Well, sometimes it starts out with meaning, Kich, and then after that you just long for the bite of the needle...

(September 22, 2011 at 7:31 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: Well, sometimes it starts out with meaning, Kich, and then after that you just long for the bite of the needle...

Ah...an addictive component??

I only ask as my daughter has laboured on and hard over just what a tattoo means and which one she should get. She has a Maori father whispering in her ear, they take their tattoos very seriously.

Well, when I got my neck piece I thought "ah, this isn't so bad" and about as soon as it healed I was itching for another. I didn't get a chance to until about a year later when I got my tramp stamp. The pain was overwhelming - 2 hours under the needle after waiting all day, no food, no drink (big mistake) - that was the closest I've ever come to fainting. I was swimming on waves of it - sometimes it made the world crystal clear and sometimes I guess I was swinging closer to fainting instead. When it was over, I felt like someone had worn Doc Martens and kicked me in the back repeatedly. I was in bed for two days. Swore I'd never do it again.

And here I am, nearly two years later, itching for another. Definitely addictive. Despite memory of that pain, despite not being sure what I want to get...I still want to get another. I might ease it by getting mine touched up.

(September 22, 2011 at 8:23 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: Well, when I got my neck piece I thought "ah, this isn't so bad" and about as soon as it healed I was itching for another. I didn't get a chance to until about a year later when I got my tramp stamp. The pain was overwhelming - 2 hours under the needle after waiting all day, no food, no drink (big mistake) - that was the closest I've ever come to fainting. I was swimming on waves of it - sometimes it made the world crystal clear and sometimes I guess I was swinging closer to fainting instead. When it was over, I felt like someone had worn Doc Martens and kicked me in the back repeatedly. I was in bed for two days. Swore I'd never do it again.

And here I am, nearly two years later, itching for another. Definitely addictive. Despite memory of that pain, despite not being sure what I want to get...I still want to get another. I might ease it by getting mine touched up.

Very curious..perhaps I should dissuade Lhys from get her first one then??

Not if she really wants it.

(September 22, 2011 at 8:29 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: Not if she really wants it.

Credit where it is due though... She REALLY wants a tattoo, Her father (being Maori) advocated that it should be of great significance and pertain to the Clan / Tribe that she belonged to. Also that it is a testament to that ability to survive lifes pain and STILL carry on.

Yes I know it sounds like superstitious nonsense but then again like I said..i see so many people getting tatts that have no meaning other than "It's cool to have a tattoo"

Well, that's sort of why I got both of mine. The first one, not so much other than that quote being highly personally significant. The second though, I was in a very low time in my life, and I suffered the pain and got roses put on me because of many different things attached to them. It was a stamping of my "self" onto my skin, even if no one knows it just by looking at it. So if her heritage is very important to her, then I say "go ahead," but if it isn't then she shouldn't let herself be that influenced by her father.

Now I can turn in the mirror and see my tatt and say "that's me. Not the shit I'm going through, not the shit happening to me... THAT'S me." That's what her tatt should say.

I have four tats. Don't need any others. Each one is symbolic (each is a hieroglyph) of something that has meaning to me. For those who love the pain of the needle, BDSM is a better outlet.

Guys with ink are hot.

Yeah, that's about the extent of my mental capability right now without more coffee.

[walks away grumbling about school and work]

(September 22, 2011 at 8:39 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: Well, that's sort of why I got both of mine. The first one, not so much other than that quote being highly personally significant. The second though, I was in a very low time in my life, and I suffered the pain and got roses put on me because of many different things attached to them. It was a stamping of my "self" onto my skin, even if no one knows it just by looking at it. So if her heritage is very important to her, then I say "go ahead," but if it isn't then she shouldn't let herself be that influenced by her father.

Now I can turn in the mirror and see my tatt and say "that's me. Not the shit I'm going through, not the shit happening to me... THAT'S me." That's what her tatt should say.

I am thinking this is what she is struggling with....the "That's Me and what I stand for no matter what is happening in my life right now"

Her father is dead but there are many uncles (Maori, aren't there always??) to help her with this decision. She is a woman grown and will make her own choice but, as I said, there is that wee small voice of 'Daddy' in her ear advising and putting the significance into her choice.

She'll get there one day in just the way she wants...bit like her mum that way.