It’s tattoo day! Phil and I had called into the tattoo
studio on Monday to discuss what we wanted and to allow the artist time to
design our respective tattoos. I wanted something traditional, utilising
Marquesan symbols to represent what is important to me and what we are doing.
So, I chose adventure, the sea, nature, friendship, family etc. I duly turned
up at 9am feeling a little bit apprehensive but excited to be finally getting
my tattoo. It has only taken me 62 years! The Marquesas are surprisingly the
home of the tattoo, rather strange for such small, off the beaten track
islands, and many tattoo artists in other parts of Polynesia hail from here.
Given I wanted a band all the way around my arm, it was a
slightly more complicated undertaking than if I had been having a circular
tattoo where in effect a type of stencil can be used to transfer the design
onto the body and accelerate the process. Having approved the design, the
artist then had to draw it on my arm freehand, first in red pen and then green.
This took an hour and then he got to work with the needle and ink. It was a
strange sensation, rather like having a series of mini-electric shocks, and the
underside of my arm was definitely more sensitive than the outer arm, not
painful but I was certainly aware of it being done. Some two hours later,
making three hours in total, the final tattoo was complete, and I am thrilled
with it.
Debra joined me in the studio for the final hour and after
questioning me about how much it hurt, she decided to go ahead with a very
small complementary tattoo depicting the ocean and adventure. It was very much
a “now or never” thing for her, and if the artist hadn’t been able to fit her
in there and then she would never have returned. She opted to have the tattoo
just above her right hip bone and, whether the skin there is more sensitive I
don’t know, but she didn’t enjoy the experience at all finding it uncomfortable
verging on painful. She was very relieved that her tattoo only took five
minutes!
So now we both have a permanent reminder of our time in the
Marquesas and the biggest adventure of our lives …. to date!
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