Every Tattoo deserves a tattoo fest!

So I have been contemplating getting a tattoo this entire semester abroad.  By contemplating I mean that I was so 100% positive that I wanted it, but I have really bad follow through.  I knew I wanted it that badly, but I did consider the possibility that I might not get a tattoo because I procrastinate and I push my wants aside and stick solely to the needs.  Part of the procrastination is due to fear: I don't like asking for things and I don't feel comfortable communicating needs all the time.  So instead of putting myself out there, out of fear I hide and stop myself from doing some of the coolest things.

In this way, Ecuador has changed me.  I don't fear considering and following through on my wants.

So, I found the design for this tattoo online.  I just looked up "Quito" in Google images and found this awesome illustration of Quito, surrounded by mountains, booming, busy. Everything I love about Quito.  I fell in love with it and decided if I should ever get a tattoo, it should be of this illustration.  So I showed it to my friend Katie, and she actually volunteered to redraw it and make adjustments to it for me.  One step closer to this fantasy of mine.
One day I told my friend Fernando that I wanted to get a tattoo and he told me all about the artist that does his tattoos and said he was really good.  I kept the idea alive, but didn't really take much action to get it done. Fernando was really the angel in this project.  He told me he would take me to make an appointment and kind of badgered me to get the ball rolling.  He is a true gentleman and a savior.  So the night before we went to the tattoo parlor, Katie finished the design.

So, we went to the parlor and Guillermo, the tattoo artist who has won numerous awards for his designs and tattoos, liked the tattoo a lot and told me to come back two days later to approve his redesign of it and to make an appointment.  He had to redesign it because with the amount of detail, he said he would have to make it two times the desired size to portray it all.  Therefore, I was more than happy for him to do what he needed to do to maintain it's already gargantuan size.  So we went on Saturday to approve the design, but he wasn't finished with it so he told me to come back on Monday afternoon.

Katie, Fernando and I showed up on Monday afternoon to have another 20 min wait while he finished the design and then came back again, only to find that he was free all afternoon and could do my tattoo right there, right then.  Score.  However, we had a few errands to run in order to get it all done.  I had to eat something and I had to get money.  So we had a hot dog party!!!!


Also, we got prizes from ordering combos, so Fernando and I won bracelets (which I deemed friendship bracelets) and Katie won a notebook, which she appropriately used later to draw up her tattoo design on the fly.


So we went back and he prepped a table, I got half naked and it started.  I was under the needle for 2.5 hours hunched over this nazi fold-up highschool concert chair.  Some of it certainly hurt, especially considering that he used the tiny needle to outline the entire tattoo.  But I think I took it well and some of it it actually liked.

Some of this might sound awful and unpleasant.  Quite the contrary.  This was the best experience I could have ever had getting my first tattoo, especially since my tattoo is pretty big.  I actually didn't even realize that it was that big of a deal until my loved ones were shocked at how huge it was!  Memo (Guillermo) was so incredibly nice and funny and gentle.  He definitely took really good care of me and added so many awesome details to the tattoo I was not expecting at all.  He put all of this really good shading in but kept true to my vision and Katie's artwork.  Wonderful.