Hungary 2008!!: Yes it's real, Yes my mom knows, No she's not happy

In many situations I'm a big talker, but not a big do-er. Finally I made good on one of these things I've been talking about for a long time. I've been fascinated by tattoos for a while. I never thought I'd have the courage to actually put one on my body since I have major commitment issues, and I have not ever had anything in my life that I really wanted to commemorate permanently. I wanted to get one while in China, specifically Tibet, but it didn't seem like the most sanitary place to get one. I never really had the urge when at home, but I always noticed tattoos on people.

I decided this summer that I really wanted to get a small tattoo to commemorate my time here in Hungary. I have grown a lot since moving here, and I have changed as a person (in my mind). It will be a part of my life that I will never forget, and Hungary will always have a very important spot in my heart. So, I decided that I wanted to get a tattoo of something Hungarian, but not something obvious like the flag or the pre-Trianon flag of the former Hungarian territory. I asked several students to think of ideas, and after many suggestions were floated by me, I decided on a Hungarian motif that one of my students drew. It's based off a Hungarian pattern in some art work and in some embroidery - and the pattern also happens to share the name of the most expensive kind of Pálinka in the country - NO CONNECTION.

Jenny did a beautiful job drawing the design, so I decided to go with it. I had Dori and her boyfriend Dávid help me by taking me to the salon where they knew a tattoo artist worked. I struggled with this part because as I understand, there are two separate meetings before you get a tattoo. One to discuss with the artist what you are looking for, and the second to actually receive the tattoo. Knowing this, I didn't want to set up anything with anyone in Budapest, because that would involve two trips to the big city. I did research for different salons in Budapest, but I was not sold on them or the idea of the double trip. I also was a bit scared of walking into a tattoo shop decorated with skulls and snakes and scary things to say "Hi, I want these Hungarian flowers on my wrist." So Dori and Dávid took me to Dávid's hair salon. His hair stylist does tattoos on the side and he was more than willing to help me. He didn't speak a word of English, but was intrigued by the design and said that he'd be able to do it for me the next day. Yikes... I was really doing it!!! I asked him several questions through Dori and then satisfied with what I'd learned, I headed home.

I returned early the next morning a bit nervous and anxious. I didn't sleep well because I was so nervous about permanently altering my body. I thought about the complications of never being able to give blood again, having to look at it when I'm 80 and what my parents would say - (knowing what my parents would say)... But I forged on and headed to Tatabánya for the appointment.

The artist couldn't have been more than 25-27 years old, but he has been doing this for quite a while. It was totally awkward because he did not speak a word of English, and I didn't know what to talk to him about... just awkward. He had to set up his station and the tattoo gun and ink and stuff, so he asked if I wanted a magazine - even though I was reading a book when he showed up. He looked around the salon for a magazine, and the only thing besides hair magazines that he could find was his own personal mag - a cross between porn and fast cars- truly a masculine magazine.

As I sat in the salon looking at this crazy magazine alternating between bare breasts and lamborghinis I had to giggle to myself. What the hell was I doing getting a tattoo in a totally foreign country from someone who spoke NO English?! ARGHHGHGHGHHGHGHGHG.

Finally he was ready. He had drawn the design on a special paper, cleaned my wrist and applied the paper rubbing the design outline onto my wrist. He peeled the paper off an Vóila - a CROOKED outline? ohmygodohmygodohmygod what do I do? It's a symmetrical design, it can't be crooked - people will see that it's crooked!!! I will see that it's crooked - this is FOREVER - AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. "Pillanant! Nem jó!" "Wait a minute - not good!!!!" He stopped mid gesture and looked at the outline and realized that it really was crooked - and had me wash it off and start over. Phew. I could have had a crooked tattoo for the REST OF MY LIFE! I am so glad that I spoke up. Then he got down to business.

The needle he used was very fine so that it could outline the tattoo clearly. Admittedly, the design was a bit bigger than I had originally anticipated, but it worked out to be evenly placed on my wrist, so it was okay. He outlined first and then "colored" in. The coloring in hurt a bit since he had to go over and over a certain spot to guarantee that the color was there to stay. The only other place it really hurt was on the two small circles in the middle of the tattoo - as they rested right on a blood vessel. Those smarted a bit. The rest of it was surprisingly not as painful as I thought it would be. I guess it would feel like a very precise bug zapper going over parts of my wrist - that's the best comparison I can think of. He added some red and then it was done. There were no instructions as to how to care for it other than he put some vaseline on it before I left. I had some grocery shopping to do, but I was a bit worried about having an exposed tattoo while I was out walking around. It is, after all, a wound - and the skin needs time to scab and heal - so any exposure to the outside could be harmful. When I got home I treated it with some lotion and cleared away some of the scabbing. It ended up scabbing quite a bit over the next few days, and since I didn't have explicit instructions, I think more of the ink peeled away with the scabbing than normal, so it has faded a bit, but that's okay by me.

It's really something special to me, not only because it represents my time here in Hungary, but also because one of my students drew it for me. I am really pleased with it, and though I doubt I'll ever get another one, I'm happy I went through with this one.