My knitting tattoo, part 4.

Yeah, I passed out.  But in my defense, I had been there all day waiting for my turn.  During those hours, I sat by Brian who was getting work done on his leg.  Naturally, the more that I saw him grimace and squirm, the more nervous I became for myself.

I was hungry.  And I was worked up.

Just a few minutes into my little handprint tattoo, Jason’s needle rounded a corner in the design and a rush of relief came over me as I thought, Well, that part hardly hurts at all!

Then relief gave way to unconsciousness.

Once awakened, I was undeterred in getting Jason to understand my vision with the knitting tattoo.  I expounded on the 3 part revelation that I had had.  Putting all faith in his talents, I looked at him and said, “This is either going to look really, really good or really, really bad.  But it’s not going to look okay.”  

Jason compiled all my homework, clippings and notes and went to work on my design.  He spent $100 of his own money on knitting books at Books-a-Million.  (I chuckle to think that his acquaintances spotted him – a huge, buff tattoo artist – walking around with books on knitting.)  He also spent time studying the texture and depth of yarn.  Finally, he proceeded to spend approximately five hours sketching my tattoo.

Our first appointment was a meager four hours of Jason carefully inking in the outline.

That day, around four year ago, was the last time my back ever looked like this:

(Yes.  My dresser was a complete and total mess.  I’m human.  Leave me alone.)

After our first session, my back looked like this for the next month until it healed enough for Round Two:

(I was repeatedly asked during that first month if I had a tattoo of a flag on my back.)

Round Two took six hours.  Jason was kind enough to let me play my own music through his shop.  (It helped to keep my mind off of the dull, scraping pain.)  Once again my unfinished tattoo rested and healed for another month.

Weird fact: When tattoos heal, they scab.  And when they scab, they scab in the color of the tattoo.  It’s the only time in my life that I’ve had coral/pink and blue scabs falling from my body.  You might think that’s gross.  I just found it fascinating.  Another bizarre tidbit is that I really enjoy the risen texture that a tattoo has when it’s healing.  Once it’s completely healed and settled into the skin, you’ll never be able to close your eyes and feel it’s outline again.  Nope.  There’s just a brief window of time for that.  (…Actually, that’s not 100% true.  When I wax my legs, my handprint raises just a teeny bit after the strip is pulled off.  That risen texture only lasts for a few hours though.)

Then came Round Three.  Round Three took nine hours.

To be continued…