by Lynda Chitwood

Created on: March 10, 2009   Last Updated: March 03, 2011

My first tattoo is my only tattoo.

I occasionally think about embellishing the one I have, but don't really want another one. Recently, I saw a woman with a gorgeous trailing ivy design snaking from the top of her foot and around her ankle, but -1) I HATE my feet and -2) my feet are so ticklish, I struggle not to kick the girl doing a pedicure on me, imagine what I might do to a tattooist!

Even when tattoos started to become mainstream and popular, I was still not interested in one. Not really my style, I thought. My daughter got one; it was cute, stars and dots, on her lower back. I began to see some really pretty floral designs, but I am not a flowery kind of girl and often the multi-colored tattoos end up looking cartoonish.

Then, for his birthday, I took my husband to get him tattooed. He picked out a tribal band, placed around his bicep. As I waited for him, I perused the various tattoos, and my eyes fell on a dragon. This dragon was black, in a solid, "tribal" style, but it was very cool. I was born the year of the dragon, and I have a collection of purple dragons. Why not have one permanently decorating my lower back?

I spent the next few months searching for the perfect dragon to tattoo on my lower back, drawing and then re-drawing multiple versions. The tattoo would be a solid color, in deep purple. I would find a picture of a dragon, and then draw my own version of it, spending weeks revising it, only to finally scrap it as unworthy.

After all, this was permanent!

I finally came across an Amy Brown print. She's the artist who does watercolor paintings of whimsical fairies. There is one with a fairy and a dragon. I used this dragon to start with, turning it into a solid drawing instead of the original multi-colored pastel version.

The original version is very pretty and would make a nice tattoo, but I was determined to make this my own! It took me over a month to get it right and finally, near Christmas, a year and a half after my husband got his tattoo, I was ready for mine!

The tattoo place that did my husband's had moved to another county, so I asked around, checked out places and finally settled on one. My husband took me, and I discussed with the artist what I wanted, where and how. The artist was a bit skeptical of using deep purple ink, but I insisted. When he was done, he agreed that the deep purple, especially on my very white skin, looked perfect.

I wasn't prepared for the sensation of getting a tattoo. My husband said it didn't hurt, that it actually got annoying after awhile, like someone scratching at your skin. Having it on my lower back, he kept hitting nerve endings that would send weird little chills up my spine. Occasionally, he'd hit a spot that would feel like someone was touching my spine and then drumming their fingers outward. It never really hurt, but felt like nothing before, with the hardest part being sitting still that long. I had to straddle a chair and lean over and halfway through, both the artist and I had to get up to stretch, and it took an hour and a half total.

When it was all over, I had my perfect little purple dragon.

I sometimes forget its there. I may have to get one that I can see without a mirror!

Maybe.

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