Inked: My Tattoo Experience

If you follow my Facebook page you may have seen me post about my new tattoo. This is my second tattoo now and I'm thrilled I finally got it done. I won a voucher ages ago for Urban Gorilla Tattoo in Sligo and because of college and trying to decide what design I wanted, I only just got around to using the voucher. My mum and I were booked in to get it today (Thursday) but got a text from Diana yesterday to say she had some free time if we wanted to get it done. We jumped at the chance as we both were eager to get it over and done with (mum especially, as it was her first tattoo!) and of course we were excited.

We headed to Urban Gorilla which is located on Water Lane, by the Garavogue river in Sligo. As soon as you walk up the stairs you can smell how clean the place is by the smell of disinfectant - I always think this is a good sign that the tattoo parlour is hygienic. Wally in Urban Gorilla did my first tattoo (an elephant on my shoulder blade) so I knew I was going to get friendly service and a good quality tattoo. Wally makes you feel really comfortable and isn't intimidating at all, which is great considering getting a tattoo is quite a daunting experience!

Diana printed up our designs and did a rough outline of them. After a short wait it was my turn to be inked. Because I wanted the tattoo to be on my ankle, Diana had me lying down on the bed with my ankle slightly twisted so she could see what she was doing. Everything was sterilised and Diana regularly changed her gloves each time she touched something, as well as wrapping the tattoo gun in clingfilm. After wetting down my skin slightly in the area where I wanted my tattoo, Diana placed a transfer of the outline of the tattoo on my ankle and told me to look in the mirror and tell her if it was positioned where I wanted it. I gave her the go ahead - and then the real fun began!

I know the biggest question people usually ask is "Does it hurt?" With my shoulder tattoo, I didn't find it hurt very much at all - only in places where the needle went over the bone. A lot of people say it's more annoying than anything and feels like someone scraping or burning the surface of your skin, and I would agree with this. With the ankle tattoo, it hurt a lot more than my shoulder. I'm usually quite good with pain but I was gritting my teeth and clutching the edge of the bed in some parts. I found the upper part of my ankle hurt more than the lower part of my ankle (near the ball of my foot), which surprised me. Thankfully the tattoo only took about 40 minutes - it was over before I even knew it. 

I'm absolutely thrilled with my little fox tattoo, I can't stop admiring it. I have it covered with clingfilm and medical tape for the first 36 hours and have been cleaning it and applying aftercare cream made with hemp oil, which you can also get at Urban Gorilla. It seems to be healing nicely already! So that was my tattoo number two experience. If you have any questions feel free to ask and check out Urban Gorilla on Facebook here.