Question:
At least until he went at it with the machine
But let me start from the beginning: I took the day off yesterday to
go to Sting's tattoo studio in Bremerhaven which is about the end of
the world as we know it. My appointment was for 2 pm, and we then
started off by talking about the design I wanted. I had sent him a
stack of ideas of what I wanted, and we went over that quickly.
In short: blackwork with a dragonfly in the center, on my lower back,
extending from the tailbone to the hip bones on both sides.
I made a point of giving the dragonfly six legs (instead of four as
I had seen in some pictures online) and we moved on to the design of
the blackwork/ tribal part. It was really amazing, we were on the
exact same wavelength about how the curves were supposed to run, and
more than once, when Sting got stuck with a detail, I said "why not do
it like this" "Oh, great idea", and on we went.
And after much drawing and erasing and redrawing and changing tapes
and drinking tea, and joking about adding a smiley and a little red
devil, we came up with the complete design and Sting treated himself
to one of the chocolate chip cookies I brought (turns out he's a
chocolate chip cookie addict).
He then made the stencil- hey, I like that freehand idea and all, but
I wanted it symmetrical, not approximately symmetrical, and at 6
pm, whe started doing the outlines.
It hurt.
I managed to concentrate on breathing, exhaling when he was actually
tattooing a line, inhaling when he stopped (the pain is NOT continuous ).
I think it's funny how the sound of the machine changes when the
needle enters the skin. I can't help but think of little bits of skin
flying right and left . I got so relaxed through the breathing that
I almost fell asleep while he was tattooing the line that extends to
my right side .
When the outlines were done, Sting decided to do the grid structure of
the wings as well, and after 2 hours and 15 minutes it was done.
He thinks there are 3-4 hours of work left, filling in the colors for
the dragonfly, the black lines, and the shading.
It was an immensely pleasant experience. Sting is a really great guy
and a perfectionist
He dropped me off at the train station at 9 pm and while I was
studying the departure plan, I realized that there would have been a
train to Bremen (where I had to take a different train to Hannover) at
8:30, the next one would go at 10:30, arriving at 11:30.
This wouldn't have been so bad if the last train to Hannover didn't
leave at 11:15.
I tried hitchhiking to Bremen to catch that train, but no such luck.
The people who stopped were all going to the villages outside on
Bremerhaven...
Luckily, I have friends who live near Bremen, so I called them up and
begged for emergency pickup and crash space service, which was no
problem. I even go saline for my contacts and didn't have to share a
toothbrush with the dog.. I even got a ride to Hannover the next
morning!
The next appointment is in three weeks. It won't take as long as the
first one though. I am not going to miss that darn train again.
The tattoo already looks better than I imagined it. My husband's
eyeballs almost popped out this morning when he saw it.
Pictures will be up when it's finished
Answer:
I actually did fall asleep while having a neo tribal band on my arm filled. My
artist woke me asking if I was ok and I told him yeah just hypnotized by the
buss of the machine. Light hands make for easy work.
Back to Sting. It is the opportunity to watch him work I think it was at the
Seattle Tattoo Tour and I was very impressed. Great with his client and very
fast without looking rushed.