Jananas

I’d wanted my arm pits to be tattooed for a while (as in years). I think that they are a strange combination between stealth and highly visible/unusual. Really, I wanted to be able to say that my armpits smell like roses. Except that I dislike the way tattooed roses look, so I went with daffodils instead.

We did the first one about a month ago. It healed up really well when you consider how much movement there is in the area and the fact that the two sides of fresh tattoo rubbed against one another when my arm was down. There are some minor touch ups and I’d like to add some more yellow to it, but I was so stoked.

Having it done sucked. The first two hours weren’t bad and the third hour was almost unbearable. I convinced myself that I could sit through 2 more minutes, just 2 more minutes for an entire hour. But it was done and now I could relax. Ha! Healing it was pretty brutal as well. I was so wiped out that I slept for 13 hours the next evening. Moving my arm, dressing, stretching all made it sore. And given that I’m right handed and this was my right armpit it meant that just about everything made it sore. Luckily I heal pretty fast, so the small layer of scab was off in 5 days. Then it was just waiting for the scar tissue to open up so that I could stretch fully again.

Last night I went back to get my second one done. I was pretty nervous because I knew what I was in for. Thankfully Jason came with me to hold my hand and provide moral support.

My artist also used new machines this time. They are neumas. They are super quiet, so I wasn’t fighting the stress of the sound of the machine as well as the pain of being tattooed.

I like this picture, because normally you don’t see people look quite so happy and full of smiles when they are getting their armpits tattooed. Yup, this is about how a I roll.

This is the final piece. The glare is from the last layer of ointment prior to being bandaged up. Its also still fairly red/pink because of irritation. We’ll grab photos of the healed piece in a few weeks for you so you can see the final result.

I can now proudly rock floral armpit tattoos. Its nice to have both done so that I feel balanced again. I really like these pieces. And I really like that most people don’t realize that I have them. Its like my own little joke that the world isn’t in on.