My First Tattoo

Hello friends!
Yes, I'm ashamed. It's been over a month since I last posted on this blog.

   School has been so, so busy lately. I haven't had any chance to sit down and write a new blog post, at least a post that I feel excited about. I've felt motivated with my schoolwork, but when it comes to writing a blog post, it's like I get overwhelmed with the idea and back out of it quickly. I love this blog and have so many ideas for it, but I'm always exhausted at the end of the day. But this time, I've got an exciting little post in mind.

   So as I mentioned in an old blog post of mine, My Anxiety Story (Pt. II), I have scars all over my arms. As a recap, I have scars because I nervously and compulsively pick at my skin. Now, in that post, I also said I've felt more comfortable with my skin since being constantly gawked at through high school. My scars have faded a lot since then. But instead of feeling acceptance about my skin, I decided in the past couple of years that I want to actually feel beautiful in my skin.

   So about a year or two ago, I sought out some tattoo ideas on pinterest. I think tattoos are absolutely gorgeous, but I never knew when I wanted one, where I wanted one, or what I even wanted. I knew my goal was to make it meaningful in some way, but I didn't know what route to take it a first.

   The more I dug, the more I found beautiful vintage botanical sketches and felt inspired. I then found out that there are some flowers assigned to the months of the year, so I figured I'd choose flowers that represented the months that my family members were born in. I was excited to start my tattoo journey with a big, beautiful piece to take my arm from acceptable to a work of art.

   After sitting on the idea for months, I ended up eagerly reaching out to the same guy who tattoos my brother. We ended up meeting up and discussing which flowers I wanted and what sort of style I was interested in, so I told him about the vintage look. So my friend Cooper and I embarked on "Tattuesday" (AKA me getting a tattoo on Tuesday...I know, it's a terrible pun).

   When the day came, I approved the design and Scott applied the purple outline to my arm.

   It's so wild seeing the outline in the beginning and giving all control to an artist. It's hard to envision a simple outline with details because you never know what the artist is envisioning for your tattoo. But it was all part of the experience, so I gave up control and let Scott do his thing.

   Next, I sat in the chair and endured the outline process. The outline hurt because of how, when he needed to thicken up the lines, he went over the same areas more than once. But it honestly wasn't that bad, not as bad as I was worried it would be. I never felt light headed and I never wanted to turn back. The outline felt painful primarily by the pit of my elbow, towards the inside parts of my arm, and around my wrist where some of my newer scars are.

   After he finished the outline which took about an hour, he cleaned up the tattoo and wrapped it for a bit of a break. Next, he began the shading process. The shading process was a little less painful and was honestly mesmerizing to watch. Scott took his time and made everything look super gorgeous. The shading took a couple more hours and he did take a couple of breaks between this stage.

   And, after having the tattoo cleaned up, then wearing the wrap for a few days, finally can reveal the final look (although it's still dry and needs some TLC):

Featured Flowers:
Carnation: Lila + Me (January)
Violet: Grandma (February)
Rose: Sonny (June)
Poppy: Lana (August)
Aster: Mom + Landon + Logan (September)
Chrysanthemum: Charles + Angie (November)

Thank you guys so much for reading! And thank you Scott for your precise line work and your attention to detail. I love it!

Keep on grinning!

​Lydia