Life List: Get an Imagine Tattoo

While getting a tattoo wasn't number one on my Life List, it very well could have been based on how long I have thought about it. Since about sophomore year of college I have thought about getting this word tattooed on my foot. I talked to some friends about it when it came up over time, but I really didn't mention it to too many people. In fact, I just recently informed my mother about it sometime in the past two months. Despite my desire to get the tattoo, I just never felt the urge to go out and get it done all by myself. The feeling of wanting it never really went away though, and actually increased over time, which everyone says is the true test of if you should actually get a tattoo or not. 

So when Stetson wanted to get a tattoo around the time of his 30th birthday, and Kelsi wanted one too, we decided to get together for moral support and make it happen. After some (failed) attempts to set the date, we finally did it today!!! Designs in hand (AKA my inspiration about font and location from Pinterest), Advil digested, and $60,000 pesos ($30 USD) ready to go, we met up with a colleague who showed us a lovely little tattoo place that appeared minimally sketchy as far as tattoo places go. The owner and our tattoo artists were all super friendly, helpful, and were great at answering our questions without making us feel any more nervous than we already were.

Kelsi went first, then me, and then Stetson. Kelsi and I held hands during each other's tattoos, naturally. Hers didn't seem to hurt so bad, but I will be the first to admit I felt ever curve of those letters on my foot. Specifically the curve at the bottom of my g.  Here is what happened:

1. Owner, Julian, welcomed us and chatted with us about life in Cali.
2. Tattoo artist guy traced our designs onto vellum paper and made sure we liked them.
3. He then cleaned the tattoo location and applied both vaseline and men's deodorant to the spot. Yes, I thought this was super weird.
4. Then, he pressed the design from the paper onto the spot. Something about the vaseline plus deodorant combination made the ink from the paper show up on your skin. This was obviously not permanent, but enough for the tattoo artist to trace over with the real ink stuff and real enough that if you didn't like it, now was your last chance to back out.
5. Next, for 10-15 distinctly painful minutes I squeezed Kelsi's hand while chatting with her in an effort to distract myself. 
6. DONE! Well, then tattoo guy made a few final touch-ups, but then he was actually done. He cleaned it up a bit, put on a bit more vaseline, gave us care instructions, wrapped it in saran wrap and sent us on our way!

Nervous + excited = that face. 

 No turning back now...

What are best friends for?

I bet when John Lennon wrote "Imagine all the people living life in peace", he didn't envision this word  getting tattooed on my foot at a tattoo place with confederate flags outside. Weird.

Imagine {all the people living for today}

Imagine {all the people living life in peace}

Imagine {all the people sharing all the world}

I LOVE IT!!! Hope you do as well :)

Happy weekend-ing my loves!