Once I'd gotten the design done and approved, I thought my tattoo adventure was over. But it was not to be; I was invited along to witness the engraving!
So we went to Impact Body Art on a grey Sunday afternoon, and met with the tattoo artist. He suggested we lose the fiddly small designs at the bottom, and then it began.
First he smeared Vaseline all over her lower back; then he applied a carbon paper sort of stencil, carefully rubbing the paper so the design would apply. Then she sat down in the chair, leaned over, and the fun began. Blood! Smoke! Tears! Thunder!
But enough about me. My friend was a trooper and didn't squeak once, even when it got a bit ouchy. Yeah, there was a bit of blood, but not as much as I had thought there would be, and the entire process took about 2 hours.
In another couple of weeks we'll go back to have the white highlights put in, to really make the drawing pop; when I last saw the ink it was a lovely drawing of softly pink elephants.