My first tattoo

I just got back from the shop, and I love my new tattoo. It turned out different than I had imagined, but that's why Paul is the artist, and I'm the bill paying guy. It turned out really crisp and clean, with nice bold lines. I'm happy.

When I first got there it took us a while to get on the same page about the design. I showed him a bunch of designs from the book I mentioned earlier (probably too many different designs), as well as the sketch I had made earlier from one of my favorite designs in the book. I also showed him the photos of negative tribal tattoos I had found on the web. He got started drawing the dragons based on my sketch. The first round was fairly western style tribal dragons, which wasn't really what I wanted. Then I showed him a few of the pages that I really liked, and he started drawing freehand based on those. That worked a lot better. After we were finally talking about the same thing, it still took a while until Paul could really flow with the kind of design I wanted.

Once he was done with that, we made a couple of minor changes in order to keep things fairly traditional with the book. I kind of felt like I was being super picky through this whole process and just being a pain in the ass, as I am wont to do. I thought he didn't like me and for a second I wondered if I should just forget about the deposit and try to find someone else. But then the design started to look like what I had in mind, so we were good again. I guess that's just part of the design process.

Then we photocopied the design to the right size and taped it up to my shoulder to see how it would look, figure out what angle it should be at, etc... I had wanted to do the tattoo in a negative style with shading on the outside of an empty design, but after seeing the design on my shoulder, it was pretty obvious that it should be a traditional piece of blackwork. Time to just go with the flow, I guess.

After a quick dinner break, he mimeographed the design and started to put it on my arm. It's amazing how much ink comes off the back of a mimeographed piece of paper. I wonder what all the old teachers would think if they knew how much a part of modern tattooing mimeographs have become. Once he started tattooing, I couldn't believe how much it hurt. At first it was just a really annoying pain, but then it turned into this scraping burning sensation that just sucked. I quickly realized I don't have that high of a tolerance for pain. I remember thinking it's going to be a long while before I get another tattoo. I'll definitely need some time to forget how painful tattooing is. Of course, as I sit here typing this, I can already barely remember how painful it was. I'll probably have forgotten completely by tomorrow. I'm definitely glad I got the tattoo, though. It's a gorgeous piece of art. Paul is really talented.

Since Paul broke his back skiing a year and a half ago, he could only sit for about 30 minutes before he had to take a break and do some PT exercises. I was glad for the break, since I'm a wuss. I've never had a problem with needles before. Getting a shot at the doctor's was a piece of cake, but this is more like getting a shot for a solid 2 hours. Not nearly as much fun.

After getting there at 5 pm, I was finally out the shop door at about 11 pm. 2 hours of sketching and design, and then 2 hours of tattooing plus about an hour of breaks. Not bad for a work of art. Would I do it again? We'll see. Am I happy I did it? Definitely. No regrets.

My last pre-tat day

I'm about to go in to get my first tattoo done, and I have to admit I'm a little bit nervous. I've wanted a tattoo forever, but I've never found anything that's right for me.

Then, a couple of years ago I went traveling in the rain forest in Borneo with my friend Andy Marshall and found my design. Andy was studying primate ecology with an eye towards conservation in the Gunung Palung Rainforest in Southwest Borneo (check out the Gunung Palung website to see some amazing rainforest pictures). One of his friends was doing work to catalog and preserve the traditional Dayak weaving, and she had a copy of a book on Iban design (the Iban are a group of Dayak head-hunters who live in Kalimantan, or Borneo) that hit me right away as what I wanted. Since there was no place to buy the book there, we had to get it photocopied, which, thankfully, is not something they have a problem doing in that part of the world. In case anyone is interested, the book is called Basic Iban Design, and it was written by Augustine Anggat Ganjing. The next step, of course, being as lazy as I am, was to let the book sit on my desk for a couple of years until the idea had really matured for me.

I traced a design that I kind of like out of the book, and I'm going to take it down to the artist today. I want something that fits in with the traditional design style and belief system, while still being unique to me. I think it's important to try to preserve and build off of the cultures that are in danger of being lost today. Along that line, I wanted to find someone who could do a hand-tapped tattoo for me, which is how the Dayak tattoos are traditionally done. Japanese tattoos are also traditionally done by hand, but they put the needles on the end of a stick and poke, whereas the Dayaks put the needles perpendicular to the end of a stick, and hit that stick with another stick, hence the tapping. I asked around at a lot of tattoo places before finding the right artist. When asked about tribal tattoos, most artists said that they would do it, but you could tell they didn't have their hearts in that style because of how trendy it has become.

Finally I talked to Paul Taylor from Sacred Rose Tattoo and he loves tribal tattoos and blackwork, and specializes in hand-tapping Indonesian tribal designs. Unfortunately, he broke his back in a skiing accident a year or two ago, and has been unable to do hand-tapped designs until recently. I was really excited to have him do a hand-tapped design on me because I want to support artists who are helping to preserve the traditional tattooing culture. We planned on doing a hand-tapped design, even though a lot of my friends warned against it because of the pain involved, but he tried to do one last month and it really screwed up his back. So, that's out. Convincing someone to do a tattoo in such a way that it will cause them serious pain seems like a really lame way to get a tattoo.

I think that actually works out in my favor, though, because a little while ago I saw a couple of negative tribal designs that I really liked, and I was torn between the hand-tapped style and the negative style (shoulder and sleeve). The negative tattoo style is where the actual design of the tattoo is outlined but left blank, and the outside is shaded to set off the design. So, I'm just going to go with the flow, and the way fate seems to be pushing me, and get a negative Dayak tribal design on my shoulder.

As currently planned, it's going to be a semi-abstract circular double dragon design. I want to make sure that, while done in a modern negative style, the design doesn't break any Dayak tattooing rules. For instance, dragons are very powerful and can be dangerous, so they should be tattooed in pairs so they have a playmate and with food in front of them so they don't get hungry and cantankerous. Even though it's my design, I want to respect the tradition that it came from.

I was also originally planning to come back from Japan, have a consultation, and then get the tattoo done, but Paul's grandfather passed away last week, so we have to skip the consultation step. I'm a little bit concerned about creating the design and getting it done right away. I really want to get the right design, since it's going to be on my shoulder for the rest of my life. Normally I like to think about things for a while and make sure they're exactly what I want, but that's part of the reason why it's taken me between 3 and 10 years to even get started on this tattoo.

Paul explained to me that he doesn't feel consultations are necessary on tribal tattoos, since he's been doing them for 14 years and they just flow right out of him. If they are so complicated that they need a separate consultation, then they aren't really appropriate tribal tattoos, as they are supposed to be simple and bold. Like I said, I'm a little bit nervous, since a tattoo is forever, but I'm going to try to put my faith in the artist and see what happens.

I'm just glad to finally get started on this. I keep looking at my naked shoulder and wondering what it will look like in a couple of hours, but I can't picture it. I've been waiting for this for a really long time, and it seems like a nice 30th birthday present to myself. Happy birthday to me!