Scars & Souvenirs

More than a little nervous....That's baby
powder on my wrist.  It's a whole Thai thing...

If Rashard Mendenhall had gained ten yards this season for every time someone told me “Oh wow, I didn’t think you would actually do that!” over the course of my life, then the Steelers might actually be vying for the Lombardi today instead of the Coughlin/Manning v. Satan/Antichrist battle going down in Indianapolis.  But I don’t, and Mendy’s a fragile-pansy ignoramus, so let’s not revisit that again.  It’s like there’s something fundamentally weird about me that makes people either think I won’t do something marginally offbeat or that said action goes against my character.  I can’t be sure what that says about my character, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Along those lines, I got a tattoo on Saturday (yeah, it happened) and Caitlin’s verbatim response to the email and photo I sent was “A bit surprised ‘cause I didn’t think you were going to do it…but I like it!”  Jane’s response was “You’re so cool,” but I’m sure that was just a polite cover-up of what she was actually thinking which was “Holy crap, she really did it?!” …except she never says “crap,” so it would have been a less crude variation of that.  If we travel back in time to when I was fourteen and she took me to get my bellybutton pierced (or as Jane comically calls it, my “navel”), she only really did it because, in her words, “I didn’t think she’d actually go through with it.”  This theory apparently having been supported by the three times I chickened out before I finally got my ears pierced, the only (glaring) difference being that I was like six.

Watching as the artist traces the lettering

So I either give off an air of goody-two-shoes prudishness or I am way flakier than I’ve ever thought.  I don’t need to know which of these possibilities is more accurate since they’re equally depressing.  Instead, I’ll take this moment to enlighten you all on the art that is the bamboo tattoo.  Oh, I’m sorry, you thought I got a normal tattoo?  Psshh please, I’m in Thailand.  I went authentic!

Bamboo tattooing is, I believe, more formally known as sak yant.  Sak means “to tap” and is the word for tattoo.  The technique has origins in Southeast Asia – Buddhist monks would tattoos prayers on each other for health and protection.  It is still possible to get a tattoo from a monk, but what little we heard about it sounded a little shady.  One of the most popular sak yant tattoos is called Gow Yord which means “nine spires” and is a very cool-looking, primitive design of the outline of a temple.    Another very popular one is called Haa Taew which means “five rows.”  This is five vertical lines of Khmer script, typically on the back left shoulder.  Each of the five lines relates to a different blessing for success and good luck – made famous by Angelina Jolie.  She even flew to Thailand to have it done!

Prep work

The main difference between a Thai tattoo and a western tattoo is in the procedure itself.  Whereas most tattoos are done using a machine gun type thingy that buzzes and actually rips through the top layer of skin as it applies the ink, mine was applied entirely by hand.  A small needle was attached to the end of a long bamboo stick with a piece of pink string and fired to make sure it would hold together.  Then the tattoo artist, who had to have Derek Shepherd-steady hands, tapped the ink into my skin, one little pin-prick at a time.  It was quite impressive to watch actually (yup, I totally watched), and while I’ve heard that bamboo tattooing is quite a bit more painful than normal tattooing, that’s either wrong, or I have a badass, high threshold for pain.  It hurt, sure, but it was hardly excruciating.  It just kind of felt like a bunch of tiny ants biting me.  Some taps were more painful than others, but I survived and it was over in no time at all!

The second guy is holding the skin tight for artist-guy.

Other benefits to the Thai tattoo:  It can get wet practically the second after it’s finished, and there is no bleeding or scabbing.  Plus – its way cooler J

All finished!!

With Tattoo Man and Skin Holder Man.
We really should have learned their names...

Stacy got one too!!  We're either awesome or a little nuts.
Ps. This was seriously the teensiest tattoo parlor ever.

It says "mai pen rai"....Thai for
Hakuna Matata.  It means no worries / For the rest of our
days/ It's our problem free / philosophy :)

I'm a shiny sweaty mess for two reasons:
1) Nerves
2)  The fan was only blowing on my feet