Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How I ended up with a teammate's photo tattooed on my arm.

First off, let me start by saying that no I don't regret getting either of my tattoos. Even though I was young when I got them, and one was put on upside down. I do not regret getting either, they are both in places on my body that you don't even know I have them unless I want you to know about them, so there are no repercussions on my personal or professional life in that regard.

I got my first tat, which is a very intricately detailed armband toward the end of my sophomore year of high school. There were various reasons for me wanting it, but I won't go into those now, they aren't important.

Near the end of my junior year, I was at an off-season wrestling tournament some where down in Ohio, Avondale or some place like that, and I saw a picture of one of their hall of fame wrestlers, and he had a cool wrestling tattoo. I decided that I liked that and wanted one of my own, but I wanted it to be unique.

Not only was I an athlete, but I was on both the yearbook and newspaper staff so I took a lot of pictures and the like. I went through my photos, found one I liked and asked the school art teacher, that happened to also be my wrestling coach to draw up a tattoo design based on that. The photo was of our 119 lb. wrestler who was also a good friend of mine, he was wrestling against a guy from Dundee in the photo.

I wasn't sure how I would afford the tattoo as I wanted it quite large, but now I had a design at least. Going forward I just happened to run into a guy that had done tattoo work for my mother and aunt more than two decades prior while he was in town visiting. Luck be me, he had his gear with him, and for the family discount rate of $50 he looked at the photo, and the design and then freehanded a very large tattoo on my left arm.

The photo's included here are a couple of years old, and so the tat itself needs to be recolored, but I'm still quite happy with it. It's very unique, and reminds me of the sport that I spent so many hours practicing in my youth.

I'm thinking about getting a couple of more, but haven't decided on the exact placement just yet.

So come on people out there in the internet world, tell (or show) me yours now that you've seen mine. Will you get another? Do you regret the any that you currently have?

2 comments:

  1. Me and tattoos have an understanding: they can be on other people and not on me. I like that arrangement and I'm keeping it that way.

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  2. I can understand that. They aren't for everyone.

    ReplyDelete