Inked in India

I have always wanted a tattoo. What has always held me up is that I couldn’t honestly think of anything that meant enough to me that I’d be willing to commit myself to it for life.  Also I have a pathetic level of tolerance for pain.  No really, its kinda sad.

Anyways, about 2 months ago I finally decided to go for it.  I’m not really quite sure why all of a sudden there was this new sense of urgency, but I suspect it had to do with my extreme quarter-life crisis / the need to somehow signify this new chapter in my life (living in India, etc).  Being Sanjay, I, of course, approached this initiative with a 3-step process. 

Step 1: Identify design

I solicited advice from a few trusted friends and one ugly one (Kanika).  We ran through a few themes and quickly ruled out a few of my great ideas such as having a massive mango imprinted on my back or the lyrics to the “thong song” across my chest (“dumps like a truck…truck..truck”).  Finally I settled on a theme of travel/exploration because I’ve

1.  Been travelling a lot lately (and loving it)

2.  Hope to continue traveling and discovering new places, people, food

It took some coaxing but I eventually scratched the idea of a  “Where’s Waldo” tattoo.  Then - for the first time ever - Kanika added some value to my life and found this compass design using her Google image search skills (i.e she looks at a lot of porn).

It’s a “Century Style” compass that was actually originally featured on a t-shirt.  What I especially loved was that the design came with a ready made description on the t-shirt company’s website from the original artist.

“This design is based on the idea that traveling chooses the direction for you. Regardless of the destination, the people and experiences encountered always led me down an unpredictable path. To the best of my ability I always try to summit to the environment without prejudging possible opportunities and allow my internal compass to guide me without regret.”

Score! This totally saves me me the time of coming up with something deep and inspirational anytime someone asks WTF is on my back. 

Step 2: Pilot Tattoo

Being the thoughtful (paranoid) type I insisted that before any needles touch my skin I have a temporary tattoo placed on me so I could get comfortable with the concept and design.  I found a place willing to make me a henna/mendhi tattoo and this is the result. 

Keep in mind that mendhi is far less versatile than a real tattoo so the lines here are thick and solid and there are none of the finer details of the original design.   

Step 4:  Execution / Epic Fail

So I really liked the temporary tattoo and expected the real one to be even better once it had all the details finalized.  I played around with the idea of doing something symbolic – such as making each arrow represent someplace significant to me (Boston,NYC, OC, India, etc). I did some research on other generic design options such as Mayan or Celtic prints.  But I wasn’t really satisfied with anything and I was starting to have some doubts about the tattoo artist, John, whom I was about to entrust my back too.  First off he was Australian and had long, braided hair and I tend not to trust such people.  Second, he wasn’t particularly responsive (granted I have ridiculously high expectations after 3 years at JPMorgan for what I consider “responsive”) and I felt that he was being a bit too casual about something that I considered a pretty fucking big deal.  I finally got him to send me a sketch (see below).

and..I HATED it.  WTF are all those triangles!?  This doesn’t have the intricacies that I was looking for.  It looked like something an artistically-inclined 4 year old could put together in 10 minutes.  No fucking way. 

It also didn’t help that the artist’s FB status on the day I was supposed to get my tattoo was the following:

“my back is fucked from all the tattooing today but u know what fuck it ... im gonna pee all the pain away when i get drunk!!”

I started to panic because I wanted to get this tattoo THIS weekend since I was in Bombay (no way I’m getting a tattoo in Hyderabad – it’s not a cool enough city) and this weekend was also the deadline for me to get a tattoo and still have enough time for it to heal before I hit sunny Goa for New Years Eve.   Sure, I could have waited till next year.  Sure, I could have followed the advice of 80% of my friends and waited till I got back to the US.  But I knew my internal momentum would die.  There would be too much time to think and I’d never get it done.  That might not seem like such a bad thing - but I have “Get Tattoo” on my to-do list and if there is one thing I hate in the world more than global poverty and George W. Bush its not getting things on my to-do list done.  So no.  It had to be done. Now.  

I decided to call up another artist at the last minute who had been recommended to me by a friend.  This guy, Ben, was a lot better – first off he was American (though he was from Maryland  – that should have been my first red flag), second he agreed to do the tattoo with the details and style that I wanted. 

However, Ben definitely had a slightly different vision of what I was going for here.  I wanted something small and meaningful – he gave me something grand and wild.  This is where I should have stopped him and insisted, but for whatever reason I foolishly decided to “defer to the expert.”  I’m not accusing him of anything – he was talented and did exactly what he said he would.  I blame myself for not trusting my gut and really insisting on what I wanted. 

So in short, I feel like a fool. My tattoo is not what I wanted. It faces the wrong way, is way bigger than I wanted, and I hate the way that one arrow bends into my arm. Its not me.  All of this could have been avoided if I’d just spoken up instead of not trusting my own judgment.  FAIL.  Epic FAIL..

Anyways, here’s the actual execution.

Oww.

And here it is the next day after the swelling had gone down a bit and the bandages are off.  It’s definitely much nicer to look at and I realize I might as well start getting used to it.  I’ll even acknowledge that its actually a pretty cool tattoo – but for Kid Rock, not me. 

I have to go in again in 2 weeks to have it done over to make the finer details a little more solid and permanent. I doubt it’ll make much of a difference, but I’m crossing my fingers I’ll like it a bit more once that’s done. 

I don’t regret getting a tattoo.  I wanted one and in that sense this is mission accomplished.  However, its mission accomplished in the Iraq war in 2003 sense – kind of a hollow victory.  I guess this tattoo can now serve another purpose beside some bullshit about travel.  Now it can be a lifelong reminder of 1.  How dumb I was at 25.  and 2.  How important it is to trust my instincts and speak up.

Then again this “reminder” is on my back where I’ll rarely see it so maybe I won’t remember shit and repeat my mistake all over again. 

On a more positive note – at least I get to cross this off my list.

 

Get Tattoo

 

oh…and no signs of hepatitis yet.