About two years ago I decided to get my first tattoo. I knew i didn't want just some flash off of a poster like I had seen at so many shops in town. So I started looking online to try and get some kind of idea of what I liked. Once I was finally sure on the style and placement I wanted all that was left was to find the artist. A lot of people that I had seen around my town had tattoos on them that were so generic that I would be ashamed to have them on my body. I knew that I had to be sure on the artist and the artwork because this thing was going to be forever and I would be pissed at myself if I was unhappy with the outcome. I know that there's laser removal but from what I hear, it hurts ten times worse than actually getting tattooed and it's pretty expensive and takes several sessions to remove a dark tattoo.
At A Glance Author Brandon Contact Brandon@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Miller Studio Mantis Tattoo & Body Piercing Location Clarksville,TN The only problem that I had was my mother. I still lived with her and she was not happy with the idea at all. It was mostly because she had seen so many terrible tattoos from her younger years until present that she had grown sour to the idea of tattoos. I showed her some of the tattoos that I found and that eased her up a little. I didn't really care what she thought. I mean it is "my" body and all, but it's still my mother so I wanted her to agree with my decision. She tried to pull the "The bible says no tattoos card". I'm not gonna go into my feelings on that but showed her some scripture that eased her off my back on that.
Well, without even looking I met my artist through my boss the next week. My boss and I went to his shop to do him a favor. His alternator on his vehicle had gone out, so we were going to change it. He had happened to get stranded at the shop he worked at, so when we were finished he took us inside the back room so we could wash up. After we cleaned up we hung out up front for a while looking at all the crazy art work hanging on display and I asked if he had any pictures of tattoos that he had done and he showed me his portfolio. I really liked what I saw so I asked him if he had any tattoo ideas that he had been wanting to do. He pulled a few drawings from his laptop case. I shuffled through them and I found it, my first tattoo. We made an appointment for the next week that day. I was really excited. I knew right then and there that I was in the coolest place I had ever been. I could hear the machines running and got very curious. He saw me keep looking down the hall and told me to go look around if I wanted. I had never seen anyone get a tattoo before and had to have a look. I watched someone getting a very large back piece and they were seemingly in no pain whatsoever. This eased my nerves very much. As I got ready to leave a very attractive woman was getting her nipples pierced and made my day. As my artist and I walked up the hallway to the front counter she came out of the piercing station to get a second opinion on jewelry. She must have known him really well because when she saw that no one was looking, she pulled her shirt down to show him. Wow! She asked me what I thought as well. I was in love with this place.
The day finally came and I was nervous but still ready to go. I won't walk trough the tattoo but I will say that I was sweating it for no reason. The only part that I really did not enjoy was the final highlights. He did the whole outline and the gray wash then took a break. We came back then did all off the color and took another break. It had gotten really tender after this break and I was hoping we were almost done. I had no idea it would suck this bad for the next half hour. The pain was a lot more intense this last leg of the tattoo. It was a lot sharper and deep-feeling. But I could definitely see that he was surely almost finished so this helped a lot. All in all I was very glad to have done it. The healing was a breeze and it still looks as good today as the day it was done. It was done on my upper arm and runs from my shoulder almost to my elbow. It took about six hours total(excluding smoke breaks). Since then I have gotten the inside of that arm done and a sleeve and my left leg from knee down. I would say that i'm absolutely addicted and I love getting tattooed.