The story of my first tattoo.

I was sitting around at the Downtown Pub on Friday night with Eric, Jason, Crys, Todd, and Jessica. While discussing the trip we had planned to see a DaVinci exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art the next day, we somehow got on the subject of tattoos. I'm not sure how, but within 15 minutes of it coming up, it was decided that Eric, Crys and I would get the same image Jason has...an outline of the state of Alabama with a small heart over Tuscaloosa. Fitting, right? I had recently had at least two other conversations with people about how I doubted that I'd ever get tattooed. We dubbed the weekend "Spontaneous Decisions '08."

Not even 12 hours later, we were on our way to Birmingham. Jess joined us at the museum when we arrived and we proceeded to browse the Da Vinci exhibit, the gift shop, and some other random parts of the building for an hour and a half or so. This was essentially my first trip to a real art museum. Getting to see original Da Vinci stuff was undeniably cool, but I was constantly distracted by the large amount of people browsing the drawings at the same time we were. I believe it was "Kids' Weekend" or something to that effect. I should go back to the museum sometime and give it a fair shot, but I mostly felt out of place, and I had food on my mind. We left and headed over to Pete's Famous Hot Dog's, a fine establishment that serves great hot dogs with an original meat based "special sauce."

After consuming a few dogs in front of Aerochild Tattoos, we headed in to see Aaron and get ready. We were joined by Mat, Haley, and Rachel. He had one appointment to take care of, so we waited about a half hour, and then it was go time. I was first up, and slightly nervous. Shots have never bothered me, but IVs and blood sampling have always caused me to get a bit lightheaded. Here are some photos:

(Taking a deep breath.)

(Looking like I was asleep.)

The feeling was different than anything I'd heard anyone describe it as. Kind of a constant burning. It was uncomfortable, but I'd say I handled it well. Everyone said I just made faces, and I remember laughing as it was going on a few times. Then it was Eric's turn. As you can see, he remained pretty much expressionless throughout the process:

After Eric got done, it was Crys's turn. She got her tattoo on her side. I don't have any photos of the process as they were taken on another camera, but I do have a shot of a little extra art Aaron threw together at the last minute:

Here are some random shots:


(Jason)

(Crys and Mat)

(Jess in full on serious business mode.)

After the tattoos, we did a bit of shopping at India Shoppe, ate at New China Town with Mat and Jess, and headed back home to watch the end of the LSU/Florida game and catch up on the day's College Football highlights. It was a great day.

The end results:

I'll certainly never forget this weekend. I'm proud to share this with great friends, and am glad I waited for the right time in my life to make this kind of decision, even if it was on a whim.
No Regrets. Roll Tide.