A little ink

Most of you know that I have a tattoo. If you did not, you do now. I had it done at Bombshell Tattoos on Westheimer, which is owned by Greg, the night manager of the House of Pies on Kirby. The artist who inked me initially was John Devilman. He had done a back piece on another officer and had a very impressive portfolio of work. John specializes is portraits, but I did not want anyones picture on me at the time. I have always liked tribal arm bands. I told John that I wanted an arm band with an ichthus in the design. He drew it up, I liked it, and showed up on a Tuesday afternoon in November of 2006 to get it done.

John and I were the only ones in the shop at that time. It seems that most people get tattoos done at night. After playing a quick game of Gears of War, we got started. I ended up being in the chair for three hours that day. The pain was not too bad. By far the worst part was on the inside of my arm. It turns out that my skin does not take the ink very well. I ended up having to go back on three more times to have the tat filled in and redone. John did the initial and first follow up and Vince Crowley graciously did the next two, since John moved to the LA area. In all, it took around 9 hours. I also experienced what is called tattoo blast or tattoo blow-out. I have heard different statistics, but lets just say it is rare. Blast or blow-out is when the tattoo ink spreads to the surrounding tissue. This happened on the inside of my arm. It almost looks like a  permanent bruise. I was told that it might go away in 6 months. Almost three years later, it is still there.

With the difficulty that was had just getting the ink in my skin and then having the blast occur, you would think that I would would be skeptical about more tattoos. Not so much. I do not have plans for any more, but I have ideas. At the very least, I would like to do something around the arm band that would cover up the blast. This fact does not please Jennifer, since she reluctantly agreed to the first one. Quick side note,  before I got my tattoo, Jen actually had a dream about me getting a tattoo. I had begun seriously thinking about it, but had not yet brought it up in conversation with her. Strange. She knows me too well.

One of the funny things about having a tattoo occurs when friends do not know that have one. There is a negative stigma that goes with tattoos and those people that have them. I have been part of a few conversations where friends have made derogatory comments about tats in general. Some of the comments went like this "what kind of moron gets a tattoo?",  or "don't they know those are permanent", or "just pure white trash get tattoos". I just smile, knowing they have no idea that I have one. There is no use in explaining, if that is their attitude, nothing that I can say will change their mind. Which is fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The photo was taken at the House of Blues by Courtney before the Live concert earlier this year.