Tuesday, March 11, 2014

First tattoo

On March 11th, after years of talking about it and months of planning and scheduling, I finally got my first tattoo at Hidden Hand Tattoo in Fremont. I met with Jeff Cornell in early February for a consultation and got an appointment for the 11th to get it done.


I'd considered various designs and sayings, but what I settled on is a design lifted from a photo I took on my hike through The Enchantments: A cairn with mountains on either side of the background.

The design Jeff came up with - based on our discussion - included a mountain in the background, but my intent is to (possibly) add this after I summit Mount Rainier this summer.

Jeff's original sketch


Stencil placed and good to go.

For me, the cairn is an elegant reminder of my love of hikes, solitude within nature and of simplicity. It has the added benefit - if I am to apply any deeper meaning to it - of being a navigational aid on the trail: when you don't know where to go, cairns are non-destructive signage guiding your way. There's a metaphor for you.

The outlines took perhaps a half hour (I wasn't keeping time), and when Jeff had to plug the meter for his car, I had Andrea snap this picture.
Outlines done.

After a thirty minute setup, my sitting took around two hours total, with this final result:

Final version immediately after completion.
In a few days, I'll update this post to include a shot of the tattoo, healed.

With this, I've scored one new adventure.


Edit: Here's a shot of the tattoo after almost two weeks of healing: