Saturday 27 February 2016

Getting My First Tattoo

Green Day drunk bunny on stage before a gig in 2013.

Hello my lovelies, something really exciting happened at the start of the week that I just have to tell you about - I finally got my first tattoo!

I've been fascinated by tattoos ever since I was in primary school and as I've got older, the urge to be covered in them has only grown stronger. I'd been seriously considering getting tattooed for years, thinking about what I wanted and where abouts on my body I'd like to get them.

Back in January I decided that I couldn't wait any longer. I had the money I needed for a small tattoo, I had all my ideas to pick from and I'd researched and probably gone through every single tattoo shop's Facebook and Instagram pages in the entire North West, and I'm not joking. You might think that that's ever so slightly over the top, but if something was going to be marked permanently on my skin for the rest of my life, I had to know that it was going to be perfect, regardless of how small or simple the tattoo may be.

After starting university I began to stretch my ears (even though it went massively wrong, but lets not talk about that) and realised that the stretched ear and tattooed life was definitely for me and thought that I should just go for it and arrange a date to get one done.

I booked my tattoo for almost a month later and I can honestly say that I spent the month leading up it questioning whether I was getting the right tattoo, in the right place. I questioned the colours, how I was going to hide it from my parents and employers if I had to. You name it, I thought about it and worried about it. The night before I was even Googling this...


I'd originally booked in to get a Sherlock inspired tattoo but I knew deep down I wanted to get a Green Day themed one as my first tattoo at least. I ended up changing my mind and went with the Green Day drunk bunny and despite what you might think, there's a lot of meaning and thought behind it, well for me anyway.

As I'm sure all of you are aware by now because I don't shut up about it, I absolutely love Green Day. I love everything about them, their music, their individual personalities and what they stand for. There's a couple of tattoos that Billie - Joe, the lead singer and guitarist of the band has, that I really wanted to get. His drunk bunny tattoo was one of these.

Billie - Joe Armstrong pictured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
If you've been following me online for a few years, you'll know that I also go by the nickname, Bunny so this was another reason that I felt getting a bunny tattoo would be more than apt.

When the day finally arrived for me to get my tattoo, I surprisingly woke up feeling more excited than nervous. Unfortunately my boyfriend Chris was unable to come with me but my bestie, Lauren was more than happy to come along.

I walked from my house down to the local tram stop to meet Lauren, as she was coming to my town from the centre of Manchester. We were somehow half an hour early (I'm always late for everything and was pleasantly surprised that I'd managed to get myself out of bed, showered and dressed so quickly). We decided to go to Greggs and get something to eat, especially because I hadn't had anything that morning. I opted for pizza which I instantly regretted as I took the first bite. I honestly thought that one of my front teeth had broken, it was that hard.

We then made our way over to Inflicted By Ink, the shop I'd chosen to get my tattoo done at. I signed a consent sheet, explained what I wanted to get and after Lee printed off a picture of it and Simon sorted out the stencil, I had my arm shaved and some weird cream put on it that looked suspiciously like, and there's no pleasant way to put this - cum.

Ready to go!
Looking down at my arm, even with just the transfer outline on it, I knew that that was exactly what I wanted. I then went and sat down in the tattoo chair/bed thing, which I must admit was a bit of a struggle to get up on to, but I managed.

Simon started first with the outline as you can see in the photo below and I'm going to be honest, it hurt way more than I thought it would. I'd been wanting to get tattooed for so long though that the pain was never really something that I considered and people's stories of how much it hurt or how they threw up or passed out certainly wasn't going to put me off.

It did hurt; a lot at first and for a few seconds I genuinely thought that I wouldn't be able to do it. Beforehand, Simon explained that it would probably feel like being repeatedly flicked with an elastic band but to me it was more like having an injection where the needle only goes into your skin a tiny bit of the way and then it's dragged through your skin. That's the best way I can describe it. I'm really selling this as a wonderful and positive experience here aren't I?

For me the outline was the worst part and I'm not sure whether that was because it was a new pain that I've never experienced before or whether it genuinely is the most painful part of getting a tattoo.

The outline is done!
After the outline, the black parts of the bunny were filled in and that didn't hurt as much, although I'm sure all three people in the shop at the time would beg to differ. Needless to say I was quite vocal for the hour and twenty minutes that I was in the chair and I called Simon some pretty nasty names so if he's reading this then I'm very sorry for swearing at you ;)

Below is the video I put on Instagram of some of the black being done.

A video posted by Bunny🐰🎀 (@amy_96_) on

My arm was starting to look a bit red at this point and it looked slightly swollen but I guess if you're being stabbed really quickly like that, your skin isn't going to be a particularly happy bunny... pardon the pun. That was such a shit joke :/

A photo after all the black was done. Taken from my Snapchat: amy-97
The pink part of the tattoo was done after the black and that's when it started to hurt quite a lot. I'm fairly sure that Simon said he was using seven needles for that bit instead of just the one so that would probably explain the pain. I didn't want the pink part of the bunny to match exactly with the original version, which is a much deeper pink. My favourite colours are black, grey and bubblegum pink so naturally it only felt right to go for the colour actually called 'Bubblegum'.

A couple of hours after having it done. Taken from my Instagram: amy_96_
Once my tattoo was finished my arm was wrapped up, I was given an aftercare sheet of how best to look after my new tattoo and Lauren had to help me get my purse out of my bag and get my backpack onto my back which was a bit of a task.

We then ventured to the sweet shop, where Lauren bought a pick and mix and then we went to Asda to pick up the recommended cream to use on my tattoo, called Bepanthen. I've been applying a thin layer of this a few times a day and I'll go into more detail on this in a video I'll be making once my tattoo has fully healed. However this cream seems to have worked well so far and I'll certainly be using it on any tattoos I get in the future.

Bepanthen is a cream that protects against nappy rash but is also really good to use on a fresh tattoo.
As I'm writing this I've had my tattoo for five days and I'm at the point where large sections of skin are peeling off. Chris and a few of my friends who have tattoos, have reassured me that this is totally normal though and so long as I keep putting the cream/moisturiser on then I'll be fine.

My tattoo five days after getting it done.
I'll probably be posting more photos in a video that I'll be filming once everything's fully healed and isn't looking so crusty and gross.

Before I finish this really long blog post, I just want to say that I'll definitely be returning to have Simon do my next tattoos as he's done such a good job of my first one. Both Simon and Lee made what would have been a really nerve-wracking experience for me, into a chilled out and hilarious one. I'd recommend Inflicted By Ink to all of my readers and viewers and even my closest friends. I'm usually quite a shy person around new people, especially in situations where I'm nervous but it's safe to say that despite the pain, I was comfortable and I don't think I stopped laughing (other than to swear in pain).

I'll leave all the relevant links below so that you can check out the shop and Simon's work if you're interested.





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