Common misconceptions about tattoos

[yakalskovich]

Yesterday, I learned a few things about tattoos:

• It's not a good idea to get one while drunk. Very inadvisable. The alcohol thins the blood, and you bleed profusely; while sober, you bleed very little.


• It takes quite a while to get one done. A dragon that extends down the back and is even done in colour would take many hours, and would have to be done in several sessions. By no means would it be the product of one drunken night.


• Nobody who has a tattoo themselves would consequently make someone else drunk and drag them to be tattooed as they'd know about the blood. If at all, they'd have to use other substances to space the recipient out.


• A fresh tattoo is deep black; it turns blue as the ink settles under the skin. It needs care, must washed often and the skin must not be stretched too strongly as to make it settle evenly. A tattoo fades through its owner's lifetime and gets a paler and paler shade of indigo.

Why I know that? Because I got one myself, of course:



The symbol is a so-called heyiya-if from Ursula LeGuin's "Always Coming Home", one of my favourite Science Fiction books ever. I wanted to have a heyiya-if on my right shoulder for ages - but I lent out the book. Now I have the book again, I took it with me to the Tollwood festival when I went yesterday with the Brits, and had it done there - by an interesting British bloke called Mark Lee.

This is it:




And to prove that it's actually on me:

Comments

[woelfle.livejournal.com]

Wow, that looks cool. All symmetric and stuff. Though, yes, OUCH too!

and thanks for metaquoting me. :-)

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Very nice!

[yakalskovich]

Not very ouch, really. It didn't hurt very much while it was done, just in waves, as the endorphine kicked in and faded; and now, 28 hours later, it doesn't hurt at all any more. I need to remember on purpose that I mustn't stretch the tattoo so it doesn't become uneven before it settles...

And I really liked your comment on the general football hangover. I read it out loud to my Brit visitor, even.

[yakalskovich]

Hei, thanks! It's great to have, too.

[madame-mercredi.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I've been teasing Paul that I will get a Wraeththu symbol tattoo while at D*C. Hee hee -- it's making him nervous.

[vikytickytembo.livejournal.com]

OMG neeeedles in the skiiiiiin!

But it looks so cool!

Shut up voices in my head shut up!

[yakalskovich]

Good idea - what Wraeththu symbol would you chose? There is of course the lion/lioness one from from the map. I used to have that on a t-shirt, but in batik, as that was before I developed my technology for "silkscreens" which are actually net-curtain and window colour screens.

Ot the dagger/ouana-lim one. But that would be very risqué, especially if it were visible and had to be explained at times.

[yakalskovich]

It didn't actually hurt much. After that fellow Mark had made the first two lines, I went "So this is it - it's harmless!" with relief, and relaxed into proceedings. It hhurt a bit occasionally, but that came and went in waves as the endorphines kicked in and then faded a bit, but mostly they were kicking in...

Poor nazgul_nr_5 who hung about outside with the Brits was queasier than I was from the occasional look inside and the mere idea of needles in the skin.

Of course, for me the heyiya-if came first, and the tattoo only afterwards; it fugued from "If I ever got a tattoo, it would have to be a heyiya-if" to "I want a tattoo of a heyiya-if" over the course of eight years.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

That is just beautiful!