The Day I Got My Ink Done

i cant remember exactly when i had the idea of getting a tattoo. it was probably sometime during medical school. at that time i wanted to get tattoo of a tiger combined with a book (a bible actually) cause thats my chinese name "Soo Haw" hokkien for "Book Tiger". dont ask me why, but thats the weird name my dad gave to me when i was born. my grand uncle was dead against it. the older generations believe that it was bad luck to name a person after such a strong animal cause the tiger and the person within would clash and that would bring misfortune to the person. that probably explains why i was a sickly young kid. but hey, i grew up alright after that.

so i started browsing the web looking for the perfect tiger and bible combination tattoo but alas i could not find a single one that attracted me despite searching the net for a month. so i decided to get a cross instead. i was searching for my tattoo at tattoojohnny.com. and on the very first click on the cross section, i saw the design that i knew was the one for me. it was almost like love at first sight. though i browsed through about a thousand other designs, i still came back to the one that i first laid my eyes on.

so why a cross?? since i couldn't find the tiger-bible tattoo that i liked, i wanted something else that reflects strongly on what i believe. since i was a Christian, why not a cross. now dont get me wrong, Im definitely not the best Christian around. im probably the type of christian you point out to your children and say, "that guy is going to hell." but i do believe in god and that whatever i have and achieved to date is down to Him and that without god, live would not be worth living. so hence i chose a cross as an expression of my faith.

the next thing to do was to find a tattoo artist. there were a lot of recommendation of tattoo artist here in song as well as in sibu and kapit. this was going to be my first tattoo. i sure as hell didn't want any regrets about it once i was done with it. so i wanted the best that was available here. one name that stood out was robert mayau. a local iban, who has made his name in the international scene as a tattoo artist. he has been in the business since 1978 and has his own studio in kapit. he has travelled to numerous tattoo convention both locally and internationally. so i set an appointment with him. had to book him almost 4 weeks in advance cause of his busy travelling schedule.

the one thing that worries me the most was the pain involved in doing a tattoo. the thought of getting your skin repeatedly poked with a needle was scary. and plus to that is the fact i have a seriously low pain threshold. so the pain factor was the single biggest fear. i actually thought of loading myself up with pethidine or tramadol before doing it, but decided against it cause the drug might make me drowsy. dont want to fall off the express boat and into the rejang river. the other fear i had was how my ultra sensitive skin would react to the ink. i was afraid, the allergy reaction would be so bad that i would have to amputate my entire upper limb destroying any chance i have of becoming a surgeon. thats me being over melodramatic. but once you are determined to get your ink, the fear takes a back seat.

on the day of the appointment, it was raining heavily. i was so tempted to call it off but i eventually got up and together with my friend harris, we took the express boat to kapit. once in kapit we had hearty breakfast and the proceed to robert's studio. there we were joined by daniel, another friend of mine in kapit. the studio resembles a very small confined office. the walls were covered with certificates, news articles about him and pictures of tattoos he had done.

the first step in getting the tattoo done was to get the stensil of the design you want on to the body part in which you want to get inked. that was the easy part. once its imprinted on your skin, the pain starts.

the pain.... i find it difficult to explain it. i was not in excruciating pain, but the pain was enough to contort your facial muscles. i looked like i was shitting bricks. my arm was tense. all the muscles contracting at the same time. the pain was sharp and continuous. its like being poked during blood taking but the only difference is that its being done again and again and again...... and the buzzing from the tattoo machine doesn't help.

the most painful part is actually when your tattoo is being outlined. the needle actually goes in deeper hence causing more pain. i was told the machine can be adjusted into 3 different depth level depending on the skin thickness. i got medium depth. imagine if i got the deepest depth. i might have gave robert a left hook onto his face.

after the outlining part, when he started to shade the pattern the pain became more bearable. the pain was still there, but not as intense as before. you just get used to the pain after sometime. since my face was no more contorted like a Picaso art piece, i was able to talk and joked around.

we stopped for 10 mins for robert to get his puff and for me to finally relax my biceps and triceps. this was how my arm looked like half way through the tattoo session. it was red and swollen from the trauma it was getting. i guess it was some sort of allergic respond as well to the ink. but welt soon settled down.

now it was time to colour it. that was fast and even less painful. he used a combination of 4 different colours for the tattoo design. i was surprised that there was even white tattoo ink. it is used to 'cut' other colours to give a shedding effect to the tattoo.

so after two hours of suffering, this was the end result and im mighty pleased with it. already thinking of a second tattoo actually....