for my mommy. Mostly up around the top where there’s not much flesh between the skin and the bone. Those spots hurt like hell.

But after three more hours, a bout of lightheadedness, a stomach cramp that would NOT go away, and about a gallon of ink, here’s the end of session 1.

Today my upper arm feels pretty much like I’ve got a bad sunburn. And over the next week this piece will go from lovely to scabby, to flaky, to crappy, back to lovely.

Then in a month or so I get to go back in and get more color done. That will probably only take a couple of hours. I figure when all is said and done I will have spent at least 8 hours in the chair getting inked up.

And I already know what I want for my next one. And the one after that. And the two after that.

It’s a sickness, I know. But they don’t wear out like expensive boots.

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