Ink

I've wanted a tattoo for, ooh, about ten years.

Not just any old tattoo, though - one that means something to me, that commemorates a specific event.

Initially, I decided that I'd get one when I got my PhD. But then, what with the rush to make corrections, get the thesis bound, sort out my Canadian work permit, move to a new country, get set up in a new lab, find a place to live, get a bank account, make friends, etc etc etc, it was suddenly a whole year since my viva, and it was no longer a current event.

Plus, although I didn't know anyone in the UK who'd got a double helix tattoo upon finishing their PhD, it turned out to be quite common in Canada. And I wanted something unique.

A couple of years later, as I applied for Canadian permanent residence, a new idea started to form in my mind. I knew I'd be shooting for citizenship as soon as I was eligible, so why not get a tattoo to commemorate that? The bringing together of two cultures - that's meaningful enough for me!

Given my family's Irish and Scottish roots, and my memories of the very happy few years I spent in Glasgow, I decided that I wanted a design that incorporated Celtic design into a Canadian maple leaf. I Googled all kinds of combinations of those words, but never found anything. So it would be both meaningful and unique!

The problem with unique was that I would have to find someone to design the tattoo for me. My initial attempts to sketch a Celtic style outline for the leaf looked Celtic enough, but not even the most patriotic Canadian in the world would have recognised the key component of their national flag in my work. And placing a regular maple leaf inside a Celtic circle looked cool, but from a distance, too much like the Air Canada logo.

"I'll do it", said Mr E Man

"Erm... OK...?" I said. I figured I'd let him take a shot at it, and at least use it as the basis for the final design.

But look what he came up with!

Mr E Man's initial sketch:

I absolutely loved the concept. For some reason I'd never thought to put the Celtic part inside the leaf!

The next step was to find the right tattoo artist. Mr E Man stepped up to the plate again: a work friend's partner/wife has a very well known and positively reviewed tattoo studio (according to her website, she was "the 1st female artist to own her own Tattoo studio in Canada", which is pretty damn cool). I called her, sent her Mr E Man's sketch, and she turned it into this:

Tattoo artist's interpretation of Mr E Man's design:

And so, earlier this evening, I headed out from work and went to get my first ever tattoo! I was pretty nervous, but the studio felt more like a nice hair salon than a den of painful torture (although I quickly realised that my normal hair salon level of chatter was not an option - I did not want to break her concentration! Hair grows back...) I was still apprehensive about how much it was going to hurt. The answer (for me) is more than a flu shot, more than a cat scratch, less than a bee sting, less than a bikini wax. Kinda like a sustained wasp sting. It hurt more as she went back to the lines she'd already drawn to strengthen the outline, and I'll admit to being very happy that I'd decided last week (on purely artistic grounds) to just get the outline, no shading!

 About half-way through

The whole thing took less than an hour, and while it obviously hurt, it really wasn't as painful as I'd expected.

A shot to give you an idea of size and placement

Hopefully the healing process won't be too long or too painful! I've got my instructions, and plan to follow them to the letter.

 Nice juicy close-up

I'll get another photo when it's all healed up and not quite so red!

I am sooooo glad I finally did this.