My calf sleeve (legwarmer as I call it) started over a year ago, but the experience I will be recording here is the addition of color just over three months ago.
At A Glance Author Jesse Contact Jesse@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Steve Studio The Painted Bird Location Somerville, MA, USA The day of I was nothing but excited. I had got the word "Ryguy" and a simple dragonfly on the inside and outside respectively of my right calf, halfway between my ankle and knee almost a year before. They were both done in black. No shading, just lines.
I then decided I wanted to set the dragonfly on a background of an ocean and a sunset. I decided on the color scheme of teal and orange mostly because they are my favorite colors but also because of the movie Life Aquatic. Flash forward to the day of....
The nice girl at the counter had me stand on a chair while she put the transfer on my leg. This was an interesting process as I was standing in the middle of the tattoo parlor on a chair with my pant leg rolled up and this girl walking around me in circles to see if everything matched up and was straight. I wasn't nervous yet, just excited. I just wanted it to be done.
My boyfriend came with me, as he had done before, and we spent a long time waiting for things to get set up. The Painted Bird had recently renovated, but alas, there was still only one bed for tattooing and the piercer was using it at the moment. Finally we got started. I lay down on my back for a good portion of it, but mostly I rolled because the ocean went all the way around my calf. So I went form my back, to my side, to my stomach, to my side, to my back, and so on. The pain was remarkably bearable (I have a low pain tolerance as far as *I* am concerned, although another tattoo artist commented that I was a "tough little bitch" when he saw all the teal on my shin and calf).
Steve, my tattoo artist, is a very funny guy and loves science fiction. He spent most of the time tattooing me talking to my boyfriend about movies and SciFi Network which was fine with me because it kept me entertained. It made me realize that I could never get a tattoo by myself. Having my boyfriend there was such a huge relief.
At one point my boyfriend said 'Is it true that getting tattooed on the shin is one of the worst places?' What a guy, huh? And Steve said 'Nah, it's not that bad.' Later Joe said that he was nodding furiously while he said it, but I didn't notice because I was lying down and my glasses were off. :-P I really didn't think the shin hurt the most, I thought that the calf did. Although again, it was completely bearable and I really didn't lose my calm until the very end.
The most painful part of the tattoo came after the initial teal color had been laid down because know when he gripped my leg he was holding the recently tattooed part. It was a really intense, almost burning pain. Like awful, awful rug burn. By the end (4 hours later) I was sweating and tears were streaming down my cheeks, but I didn't say a word. I just wanted him to keep working and get it done.
I had never been more relieved in my life then when I sat down in my car. I was so happy that it was over. Then of course, a few weeks later, I was dying for more. It's surprisingly addictive. Like everybody says, and it's true, the thing is that the pain is only present when the needle is on your skin. The second it is lifted, there is relief. Some people might think that's worse because it's not constant, but I truly believe that it's better that way because you get breaks, time to steady your breathing and refocus.
It should be explained briefly the reasons behind my tattoo. The word Ryguy is the nickname of my best friend who was murdered a few summers back. The dragonfly is a symbol of strength and remembrance of Ryan for myself, his mother, and my mother (his godmother) for various reasons. The ocean setting was because my fondest memories of Ryan were when we were at the beach together. The tattoo was designed by my boyfriend Joe, an artist and animation major at the Art Institute of Boston. The word Ryguy was written in a beautiful script handwriting by my friend Mickey who got me through my friends death.
My biggest piece of advice for anybody wanting a tattoo but being unsure about it is to make sure you have somebody that you care about and who cares about you with you. Everybody gets tattoos for different reasons, but whether you love it or hate in the end, the experience of the tattoo itself will be enhanced tenfold by having somebody you love with you. I also think if you have any friends who are artists or if you are interested in getting writing or words on you that having somebody close to you do the art or script is simply amazing. It made the experience far more transcendent for me personally to know that art that my two best friends created was being marked permanently on my body. I am in fact planning for my other leg to be entirely made up of words and quotes and lyrics that my friends handwrite. But alas, that is a story for another time. Take care.