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Tattoo Talk Thursdays: Le Throat


I am more than the words and images in my skin.
I cover myself with symbols, memories, people, beliefs.
I want to forever make these moments and individuals a part of me that
I can constantly see, touch and relive.
I am the creator.
I am the medium.
I am the canvas. 

30 January 2017

Appointment Gear. Passport. iPad. Headphones.
Headphone case. Wallet. Snack. Lipstick and every day case that
goes in my bag. Always bring something to drink, it helps during and
after being tattooed. 

I wasn't nervous sitting in the shop waiting for Chad to set up.
I should have been. The throat. I mean, I'd already gotten a few small ones on my face. 
There's nothing to really turn back from I guess. I'd changed my mind about the design, not 
the concept at the last moment. I wanted it more open. Less closed off. I told him to run with it
with my idea, rather than re-draw it myself. I actually wasn't a control freak over one of the most 
important tattoos I'd ever get. I didn't even look at the drawing. He just made a stencil and put it on me. I saw it for the first time in the mirror right before we were about to start. It was simple and plain. He told me I could add the kanji later if I wanted to. I agreed. I wanted to see what he'd do
before I added that. It was important, but it wasn't and end all-be all of the piece.




I put my earbuds in and slip away on Liam's vocals. It only seems fitting as this
tattoo is to remind me that today (30.01.17) is the day I published, what I feel, is my greatest
works to date. It's raw. It's emotional. It's me. The pain was familiar, just as sharp as when I got the base of my throat done almost a year before. I just wanted the tattoo to be done so I could check it out. As Chad started on the outline, I worry flooded me as I didn't really get to clearly see a finished
idea. Pretty much all of my tattoos have been laid out so I get a clear picture...as you know, some of them ended up botched and shit, but for 95% of them, they ended just as I saw them in my head and on my sketchpad. 

Upside down, just as we were starting out. It was a right pain in the ass to keep the headphone
cord out of the way. We managed cause we're pros at this. Fuck, we should be at this stage of the
game.


Upside down shot of some shading going on.
When Chad was doing the shading down here, it felt like he was just digging into me, 
even though I knew he wasn't. It was a bit hard to keep my thoughts with Oasis when he was 
down low and up high. On the higher parts I felt it in my tonsils and in my jawbones. It was the vibrations of the needle that were driving me mental. I always hated it when he'd go back to an area to do another layer of colour. It was like "Nooo!! Rub salt in the wound!"  Surprisingly, the spot right on my throat and right over my Adam's Apple were the least painful. They were nothing, it was just uncomfortable. And I thought that was the area that was going to hurt the most. 



Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.
I took the wrap off as soon as I left the shop. It was a pain in my ass. It was going to 
fall off anyway. Soon as I got home I washed it with the Tattoo Goo Anti-Bacterial Tattoo 
Soap. (You can just use any anti-bacterial for the first few washes.) With a throat tattoo you're
going to want to wash it about 3 times a day, because it's a really vascular area and there will be 
plasma and you don't want that hanging around as it can lead to inflection. I washed it twice the 
second day as I didn't really have any crusty plasma on it. Today, day three, I just did a lotion when I got up in the morning as there was no crust and it was already starting to peel. It's important to keep the tattoo lotioned as the neck can get rather dry, but don't over do it. I'm just using Nivea on this one, since it keeps it nice.
There was swelling as soon as Chad finished the tattoo, so I just took come over the counter stuff to help reduce the discomfort and swelling.  In this area, as well with others on the body, there was a build up of fluid. Completely normal. The fluid is there to help heal the area, as the body sees the tattoo as an injury, which it basically is. You'll also not want to spend time looking down, as it can cause the skin to rub, scraping some of the layers of skin that are shedding and the ones that are healing. It can create little cracks in the tattoo. Try and keep your head up as straight as possible. 
And yeah, that's about it for now! I'll do another update later on, but if you want to see the first week progression, you can just check out my IG or Twitter as I'll be updating those as I go along!

I know that I will forget the pain of the needle and will be back in the saddle looking to finish the rest
of my neck in no time. I've already got a few ideas floating around in the old gullivar. With any luck, I'll finish my neck by the time the year is out. We'll have to see with money, other tattoo commitments and projects that I've taken on. Fingers crossed! 

 Right now, it's just sore. It's kind of like having tonsillitis-the soreness near the tonsils and the slight irritation when swallowing. I know the discomfort is mainly due to the fluid in the tissue, Sometimes its a dull sort of throbbing that ebbs at the sides of my throat where the tattoo ends. When I turn my neck, it's the most sore. As soon as I got off the body table, my throat, mainly my neck, was so stiff it was like having fucking meningitis. It eased up as soon as I got some blood flowing back to my head and neck. Then my brain eased back into drive. 

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Location: London Borough of Islington, Vereinigtes Königreich

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