My First Colour Tattoo!

Another tattoo has been added to my little collection.

I guess it’s a bit like Pringles, in that once you start you can’t stop.

But seriously, I’m sitting here with my tender arm pondering what the next one would be and whether I would ever be brave enough to consider a sleeve (brave not in the sense that I am scared of the pain – because that fades quickly, but brave in the sense of work and stuff).  I guess for now we will just have to watch this space.

The point?  Two was not near enough for me and my girlfriends knew it, so for my birthday, they got together and got me a voucher to my favourite tattoo shop in Cape Town – Metal Machine.

In a way it’s a blessing and a curse.  It’s a blessing, because good tattoo’s don’t come cheap, but a curse in that you kind of have to use it.

As one should before committing to a body altering change, I thought long and hard about it.  Admittedly I did a bit of research on Pinterest too – not to get a carbon copy of what another 10 000 people have (what on Earth is the point of that?!) but to get a bit of Pinspiration.

After a lot of uming and aahing, I settled on hummingbirds because I like the way they look and also their constant thrumming business perfectly resembles each of our babies.  I also knew that I wanted colour, but not in the way that each bird was full colour but more like a bit of a water colour effect.  After Seth mentioned that it might look cool having the colour be the effect/flap of the wings, I got out our water colours and started playing around.

In my mind it was a toss up between the bottom left and bottom right.  Finally, with the idea cemented in my head and the drawings tucked safely in my purse, we headed off to Metal Machine to make the appointment.

When the day came, I must admit that being nervous is kind of an understatement.  Committing to permanently change your body is a bit like having a baby – you can’t ever go back.  But once I got to the chair, had the stencil placed and had a good look at it, I knew that it was what I wanted.  So we got to work.

Having a needle filled with colour constantly stabbing your skin is probably not many people’s idea of fun, but it honestly was nowhere near as sore as having my foot done.  Well it’s either the location or having a couple more babies since then that made me a bit more resilient, but either way, it really was not that bad.

The finished product.  The top bird is Kyla’s with her two favourite colours of yellow and light pink, Riya is in the middle with her favourite colours of dark pink and purple and then comes Knox who now just has to like blue and green.  He just doesn’t have a choice!

Not everyone’s cup of tea (here’s looking at you Mom), but I love it.

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