At A Glance
Author	DarkSideVegan
Contact	DarkSideVegan@bme.anon
IAM	DarkSideVegan
When	Six months ago
Artist	Lonnie Mann
Studio	Mr. Lucky's Tattoo
Location	San Antonio, TX

I was living on my own in a new city and working through my second semester of college. After recently graduating high school and moving away from home, I began to miss the hill country where I grew up, the beauty of the area, and my parents. Eventually I realized a new tattoo would be a great idea to capture that essence and be able to see it whenever I want.

I have always loved birds so after a lot of thought, I decided Cardinals would work out well for the tattoo because they are everywhere in the hill country and I enjoy watching them. At first I decided to get just a male and female cardinal on each side of my hips. I looked around town to find the perfect artist. It only took a couple of shops before I found him at Mr. Lucky's Tattoo.

I talked to Lonnie about what I wanted and the placement. The only thing I was worried about was the possibility of them becoming distorted whenever I get pregnant because I didn't want them to be very low on my hips. He mentioned doing them on my ribs instead, but warned me about the pain. I don't let pain scare me away, so I decided to go for it. After some more talk about how I would like them and what else I wanted with the cardinals, we set an appointment for a few weeks later. During that time I was enrolled in a fencing class and wanted to wait a bit so I didn't have to worry about people jabbing my healing ribs with foils.

A few days before the appointment I called for some reason that I can't remember now, and found out that Lonnie's girlfriend had just had their baby and he wouldn't be in until the day of my tattoo.

Because the tattoo represents my parents in a way, I talked to my Mom and she came down for the first session of the tattoo. I took the day off of school and chilled with her and got ready for the big day. Soon it was time for the appointment, so my boyfriend Jason, my Mom, and I headed over to Mr. Lucky's. When we got there Lonnie hadn't had time to finish up the design due to the new baby, so he finished that up and we were ready to go.

I took off my t-shirt, revealing the bathing suit top that I had worn. Lonnie placed the design on and used some sharpie's to change some lines around. It was finally time to get started on the tattooing. I laid down on the table and tried to get comfortable. He started on the bottom and worked up towards my armpit. The first lines weren't too bad, but as time when on it became more painful. After 2 ½ hours the outlines were done, and so were we for the day. I paid and headed home. That night it was sore, but not too bad. I used fragrance free lotion applied very thinly to heal it and it worked great.





Finally it was time to add some color. By now I was into the fall semester of college, working hard in my classes and decided to reward myself with another tattoo session. Jason and I kept with the same schedule as before, eating dinner, then heading to Mr. Lucky's. Lonnie added a beautiful blue color to the background. This was a little more painful near the end than the session before it. There was lots of blue added and I was becoming tired near the end. It was another 2 ½ hour session down, but one more to go. Lonnie wrapped up my ribs with a type of bandage and taped it all on. He said to sleep with it on and take it off the next morning. It was pretty interesting sleeping with a bunch of stuff taped to my ribs, and I was happy to take it off the next day.



After almost a year, I was very close to finishing up my tattoo. I made the last appointment and was very excited to finally get it done. I was also kind of sad to end the journey though, however painful it was. Jason and I again headed down to Mr. Lucky's. Lonnie was finishing up on someone's sleeve and then he got ready for me. This time he added all the color to the main design of cardinals and morning glories. Once it was finished I was thrilled. This session was the least painful of all and I left with a huge grin.



I am very happy with my rib piece. It took a lot of time, money, and a high pain tolerance to get it finished up, but I think its well worth it. The only annoying part is having to lift my shirt up when people want to check it out. If you are interested in getting your ribs tattooed, make sure you have a pretty high pain tolerance or you probably won't have an enjoyable experience (or get something that's not as big as mine). Lonnie was also a great artist and great guy in general. He has since moved to Illinois and is now working at Iron Age in St. Louis on the weekends.