Ron Ott's Tattoo Page

Ron's Tattoo Page

I took me ten years before a friend of mine finally dragged me into the tattoo shop. We had been drinkin' a little, but I wasn't drunk. The tattoo dude was a friend of my friend and he invited us into the back of the shop where we sat down and watched movies while the guy started to draw my tattoo. They first make a drawing on paper, then they transfer it to some kind of carbon paper that will leave the image on your skin.

All the while he was drawing it, I was sitting there scared to death thinking, "What the hell am I doing here? This is nuts. This is gonna hurt like hell. How am I going to face my friends? I need another beer! Am I ruining my life? Will I ever be able to get another job with this stupid picture on me? GOD this is gonna hurt! I need another beer!" It took him about an hour to draw the thing. I was going crazy all the time, worried about the pain. When he was done drawing it he left to walk his dog, I almost bolted. The only reason I didn't run was that I knew all the hard work the guy had put into the drawing and that he and my friend would kill me if I chickened out.

Finally it was my turn in the chair. He called me in and shaved the area of my arm where the tattoo was going to go, sprayed it with antiseptic and transferred the image to my skin. He ask me to go look in the mirror and see how it looks reminding me that it was going to be there as long as my arm was attached to my body. When I looking in the mirror and say how cool it looked, all fear left me and I jumped back in the chair.

The place also did body piercing and crap like that, There was six other people hanging out. Two that do tattoos, and one that does the body piercing, and all their girlfriends. They were all watching me get tattooed! I asked why everyone was standing around. They replied that the tattoo looked really cool and wanted to watch the guy put it on, and also they loved to watch people get their first tattoo, because it never huts as much as they think that it is going to. He had already started the outline, I didn't feel much but I was scared to look down and watch, thinking I would see my blood spurting.

When I finally looked, it was the coolest thing I ever saw. He was warring rubber gloves and black ink was running down my arm. He keep wiping it off and I could see the lines below on my skin. It didn't hurt at all! You have to remember that the needle they use on tattoos don't go as deep as for shots or blood. They also go in and out so fast that it pulls out before your brain even gets the, "ouch" signal. The worst it ever got was feeling like someone was drawing on my skin really hard with a ball-point pen!

Once it was over I looked at it in the mirror one more time and they tapped a paper towel over it and sent me home. The worst part of the whole thing was pulling the tape off my arm the next morning, it hurt worse then the tattoo! Where that design was I could see my skin sticking up, and as I would rub my hands over it, I would feel its outline. The next few days it felt like a mild sunburn. I kept putting Neosporn (it's for cuts and burns) on it. After three days it was pretty much healed, and on me forever.

I had a few scabs from picking at the pealing skin. My friend who has tattoos said that I didn't bleed at all and that I didn't have much scabbing. The only scary thing that happened was that ink keep coming out and was all over the paper towel. Because the Mot�rhead is in red I thought it was blood. Boy was I stupid. Once I realized that it was ink I was scared that all the color was coming out of it. I was stupid again. After a tat is on you, its on you.

Now that its over I'm so happy that I got it. Of course I'm thinking about getting another, you always do. Some people run right out the next day and get a second, but since I waited ten years to get this one. I feel that I should really think about the next one and make sure its right. The one thing I always wanted to do was get a coin slot tattooed on my back. I think its sorta funny.

I haven't had anyone tell me its ugly or I was stupid, except two of my best computer geek friends. They said I should quit my job, get arrested, and live in a trailer park. They started calling me white trash. I still haven't showed it to my parents, I think I'm gonna wait until Christmas. I'm 31, I got a good job, what the hell are they gonna say about it?

I Sent my Tat into the Mot�rhead web page and this was the result! They sponsered a contest for the best Mot�rhead tattoo. After about a year and half they took off the contest and put this up! It shows my tat and three other really cool Mot�rhead tats. They said that I was going to get something, but I still haven't gotten anything from them.

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created: 5/20/1997