Much like a lot of people, I had been interested in tattoos for a long time and it wasn't until I was 16 that I seriously began thinking "wow, I'll be old enough for a tattoo soon." By January 2007, I had come up with loads of ideas for my first tattoo. One of them was a small neo-tribal piece I drew that I thought would look great on my right arm. Luckily I changed my mind about it... I actually can't really stand all this new tribal stuff anymore. Another idea was a small piece I drew with "rock n roll" written in black and a number of purple and black stars around it. I quickly went off that idea too. It just seemed like I didn't like any of the ideas a couple of weeks after coming up with them and nothing seemed complete.
At A Glance Author Jemma Contact Jemma@bme.anon IAM NeutronLIAR When Three months ago Artist Danny Studio Studio 81 Location Manchester, UK I started watching Miami Ink when it first aired in the UK. One of the tattoos that stuck in my mind was a koi that Ami James did which pretty much covered the guy's upper arm. I also saw a lot more Japanese/Oriental style tattoos on the show and on BME, and round about Autumn 2006 I started seriously thinking about my first tattoo. I became a big fan of these type of tattoos and near the end of the year, I began sketching ideas out for a half sleeve. I drew up a rough picture of a koi swimming downwards through waves and kept the design on my desk for a few weeks. I read up on what a koi symbolises, which is believed to be courage and also that the wearer has overcome tough times which I could relate with. I'm also a Pisces so I guess it ties in with that but I'm not one for astrology really.
I kept thinking about the design for a couple of months and then in January 2007, my dad told me he was gonna give me £1000 for my 18th which was at the end of February. Most of that went on a new guitar and a laptop for college but all I could think about was a tattoo. I already knew which studio I wanted to go to, which was Studio 81 in Manchester. I had seen a lot of their work on tattoostudioguide.com and also some pieces on BME and I really liked the work I saw by one tattooists there called Danny. The studio is right in the middle of Manchester city centre and I figured I should book an appointment as soon as I could incase it was a very busy studio like In2Skin. In2Skin is a piercing studio which is under the barbers under Studio 81 which is where I go and will be apprenticing at, and it gets mad busy in there.
On January 11th I decided I'd go and speak to someone at the studio about booking my tattoo, because I was in town anyway as me and my mate Nat were off to see Killswitch Engage at Academy 1. We walked through the doorway and up the stairs and I could instantly smell the cleanliness of the place. It was quite small but not cramped, and had a lot of airbrushed pictures hung up, as well as a small counter next to the entrance of the tattoo room. A woman [who I found out to be Carole] was sat in the tattooing room and she called me in as no one was at the desk. I explained what I wanted and showed her my rough design. "Danny's your man!" she said and pointed to a guy tattooing. I was so thankful she said that because I loved the work I'd seen by him. "Hi, y'alright?" he said in what I assumed to be an Australian accent, but I found out he's actually from New Zealand. I showed him my design and talked about placement. "So you want it from your shoulder to your elbow then?" he asked, so I said yeah but I wanted it to stop about 3 inches before my elbow. He nodded his head and seemed to like my idea and he told me to book in with Nigel who was now at the desk.
I wanted it as soon after my 18th [27th Feb] as possible which due to college would be the 3rd of March. I handed Nigel my design and £20 deposit and Danny shouted through to book in for 3 hours. I asked about prices as I'd heard it was £50 an hour for custom work and Danny said I was right, and so it was gonna cost £150 for my first sitting. For the standard of work that comes from all the tattooists there, I thought it was a very reasonable price. I said goodbye and we left the studio after Danny told me to come back a week before my appointment to check the design.
About 6 weeks later me and another friend were in town for some piercings and it was actually exactly a week before my tattoo. I went to Studio 81 to check the design and Danny said he'd not quite finished it yet. But he said that he'd be working at the Manchester Tattoo Convention on the day of my tattoo and he'd like me to get tattooed there but on the Sunday instead. I was pretty shocked because it'd be my first tattoo but I agreed and I was actually pretty excited! He said to come back during the week to check the design.
I went back one day during the week to finally check it but Danny had some bad news. He'd double booked for Sunday by accident and I wasn't able to get my tattoo done at the convention in the end. But it was no big deal to me as it saved me the entrance fee haha. The design was almost finished and he told me to go back on Wednesday to check it out. I also re-scheduled my session for Thursday the 8th.
I went back to the studio on the Wednesday to check the design and Danny picked up this big piece of thick paper with this seriously amazing drawing on it done just in pencil, complete with shading and all. I didn't actually have many words to say to him about it other than "that is awesome!" and "see you tomorrow!"
Tattoo day! I didn't get any breakfast as I was in a rush to get to college for music theory which was only an hour long lesson. The lesson couldn't of dragged on more and I even left 15 minutes early. The studio is round the corner and down the road from college and it's not far at all. I called in the shop for a bottle of Coke and some sweets but by the time I was sat on the sofa waiting for Danny to finish with another client, I was feeling too nervous to eat or drink anything.
Danny finished off and came over to me with a couple of line drawing copies of his design. "I had to shrink it down quite a bit coz you've only got little arms" he said to me and I chuckled, but it was more like nervous laughter. He picked one design up and compared it to my arm and he looked happy with the size. He asked me if I was too and I nodded. "I'll call you through in a sec!" he said and he went to set up. He called me in 5 minutes later and he had me lift my sleeve up so and stand next to him. He cleaned off my arm, shaved it, and then wiped it down again. "So, your first tattoo!" he said as he smiled and got the stencil ready. "You nervous?" I stood still as he placed the stencil on my arm. "I won't lie, I'm shitting myself in my head right now" I said to him, and then I went and checked it in the mirror. "Ah you'll be fine!" Danny has a really calming thing about him.
He told me to sit in the chair and he began sorting his machines out and putting ink in the ink caps. He changed gloves and wrapped a leather arm rest in clingfilm, laid it across the 2 workstations either side of him and then changed gloves again. "Right then, I'm just gonna start with a small line. Here we go..." and he did the first line. He stopped and asked how it was and I was just like "far LESS painful than I was expecting it to be!" Honestly, I hardly felt a thing! He carried on doing the outline, changing the machine every time he needed to do a thicker line. After about half an hour [maybe 40 minutes] it was done and I checked it out in the mirror and was just like WOW! It looked awesome already.
The rest of the session was pretty uneventful really! There wasn't a point where I actually felt in pain except for a little spot right at the back of my arm, and Danny kept telling me how well I was doing, especially since it's a pretty big first tattoo. We were only aiming to get the outline and the shading done in that sitting and Danny was done in about 2 and a half hours. He went through aftercare with me as he was cleaning and wrapping my arm in clingfilm and he knocked about £15 off because we didn't go for the full 3 hours. I tipped him a tenner anyway because he'd done such a good job. I said goodbye to him and went to the chemist to buy some Bepanthen and Simple soap.
These pictures are 2 hours after the first sitting:
http://www.bmeink.com/A70415/high/bmepb501081.jpg
http://www.bmeink.com/A70415/high/bmepb501084.jpg
For aftercare, Danny suggested I take the clingfilm off after 2 hours and wash it with warm water and an unscented soap, and wash it every morning and night. Then, to leave it for 2 days and start applying Bepanthen 2 or 3 times a day, but I actually forgot how long he said to keep the Bepanthen up for. I personally stopped after the 2 week mark. I found that I pretty much didn't scab at all and this is how it looked after 6 days [it's a bit shiny because I'd just used the cream]:
http://www.bmeink.com/A70415/high/bmepb501083.jpg
My second appointment was booked for the 29th March but it was only gonna be a 2 hour sitting. About a week before I went for it I did some research on different koi species because although I love how the common orange koi tattoos look, I wanted something different. I found one I really loved the look off called a shusui koi but unfortunately I don't have a printer at my house. So the night before my appointment, I took some pictures on my phone off my laptop so Danny could get a rough idea of the colours and patterns I wanted.
I got to Studio 81 just on time and only had to wait a couple of minutes. Danny called me in and seemed proper happy about how my tattoo had come out so far. He didn't shave my arm this time because none of the hair had grown back [god that makes me sound like a hairy bastard doesn't it? Hahaa I'm not] and so he cleaned my arm and started to finish some bits of the shading he'd missed. It was slightly painful this time round but it was nothing to worry about. About 10 minutes later he was finished and he asked about what colours I wanted. I showed him the pictures on my phone and he got a good idea of what I wanted, so he took a felt tip pen and started to mark on where he was going to start the blue. I checked it out in the mirror and it looked fine and so I sat back down. He poured some dark blue ink into an ink cap and got to work.
It didn't take too long to do the blue because there's not much of it, and he soon started on the red. I was definitely feeling the colouring a lot more than the shading from the first session and I suppose it's fair to say it hurt, but still it was nothing I couldn't sit through. We were soon onto colouring the rest of the koi in white, and Danny said that it would probably stand out a lot because I have pretty pale skin. And he was right! The tattoo was finished after about 2 and a half hours though he only charged me for 2 because he had a couple of breaks and there was quite a bit of drawing on me that he had to do.
Danny wiped my arm down and I noticed that it was quite swollen! He told me that he wanted to take a couple of pictures before I went, and so we went into the reception and he closed the curtains of the window and the one leading into the tattoo room. He took a few pictures on his camera and they looked awesome! I paid Nigel £80 [he already had my £20 deposit] and asked him how much the Studio 81 keyrings were and they're free so I took one. Danny called me into the tattoo room where he put clingfilm round my tattoo. One of the other tattooists Jay, and the girl he was tattooing both said how nice my tattoo was and so I said thanks to them and especially Danny and I was on my way home.
These photos are 2 hours after:
http://www.bmeink.com/A70415/high/bmepb501082.jpg
http://www.bmeink.com/A70415/high/bmepb501085.jpg
http://www.bmeink.com/A70415/high/bmepb501086.jpg
So far, it's the middle of May and my tattoo has come out great. There's a tiny spot that needs a re-hit because some of the ink got pulled out as I got some slight scabbing a few days after the second sitting. But only I notice it and it's no big deal really. I'm gonna start saving to have the inside of my arm tattooed as well, which is just gonna be some extra water/waves and some cherry blossoms. And who knows, maybe I'll extend it into a full sleeve? My piercer [Carl at In2Skin] offered me an apprenticeship last week and so I think it's safe to say that I've secured a job where my appearance [especially my mods] doesn't matter.
So, thanks for reading coz I've just realised how bloody long this thing is so I apologise haha. If you're in the Manchester area and are looking for tattoo artists I don't recommend anyone but the guys at Studio 81. Especially Danny, who's found himself a customer for life.