March 26, 2009

My Tattoo!

Wow. What a night!
Last night I got my first tattoo and it will be one I never forget.

The artist, Jim, started my tattoo. About 5 minutes in he asked if someone was burning incense. The other dude there said yeah it was possible, they did it often.

20 minutes or so into the tattoo, one flower and tree leaf cluster complete, smoke starts billowing into the upstairs hallway and someone yells from downstairs, "Fire! Get out now!".

Jim puts down the "pen", I grab my stuff and we proceed to evacuate out the front. Smoke is seeping through the basement windows around the sides of the house. This is in Gettysburg, downtown, an old duplex building.

We go around back to get a look-see at the fire. It's coming from the back porch, which is also the entrance to the basement. It's wooden, with a door, and on fire!! One of the other artists was able to put out the majority of the flame with a few jugs of water before the first voluteer fireman arrived shouting, "Where's the fire!?", in his very hick, fire obsessed voice. It was so obnxious, not for him I'm sure, that I wanted to laugh so bad, but I held it in.

Click the pictures for a closer look!

 
Then the whole fire squad, ambulance squad, reporters, and police men arrived closing off the entire block. The response was insane and they were there before the girl who called 9-1-1 was even off the phone with them! I think this had to do with the ADT fire alarm system they had installed in the building.

We crowded on the front sidewalk until they gave us the all clear to re-enter the building. The fire was contained on just the back porch and the smoke was removed using an awesome, huge fan they blew into the building.

The firemen left deflated looking because there wasn't any "real" fire to put out. At least one guy had fun axing the hell out of the porch. They couldn't get their chain saw to work. :(

We returned to our now freezing room to continue my tattoo. Which I am completely satisfied with. Jim did great. The pain was minimal and pretty much tickled and gave me continious goose bumps.

Here's my Celtic Tree of Life:


It's on my right, inner forearm. My elbow crease is at the bottom of the above pic. I wanted it position so that it was right side up to me, not others looking at it. It's mine and I want to see it correctly!
What do you think?

P.S. My artist was Jimbo of Chrome Gardens.Here's their blog post about the incident!

23 comments:

Larissa Ione on March 26, 2009 at 11:05 AM said...

Ooh, that's pretty! Congrats!!!!

Aerin on March 26, 2009 at 11:07 AM said...

Oh, that looks great. I got my first tat when I turned 30, on my lower back, and - OMG, it hurt like crazy. The one on my arm didn't so much, so now I am thinking of getting another....*sigh*...wish they weren't so expensive.

ANYWAY - your whole experience will be a memorable one - I didn't have firetrucks at my tattoos....

Mishel on March 26, 2009 at 11:10 AM said...

Haha! What a story! The tattoo is gorgeous by the way. I can't really say anything like that ever happened to me in the middle of one of my tattoos.

Christine on March 26, 2009 at 11:40 AM said...

Hi Jess!
Your tattoo is lovely. Is it on your inner forearm? I'm glad that it didn't hurt too much and mostly that you guys were okay from that fire! Wow! That's some tattoo story. ;)

Laura on March 26, 2009 at 11:47 AM said...

I love that! It's absolutely gorgeous! Is it on your arm?

Jessica Kennedy on March 26, 2009 at 11:57 AM said...

Yeah, sorry guys! It's on my right, inner forearm!

Leigh Ann Baird on March 26, 2009 at 12:41 PM said...

Congrats on the tattoo. It looks too perfect to be real. I'm glad it didn't hurt. Hubby has 4 tattoos (a dragon,the grim reaper and 2 other symbols I can't identify) and said they hurt terribly.

Jessica Kennedy on March 26, 2009 at 1:04 PM said...

Leigh Ann:
He's just trying to scare you! Or he's a big wuss like my hubby, who said it hurt too. Or I just got really lucky and got a guy who's good at what he does.

Either way, it wasn't a terrible sensation for me. I will do it again. I read the entire time. I nearly finished The Amazon Curse. Gena Showalter's short story. It's awesome and I can't wait to finish it! I still need to do my review of The Vampire's Bride by her too. Maybe this weekend.

Chrome Gardens on March 26, 2009 at 1:42 PM said...

Thanks for being such a good sport about the whole thing Jess!! What a great review of the whole mess.

Erika Lynn on March 26, 2009 at 1:45 PM said...

it looks so good and i can't believe all the madness and fire. what a story!

Jessica Kennedy on March 26, 2009 at 1:45 PM said...

Chrome Gardens:
Reviews are what I do best! I kid, I kid!

No really. I <3 to review. :)

Marie on March 26, 2009 at 2:45 PM said...

what a crazy story! looks great though!!

Steph Su on March 26, 2009 at 3:28 PM said...

Ack! That must have been one hell of an experience, lol. That tattoo looks pretty intense. Looks like it would've hurt a lot! But I guess you're a lot braver than me. :)

Reverie on March 26, 2009 at 4:07 PM said...

you're so brave. It's really pretty. congrats.

Lenore on March 26, 2009 at 5:05 PM said...

My brother is an awesome tattoo artist (in San Francisco) but I don't like pain.

Jen on March 26, 2009 at 5:40 PM said...

Oh thats lovely!

Wow your really brave ^_^

I like how you chose the orientation

Amelia on March 26, 2009 at 8:31 PM said...

I absolutely love your tattoo!
And YOU WON BEASTLY! Whoo hoo congrats. If you already got a copy then you'll get Exit Strategy. Email me at cullenwan2b@yahoo.com with the name and address and I'll send it out asap.

Insert Book Title on March 26, 2009 at 8:43 PM said...

I love it! It's so pretty and now you have a great story to tell. :)

Patch on March 27, 2009 at 7:56 AM said...

Jess's Hubby-- I'm not a wuss!!!
When I got the one done on my back (it was my upper back right on my spine) I came out of there bleeding through the bandages. I stopped at a gas station on the way home and I was in line to pay for my gas and someone behind me pulled the manager aside and told her about the blood seeping through my shirt. The manager pulled the girl off the cash register and helped me instead. It totally looked like I got shot in the back. Maybe my guy pushed harder or something. Jess's didn't bleed hardly at all.

Jessica Kennedy on March 27, 2009 at 8:37 AM said...

Aww honey! :)
It's okay if you cried....j/k!
No blood for me and I got firetrucks at mine!

Jess McAlister on April 1, 2009 at 9:27 AM said...

I am completely freaked, my name is Jess and I have that exact tattoo on my ankle, I didnt have my flowers coloured in.

WOW

LOL this is to wierd for me Im off to bed

Jessica Kennedy on April 1, 2009 at 9:31 AM said...

Hey Jess!
That is weird! But cool! :)

Jocelynn on April 12, 2009 at 9:37 AM said...

Congrats on the tattoo! It is beautiful. Amazing experience. Glad to hear that you survived the insanity.

 

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