- Quick Stats:
- Location: Lower Back
- Price: £70
- Design: Celtic/Tribal/Faith from Buffy’s tattoo
- Date of Tattoo: 6th May 2006
- Time Taken: 50 mins
- Place: Skin Graffiti, Swindon
History
I had wanted this tattoo since I first saw Faith baring it on the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was in about 1998, so I would have been about 11 or 12 at the time of first wanting the tattoo. But of course my parents said no, and that if I still wanted it when I was 18 then I could have it for my birthday.
Fast forward to March 2006 and it was nearing my 18th Birthday, my parents again asked me if I still wanted the tattoo of course I said yes and my mum got her friend at work to book an appointment at ‘Skin Graffiti’ in Swindon and that I was going to have in on May 6th, the day before my Birthday.
Pre Tattoo
The day came and I have to admit I had mixed feelings about getting the tattoo, I didn’t know whether to feel nervous, calm or what. We arrived in Swindon and met my mum’s friend (Lisa) and she took us up to ‘Skin Graffiti’, it was quite a small tattoo parlour, with images of different tattoos all over the walls and a cabinet full of body jewellery.
As I waited for the tattooist to get ready I browsed other tattoos and found a few that I also liked, possible future tattoos. The guy said he was ready soon after my browsing and my mum went on her way to prepare for my party later that evening and Lisa stayed with me.
During
The man showed me the design of my tattoo which he had traced and made bigger, he then held it against my back so I could see if I was happy with the size and positioning. I was, he then got me to sit on a chair with my head in my lap and told me to sit as still as possible while he did my tattoo, he applied some jelly type stuff which was to clean my back beforehand and was also used to sooth my back during the tattoo itself.
The needle went in and I felt a weird sensation, it didn’t really hurt at that stage it just felt like I was being pinched my fingernails over and over again.
I had started to get dead legs after a while which was not fun as I couldn’t move them at all, I remember sitting there listening to whatever music was on the radio at that time.
When the needle went over my spine it hurt, quite a lot not surprising though since the spine is full of nerves and very sensitive. When he had finished off the outline of my tattoo, he cleaned up the blood and put the jelly stuff on again, he then changed to a bigger needle to do the shading. When he put the needle in it was the same weird pinching sensation as last time that hurt when it went over my spine, but at that point I was concentrating more on my increasingly dead leg!
Post Tattoo
The tattoo finished after 50 mins and he told me to get up slowly as I had been sat in the same position for ages, when I did try and get up I nearly fell back down again, my legs were that stiff and dead. I looked at my tattoo in a mirror and was very pleased with it, I loved it, and I was then asked to sit back down so he could clean up some of the blood and put a bandage on it. He then gave me a leaflet on after care and told me what to do and not to do with it, then sent me on my way.
I had to meet up with my sister and her friend who had been Birthday present shopping for me, they both wanted to see that tattoo so I lifted up the back of my top and showed them… They couldn’t see much of it because of the bandage but they liked what they could see.
Healing + after care
- These were the instructions the tattooist gave me:
- Put Savlon Cream on it everyday
- Do not scratch or pick at the scabs
- Do not expose tattoo to sunlight
- Do not go swimming
- Do not have a bath
- When having a shower dab the tattoo lightly, do not use soaps on it
I had to do this everyday for about 2-4 weeks depending on how well my tattoo was healing.