tattoo - ahhhhh the pain, chaing mai, thailand

after a day spent looking at the largest mosquito collection in the world and then the forest monastery (more on this later) i went to get the tattoo i've been psyching myself up for... i liked the henna painting by the indian lady in dubai so much i decided to get it tattoed (part of it not the entire way up my arm) it took about an hour and it was _extremely_ painful..... it;s like being cut with a scalpel everytime they put the tattoo machine in your skin and drag it along with the ink.. they are literally cutting into the top layer... i want to get a little more done to it... bloody painful though... i can't believe i've done it many ways!! it's of leaves and flowers and swirly things.. it's pretty.. but i hope i don't live to regret it.. at least it's not something like micky mouse that i will grow out of!!!
when it's healed i can post a photograph of it... when he first started doing it - i don't think i was prepared for the type of pain - i thought it would feel like a needle entering your skin but instead it felt too much like cutting. i was almost sick at one point - i had just eaten not so long ago and i felt really, really nauseous and he gave me a plastic bag and some smelling salts and it seemed to do the trick.. so he continued.

they guy that did it had a small side shop off loh krol road in chaing mai - he was very professional and neat but not particularly creative in terms of design.. but i'm no expert or anything.. it was just my impression - i thought some of the shapes could have been better executed but that's just the perfectionist in me talking. it wasn't cheap either.. about $100 - i'm sure it wouldn't have cost much more in the states.. but oh well. i am pretty happy with it.