It was a promise I never intended on keeping.
My sister thought it was a brilliant idea, though. "Promise me that we'll get tattoos before you move, Krissy," she pleaded. So I promised her that we would.
I never intended on following through with the promise, though. Admittedly I'd been wanting a tattoo for five years. (If you look through the first year of my archives, you can see me whining about wanting one. And if you read any of those entries? I'm so sorry. They're just...bad.) But I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to go through with it. Yes, it'd be fabulous to flaunt it and say that I'd sucked it up because it was something that I absolutely had to do. But tattoos involve needles! And pain! And they're permanent! And painful! And let's not forget the fact that I'm the biggest wuss to walk the face of the earth. I almost cry when I get a new bruise or papercut.
Yet, Katy and I talked about what we'd get: matching star tattoos. Three stars--one for each member of our family with each being a different color to show our uniqueness. Simple enough. And small. (Small is a key factor. Small means less time to do which means less pain for moi. Besides--mural-sized tattoos are tacky. And not necessary in our case.)
When I told Katy that I was moving in two weeks she looked me in the eye and got a little grin on her face. "So what days are you free?"
"For what?!?"
"For our tattoos. You promised. We are SO doing this."
I whimpered. Visions of needles and a screaming me ran through my mind. "Umm...never. I'm busy. Forever."
She laughed. "Shut up, we're doing this. You promised. I'm calling tomorrow to make the appointments."
The whole next day at work I thought about it. Pain! Needles! Painpainpain! But--a cute tattoo in the end that I've wanted for a while. And it did actually mean something to me. It wasn't like I was just going to waltz in and demand that they slap Mickey Mouse on my ass. This meant a lot to me. And it'd mean a lot to Katy. And to me if I actually went through with it.
I called my sister after I got done with work. "If we're going to do this, my first day off is Tuesday. The sooner we do this, the less I have to worry about it. Call the place." She squealed. We squealed. It was really going to happen.
Slowly, the clock ticked its way to 6:30 on Tuesday. We met at the tattoo parlor with our support system. Katy brought her roommate Lynsey, I brought my good friend Laurie. We talked about what we wanted with the two tattoo artists. One had dreadlocks and looked like a hippy. The other owned the parlor and had bad teeth. They both laughed as we bickered about what we wanted and where and how big and what colors and what it would look like. A sketch was drawn that we both agreed on and the waivers were handed to us.
Am I anemic? Do I have any blood-related illnesses? Have I drank alcohol in the past eight hours? Am I prone to fainting? I read the paragraph that releases the artists from whatever it was that's a legal issue. The details of it left my mind the second after I read them. All I could think was in a few minutes I'll be subjecting myself to a big needle...
We were ushered into the backroom. The tattoo artists busied themselves with cleaning solutions and antibacterial goo and ink. I looked at my friends. I looked at Katy. She looked excited and just a tiny bit nervous. My mouth was dry. I couldn't believe I was willingly allowing myself to feel pain. Katy looked at me. "It's going to be fine. Remember? We want to do this. It's going to be great!"
I did want to do it. I wanted to suck it up. My baby sister wasn't scared, so why the hell was I?!? I smiled. Then Laurie pointed out the needle. I felt light-headed. "I can't do this, you guys! No no no no. I'm leaving. I can't I can't I can't." I tried to turn towards the door. Lynsey and Laurie grabbed my shoulders.
"You can do this! It doesn't hurt! Trust me! You'll be fine!" Lynsey was nodding adamently.
Just then, Bad Teeth instructed Katy to sit backwards on the high-backed chair. He applied the stencil to her shoulderblade. My sister looked a little nervous. The buzzing sound started. She took a deep breath when she heard it. She clutched the back of the chair. And then clawed at it when the needle made contact with her skin. "Oh...god." After a couple of seconds she asked him to stop. When he started up again, I gave her my hand. She squeezed it until I felt a knuckle pop.
Shiiiiit. Katy was the one who wasn't afraid. If it hurt her then how the hell would it feel for me? As I was pondering the pain, Dreadlocks instructed me to sit down. He applied the stencil. "Have you ever dealt with squirmers? Because I can't guarantee that I won't jump."
"If you do you might end up a squiggly line instead of a star then!"
Well great.
The buzzing started. I whimpered and looked at Katy who seemed to be slightly more relaxed than when she started. She winked. I grabbed Laurie's hand and whimpered again. Bad Teeth looked at me. "It's not going to hurt! It'll feel like a cat scratch. I promise."
Right. Sure. Yeah it'll feel like a cat scratch. Oh god the buzzing is close to my ear. I can do this IcandothisIcandothis. People have done this for thousands of years. People have done this for thousands--Oh LORD he's tattooing me. I AM BEING TATTOOED. OH MY GOD! OH...MY--it doesn't hurt too bad. Hey! It kind of feels like a cat scratch. Is that IT? Is THIS ALL IT FEELS LIKE? Ooowww, ok a deeper scratching. OW! Ok, I can deal with this. I winced as the needle started on my blade, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.
Laurie looked at me. "You're not even squeezing my hand! It doesn't hurt?" I shook my head. The tattooers laughed. "I told you!"
I looked over at my sister. She was still clutching the back of her chair, but she seemed fine. "It does hurt. But not too bad." She laughed. "Yay us!"
Within twenty-five minutes we were both done--outlines, shading, bandaging and all. We both admired our new tattoos in the mirror and posed for pictures, proud of our accomplishment. I hugged Katy. "Thanks for making me follow through with my promise. You rock!"
She grinned and looked at my shoulder. "I know. But so do you."
