melle_chantilly

I'm in Toulouse! And I have a new tattoo! Travelling yesterday was nice and easy. It didn't feel much different than when I go to anatsuno, even if it was about 2 hours longer. My friend F came to pick me up at the train and we headed to her place. Conveniently, she lives very close to the station, and the tattoo shop is also very near.

We had cheese and a lovely fresh salad for dinner (I never make salads but I really enjoy them. As much as I don't like heat, I love a lot of things that come with the summertime: hanging out at night when it's still daylight, not having to overthink what to wear and just pull a dress and a pair of shoes and call it a day, …) F also gave me her bed and slept on mattresses, which is adorable. I feel very pampered (even more now, post tattoo session). We watched the first Eurovision semi-finals, which kept my mind off things and I had a good stressless night.

We had a big breakfast with bread, cheese, scrambled eggs, ham and fruits and she took me to the address of the tattoo parlour under the pouring rain (no matter what, I was glad the weather wasn't crazy hot, sweating with a healing tattoo is no fun, I assume). Maudit Caillou has been just redone recently (I think they moved but I'm not sure) and it is a beautiful place, with stained glass windows and many objects and furniture that were most likely brought back from their various trips abroad (I got tattooed under a manuscript depicting a woman having sex with a horse, it was Thai I think? Lol).

I showed Guy the tattoo he'd done that stuck with me the most and we discussed what I wanted. He went to draw something for me and I waited while reading and listening to music (Encephalon and ESA). I started reading an M.C. Beaton crime novel because1-it's on my kindle, so easier to read with one hand, and 2-I didn't think I'd have the brains to read LeGuin while getting tattooed.

I was a wee bit concerned that the sketch I would be shown wouldn't be 100% perfect, but when Guy came back, he showed me something absolutely perfect. So far I didn't know if we'd be able to do everything in one day but he said it shouldn't be a problem.

He transferred the design onto me, it was covering about ¾ of my arm in length (the inside, along the torso still blank) and told me we'd start with that and if I felt up to it, we'd finish the arm with the inside pattern. And so we got started!

Overall it was more painful than my first tattoo. I don't know if it was because of the needle size or because of my general health but I had to focus on my breathing and it certainly wasn't a walk in the park. I was bleeding on every line he tattooed (I didn't bleed at all on my first tattoo). Guy was very nice though. We chatted quite a bit and he actively engaged in conversation by asking me questions and stuff. He asked what kind of music I liked, so I said electronic, IDM and EBM. OM was playing (I should look into them) and he went to put some Alexander Robotnick, which was very cool of him.

He finished tattooing in about 3 hours and asked me if I was up for the last part. I was quite shaky (I'm so tense, it felt a bit like if I had overexercised). I still told him we should do it since there wasn't much left to do. He said that actually there'd be lots of details so it would be about the same length than what we just did. I really felt like backing down but I had a break and decided what the hell, this could be DONE today, so let's do this.

That last part was really painful. I tried reading in the beginning, but I gave up after a few pages and tried to breath through it. I did grind my teeth and wince quite a bit. But Guy was done in an hour after all. He told me he tried to do it as fast as possible (probably because he could tell I was in pain). I am so, so happy. SO happy.

Guy said all the ¾ sleeves he did always ended up completed into whole sleeves. I do really like his hand tattoos, so I can totally see that happening some day. And hey, I still have a good tattoo fund since I paid only half of what I expected. Soo, maybe one day a small underboob (on my keloid scar) and more on the arm? (Apparently it's absolutely doable in one go). But first I have to forget about the pain, haha. Right now, I'm more in a “never again” kind of mood.

F came to pick me up, I kissed Guy goodbye and he told me he'd see me in September for the rest of the sleeve! Haha, cheeky guy!

We walked home and I more or less collapsed. I was so exhausted and sore, and a bit nauseous. I ate a bit and had a 45 min nap. I was hoping we'd go out afterwards for drinks and dinner but I'm just so drained. So I had a shower (after F went out to get me some cling film), we had dinner and now we're watching Project Runway. I think I'm going to go to bed pretty soon and cross my fingers I'll be up for a little walk in the city centre tomorrow.