It is now June (I swear, despite the cold, dreary, wet weather, it really is in fact June). After a somewhat quiet few weeks in May after returning from vacation, my schedule is picking up significantly for June, with lots of fun plans and things to do.

I kicked off the month last Friday night with my friend Kristy, when we decided to get tattoos. I’ve never gotten a tattoo, and for years I thought I’d never find anything I liked enough to have permanently inked on my body. That changed about a year ago, when I stumbled upon an image of a cat and fell in love with it. It’s simple, elegant, and very ME, as people like to point out when they affectionately tease me about my pet-dominated household.  Although I love dogs, cats are my thing, as evidenced by the sweet babies I was foster parent to and the ones I’ve rescued. So after much internal debate and thought, I finally decided to go ahead with the tattoo.

Here’s the inspiration:

I wasn’t sure at all how to go about finding a tattoo artist or going about the process of showing the design I wanted and having it applied. Enter my good friend Kristy, who has had tattoo experiences good and bad, and knew exactly where to go and what to do. She took me to Lance at Electra Tattoo in Marysville, who had done work for her and several of our friends in the past.

Lance was cool and super-nice to us. Kristy sat across from me and held my hands while Lance applied my cat design to my right shoulder. At first, I was very, very nervous, but after getting a feel for the needle and knowing what to expect, I wasn’t fazed by the feeling. It hurt, but not a lot, and once the needle was off my skin it didn’t hurt at all.

The entire process took less than thirty minutes, and I was shocked when Lance declared he was finished and handed me a mirror so I could check it out. I love my little cat tattoo!

A lot of people have told me that they find tattoos very addictive and that they want lots more once they’ve had their first one. So far I’m content with what I’ve got. It took me several years to choose one design I liked enough to have for the rest of my life, and I don’t know what, if anything, else I would choose to get.

The one I have looks pretty awesome though.

(Don’t let the picture frighten, it was taken directly after Lance finished and the redness faded away very quickly)