forever ever

You already briefly met my new tattoo via text message, but I think it deserves a whole post. I've been wanting a tattoo for about two years and it kept not happening for one reason or another. But, lo and behold, Mary and I received news last week that a tattoo artist has moved to Palouse for the summer and is looking for work. Obviously, this meant that now was the perfect opportunity. The hardest part of the whole thing was deciding on the perfect image, size, and location. Once that was all squared away, as well as coming to terms with the fact that my skin will have this thing on it forever, it was all very exciting. Here's my arm pre tattoo:

Here is Thad (the artist) working on the stencil. As you can see I provided him with plenty of imagery. I went with the Lark Bunting because it is the Colorado state bird and also just because it is a really handsome little thing.

Here we are during the process. To my surprise it hurt ten times less than the sewing needle that was used for my last tattoo. Actually, I take that back, I'm not surprised. Of course a sewing needle constantly stabbing into the skin of my rib cage would be extremely painful.
And, here's the finished product. I was so relieved, that as he went on I didn't get more and more freaked out about its permanency, but rather more and more excited about it. It still catches me by surprise sometimes and I'm sure my parents are going to be less than thrilled to see it when they show up Wednesday. All in all, though, I think me and the Lark are going to get along just fine.