My First
Tattoo
Well, I have wanted a tattoo for many years
now, I just never found one I wanted on my body forever.
This summer however, I was at a convention
in St. Louis and saw a design on a guys t-shirt that I
loved. So, a friend of mine whipped out his camera and
snapped a picture of it. A few weeks later he emails it to me
and I start my next search... for an "artist".
Hell, there are a ton of tattoo inkers
around, I wanted someone who could do a quality job.
Anyway, after a number of inquiries and visits to shops, a
number of people tell me there is a great studio right in my
back yard (in Frederick) called Marks of the Spark Tattoos (323
East Patrick St. Frederick, MD 301-662-7200).
So, heading down there I find a nice, clean
place with a husband and wife team who won't do a tattoo on
the spur of the moment (probably because they are booked
months in advance!). He explains that there is a $20 fee for
him to hand draw the artwork for my approval, then a $20
appointment fee (which is credited to the tattoo price) and
then the tattoo will cost me $80.00 an hour, he is
estimating 5-6 hours for this one.
Anyways, there is a 4 week wait for the
artwork and after seeing it, I was impressed. But we make
some changes as I want the Tiger's face a bit more
narrow. He agrees and schedules the appointment on
October 26th, for 3 hours.
He actually did closer to 4 but only charged
me for 3. All the outlines are done and some of the black
shading is done. On the next appointment he'll put all the
tiger's colors in and fill in the red rip.
Anyway, here is the resulting art from Day 1
(this picture was taken the day after the work was done),
with the rest to come on November 13th!
Well, yesterday was the 13th and yes, I went
in for stage 2 of my tattoo saga. Everything went great and
for about two hours Alfie shaded and then for another 30
minutes he did a little detail work. The picture below was
taken today, about 24 hours after the coloring was done. I
have one more short appointment to make sure there is no
uneven color or faded spots and also cause I forgot to
remind him to color in the serpents eyes ::mutter::
Anyway, I really think it looks awesome!
