Ink

I walked into the shop, and was greeted by pounding death metal and a rough looking guy with tattoos on his shaved head.  We yelled over the speakers, and soon he called out Steve Byrne from the office in the back.  When I told my friend Dean I was wanting a tattoo, he told me I had to check out Steve’s artwork, and I was sold from that moment on.  Steve had a casual but professional demeanor that clicked with me, and after a quick chat explaining what I wanted, I left with an appointment for the following Saturday evening.

Three days ago, after a long day at work, C and I headed back to his studio at Rock of Ages.  It was finally going to happen; the tattoo I had been thinking about for over a year was going to become real.  I was nervous enough to forget my design sketches at home, and almost get us lost on the way over.  When we arrived, with the design on the iPhone in hand, Steve got right to work.  He seemed to have a vision for my design before I had to tell him.  Glancing at the phone, and working with the lines and curves of my arm, he set each star with perfect spacing on my skin.  So impressive.

And then the needle started going, and my heart started beating a little faster.  C made me feel comfortable despite my circumstances, and I chatted a lot with Steve about the meaning of the tattoo, my time in the UK (where he’s from), and our worldly travels.  It didn’t feel quite as bad as I expected going on, and a lot of memories came flooding back to me as it went on.  45 minutes later it was done.  Perfectly.

We bounced around Austin, joining our friend and T4k teammate Miguel while he got a similar design inked on his bicep.  Then it was Carolina’s turn.  Her’s is probably my favorite of the three, placed beautifully under her left ribs, giving the lioness some company.  She squeezed my hand while it was going on, and I was reminded why she’s such a good rock climber.  The three of us made it back to my house around 11:30pm, and found the campfire crackling in the backyard and a handful of good friends waiting for us.  The day couldn’t have been more perfect.

I’ll post some pictures of it all in a few days after the lines have flattened out and healed a bit.  I love it, as well as everything in my life right now.  Things are finally making sense for this kid.