You know when you see people with other tattoos and you wonder what kind of tattoo you would get in that exact location? The location just turns you on, and you look at that location on your body, and ...you just wish something was there.
At A Glance Author drainedofcolors IAM drainedofcolors When It just happened Artist Chris Studio Mind's Eye Tattoo Location Crawfordsville, IN Well, that's exactly what it has been for me for the past, I would say, three years with my wrist. Everytime I saw somebody with a wrist tattoo, I just longed to have some ink in that delicate, fragile location.
Wrists have always been kind of a weird thing for me. I don't like the thought of them being cut, them banging against anything, etc. I always disliked it whenever I had a bruise on a wrist. It just kind of creeped me out.
But since our minds work in mysterious ways, it came as no surprise that I wanted a tattoo there.
With the seven tattoos before this one, I always contemplated, "Is now the time for the wrist tattoo?" But all my tattoos have been too big for the area. Or it just wouldn't work.
Last year, I was really contemplating getting "No day but today" broken up on both of my wrists and in French. But that never came about happening.
I guess I just never have the guts to do it.
Well, until yesterday.
My brother's girlfriend turned 18 yesterday and decided to celebrate by getting her first tattoo (good choice, I must say). She and her roommate decided to get matching tattoos, even. Heartagrams. I can't say anything because I have one myself. So, I was all for going with them and hopefully getting something done myself.
I had been stuck with the idea for a while of getting my name in its origin's language (Greek), but I just couldn't figure out where. My wrist? Hm. My thigh? I don't know. Location is always a hard decision for me, because I get fed up with having them all on my back where I can't see them.
So, I hop onto BME's Web site to look at tattoo pics - get some inspiration.
Nothing really worked, except that I actually contemplated getting it on my foot - ow.
I finally decided to look more into my name...maybe that would stir some ideas around. But something happened while doing my research - I realized the story behind my first name doesn't have quite a good story behind it. Nothing I wanted to permanently display or represent on my body.
My middle name now? Ugh, I was so confused.
Time was ticking, too. I was doing all of this the day we're supposed to go. T-minus two hours until we left for the shop.
So, I'm at work stressing. What do I get now? Where do I get it? I figured I had a little bit of time since two girls were getting tattoos in front of me.
Finally, it hit me. And it all came to me naturally. When I usually get stressed out or a little hyper-active with my OCD, I tell myself, "Let it be." That was it.
Let it be. That was great. It meant so many things. The obvious Beatles reference (hey, who doesn't like the Beatles?), the fact that one of my favorite teachers use to sing it to our class when we were younger and then sang it to us again at graduation...and now it's a personal motto.
Now fast forward to the car ride. The entire half an hour of the drive I was freaking out about where to get it. I was almost certain I wanted to go for the wrist, but I didn't want to deal with the bitching from my parents when I got home.
I got to the shop. Fuck it, I said. I'm going with the wrist.
The artist, Chris, was a really cool guy. He was very personable and humorous, and really tried to help you out with any reservations you had about your tattoo. My reservation by that point was what font to get my tattoo in. I already had a letting tattoo that was in my own handwriting, and that always appealed to me.
After my brother's girlfriend went first (birthday girl style), I volunteered to go second since my tattoo would probably only take like five minutes.
So, Chris helped me decide to go with my own handwriting. I wrote out "let it be." a few times while he smoked a cigarette outside, and he finally came in and we decided together on one of them. I wanted it all lowercase and with a period at the end.
The rest is history. The first placement was perfect as far as I could tell, and Chris then went to town.
It was amazing to actually see the ink going into my skin, and I figured this was able to happen since the skin is so shallow there. I was literally as close to my wrist while it was happening as the artist was. It was a good pain, too, nothing too bad. Chris explained this was due to the needle going faster, but I'm not entirely sure.
Chris was nice enough to add some white to the lettering to make the tattoo stand out a bit more. After it was done, I just took a moment to look at my arm. I felt a little bit more complete. What I had imagined myself to look like for years was actually now...a reality. And it turned out that I tattooed a phrase on myself that I will live by for as long as I can imagine.
Today, it's not really sore, even with as much as I move my wrist without thinking about it. I'm applying ointment for the first couple of days, and then I will move to lotion. This is all just from my personal experience with my tattoos and my skin; I don't necessarily recommend these instructions. Always follow the instructions given to you by your artist.
Wrist tattoos are worth it. You may have to do a little extra work to do if you want to cover them up for jobs, etc. But as far as I can tell, if you want it, you should get it.