I started collecting tattoo ideas when I was about thirteen. My mum has had tattoos since before I was born and I've always loved them. Obviously people have different opinions on that kind of thing but I think it's a lovely way of expressing who you are at different points in your life which I will go into in more detail later on.
My first tattoo I had done in Stratford Upon Avon when I was doing my a levels. I'm a literature student so I wanted to get something that captures my favourite book/artwork which is Alice in Wonderland. I always loved it as a kid and around the period where I was 17-18 I found myself turning to the illustrations a lot as artwork and I ended up watching the Disney cartoon whenever I felt a little down. It felt right at the time that it should be my first tattoo.
It's a kind of awkward story to tell because the tattoo originally didn't end up how I wanted it. I'd selected pictures of something that implemented the original illustrations but the artist wanted to change it slightly because they're too detailed to do as small as I wanted. I absolutely love the tattoo, but now that I know more artists and have found people who can do more intricate work, I wish I'd looked around a bit more for someone who could do it exactly how I wanted. The original tattoo cost £40 and the pain wasn't too bad, (that I can remember).
I wasn't given much information about aftercare and ended up using coconut oil on the tattoo (don't do that,) the trouble with oil based care is it dries the skin out too much and you end up putting more on to compensate and so the tattoo basically scabbed up weirdly in a way that none of my others have and when it was healed huge chunks of it were discoloured. I have since been told that this was probably due to the oil as well as the placement of the tattoo because wrists are easier to damage because your clothes rub them.
I found a place in Worcester recently who I went to to have this touched up and we added a lot of detail around it to make it look less stiff. We added white ink as well which I love. It reminds me of the Disney fairy dust which is really cute. It cost £60 to have it redone and hurt a lot more this time than I remember it doing in the beginning. All in all this one tattoo cost me £100 so it's worth doing your research for your first tattoo and if you aren't in a position where you can travel, wait until you can! For those interested, I went to Cameron at Lock & Key tattoos in Worcester for the touch up. I don't remember the name of the guy who did it originally.
February this year was a tough time for me. I had a lot come crashing down around that time and thankfully, I have the most incredible friends now who carried me through it and I came out really just wanting to get a tattoo for the first time since I'd had my original Alice done. One of my anxiety symptoms (I've recently discovered) is the intense desire to drastically change my appearance. For example, I go through breakups and want to change my hair or spend too much money on a specific outfit. And to a certain extent I feel like that's quite a normal thing that most people do. However, this time I just wanted someone to tattoo a bee on me and fast because I was out of patience. I chose a bee because it felt right at the time. I guess because bees are quite cool and they work hard and our world is dependent upon them but if you fuck with them they will sting you. I guess at the time that resonated with me a lot. I went to the fabulous Sammie at Worcester Tattoo Studio and she is just so great. This one cost £30 which is so affordable and it looks great. Out of all my tattoos this one hurt the least, I don't even remember feeling it that much. I adore my bee. I think it's my favourite of all my tattoos because it marks such a huge struggle but also marks me getting through it and I came out feeling stronger and so much more independent. We named him Burt after Burt's Bees because we have to save the bees and Burt's Bees are a great company for helping with that. My bee is the only impulse tattoo I have and I love it, kind of for that reason. Regardless of what other people might think, it truly represents the person I was at the beginning of 2018 and I'm so glad I will always have it to look back on things.
As I said before, since I was about thirteen I've been saving tattoo ideas on my phone and sketching bad drawings and one that I haven't changed my mind on in that time is my mountain range. There isn't really a symbolic meaning behind this one. I've seen a few and just loved how they look. One of my favourite musicians Lewis Watson brought out an album a while ago and my favourite lyric off it is 'When the water meets the mountain and we can't keep afloat let's let ourselves go under. Someday we will all be ghosts' so I guess there's a connection for me with mountains and being at peace. I absolutely love this tattoo. I went back to Sammie to have it done five weeks after she'd done my bee and it was such a fun tattoo experience. In terms of actually having it done it was my favourite of all of them. We listened to Amy Winehouse and chatted the whole time. Sammie said my foot would twitch and not to worry about it and I thought I'd managed to get through the whole process without it happening but my friend Lydia said after we left that it was shaking all over the place I just hadn't noticed. This one cost £40 and it's healed beautifully I love it so much. Having already explained my anxiety impulses I feel less awkward telling the story of my fourth tattoo here than I did about explaining to Sammie why I was back again after two weeks. Most of my tattoos have been thought about one way or another for at least a year. I held this one back for a long time just knowing that there would come a day where my impulses told me I 'need to get a tattoo or I'll cryyyyyyyy.' (the voice inside my head sounds just like that she's so winey i swear to god.) I was born on the 23rd September 1998 and the number 23 has always stuck with me. I see it everywhere, I feel positive when it's the 23rd and I just find a lot of comfort in it. I've always known I would get it tattooed and so I saved it for when the winey voice in my head said the time was right. Lydia has become my tattoo buddy and we were sat in Starbucks trying to get out our latest assignment when we just looked at each other and were like, "shall we get tattoos today?"
We didn't get tattoos that day... we booked them for a week later. It was actually quite cute getting them both done on the same day and I'll always look at my little 23 and remember how much of a mess we were at this point of Uni (in a good way.) I was nervous to tell my Dad about this one because I was worried he wouldn't love me anymore (joking ofc...) And I'm not actually sure if he knows yet because it's so teenie that he may not have noticed. This one cost £30 as well and hurt quite a bit but it took less than 10 minutes so it wasn't too bad. Sammie's really great and so much fun to be tattooed by; if you're looking to get tattooed in Worcester you should definitely check her out.
I have so many tattoos that I want to get done over the next few years because I want to enjoy them while I'm young. I'm going to be saving up for a bigger piece over the summer to get done for my Birthday so I'm super excited to share that with you in a few months! But... you never know there might be a couple in between knowing me. I'm going to finish with this picture of me with a dog that I met when my friend Ray got tattooed because it makes my heart happy.
Thanks for reading if you got to the end. I find other people's tattoo stories really interesting so figured some of you might too. I'm going to link the instagrams of both people who have worked on my tattoos to this point as well as mine. I have a insta-story highlight where I post my tattoos so you can check that out if you fancy and follow me to keep up with the journey.
Sammie: https://www.instagram.com/sammielou_tattoos/
Cameron: https://www.instagram.com/stretchytattoo/
ME: https://www.instagram.com/chloehanks23/
