tattoo redux -- woo-hoo!!! (part deux)
So a few months ago I posted about our initial experience with Body Works and how impressed we were, yadda yadda yadda. Yesterday we had our actual appointment; Jarrod had set aside pretty much his whole working day -- noon to five -- for us, so we showed up at noon, I quickly scarfed a sandwich in the car (low blood sugar + tattoo == bad), and we headed in. Jarrod was waiting for us and, after a quick re-consultation on the artwork, led us back to his studio. We'd decided that Bryan should go first, as he was only getting the one tat and he had to be back at the office by 2.
I watched Jarrod set up his sterile area while Bryan chucked his shirt and took a quick pit stop, and was again really impressed by the thoroughness and attention to safety that these guys use. Everything was either disposable and fresh out of the package, thoroughly autoclaved, or covered in fresh sterile wrappings that were swapped out between our sessions. He also took the time to answer Bryan's questions while waiting for the freshly-autoclaved stuff to cool down enough to be handled.
Bryan was apparently a little more nervous than I'd thought he would be -- a touch of dry-mouth was alleviated with a can of Sprite -- but he took it like a trooper. I got some really good (I hope) pictures of the process, which was over much sooner than I think he'd been expecting. The result looks fantastic, too. (We'll get pictures up soon, I promise -- hopefully this weekend.)
My turn next; I went through the same pre-tattoo ritual while Jarrod cleaned up the detritus from Bryan's tattooing and set up a new sterile zone with the stuff for mine, and then took my place in the antique barber's chair (so cool! We had one when I was a kid, salvaged from my uncle's original barber shop. My sister and I used to play with it for hours, spinning each other around and raising and lowering it ... wish we still had it). We started with the cranes on my left shoulder and then did the B-in-a-heart on the right.
These tattoos definitely hurt more than the one of comparable size on my ankle (the one of my back was ten years ago and I was so freaked out that I really don't remember how much it hurt), but certainly weren't unbearable. Part of it, I think, is that it's just a more sensitive part of the body; it was really only the long strokes that started to wrap around toward the vulnerable underside of the arm that really hurt. A lot of it I didn't feel at all, or at least didn't register as pain.
And I'm thrilled with the results! They really came out beautiful, even better than I'd hoped.
Other cool things about Body Works: definitely some of the better after-care advice I've received. More importantly, as scary as some of the guys there may look, they were all extremely helpful, pleasant, and personable. I'm really impressed with the way that Jarrod in particular made a point of treating us lilke people rather than as just another job -- the guys at Body Tech in Gainesville, while clean and professional and recommendable in many other ways, were definitely guilty of the "just another job" mentality. Then again, Gainesville is a college town, with a dramatically different sort of clientele than I suspect Body Works sees. Most people walking into Body Tech are going to be tweenies looking for an "OMGKEWLIES!" tattoo with which to impress their sorority sisters/boyfriends; I get the impression -- especially given their long history -- that Body Works gets a more stable clientele with a much higher percentage of repeat customers (which I certainly intend to be), which is both an artifact of and an encouragement for the business model in which you try to establish a good relationship with your customers right off the bat. Part of it, though, is just their personal philosophy, which Don MacDonald discusses in this article from Prick Magazine.
Anyway, sociological rambling aside, it was great! We have ink! Bryan now understands how addictive it can be, although I suspect my slavery to the needle will always be stronger, stemming as it does from such a variety of sources. And hey, I got to watch my sweety strutting around sans shirt last night, flexing his manly muscles (and he does have plenty of very manly muscles, believe me) and admiring his brand-new tattoo. Whee!!!