When I went to go get my first tattoo, I went with my best friend to the same person who had done her tattoo a year earlier. We had followed him through three shops, and he did my friends tattoos and piercing, so we knew his work well, which is why we kept looking for him every time he moved.
At A Glance Author Diddy When Three months ago Artist Tez3 Studio Concrete Jungle Tattoos Location Bronx, New York When we got to his shop, there must have been like 10 people waiting for tattoos. He was not the only tattoo artist there, but out of those 10 people, like five of them was for him. So we had to sit and wait through all his clients, in order to get tattooed. We got there around three, or four in the afternoon, but truth be told, he did not even get to tattoo me until like 10 that night. In between his client switching and all, he suggested we got something to eat, or else we would be waiting on him forever. We did just that and sat and waited for another 4 hours while he finished a back lower back tribal piece, two portraits, and a tag up that seemed to be the tag up from hell because it took him nearly 2 hours to complete. All this while a baby cried the entire time we were there. Now I ask, who would bring a nine-month-old baby to a tattoo shop consciously knowing that eventually diapers would have to be changed, feeding would have to occur....I mean come on!
Anyway, he did not get to tattoo us until about 10, and we were actually the last customers in the shop. It was so cool being the last people there because in a way it was like having this tattoo artist all to ourselves. We started to talk, and joke around about the music, because all the artist had been listening to the most horrible music on the planet that night, and my friend and I needed something to get us hype about the tattoos. Anyway, while we tried to figure that out, Tez, my artist, was busy trying to draw up my tattoo because it was original. I knew I wanted wings, and a name in the middle. We finally settled on tribal wings, but it would be another fifteen minutes of arguing over the color. Aw, man was I settled on having white wings. But he explained to me that over time the white would fade, and that it would be best if I got a color. So I picked red, my favorite color, and we finally got him to start getting his supplies together.
To pass the time while he got things ready, we began talking about the weirdest things in the world. We talked about bodies, and murder, ways to kill without getting caught and fun stuff like that. Mind you, I was half-naked and blasting rock music so loud in my headphone by that time that my ears hurt, because rock music is the only thing to calm my nerves. When he finished he asked me why I had the music on, and I told him it was to intensify the pain. He looked at me and actually smiled. I said it was my first tattoo and he started to laugh. I never wanted to tell him it was my first, because then he would have gone easy on me, and ruined the whole experience for me.
Then it was my best friends turn, and although she had already been inked, it was as if she was feeling it for the first time again. She had a bigger tattoo to go, and she was feeling the pain. It was hilarious to see her squirm so much, because this was the same person telling me, oh this is not going to hurt me as it did before. She had four names on banners, wrapped around a star, and her tattoo was difficult because the red color was not sticking. She was bleeding a lot so he could not even tell how much of it was not sticking or why she was bleeding so bad. But, we finally finished, about a quarter to midnight, and we all headed home.
I got the tattoo as a tribute to someone I had lost, but I also got it as a way to release stress and feel pain. I am a person who sometime seeks enjoyment out of pain, and had I told him, he would have found a way to dull it, and that was something I was determined not to have. Even though the tattoo is not very big, it triggered the "open door" affect. I want to go back and get inked as soon as possible. But I want something BIG! The bigger the better, more pain, more gain. I am looking forward to the needle.Im a total individual, which is why i now have six piercings and one tattoo and growing. And that's my tattoo story.