So... I guess I'll start with how I'd heard about the studio I ended up getting tattooed at. I got my lip pierced at a place just up the street in Camden, and since I had enjoyed the experience and trusted their expertise, I asked for their advice. They recommended two places, one reputable for custom color work, and one for tribal and 'solid black' kind of stuff. So months before even knowing what I would get, I had an idea of a place to go.
At A Glance Author robin Contact robin@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Kanae Studio Evil From The Needle Location London, U.K.
I have to admit this tattoo was not a largely pre-meditated affair. I had long admired other people's tattoos, and I guess you could say I had 'wanted one' for a while too, but frankly the idea of being pricked with needles over and over put me off; it took a while to get over this fear. A piercing helped, but I was still a bit scared.
I had finished my exams and had plans to leave the U.K. in about two weeks' time when I first started giving a tattoo some more concrete thought. I had played with a few ideas for a tattoo in the past, but finally the idea of having something big and beautiful and colorful on my body stuck. I went one afternoon to the studio I had been recommended, to 'kill time'. Just to get a feel of the place, see if it was intimidating or comfortable, or what. To see if it gave me the creeps or not. I am one to go on 'vibe'. Anyway, I walked up there, and to be honest it was chaos. They were in the middle of big renovations, there was plywood and paint and plastic sheeting everywhere, and lots of people standing around and talking, some kneeling down drilling, but all looked like they worked in the studio. I was shy, and just walked over to the fireplace where I noticed some portfolios, and tried to be nonchalant, and browsed for a few minutes. One of the guys came up to me and asked if I was alright, and had a pretty friendly tone of voice so I asked him some random question, I think about whether someone in the shop was experienced with lettering or something.... I left that day without any further discussion, but I had noticed a large chrysanthemum, part of a sleeve featured in one of the portfolios.
A few days later I went back, having decided it was time to bite the bullet. That chrysanthemum had stuck in my mind, and a picture had started to form, a large blue chrysanthemum, highly stylized, almost geometrical, with a few drooping petals, across my back. The second time the shop was pretty quiet, only two people hanging around waiting, and Jeff, who was working there. I looked for the flower I had seen, and then took a closer look at the rest of the work in the portfolio. Jeff came over and I told him about my idea and it went pretty fast from there to be honest. He picked up a couple other 'flash' chrysanthemum designs for me to look at, I pointed out elements that appealed to me; he offered to book me an appointment for a few days later, I agreed, and then asked a couple things about price and how long it would take to finish.
I remember being a little shocked when he told me the design would take about three hours to finish, but I think I was also somehow pleased, it seemed this would be the 'real deal'. I mentioned my concern about being able to endure the pain for that long but he immediately reassured me that if I really wanted the tattoo I would have no problem sitting through the pain, and also gave me the advice not to sacrifice the size, since not getting exactly what I envisioned might lead to regrets in the future... good advice.
A second thing surprised me: the whole while talking to Jeff, I had assumed that he would be the one tattooing me. When he confirmed a date and time with me though, he off-handedly said "Kanae can do this for you". Oh. I asked if he could, but he said unfortunately he was booked up for the next couple of months, but that Kanae was more than capable. His confidence was contagious, so I accepted. Once I got home though I looked up "Kanae" and was wholly reassured. She had in fact done a large back piece only recently with two chrysanthemums, it was gorgeous, I had no more worries. I only hoped I would feel as comfortable around her as I had around Jeff.
The next few days I told only a few people about my appointment, the idea of 'spreading the word' and then, who knows, maybe chickening out, was horrible. So I mainly kept quiet. I also had a shot myself at drawing the flower I envisioned, the third try really struck me, so I used tracing paper to make a cleaner version of it, and brought it with me on the Friday.
I was nervous, but very excited. I ate a good lunch as Jeff had suggested, and took a couple Tylenol, after reading that it could help to take the edge off the pain. I called in a couple hours before to say that I had come up with some changes to the design, and was asked to come in 15min early to talk about it with Kanae. I was led upstairs, where Kanae sat talking to a guy tattooing someone's calf. She immediately appealed to me, seemed chilled out and friendly, yet serious. I handed her my drawing, as well as two photos of styles I liked, she nodded, pointed out a few improvements she could make to my drawing, and asked me to give her some time to re-draw it. I went for a smoke, feeling pleased since her suggestions had seemed to follow what I had in mind.
Her re-working of my drawing was gorgeous. It was only the outline, but exactly what I had hoped for. With a huge smile I nodded and she said, "Ok, now I have to get ready".
I watched, very curious about how the process would work, but I was mainly quiet. She was very methodical. "Ok, sit on this chair, backwards". She taped my shirt up, at this point I started getting very nervous, but trying to stay as calm as possible. Maybe I wasn't so successful because she asked "Are you ok? Is this your first tattoo?" I admitted it was and I was 'a bit scared'. She smiled warmly "Ok, it gets better after ten minutes". Ok.
I can't say it was more or less painful than I expected, just pretty painful, but by no means unbearable. At first I had to breathe quite deeply and slowly to deal with the feeling, and she would ask every so often if I needed a break. I said no. We had one short break about two hours in, I went for a smoke, and then finished off. A few times Jeff walked by, stuck his head in and asked how it was going. Each time she paused to wipe my back clean and I could swing round a bit to take a look I was more and more excited and pleased, it looked beautiful. At each stage, outline, and then each color of shading, she would pause, and I would smile and nod, and ask her what she would do next. I quickly felt very comfortable explaining how I imagined the shading would be and asking if she thought it would work out. One point she insisted on was a touch of yellow, since everything else had been gorgeous I trusted her on it. It really helped to have good music playing; it felt like singing along somehow helped with the feeling, sometimes painful, but sometimes also soothing.
The whole experience is a great memory for me, the whole process felt very collaborative, and I would recommend both Evil From The Needle, and Kanae, to anyone.