SO glad you're here!! Wow, an hour??
45 minutes....that IS 'burn your lips off' spicy!
So what kinda veggies do ya like in your boil?
Maybe my
Walmart purchases? (the cover up and the capris, etc) Or are you putting in a vote on the tattoo?
By the way, I went to Hammond City Tattoo last night and talked to the guys there about it. Since I've been leaning toward the pin, I brought a color copy there. They LOVE the piece and he wants to put it in his portfolio if I have it done there! Once Mike decides what he wants (he is looking at doing something with an angel on a motorcycle engine, but has been through numerous pictures of angels and can't decide on just one) then we will both go get our tats together! It's important that we get them done before the end of next month, because that would give us at least a month and a half before going to Disney and the tattoos aren't supposed to be in that much direct sunlight til at least a month later)
I'm SO excited to show mine to Chip and Dale! They are gonna go nuts! (no pun intended
) Oh, also, I've decided on doing the balloons. (I think
) It just gives it that extra something.
Remember I told y'all that at first, Mike liked the image on the coverup better? Well, he said that people would not "be able to tell" what the pin image is. Everyone at the shops (we went to 2 shops by the way, first one was WAY overpriced but cool) knew exactly what they were. (duh) The balloons, of course, also give it that Disney feel. So if I do that, even someone who didn't know the characters could figure it out. Either way, it's my body and the main thing is that I'm happy with it and I'm comfortable with it on my body.
Okay, since I started this talk about my tattoo, I should have just given it its own update but I'm sure Heather won't mind too much
So I'll continue this here.
I want to get opinions on the tattoo so I'll just tell the rest of the story.
The first tattoo shop we went to was recommended by one of Mike's coworkers, but the guy warned him they were "overpriced." But we stopped by anyway to check it out. There were only 2 people there, a man and a woman. I talked to the man first. The size I had blown the pin picture up to was: 3 inches tall from top of the balloons to the bottom of their feet(and about 2 inches wide) and said I wanted it on my right shoulder. The man told me it was a cool piece, but that they'd need to just do one "knot" on the balloons (there are 2) and that it should be a bit bigger. He blew it up on his copier to make it 4 inches tall (nearly 3 inches wide) and asked if I was comfortable with that. I said yes (though I wasn't thinking of getting it quite that big. It is a "cutsie" tattoo and should be small and cute) The woman came to talk to me and said that at that size it would not fit on my shoulder properly and would be best suited for the middle of my back, and said some bull about it being "almost symmetrical". I'm "okay" with that, but I really wanted it on my shoulder. I think right shoulder would be good because of Dale's tilted head to the right. They gave me a price of about $150-$180 WITHOUT the balloons. The balloons would run me another $30-35. First of all, it sounds pretty pricey to me (we were warned though) and a $30 RANGE when they clearly have the image in front of their face is not a good range to me. A $10 range makes more sense. ($150-160) And $30 for the balloons is very high.
Also, she suggested me separating them and putting them on the insides of my ankles so that when I put my legs together (with my feet out
) they would be "together" but I didn't like that idea.
Mike wants a bigger and more detailed tattoo than me, so I think his would be at LEAST $300 in that shop. Ouch!
The 2nd shop we went in, where we pretended we hadn't gotten any other quotes naturally, had a "Miami Ink" vibe to you. Anyone who watches the show knows what I mean. They didn't have as much flip throughs to look at, but this guy (named Michael
) actually had his portfolio on the counter, and another larger book that included the rest of the people's work.
There were about 5 people working in this shop. One customer was getting tattooed. (BTW no one was getting tattooed while we were in the other shop)
He said the size I had it at (3 inches tall) was great(hah!), and that because it wasn't symmetrical, (hah!) the right shoulder would work just fine. He said he loved the piece and would want to put it in his portfolio, and I said that is great. He said he's been to Disney 9 times
and showed me his tattoos of Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire cat, Yoda, and others. He was detailed in his description of what he would do with the tattoo. He said he'd do some shading (showed me a tattoo that had similar shading on his body) to give it a little depth, he'd mix a little brown and black for Chip's chocolate chip nose, make one knot instead of 2 on the balloons, and could do a light accent instead of a black one on the balloons. (and added I could add more balloons if I wanted, or one floating away, etc) He also said I could make the balloons any color I wanted. I asked him specifically about the color of Dale's nose--because I know it isn't really red, isn't brown, but it's more in between. He said he'd mix a color, put a dab on the paper, and keep mixing whatever he needed to in order to match the right color. I never knew that's how they did it and I appreciated the explanation. If this is going on my body, I want their noses to be right so we can definitely tell them apart, KWIM?
He gave me a price of about $120 for the 3 inch version, and $150 if I wanted it "a little bigger than that" as I asked about.
Both shops said they didn't do "white" but this guy actually explained to me why---it turns yellow over time. They will do a light color which will pretty much appear white on the skin, with the way they highlight it. That part I'm a little concerned with. Not so much the snouts (those are white on the pin) but the teeth. What do y'all think about that? Just make the snouts the same color as the rest of the body? maybe a tad lighter? So that the teeth will stand out as being "white" compared to the snout?
So, I really would like opinions on a few things:
- the size of the tattoo
- the placement of it
- which shop would YOU choose? (though I think we've already decided on the 2nd one)
- Should I change the color of the balloons?
- What do you think about the thing with the teeth vs. snouts?
- Should I get rid of the loopy thing behind Dale? (it looks like maybe he's holding a loop of balloon string but it is hard to tell b/c it looks funny. The first shop said nix it.
- And if you have any other comments, suggestions, complaints (haha) I'd love to hear them! TIA!
)
and I agree about the smileys...I go in a DIS hiatus for a few days only to come back to the smileys changed back to "normal" after I was just getting used to the other way. So frustrating. Maybe if they gave us a day to expect changes like that it would be so frustrating 
and I have always said that would be my 1st tattoo LOL
and you know what post is coming up don't you?! 
His signature? 
So, what were we to do? 
:
and excited 
