Tattoo II

At the end of June, I got another tattoo. This one, I'll dub my second and a half tattoo. It's a coverup for a stick-and-poke that didn't work out. It cost roughly $240, not including tip. It was done by Jennifer Lawes at Pearl Harbour Gift Shop.

What is it?
It's a sparrow, diving down. In flight. Note that it's a different bird from a swallow, which is prominent for tattoos.

What does it mean? 
The sparrow is a coverup for a stick-and-poke that featured a love-heart pierced by a sword with 'ME' written inside. So, in part, the sparrow means nothing. It just is.

A sparrow for flight, for freedom, for escape, for never being bound to the ground, or a single place, a single situation or scenario. A sparrow to remind me to leave. To keep moving, to keep chasing. For the last while, I have felt very stuck. Glued and pinned to the Earth. I haven't been satisfied or happy or alive. A sparrow as a reminder that some things aren't meant to be bound to the ground. A reminder that if the wings are pinned, it is much like dying. It is important and necessary to move, to chase, to seek adventure.

It is a sparrow more than any other bird because a sparrow is common. It is plain. It is small and soft. It is flighty and shy. To me, they endure. They push onward.

Did it hurt?
It hurt a lot. The area here is much more sensitive than my first tattoo. The parts that hurt a lot more were right next to my boob and closer towards my armpit. I think it hurt most as it got closer to my armpit. It was a lot. I hope that for my next tattoo, I will be kinder to myself and pick a less sensitive spot.

I should note that this time I got some shading done. I learned that shading is not as painful as linework. I thought the sensation of shading was much more bearable.

Other things of note that helped with this tattoo session opposed to my first tattoo session: I listened to music as recommended by my friend Henrieta. Music helped drown out the noise from the gun. It provided a much needed disaster, and it wasn't until I put music on that I realized how much I really, really hated the sounds of needle guns/drills/etc.

I brought a giant thing of Booster Juice with me. I learned after my first tattoo that my body is very sensitive to the changes in my blood sugar levels. I needed something constant to pan me through the entire session. I sipped my Booster Juice throughout the session and I found it very helpful. It kept my blood sugar levels more consistent before, during and after my session. It was also a nice sweet treat to distract me from the tattooing process. Because of this, I didn't need much else after the session. The tattoo still stung but it didn't leave me feeling sick. I just walked home after and rested.

How long did it take? 
If I recount correctly, the whole appointment took around two hours. I think it took about an hour and a half to almost two hours for the needle-to-skin tattooing part. I did stop her for a couple times for a few minutes as a small rest. It took about two, almost three months from when I went in for a consultation to my tattoo date.

Why'd you do it? 
I really liked the design of my stick-and-poke tattoo. I thought it was really lighthearted and fun. However, the tattoo artist might have gone too deep into my skin and the ink bled. My tattoo was left with a blue-black halo around the lines. Although it did fade a little and would've likely continued to fade, I didn't like it. I wanted to get it covered up, so I settled on an artist and a design and did just that.

I recently read a thing. I can't remember from where. It described getting tattoos like getting a nose job or a boob job or dying your hair or whatever. It was a way of having your physical body more in line with your mental picture of yourself. It was a way of having your outside be reflective of your inside. I really liked that. I want my physical body to reflect some of what I feel inside.

I also mentioned in my post about my first tattoo that for me, tattoos are very much about control. My physical body is so often out of my control. It acts and reacts in unpredictable ways. Over the years, it feels like I lose more and more of it. I want an aspect of it to reflect my will, to impose my control. I want my body to feel beautiful when it gives me anguish and sometimes, a sense of despair.

Are you getting more?
Yeah. Already trying to plan more.