I have fallen back in love...

With my tattoo! Let me explain.

When I was 19 years old, I was dating a guy that was getting tattoos. And, being 19 I was all, "Oh my God, I want a tattoo too!!!" So for my 19th birthday, I went and got a tattoo. IT'S HORRIBLE. The process of me getting the tattoo takes a minute to explain, so bear with me. :)

Six days before my 18th birthday I was in a very bad car accident and had to have surgery. As a result, I have a scar that runs down the middle of my stomach, it starts right about where the middle of my bra is (right between my boobs) and goes all the way down to the top of my belly button. I also have a scar, from a surgery when I was 6 months old, that runs from the bottom of my belly button down right about to where the "hair line" would start. So, it doesn't really look like I have a belly button...it's being pulled between two scars. Needless to say, I don't have the most attractive stomach! Anyway, as I said I wanted a tattoo at 19, and what better place to put it but around my belly button. (My thinking was, "Maybe it prove that I have a belly button.") So, like an idiot, I went to a very BAD tattoo shop. Since the top scar was only a year old, they shouldn't have tattooed on it in the first place. (I found this out later.) One thing you should know, I was a VERY naive 19 year old. My first clue that this would not be good should have been when I walked in the shop and all of the "artists" were smoking weed. I know, I know...Single Girl, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!! That's the problem, I wasn't thinking. My loser boyfriend at the time was out of town and I wanted to surprise him when he got back. So, I decided that I wanted a star around my belly button, I sat down and told the artist what I wanted. He drew a star and transposed the stencil on my stomach. Then he did the outline. Well, with the top scar being only a year old, the ink ran up my scar about half an inch. I guess somehow in his stoned stuper, he realized this and made the suggestion that I let the outline set for a week and then come back and he would fill it in. I paid him the $30.00 he charged me and left, and I was happy as a lark. Little did I know, that when I had pants on, the star that i wanted, looked like a POT LEAF. This is ironic, because at that time I had never even tried weed. When the boyfriend at the time got back in town, we got in a huge fight because he wasn't with me when I got this tattoo. Then, when I went back to get the damn thing filled in, THE SHOP HAD CLOSED DOWN!!! Fast forward 3 years to 21. I was still walking around with just an outline, a friend of mine and I went to a production of Hair and I decided, "It's time to get this thing finished." With the help of my Discover card I went to a reputable tattoo shop on Westheimer and an artist by the name of Jody looked at my outline and did what he could with my tattoo. He charged me $120.00 to try to fix this thing that looks like some child drew a pot leaf on a lake with the reflection in the lake. You know what I mean? It is BLACK!!! And, it is HUGE!!! This tattoo is approx. 5" x 5". I don't blame Jody, he was very good and did what he could with what I had. I will say, it has been 12 years and the color still looks good. It hasn't faded to that weird greenish color that some old black tattoos tend to have. As I have gotten older, I have grown to LOATHE this thing on my stomach. So, Friday morning I was listening to The Buzz on the radio and I heard one of the DJ's talking about Sona Med Spa and she was saying how affordable they were. So, when I got to work I looked them up on the internet and saw they did laser tattoo removal. A light bulb went off in my head...I COULD HAVE THIS THING REMOVED!!! So, I called Sona and set up a consultation for Saturday morning. So, Saturday morning I am sitting at this Med Spa and I am called in. I show the lady my tattoo and she says that they can remove it. Apparently, having laser tattoo removal hurts as bad if not worse than getting the actual tattoo. I'm like, "OK, I can handle pain!" She told me that it would take 8 -15 sessions. "OK." Then she tells me it is $325.00 per session. And I was like OK, that doesn't sound to bad, then I started doing a little math in my head...

15 sessions x $325.00 per session =

$4875.00

Almost $5000.00 to have a mistake removed that cost roughly $150.00. I DON'T THINK SO! When I left Sona with my little quote sheet in my hand, I looked down at my stomach and said, "Well star/potleaf thingy, looks like you and me are going to be stuck together until I die! I will no longer call you horrible, disgusting, or ugly. I will embrace your existence." And, it does give me just a hint of "bad girl."

So, to Rice Spice...Be glad you do not have any permanent ink...and if you decide to get the ink, make sure it's something you want and it doesn't look like some sort of illegal substance!!!

Until next time...

Single Girl