My First Tattoo!

(Freshly tattooed, the day after)

I finally did something that I've had on my 'goals' list since I was 19- I got a tattoo! I've had so many ideas on what I might have wanted, and have always been to indecisive to actually follow through on any of them. Fast forward to last Christmas when my mom gave me a gift certificate to my local tattoo shop, and I basically had no excuse to wait any longer!  I've had this idea of getting a polaroid camera for at least a year or two now, and I thought it would be perfect as my first tattoo. It was definitely a little bigger than I would have liked my first tattoo to be (I wanted to start small so I could get a feeling of what the pain would be like), but I like to think that I powered through it like a champ. We did the whole thing in one session that lasted about 5 or 6 hours. The last few hours were pretty brutal in terms of pain, but I didn't even cry- so that's all that matters I think.

(Healed) Although I definitely was a little worried about the pain of getting the tattoo, what I was actually more anxious about was the healing process afterwards. I did some research beforehand about what to expect and aftercare and all that jazz, and most sources basically said that a tattoo is an open sore, and to treat it that way. I was basically just scared that I would do something wrong and ruin it, but I basically did exactly what my tattoo artist told me to do in terms of aftercare (which, to me, is the best source out of all) and everything healed just fine.
And in case you were wondering, what they say is definitely true- I am already itching to get another one! Like I said before, I've had lots of ideas over the last few years and I feel like I am finally ready to get a few of them, now that I know what the process is like. I have this weird plan that I want to get a tattoo of every pet I own, and of course I already have design ideas in my head for my childhood cat (Star), my current cat (Bear), and one with both my guinea pigs, so I definitely have enough ideas to keep me occupied.