We did it.  Kaylee, Joanna, Jordan, and I went up to Flaming Dragon Tattoo yesterday and put our personal memorial of Willie permanetly on our bodies.  They turned out so good.

I want to say a BIG thank-you to Forrest Cooper who designed the tattoo for us and also to Dave Wach who worked on us for 6 hours yesterday to put the tattoos on.

In the car on the way up, we rocked out to a little Heavy-D, “Now That We Found Love” to get ourselves pumped up, it’s just what happened to be on the radio at the time, but we got into it. :) 

Kaylee was going to be first up, since she lives out of town, and she was still having trouble decided between 2 different designs.  We finally decided we’d all do the same design, just on whatever part of our bodies we wanted.  So with that settled, we all talked and laughed a little nervously the rest of the way.  We arrived at Flaming Dragon Tattoo, feeling completely out of place, but really we didn’t care.  We came with a mission and we were going to get it done. 

Kaylee bravely signed the release papers, sat in the chair, put her earphones in, and really didn’t say much.  When Dave started, she did turn around and say, ‘Oh, it’s really not that bad’.  So we felt a little less anxious about our own, until she was finished and she said, ‘holy smokes, that hurt bad!’

Joanna was up next.  We had a feeling that Joanna would either really hate it, or really love it.  Joanna usually isn’t too in the middle about most things.  Guess which one she was?  She LOVED it!  She chatted it up with Dave the entire time, laughing, talking about how much she loved getting tattoo’d, the endorphins had kicked in full gear and she was having a great time.  She kept turning around to us saying, ‘You guys this is great.  It hurts, yea, but this is awesome!’

Jordan was next, and Jordan was nervous, but Jordan did great!  We thought for sure we’d hear him making noises, or being real sarcastic, or talking about how bad it was, but we got nothing out of him.  He sat in the chair, put his headphones in, and powered through.  He hardly even looked at us.  We were so impressed!  Jordan said afterwards that he had turned his music up so loud to distract himself from how bad it hurt.  But his tattoo is awesome!  It looks so good.

I was the final victim for torture that day.  I was a little anxious because I knew it was going to hurt, but I was excited to get it done.  I kept telling myself, “I can do anything for an hour, this is only going to hurt for about an hour”.  And really it’s true.  It hurt for sure, but it was tolerable.  I mean it took me longer to push out a baby than it did to get the tatoo put on.  It definitely hurt, but I would do it again.

I love our tattoos.  I’m so glad we got them, and that we got them together.

Pictures of our experience are on my website.  Some I took, but the majority of the pictures came from Jordan’s camera later.  I mean lets face it, Jordan has the nicer camera and has taken all the photography classes, his camera should have all the pictures on it.  :)
All the pictures will be here.

 UPDATE: My mom was actually with us when we got our tattoos.  She drove up later in the day to check out the activity, meet the guy who was inking us, and hopefully get tatted herself.  As it turns out, we ran out of time, but that was ok, because mom ended up rethinking what exactly she wanted to get and where she wanted to put it.  She still wants to have it done, but it will just be at a little later date.   Maybe my dad will be convinced by then, he did say last night, “If (and a really big if) I ever had it done, I’d put it on my back like Jordan’s.  I really like how Jordan’s turned out”  Which is a lot different from what he has always said about tattoos, which is, “If you guys ever come home with a tattoo, you’re out of the will!”   So, hopefully my mom will get hers done in the near future, and maybe my dad will too!  I’ll be there for it for sure, with my camera in hand (or maybe Jordan’s)!