It has been a crazy week…hence the few posts this week. That didn’t stop me from permanently scarring my body!  I have been thinking about getting a tattoo for a couple of years, but finally made the decision to actually do it the last time we were up in Winter Park.

So I started doing my homework. First was deciding on what I wanted. I knew I wanted a cross, but wasn’t sure exactly what design I was looking for. After many hours of Internet searching I came across this picture that became my initial inspiration…

I didn’t like the banner, but the cross itself is the design I was looking for. As soon as I saw this picture I knew this was the direction I was going. So I traced it to get rid of the banner (btw, I am no artist and can’t even manage to trace a cross very well). Thank goodness the tattoo artists is actually an artist and understood it was simply a guide.

My secondbit of homework was picking the tattoo shop that would do the work. There are several around town and I checked out three before making my decision. The first shop I went to was Ancient Arts right here in Parker. They do good work ,but even he said I should check out several other places before making my decision (especially since this was my first). He advised e to make sure I liked the shop andthe person doing the work. The second shop I visited was Bonaroo Tattoo, also in Parker. Didn’t like this shop at all!

Last weekend Logan and I visited Red Sky Tattoo down in Castle Rock. I had visited their website and looked at the galleries of each of the artists. I really liked the work of Jimmy the Kid and was hoping he was there. Not only was he there, but he was the guy who greeted me. I showed him the tracing (as well as the photo) and asked him what he thought. He was awesome! He immediately came up with a couple of ideas and saw what my vision was. I liked him. I liked the shop. I put down a deposit and scheduled a session for the next Friday, August 22nd at 5:30 pm. I was committed now.

So yesterday I took off from work a little early and headed down to Castle Rock with the entire family. I’m not sure who was more excited…me or the boys. I was also a little anxious having been convinced the pain would be just short of having a compound fracture.

Jimmy had told me he was going to draw up two versions of the cross: one in stone and one in chrome. When I got there he showed me both of his custom drawings. Here they are:

Now all I had to do was decide which version I wanted…and it was a tough choice. I liked (and still do) both versions. So I did what any warm-blooded American would do and I put it up for a vote. Everyone liked the stone version. After some further pondering and decision making I agreed. Stone Cross it was. Jimmy wanted to do a few minor modifications (mainly making the cracks a little smaller) so he re-drew it once more and made a stencil. The first stencil was a little small so we bumped it up a little. The next version was perfect! Here are the pictures from the one hour session:

 
The Stencil Before We Got Started.
Do I look worried?

 
The First Needle Shot.
It wasn’t so bad!

 
Oops…spoke too soon.
The top right part of the cross was the worst part.

In all honesty, the pain wasn’t anywhere near what I expected to be. The top right part of the cross was the worst and even that wasn’t what I expected the worst to be. The outlining was the worst. But after a few minutes the whole thing was a little numb and we settled into a groove. Outline…then shading…then a little white accents. The it was over.

AND I LOVED IT!!!!

The end result was better than anything I imagined. It’s good when something this permanent not only meets, but exceeds, your expectations. Jimmy did an amazing job! Thanks man!

Here is the end result:

 
In context.
It’s still a little red but you get the idea.

 
The Closeup

Overall this was a great experience and I am very pleased with the results. I can’t wait for the color to settle down and the redness to fade away. I can honestly say that this is not likely my last tat. For now, I’m off to admire the work in the mirror and put some Diaper Rash cream on it.

Let me know what you think…