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Things that people don’t tell you about tattoos:

1. They hurt after you get them not just during.

2. They will eventually start to itch like crazy, and you must not scratch for fear of messing up the tattoo.

3. You cannot soak them in water for fear of ruining tattoo. So shower, not bath, or very careful to not get tattoo wet in bath, and no swimming. I’m told by this weekend this part should be over and I will be able to soak in the tub.

4. The scabs that fall off are the same color and shape as the tattoo because the scab has ink from your tattoo in it. It looks interesting and a little weird.

5. That you will need to keep the tattoo moist, but not too moist. Whatever you use for this must be unscented because your tattoo is pretty much a wound and scented stings. Some people were very adamant that you use a clear moisturizer, but we’ve managed to use a white hypo-allergenic lotion, scentless, dyeless, and it’s worked. Two friends with multiple tattoos have used it on all their tats so we’re trusting that if it worked for them, it will work for us. One friend even has as many allergies as I do. She and I often use each other as guinea pigs, as in if she can use it and not have a reaction so can I. So far, that’s proved true.

6. One thing I didn’t see on any tattoo websites for advice is to think about what position you like to sleep in when deciding where to place your tat. For at least the first night it hurts to put pressure on the tattoo, so if you’re a back sleeper and get a back tattoo . . . Just fill in the body part and the sleeping position. Jon and I were originally going to get our tattoos on opposite shoulders, but then we realized we are side sleepers who spoon back and forth all night. If we got opposite sides for the tats how would we sleep? So, we got the tats on the same side so we could at least spoon in one direction. By the next night we could sleep on both, though it felt a little odd, not painful just odd.

7. We were warned that tattoos are addictive. The level of pain was surprisingly high for both of us during the actual tattoo. Jon’s decided one tattoo will do him. I would like not to have to do it again, but I admit to talking to friends about the tattoos I wanted most, and trying to figure out how I can divide up the tats so that I’m not enduring the tattooing too long at a time. Outline one tat, then go away and heal, come back and do the color, go away and heal. It would probably take about three trips per tattoo to get them done, and honestly I’d rather not. Because once I get the outline I will feel compelled to finish the tattoo because it would bug me forever to just have the outline. A reminder every day that I couldn’t take the pain, and that I flinched. I’m not big on flinching. And, unfortunately the tats I want are paired, so if you get only one it’s only half done. Sigh.

So if I start I have to be able to finish, and I honestly don’t know if I can do it. There was a moment during the twenty minute tattoo where I got light-headed. I remember clearly thinking, "Oh, good I’m going to pass out then it will stop hurting." My next thought was, "Crap, if I pass out they’ll stop and I will have a partially finished tattoo. Crap. I can’t pass out."

Thanks for all the helpful advice on how to get through the pain of the tattooing process, but I tried them all and it didn’t work. I tried to do the find your point and stare at it, zone out. It helped, but it didn’t stop me from feeling the pain just from reacting to it as strongly as I wanted to react. Lamaze or yoga breathing, nope that really didn’t work for me. Nor did I find the pain cathartic. Cathartic is usually something I do on paper when I write. I tried cursing, no help there either. I went through everything I could think to do in twenty minutes or under. The thought of what I’d do for an hour long tattoo session is sort of problematic.

We love our tattoos, and are happy we did it. But I honestly saw this first small tattoo as a test to see if I was going to get the two larger tattoos I also wanted. I feel somehow like I’ve failed the test. I still want the tattoos, but I’m no longer certain that I could manage the pain long enough to get them. I guess it will come down to how badly I want them, and if I’m willing to pay the price not in money, but in pain. Somehow just asking it that way makes the answer seem like a simple, no way. And yet . . . and yet even as the scabs fall away and the itching grows worse, and this small tat still hurts (no it’s not infected it just seems to be how my body processes the healing process) I’m still worrying at the whole more tattoos problem and trying to find a more friendly way around it all.

Of course, first we’d have to find an artist that could do the tats justice. Because the only thing that would bug me more than starting but not finishing would be to endure all that pain and blood and have the tattoos not be good. So first there would be a search for an artist that could even do them, and having started looking at artist’s on-line portfolios I haven’t seen many that seem to be able to do what I want. Most of them have waiting lists and all are out of state. It just seems like too much trouble. And yet . . .