I had 2-3 errands to run and then I headed to Raccoon River Park to spend some time on Mike's bench to enjoy the beautiful day and experience nature. Sometime last fall WDM Parks and Rec planted a tree by Mike's bench. Melanie who works at the Nature Lodge stopped by while I was sitting out there and told me it was a Red Maple. I'm going to enjoy watching the tree grow and give shade to the bench.
I came home and worked on my Federal taxes and think I have them figured out. I'm waiting to hear from my friend Lori's hubby to make sure I did one section correctly before I e-file them. I hate doing taxes. The rest of the afternoon Butler and I took it easy.All of a sudden around 4:00ish I started getting butterflies in my stomach - bad. I'm like great, just what I need before I get my tattoo tonight but after eating supper they went away. A friend texted me to advise I take Advil before I headed out to the tattoo parlor - which I thanked her greatly because I wouldn't have thought to do that. And.....I'll take some more before going to bed.
My three friends from Wells Fargo that were going to be with me tonight had things come up so my best bud since 7th grade, Lori, was able to go with me. She thought it would be "interesting". I of course got to Mid Air and Ink a little early so by the time I completed my permission form, Lori arrived and Dave was ready for me to come on back. I realized as I was reading the permission/authorization form that I had started to chomp my gum very hard.........................
Off to Dave's work area we go where Dave and I had some final thoughts/discussions about how the tattoo would look then he drew it out as a rough on my leg.
The initials are for Roni and Mike but if by chance some day - if God sends a super, duper guy my way - I'll tell him the initials are for me/Roni McFall. Dave told me I could NOT look at the tattoo while he was doing it. I asked if he'd ever had anyone faint before getting a tattoo - I think he said yes (wonderful). I asked if he'd ever had anyone scream when he started doing the tattoo - no, he said people usually cursed loudly. He told me I had to lie very still while he worked to which I started to laugh - and you know me - I of course laughed different times while he worked.
When Dave started he did the outline of the tattoo in black first. Lori was watching intently and said there was some blood, nope it was the red ink from his marker, nope there really was some blood.......... :)
Lori's job was to take pictures during the process with my Droid cell phone. I laid mostly on my side with my left leg under my right leg for stability. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what I expected it to feel like when Dave was doing the tattoo - some type of horrific, sharp, extreme, intense pain but it wasn't. It was more like scraping on my skin and I thought that would actually get a little annoying...............until Dave worked over a nerve. Yow - that smarted pretty good.
I'm giving a thumb's up. Such a flattering angle...........................
Another shot of the work in process. Dave periodically would change the towel that was rolled into my shorts and when he would do that I'd have Lori give me my Coke so I could get a drink :)
And here's Tattoo Dave, a really nice guy. I would highly recommend him to anyone wanting to get a tattoo. The only thing to keep in mind - it's a tattoo parlor and the music is LOUD and the language isn't always the cleanest.
And here's the finished project, right after it was finished with bumped up skin and all. The initials are in purple. Dave asked if I liked light blue and I said yes - he said he wanted to add some blue to help make the tattoo stand out so I said ok. This picture does not do my tattoo justice - it is so much better seeing it in person. And I absolutely LOVE it!
Here's the photo that Dave worked from and I really, really like what he came up with. I would definitely do this again. Once I got used to the pain I either blocked it out or my skin was so numb I couldn't feel it :) I came home and "showed" it to Butler, he was just thrilled....................... But he did actually come up to me as I was sitting on the bed blogging and touched the tattoo with his nose and that was slightly painful :) I need to give the tattoo warm washes two times a day for a few days. Starting tomorrow morning I put A&D ointment on after each wash, then Sunday I put Lubriderm unscented lotion on it for two weeks. And somewhere during all this my tattoo will scab over and come off - Dave told me not to get worried when I started to lose color - that's just part of the process.
While today was my unanniversary (for lack of a better term), I again realized how many friends and family members were thinking of me and saying prayers for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
