Do I still wearing earrings? Well, maybe 10 out of the 365 days a year. It's not so "appropriate" in my line of work, so to speak. Ok back to the tattoo.
All this while the desire was there, just that I hadn't a clue as to what to put under my skin and wear it around for life. A skull? A dragon? A snake? A spider? A naked girl? Those are the usuals for guys, but to me - kind of distasteful.
Then of course there are the less provocative ones... like Chinese/Japanese characters, my zodiac, the common tribal designs, etc. Nothing clicked.
Finally when I started diving this year, it chanced upon a little wooden charm carved into the shape of a sea turtle. I got it as a souvenir for my first dive trip ever, and now wear it around my neck every now and then. Since then, the sea turtle has been my little mascot.
A little more background behind the whole "turtle" thingy. Well, growing up with the name Gooi Hup led to many teases relating to turtles & tortoises since way back in primary school. Trivialities of being that age and from a Chinese school.
Highschool wasn't much of a change except for two things. What was once laughed about in Mandarin was now laughed about in Cantonese. I guess that's what you call evolution. And now in Cantonese, both Gooi & Hup together can be mispronounced to mean "turtle shell".
Identifying something which I could relate to that much was the hard part. Designing the tattoo itself, well we all know how artistic I am (not). Many tattooist around in the Klang Valley have huge selections of everything, except turtles. They might have tortoises, but not turtles. The few who do have turtles... well, I just didn't like them.
I naturally asked around for the artists to try designing something for me. Never worked out. Besides, it was way too costly.
And then came Phuket. As many of you know, certain things over in Thailand are cheap by Malaysian standards, and tattoos are one of them. There was no way I was leaving Phuket without at least browsing the little tattoo parlors at the corner of each end every street in Patong district.
I finally found one with an awesome tribal turtle design...
That's it when first stenciled onto my arm. Pay no attention to the sunburn and skinny body.
Filling in the blanks.
The completed turtle.
If you haven't been through such an experience, I'm sure you're wondering - does it hurt? The process is actually a little gun with a needle with about 2mm pertruding out at end to pierce and imbed the colouring beneath your skin. So yeah, of course it hurts.
But just a little at the beginning. And once the area numbs up, it's more like a ticklish sensation. And then at the end, they clean up your wound by pouring anticeptic solution and wipe it down. That burns bonkerz! And in my case, it was done twice because he had to touch up a some of the little areas which was left out by accident.
Given some time for it to heal, here's what it looks like a month later.
The artist - Tom
Obviously, he's Thai. And due to the language divide, the only advice on care I got from him was not to wash with soap for 5 days. I guess that was enough advice since it healed pretty well.
The entire ordeal lasted about 90 minutes. The cost - THB1,500 for a 2.5 inch one colour tribal turtle. Pretty good if you ask me.
I'll probably want to add a bit more to it later, or maybe even a second tattoo elsewhere. We'll see how things go.
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