Thank you Hyperlexian for your comments on my tattoos. I am glad you like the tribal on my chest. There's a long story behind that one. It was 7 years in the making.
It was August of 2001 that I decided to get another tattoo. I felt like I wanted to challenge my threshold of pain in the art of tattooing. So I decided to get one on my sternum. I made my appointment and drove the two hours to the studio. I hadn't picked out the design yet, but knew I wanted something tribal. I parked in front of the studio (in one of those strip malls) about a half hour early. I could see the flash inside the studio from my car and found some I liked. The artist arrived (he was new to tattooing) but had done some reworking of my panther previously so I trusted him. He had had an accident that morning and broken a finger on his right hand (and he was right handed). He was in pain. But he said he could do the tattoo. We decided on a custom design. It was during this time that I decided to put wings extending outward from the centralized sternum section. And that was all there was to it---the part on the sternum and two horizontal extensions going almost to my nipples. He put the transfer on my chest and I thought it looked crooked. He wiped it off and did it again. I still thought it looked crooked, but he and the staff there said it was straight. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me so I said go for it. He tattooed it on me and I went home. Half way home I pulled off the road and lifted the bandage and looked in the mirror of my car---yes, it looked crooked. I drove home and washed it and stared in the window---OMG!! ! It was very crooked to me. My wife didn't say much. It was crooked because I measured it with rulers, graph paper, etc. I called the artist back a few days later and he said for me to come back. He looked at it and said he could fix it. He said to give him a half hour to figure something out so I ate lunch next door at a Chinese restaurant. Upon returning, the artist had done a change of mind. He said there was nothing he could do and that the tattoo was fine. We got into a loud argument. I stormed out. I drove about ten minutes away and decided to go back to plead for him to fix it. He had left the shop. I asked another artist to fix it, and that artist said they weren't allowed to work on another artist's work. I went home defeated and depressed with it.
Now we move to the spring of 2002. Me and the young artist talked on the telephone. I apologized and he apologized. I went back with my wife, and once again, he really said there was nothing he could do. We went home. But I would not be defeated. I found another artist who happened to be a Native American artist about an hour away. He looked at it and said it was crooked. I had had the idea to make a tribal section going vertically down my stomach. He had designed a piece of flash that would work. He tattooed it on me and widened some of the lines on the crooked part. I now had a tribal cross. I was happier, but it still looked crooked. I went back to him over the course of the next year, and he did some more fixing. It was still crooked looking, but not as bad. It should be noted that I had him do something else when he worked on me one of those times. I got my nipples pierced. When I went home, my wife about freaked, so we took them out. The next day, I could hardly tell they had been pierced---the holes had closed up.
Sometime around 2003 I decided to get rid of the tattoo. I made an appointment with a laser surgeon. My wife went with me. The laser tattoo removal doctor was a pleasant lady. She looked at it and said it looked good to her and that it would be a shame to remove it. I am thinking she could have made a lot of money off of me. So she must have been honest. I didn't do the laser treatment of course. But the tattoo was still crooked to me.
In 2004 I had back surgery and had complications. I got a blood clot in my leg from the surgery and a clot went to my lung (pulmonary embolism) and it nearly killed me. I was put on Coumadin blood thinner for the rest of my life. Tattoos and Coumadin don't go too well together. I put tattoos out of my mind.
In the summer of 2008 my youngest son (who has AS like me) was attending scout camp. I met the parents of his best friend. The father and mother are really into tattoos. I talked to the mother who had just gotten a nice tattoo. I said my tattooing was out since I was on blood thinner. She said a friend of hers was on the same medicine and was tattooed without any problems.
In the fall of 2008 my wife decided to get a tattoo on her foot. I had the fever to get one too. But the artist said I had to clear it with my doctor first. My doctor is very cautious and I thought he would say no way to getting inked. OMG!! ! He said "Yes, it shouldn't be a problem." We had this great artist near my hometown who my son's friend's parents went to. He was radical and daring. He said he could fix my tattoo. I trusted him. I gave him my ideas and he liked them. He drew them out and we decided to extend the whole design as well past my nipples and around my navel (before it didn't extend that far). I was stoked. We first did the reworking and extension on my stomach. I designed a lot of that work. When he was nearly done I got the idea of having the one line go inside my navel a bit. He said "sure, that would work." So he added that. During this time, a terrible storm hit. The power stayed on luckily. When I got in my van to leave, I took the curve out of the parking lot and my side window broke out---something had hit it during the storm. But, I had the tattoo on my stomach.
The next appointment was made to get my crooked sternum and horizontal sections corrected. In the meantime I had also decided to get a tribal on my left leg (the non-blood clot leg)---but to do that much later. Oh no!! ! My coumadin levels went too high. I had to cancel the appointment for my crooked chest. Finally the levels were right and the appointment was made. I get there, and he was not there. I waited and waited and waited. My wife was with me. Finally he arrived. He had forgotten my appointment. He was simply dropping something off and was going back home. He felt terrible and said he would do my tattoo. Oh no!! ! The design sketch was at his house. But..."let's do the leg piece." We did it and I loved it. We scheduled the chest correction in November of 2008.
I go for the appointment in November of 2008 and I am met by one of his fellow workers. regrettably, his mother's house had burnt to the ground the night before and could not do the tattooing. Two days or so later I had my monthly appointment for my blood thinner, and it was high. It was a good thing I didn't get inked then.
Finally in December of 2008 we are ready to do the correction. I loved his sketches. He did the tattooing and when he was finished I loved it. He worked magic on it in my opinion. I went home very happy. I have my wife take a picture of it. The picture she took is the one I posted. It doesn't look crooked to me anymore. He had extended the lines upward and outward and did things to it that made it look like an almost entirely different tattoo.
I have been afraid to get any more tattoos because I am having some Psoriasis issues. But I had planned one other tattoo with him---a tribal dragon on the top of my left or right foot. I have yet to do that because I am afraid the tattooing will cause Psoriasis there. So, that's the long story of how my tribal cross chest tattoo came about.
So that's the story behind my tribal cross.
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"My journey has just begun."
30 Aug 2010, 9:09 pm
