My First Time

Wednesday was a monumental day. That may be pushing it a bit, but I had another first in my life: a tattoo. As many of you have said, I never thought I would see the day that I would get one. I have always wanted one, but I have been deathly afraid. Who knowingly puts themselves through a torturous process like tattooing? Well, ME!

How did it all come about? I knew what and where I wanted to get it, a cross on my wrist, but I didn’t have a design in mind. I started to seriously look through some drawings and other tattoos and I found it, a wooden cross with cool detail. I wanted to put a verse with it and I finally decided on Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” I mean WOW. That verse is everything I was looking for.

I actually had been trying to get it done for two weeks by a guy who worked on some close friends. He ended up flaking on me two weeks in a row, so my friend Tiffany recommended another guy named Joe. I made the appointment and already had a better feeling about this guy. D-day was set for Wednesday at 5 p.m.

When I walked into the tattoo parlor, another guy was working on someone and I heard that noise, that buzzing and I was instantly more nervous. I met Joe and was glad to find out he was Christian too. He drew up my design and it was exactly what I was hoping for. Now it was time. I felt myself trying to stall. Ben was coming from work and wasn’t there yet. But the time was upon me and I wasn’t going to back down now. I kept telling him how nervous I was, but he kept reassuring me it would be fine.

When he did the first line, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was thinking. I mean it hurt, but it was bearable. I gave myself a pep talk and I think it worked. Though I am pretty sure I was forgetting to breathe because about 10 minutes into it, I felt sick. It wasn’t bad or anything, I just was concentrating on the tattoo so much that I stopped breathing normal. Ben got me some water and a little piece of chocolate and I was fine (what a great boyfriend). Just a momentary lapse of, you know, breathing.

It literally was under 20 minutes from when I went back to his area to the finished product. I was thankful for that. He cleaned me up and I was out of there. The end product was better than I could have imagined. The detail on the cross is exactly what I was looking for and it’s the perfect size.

And that was it. I finally have my first, and most likely last, tattoo. Thank you all for the great comments on Facebook. I hope I proved I’m not just talk, but I am all about the action!