Tattoo Talk Thursday: Breaking Bees

I love to get tattoos to mark important people, places and times in my life. Today, I'm getting a small piece that signifies the importance of my best mate who we'll refer to as Pinkman. He reminds me so much of Jesse Pinkman which is part of the inspiration behind the tattoo. I wanted to get a piece to show him that he is important to me and I feel that words just aren't enough. I'm in it for the long haul. I have a bit of free space on my neck, which to me, is a place where I put special tattoos for special people. I knew that it would need to be something small because I don't have that much room on either side of my neck or my throat for that matter. I needed to come up with something that was a perfect representation for him then it hit me. The fucking methylamine bee from Breaking Bad. We both love the show, he reminds me of Jesse. Two worlds collide. I'm going to be getting a separate Breaking Bad tattoo somewhere on one of my thighs later on. I want this one just to be for him. 

I'm not always able to really express to people what they mean to me with words so I try with my actions. I like to let tattoos express things. I hope that he can see the reason behind me getting this for him. It's a way for me to tell him that I want him to be in my life forever, that he is special and wanted around. 

The shop is cool and quiet as I arrive on a stormy Saturday afternoon. I feel a tingle of worry crawling up from my stomach through my throat. I don't want him to not like it. I don't want this to be something that forces us apart. The artist comes over, shakes hands with me and asks where we're going to stick it. I show him the bit of free space on my neck where I want to get the bee. He told me that he may need to bring it up on my jawline a little bit to make it fit and keep it a decent size since we don't want to go too small. I'm okay with that. Might make me a bit better looking. He presses the stencil on my neck, we let it dry for a few minutes and I lay on the body table. I was expecting to sit up for the piece as I sat up for the other sides of my neck, but he tells me the body table is easier for him. I'm expecting some heavy pain here, because of where it is. It doesn't come. It's a soothing vibration that echos through my jaw and down the side of my neck. It's actually rather pleasant.

I close my eyes and let Ghost take me away. I always get tired during tattoos. While I fell asleep during the Pooh Bear one in June, I didn't this time round. It was a close call though. It doesn't take long for him to finish the outline. I'd asked Pinkman if he wanted shading or just the outline and since he said he wanted shading, I told the guy to shade it in. I put my earbud back in and lay down on my side. I'm glad this isn't going to be a long piece of I'm going to be sleeping here for the rest of the afternoon. It takes him about 15 minutes to do the shading. I sit up, cracking my neck feeling charged. I can't wait to see it. I'm excited and nervous. It's a neckpiece. It needs to be good. He's good but artists can have bad days. The worry that Pinkman won't like it sweeps back through me and I almost cry. I have no idea why I'm being such a little bitch over it. 

I don't like looking in mirrors, but I take a photo of the area. Moment of truth. IT'S AMAZING. It's clean, the shading has the perfect bits of light and dark and there's barely any swelling. I love it. I can't wait to show him. Its been a while since I was this excited about something. I mean, sharing new Funkos with him is one thing, this is a whole other level. This is something I will have on me for the rest of my life. I won't do the laser removal. Too many horror stories and I'm not too fond of the process; I know a few people who've gone through the process. Not good. And on the neck, basically on the jawline? No thank you.

The piece captures the essence of the show and hopefully expresses how special he is to me. I don't have many friends and I feel incredibly lucky to have him in my life.