Getting My First Tattoo.

I did it. I finally did it. After 11 years of wanting it and avoiding taking the plunge as soon as I was legally old enough to have one, I got my first tattoo.

If you know me by now, you know my favourite band of all time is The Used. From the moment I first heard their self titled record a whopping 11 years ago, I was hooked. We all have bands we'd happily add to our list of favourites because they've written powerful, energetic songs that keep us smiling, or they've released more than two cracking albums that we've had playing on loop for years, but The Used are different to me. There's not one song out of their entire 6 album discography that could appear on shuffle and I'd skip past it. I'd know every lyric to each song, sing along with every riff, and even air drum at the same time.

In Love And Death was the album that stuck with me for many reasons. I Caught Fire (In Your Eyes) still makes me cry, Yesterday's Feelings still motivates me to move along with life no matter what happens, and Hard To Say still says everything I never could. The Used single-handedly saved my life as a teenager struggling with anxiety, depression, self-harm and bullying, so my first tattoo design was a no-brainer - the hanging heart from the ILAD cover.

The tattoo itself didn't hurt half as much as I thought it would. I was petrified, shaking like a leaf for days before, preparing myself for the worst. I went to Cutthroat Tattoos in Camberley and, despite me walking in with that 'I'm about to wimp out of this' face, their artist Gaz reassured me throughout, and explained the tattoo pain in the best way I've heard it put into words - a metal paintbrush. If you have tattoos, you've got your own ideas on the pain, but to me, it felt exactly like that. 

Having my first tattoo on my wrist was a risk, I have very thin wrists and my veins are very close to the surface of my skin, so I was expecting to be in complete agony from the second the needle touched me. Thankfully, the only place that felt like any pain at all was right on my vein at the very top of the rope, but the rest was just discomfort I could handle given I was only in the chair for 30-45 minutes tops.

The question everyone's asked me since I got it - am I addicted now? The answer? I was before I even sat down in the chair. I've grown up wanting to be covered in tattoos, and I've planned about 6 others already, it's just a case of putting the money together and deciding which one I want next. It's a draw between the Jackass skull and crutches and the Green Day American Idiot grenade at the moment...

Do you have any tattoos? What's the meaning behind them?