tattoo studios are always heavy with the smell of the ointment they use to keep your skin healthy while someone tortures it with thousands of pricks with a very small needle. I love that smell. Its exciting and nerve-wracking and oddly comforting, bringing anticipation of the sting but fond memories of the process, of watching as the temporary overlay slowly, painfully, sublimely becomes permanent. And for days afterwards, you get to carry that smell with you, another sensory reminder to add to the tactile sensation that you can hold close and keep personal and the visual image that you can share with others. The odor of white petrolatum (infused with vitamins A and D) hangs somewhere in between, its intimate and close and all yours, but you end up sharing it with those that are close to you.
Perhaps I'm romanticizing it a bit too much, but as I sat waiting for my new ink last night, the smell hit me, lightly at first as a lingering odor infused in the shop, then stronger as the guy getting inked before me walked past, his arm red from the needle and shiney and oungent from the ointment. I got a little worried and lot excited. I hadn't seen the drawing that Paul had put together, yet, but I've seen his work on a few people and he seemed really into what I had said I wanted, so I had no doubt it would be great. And I was not disappointed. So, the new tat is an ornate capital D with this great cat o' nine tails woven in and around it. What I had in mind was something maybe 2 inches by 2 inches and putting it on my inner arm, but what he came back with was more ornate and larger and so I decided to put it on my side instead. It actually ended up being more on the side of my back, with a few of the whips reaching to my side. We got a late start so all we did was the outline, which makes it a little hard to see what's what, but I have no doubt that once the colors are added, its going to be amazing. Paul has some of the best use of color that I've seen by a tattooist and he has some great ideas on what he wants to do. I freakin' love that! My idea was probably just to leave it in black and gray, but he started talking about what he wanted to do with the colors and so I'm just going to leave him to it. If you can't trust your tattoo artist, who can you trust? And he's a really cool guy, to boot. I had a really good time just shooting the shit with him as he worked. And as he finished up, he handed me my small foilpak of fougera ointment. He didn't even have to give me instruction, just handed it to me because as I told someone else, this isn't my first rodeo. And this morning as I ripped it open and deposited a small glob on my finger, getting ready to rub it over the raised lines where my skin is puffy and enflammed and oh so deliciously tender, the odor hit me and I got chills.
So, I'm going back in two weeks to get it finished up and then I'll have some pics to upload.
