HI guys sorry its me apologising again. You may or may not have noticed that I have been missing from your blogging lives for some time now. I have to admit this time I have been busy. Between spending festive time with 3 sets of family, my gorgeous friends, hubby working the whole of December and my self cramming in as much January over time as possible, I've hardly had time to even check my Facebook let alone muster enough sense out of my addled brain to compose a post. However this is all set to change. I have so much to show you that Santa has gifted me with (because I have been an exceptionally good girl), that hubby has been franticly taking pictures of everything so I can begin to try them out for you.
The first thing I would like to show you is a kind of Christmas present to my self and I honestly think it is the single best thing I have ever bought in my life, including my wedding shoes, and I LOVE shoes and weddings! In fact there are quite a few thing on my love list and tattoos are definatly one of them. Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by them. My dad was in the army and he has quite a few tattoos covering his arms and other more intimate parts of his body that I shall not name, so I have grown up with them being the norm. Also when I met my husband he already had a growing collection of body art that has steadily expanded each year.
So nearly 11 years ago, just after my 17th birthday I decided that it was time to have my first tattoo. I obviously discussed this with the mother figure first and she stated that she didn't have any issues with this, she actually thought that there was no way that I would go through with it (even back then I was notorious for my lack of pain thresh hold). So off I trundled to Blackpool with my best friend and sister in tow and endured 40mins of tattoo pain. I exited feeling light-headed, £40 lighter in my pocket and generally very pleased with my self. Now just for the record you have to be 18 years old to get a tattoo in the UK and I am in no way condoning getting a tattoo before the legal age, actually I have now had my first tattoo covered up. Unfortunately I am going to dole out some cliché advise as well. Think long and hard about the type of tattoo, where you want it, who you want to get it done by etc. This is no time for an impulse buy. Its not like those Topshop hot pants you thought you could get away with wearing because Lady GaGa did! You can not take this back.
So..... I hear you ask, why did it take 11 years to partake in another tattoo experience? Well I was taking my own advice. I researched. I researched different styles, tattooists, artwork ect to decide what I really wanted. And during that decade tattooing changed incredibly.
The best change for me is the rise of the Custom Shop. This is where you take your ideas, research, scrap pieces of paper or just your mind and your tattooist will draw you something up, and as if by magic you dreams will become reality. Which is exactly what happened to me. My fantastic tattooist is Dan Morris of Red Sea Tattoo which is situated on Oxford Road in Manchester. Red sea Tattoo was recommended to me by a work colleague who's own amazing tattoos were done there. So I had a look on line at their work and went in to the shop for a consultation. I have to admit, before I go any further that my whole experience with Dan and Red Sea has been amazing! They made me feel comfortable, relaxed and confident that the result would be what I wanted....and no im not getting any discount for expressing this praise lol. My consultation with Dan took about 20 mins and in this time I showed him my research (I had quite a bit) and he wowed me with his knowledge of pin ups and old school. He then mapped out my back with a Sharpie line drawing of some ideas which he took pictures of, we discussed colour, positioning, costing and aproximate time, and then I ws sent on my merry way with my first appointment date.
On the date I made sure I took Dan's advice and had a good nights sleep and had something to eat about an hour before my appointmet. I then spent the rest of the waiting time trying in vein to stop my heart from birsting out of my chest with nerves. My first appointment was 3 hours long and my tattooed colleague had given me some advice before hand to get through it, and I quote
“Think of the worst pain in the world and you will breeze through it”
Did this advice work? Well, see for your self.
This is the tattoo straight after the first sitting. As you can see I have had all the outline done and Dan has coloured the flowers which is where my first tattoo has been covered over. Once my tattoo was wrapped up and I was on my way home I felt invincible and may have professed that I was now “the tattoo master” to my mum. This however was the complete opposite of 2 hours early when I expressed that I wanted to die ;0) Well I have always had a flair for the dramatic.
4 weeks later I was in again to get the job done. This time I had 2 and a half hours in the chair and I was much more relaxed this time. During each of my sittings Dan was chatty, funny and just plain lovely! And here it is, the finished product..
To me it is honestly the most amazing, beautiful thing in the world. I still cant get over the fact that my crazy, disjointed ideas have been transformed in to a work of art that will be mine for ever. I cant give enough praise and thanks to Dan who is undoubtedly the most incredible artist.
Now this would not be a beauty blog if we didn't talk about some products so here is what I have now dubbed “the tattoo beauty regime”. What I'm not going to do is give you advice on how to look after your tattoo, I am just going to say what I did. This is because there are so many different opinions on this subject on the internet from people much more qualified to give advice than me. So from the time I came out of the tattooist until my tattoo stopped peeling I used Bepanthen (baby bum cream) about 3-4 times a day to stop it from drying out. Once it had stopped peeling I then used Vaseline Essential Moisture twice a day for about a week. As for keeping my tattoo clean, for the first few days I washed it twice a day just with water, and from then on I washed it twice a day with Johnsons Head to Toe baby wash. Wow didn't realise it before but it sounds like I have a lot of baby products.........mother do not get any ideas! The only thing I would like to advise about looking after a new tattoo is don't scrub, pick or scratch and of course get some after care advice from your tattooist.
So I have left Dan's details below for anyone thinking about taking the plunge and all that's left to say is 'happy beautifying your body with art'.
Stacey x x
Dan's blog http://danmorristattoo.blogspot.com/
Red Sea Tattoo website http://redseatattoo.co.uk/
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