My name is Natalie, and I am a tattoo addict. Hah! Most of you out there are probably jumping out of their chairs in rage, fists raised high! They are saying that again someone is degrading the name of the addict, the addict's addict. Others, though, more sensitive and more educated, are letting their heads dropped in shame, and can feel the tears of mourning run down their cheeks. For they can relate.
They have felt that rush of air on their skin directly before the peircing ecstacy of the needle piercing the skin, have seen works of art forming before their own eyes on their own bodies. Again, they can relate. Once a person gets their first tattoo, they are addicted. I have not gotten another tattoo, but it has been consuming my mind and thoughts since the first peel of skin has peeled and I pulled off the blood-soaked bandage.
I know; I'm rambling. Ok...Ley me start at the beginning..........
It was a cold day in mid-October, October 20th to be exact. A girl and her mother awake early and find themselves in an unfamiliar hotel room, cold to the bone from the lack of heating. By six o'clock they are downstairs in the breakfast room, a meal to which they had been looking forward since boarding the boat the night before. The girl (let's call her Natalie) and her mother are bitterly disapointed, therefor, when the most appetizing thing in the room are the flies perched on the sticky-sweet muffins. The orange juice is more water than concentrate, and Natalie had a suspicion that the coffee was a few grams of roughly ground coffee combined with a few cups of mud and water. Needless to say, the two set of on their journey with empty stomachs.
Natalie and her mother are out the door by seven o-clock and on their way North (or south or east or west) toward the town of Dartmouth and a warm college dormitory, leaving the sea behind.
Anne (Natalie's mother) and Natalie arrive in Dartmouth forty or so minutes later, and are greeted by Natalie's best friend. We'll call her Dano for now. Throwing Natalie's meager bag and pillow out of the car, Anne leaves them behind with only a mouthful of grit to remember her by for the next twenty-four hours.
Several hours later, four figures can be seen emerging from the Glenn Oak dormitories of the UMASS Dartmouth Campass. Their mission is unclear, and they move with an uncertainty consistant of college freshman.
They are heading for Worcester, and a tattoo parlor named Miraculous Creations.
The car ride can be skipped over, as it was an uneventful hour-and-a-half, accentuatedonly be a very interesting bump in the road.
The four figures arrive at Miraculous Creations, and gingerly step through the door, having never been through the door of a tattoo parlor, at least never with the ambition of actually getting a tattoo.
There is a slight cafufle, and for an instant it seems as though Dano will not be able to get her tattoo. But everything comes through, and, after tell Natalie to shut up, Dano, Natalie, and Dano's friend are sitting on the scratched plastic chair of the waiting room, while their artists draw their tattoos. The other of the four is merely getting a nose piercing.
The minutes pass by in a dreamlike state, sometimes seeming like hours and sometimes seeming like mili-seconds.
Natalie's tattoo artist, John, finally emerges from the back room to talk to her. She is pleasantly surprised when she first meets him, and soon comes to the conclusion that all tattoo artists are born insane. Natalie is excited, but does not yet know what mortification and non-modest-ness (nice word huh?) are blocking her path.
The tattoo was planned to be placed in the middle of her lower back. John decides that the only way to solve the tricky dillema of keeping her shirt clear of her back is to roll it up and tuck it uhder her bra. Natalie's stomach is now flapping in the breeze for all in the room to see.
In her nervousness, Natalie wanted to know if anyone had everu jumped when the needle entered the skin, thus resulting with the tattoo being screwed up. However, the question, in her state of mind, did not quite come out that way. She asked if "anyone has ever jumped when you put it in?" He said yes, but not when he was giving a tattoo.
Soon she feels that sweet rush of air against her skin that is so sweet. The pain that follows is nothing near what she was prepared for. Dano, who had come with Natalie in the room, ended the experience with claw marks on her hand because Natalie is such a fucking pussy when it comes to pain.
An hour or so later (comromised of sitting with her head as far forward as it will go, basically between her knees, and not moving.) John emerged from his frenzy with the needle to ask Natalie if she would like to take a break, and she gratefully accepts. Standing up, Natalie is surprised by a wave of nausea, and the ground lurches beneath her feet. Natalie wasn't that dizzy when she drank two huge bottles of vodka mixed with water followed with six or ten Sublimes...although she remembers the tattoo experience a little better, and it didn't include as much vomit.
Natalie sat back down. This is where the real torture starts. Sitting down, natalie didn't think to pull her pants up, which is normally second nature to her as she always wears pants too big for her, and they are always falling down. But this time, Natalie did not pull her pants up, and when she leaned forward, her ass crack decided to come out for all the world to see.
About another hour passed with this being the case, and Natalie could have sworn John pulled them down further at one point. A pair of shoes pass by her vision, and pause, looking at her back. Natalie is cringing inwardly at this point, for she just knows that the owner of these shoes is going to be hot, and she knows what he's seeing.
A short while passed and the needle stopped. John pulled out some paper towels *SHAZAM* and soaks them, then rubs them on the freshly formed tattoo.
After another wave of diziness and nausea passes by, Natalie is ready to go into the waiting room and sit until her friend's tattoo was finished, only to be greeted by another wave of diziness when she arrived. It was then discovered that the bite of the nasty muffin she had eaten that morning had not been enough, and her body was now experiencing shock. To add insult to injury, Danielle's friend then informed Natalie that her butt crack was still showing! AHHH! INSANITY!
It was odd that John had hept Natalie's tattoo design, and Dano said it was probably because he liked the design and wanted to use it again, which was huge problem because Natalie did not have permission to use the design...
Natalie contacted the parlor through their website, and told them, and even though she wants another tattoo, she is too embarassed to go back!
The End