My tattoo journey - part one
Immediately after boot camp in 1997, I visited a tattoo parlor in Chicago and got my first (and second) tattoo.
Now, I forgot to tell my 18-year-old self, “Self, you are going to want to tell a story about this when you are WAY older, like in your 40’s, so take pictures and remember the name of this tattoo parlor and the guy who did your tattoo.”
Number 1
So, I only have my memory of the event and one crappy print photo. Do you remember when they had actual cameras back then? Anyway, I went with a buddy, and we picked something off of the wall displays.
I chose a rose with a skull hidden in there and then, because it looked funny with the loopy things, I had him put my name underneath. Here is what it looked like about 15 years later.
Number 2
My second tattoo was a very small flower (the whole thing from stem to bud) that I got on right breast. I thought I was being so cute…hehe, I could show it off with my chevage.
Yeah right, never happened. The tattoo faded and looked like crap almost immediately.
Next, I went to Florida for my ‘A’ school and Nuclear Power school. Of course, I got working on another tattoo. I mean, I was a very good student. At this point, I was hooked, obsessed. I wanted the status of having more tattoos. I was not thinking about their meaning too deeply.
Number 3
My third tattoo was a naked genie who is coming out of her lamp, with smoke all around her. I got it on my right lower leg. A friend got the exact same tattoo on his leg and we both put each other initials in our design.
It is definitely a racy design and I always get a few eye bulges when people see it. I got it during a highly stressful but intensely fun period in my life.
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