I finally decided that I’d stop just staring at Haley’s instagram page and actually contact her for the next time she was going to be in Atlanta. It took me approximately one (1) eternity of scrolling through all of her beautiful designs before I finally settled on the one I wanted.

At least, the one I wanted first.

So we went back & forth about setting a time and decided that I might as well have some fun with it and go to my first tattoo festival which ended up being the Villain Arts Tattoo Festival in Atlanta. My only experience with AmericasMart was the vendor hall for DragonCon so I was also curious what it would be like when it’s not filled with nerds.

Turns out that it just gets filled up with a different kind of nerd.

Okay, so this is at 11am when they had just opened (and when my appointment was) so it’s not filled up yet. By the time my tattoo was done around 1pm, it was packed but of course I didn’t take another picture because I didn’t think about it, like a blogging amateur.

My History with Tattoos

I got my first tattoo when I was thirty-two which, considering that I’m a Millennial, seems a little late in the game. Why did I wait so long? Because my father hated tattoos…but let me back up a little bit.

My dad was born in 1938 and was forty-three when I was born. This makes him not a Boomer, like most of my friends’ parents, but of “the Silent Generation” which is also known as “the Traditionalist Generation.”

I’m sure you can see where this is going.

His opinion of tattoos is that they were stupid and trashy, ergo anyone who had a tattoo was also stupid and trashy. I remember once commenting that “Yeah, but what if it was a memorial tattoo for someone” and nope–still stupid and trashy. You can judge someone immediately if they have a tattoo because they made the stupid decision to get something put on themself permanently and that shows a lack of judgement and character.

So even though I wasn’t opposed to the idea of getting a tattoo, the idea of having to hide it from my dad for the rest of my life turned me off the idea.

Then I moved 800 miles away and wouldn’t have to hide it constantly so…a whole new money sink happened. At this point, I don’t want to think about how much I have spent on ink (and how much I will spend in the future)

Anyway…

Haley does really pretty fine line designs and this was the one I ultimately landed on as what I wanted:

And here it is being angry af because my skin is a delicate flower t hat does not wish to be trifled with:

Overall, pretty satisfied. Not a particularly painful place to be tattooed (at least for me) and it’s always nice when your artist is professional and capable. I’m already looking at her stuff to see if there’s anything I can add the next time she’s in town.

But Wait, There’s More

I got a bottle of water and began the slow walk of the convention where you shuffle along looking at each booth, trying to avoid eye contact so the people at the aforementioned booths don’t talk to me. I started looking at the book at one of the booths and the guy behind the table said, “Do you even have any tattoos?”

What you need to know about me: I am always cold. Tattooing is also a shock to your system so I was a little colder than usual walking around. But I stared at him for a moment before I realized that I was wearing long jeans and a hoodie so every tattoo I have was covered.

So I laughed and said yes. He laughed, too, then he said he was disappointed because he thought he’d be giving me my first one. I scurried away after that. Never underestimate the power of a man to be creepy without even trying, I guess.