Tat For Tat

Weekend: Part Deux
This one's for Jennifer.

On Saturday, the girls and I wanted to get together, but not in the usual Saturday night manner. We just wanted to chill and hang out. Kerri and Shannon generously offered their apartment for the low-key festivities.

When I got there, I immediately noticed this painting, which Kerri's boyfriend's friend, Scott, created. After seeing the Spanish Exhibition the day before, I definitely was reminded of Dali. I think it's beautiful.


We played Guitar Hero 2, a video game where you follow along on little electric guitars and make some sweet music.




We slept over, since no one wants to go home from Queens at 2 in the morning (or 11 at night).

Well, Jennifer's been talking about getting a tattoo for the last, oh, five years or so. She finally came up with a design and showed it to us. It's a phoenix (heyyyy!) that actually sort of looks like the City of Phoenix logo, but it's not. The whole thing has a lot of meaning for her, and it's beautiful. So Shannon said, "Let's go tomorrow!!" So we did. That morning, Jennifer was all atwitter.


Then, at breakfast, she was scared so bad she wanted to throw up.


But we were there to help her with her irrational fear of pain and went down to St. Marks Place, where there are about a million tat places.


We went to Addiction, which is where Kerri's aforementioned boyfriend got his a little while ago. Kerri said it was very clean and not scary.


We believed her until we saw drawings like this all over the place.


But that's typical of any tattoo parlour. And it was indeed clean, so it was all good.

While we waited, Jen looked at all the other designs she could have gotten.


We were a very supportive support group.


She was inspired by our strength.


We waited some more, figuring out the exact place she wanted it (between the shoulder blades).


Then we waited some more. We talked on phones.



Shannon almost crossed over to the dark side.


Then we finally met the tat artist. He told us that since he was the only person there to do it, and there was a group of 4 bankers going before us, it'd probably be at least another hour.

So we went to get some tea down the street. Delicious!


At one point we looked over at Niffer and she was shaking her hands out furiously. "Heheh.... I'm just a little nervous!" she said. "I think this is what wedding jitters must feel like!!!"


So on the way back to Addiction, Kerri and Shannon did what they do best to pump Jennifer up: they danced to their favorite hip-hop song (which they also sang). In case you want to know, it's called "Get Low."


So we got back and shortly thereafter, The Dude was ready. Jennifer practiced some quick Lamaze techniques while he... well, shaved her back and sterilized it.


She took one final look at her bare back.


Then she buckled down and they got to work.


Kerri, having been present at the births of my and many other people's tattoos, was an expert at gently patting one's arm and speaking at length on distracting topics.


Jennifer later said it was great, but she had to keep telling herself not to laugh too hard at Kerri's jokes.


Meanwhile, Shannon documented the situation.


I guess a teeny bit of ink goes a long way.






The whole thing went along very smoothly, and before you know it, she was almost done.



I think that's red ink, not blood, all over her back.


Jennifer finally came up for air and we commended her on being such a brave li'l trooper.


We took many photos so she'd always remember the experience.


She looked back at herself in anticipation...


... and came out happy with the results (and a dent on her forehead).


Isn't it just gorgeous?


P.S. Thank you to Shannon and Dustin, for generously donating supplemental photos for today's and yesterday's posts.

love,
*jenna*