February 26th, 2005
show me yours and I’ll show you mine
E. McPan has a thing for tats.
I have a tattoo of the kanji character “ai” (that would be “love”) on my lower back. Mr. Angst got it for me for our first dating anniversary. No, we don’t give each other body modifications for all of our special occasions—I had just wanted this tattoo, and Mr. Angst got it for me.
The interesting part is when we went to the shop and tried to use the gift certificate he’d bought. The guy with the half-dollar sized rounds in his earlobes looked at us in our khaki shorts and flip-flops, and told us he wouldn’t honor it.
“All our artists are independent contractors, guys, and none of them are going to be willing to take a piece of paper for that tat. That’s a really hard tattoo, and the gift certificate isn’t going to be enough. And you’ll have to wait at least an hour before someone is free, because all my people are working on more important people.”
OK, he didn’t say that last sentence, but he might as well have.
So we went to the other location of this particular tattoo shop, this time the one by campus. Presumably, they see less of the “hard-core” tattoo crowd. The artist on duty was totally willing to do my tattoo for the amount of the gift certificate, and to take the certificate, and he was free right then and there.
It hurt like hell. It was like the pain of pricking your finger for a blood test, or pulling a very small section of hair, but it was continuous for about 20 minutes. Once it was over, though, it was over and I had a nice little tattoo at the base of my spine.
Sometimes I forget I have it—it’s not like I can see it every day. And when I do catch a glimpse of it, or recall that it’s there, I always smile. It’s love! On my back! In black ink, forever and ever.
comments
Thanks! I can’t believe someone would sell you a gift certificate and then refuse to honor it. I believe the term is for such a person is “d-bag.”
I think you ought to get one of your furry orange lion and use googly eyes on it. THAT would be funny.
oooh GREAT idea!!! go for the lion!!! j/k. for me, when i got my tattoos i would describe the sensation more like somebody took a fork and heated it up under a fire and then started raking it through my skin. mmmmm tattoos! (i love ‘em!)
i have two, want like 8 more, but have to be careful about it, both because it makes my mother want to die and i respect her feelings, and because i don’t want them to be visible because i want to come across as a professional when i’m in the courtroom.
Weekly Law School Roundup #50
This Week: The Joyce Carol Oates Edition, In Which Your Editor Conducts the Weekly Round-Up While Simultaneously Picking and Choosing Titles from JCO’s Pages-Long Oeuvre The Tattooed Girl Whenever she catches a glimpse of it, she smiles! [divine angst]…
Mine didn’t hurt tremendously, but I have a lot of color and some wide patches, so I went numb pretty quickly. I also have holes all over (or had, until I sold out…
I currently just have the one tat, on my shoulder. (http://www.gulbransen.net/tatoo.php) But I have plans for a few more. They serve as a reminder for me, too. Not anything as pleasant as love, though, that’s quite nice.
Tramp stamp.