New Tattoo

They say that tattoos are addictive.  I used to think this was impossible simply because of the pain involved...I mean you are literally getting stabbed thousands of times in the same area...how can that be addictive?

I can say that in some strange perverse way, they are indeed addictive.  After I got my first tattoo it didn't take me long before I was thinking about getting another one.

This time I thought "why not get a couples tattoo with my wife?"  For the record, her name is Michelle and my parents started calling us M&M early on in our relationship.  We even had custom M&M's made for our wedding so I thought we should do something with the M&M characters from the commercials.  I suggested it to Michelle and she said it was a good idea.

I started looking around for an artist who specialized in cartoon type work.  I didn't want to go with my last artist as his specialty was Celtic art, not cartoon.  A friend at work pointed me in the direction of his friend who worked out of Crimson Empire.  His name is Chris Labrenz and I checked out his gallery and liked what I saw.

We went in for a consultation and he seemed excited about what we wanted, and we liked what he had to say.  We booked our appointment for July 19.  It was about a week before our appointment before we got the first example and with a few changes we had our tattoo designed.  The premise was the green character for Michelle with a nurse hat (as she is an RN) and the red character for me with a motorcycle helmet.  I am an IT guy but couldn't think of anything work related that I wanted so the helmet would work!

Ink day came and we arrived at 2pm for what promised to be a LONG day.  Michelle went first as she was a bit nervous and wanted to get it over with.  At just over 3 hours she was done and what a trooper!  Here is her finished tattoo just before the bandage went on.

Next up - me!  Michelle was such a trooper that I had to ensure I was a better canvas.  I joked that I was probably going to fall asleep.  The funny part...during the line-work, I probably could have fallen asleep...barely felt the outline at all.  Now the colour and shading was a different story.  However, I managed to not cry like a baby and Chris remarked that we were his best clients as far as not moving while he worked.    Here is my finished tattoo just before the bandage went on.

Up next?  I mentioned to my kids that I would like to get tattoos with them, kinda like a bonding experience that will last a lifetime.  Not sure what we will be getting, but I'm sure something will come to me!