I’m taking a risk by revealing this…I’m sure many members of my family are going to be really shocked by the story I’m about to tell… but… I’m going to take that chance.
Here goes! 

Many of you probably didn’t realize, or would ever think I would be crazy enough to go through with it… but, I have a tattoo.  

Yes, you read correctly, a tattoo.  

It’s on my lower back (not a “tramp stamp”, thank you very much) on my right side.
I got it while visiting some friends back home in February 1998, 15 ½ years ago.  It was a girls’ weekend and it was something I had always wanted to do.
So…I did.

At the time, I was a big fan of clown fish… like this…

Keep in mind, this was many years before “Finding Nemo” came out in movie theaters.  I don’t even remember why I liked the animal so much other than the fact that I thought it was cute, which is NOT a reason to permanently ink yourself.

The tattoo shop my friends and I chose for my tiny masterpiece was located in a strip mall behind Wendy’s, next to a party supply store and, if I remember correctly, a vacuum repair place.  I told the tattoo dude what I wanted and I remember one of my friends having to run to the book store across the street to get something with a picture of a clown fish so he would know what he was about to put on my body.  That should have been a red flag… a tattoo dude that doesn’t know what a clown fish looks like?!?!  Surely I’m not the first person to ever request a clown fish!
The design was supposed to be quite a bit smaller than how it turned out… which is about double the size of what I asked for initially. 

 I liked it at first, apparently not enough to take a picture of it, though.

Connor thinks it is, in fact, a picture of Nemo.  When he was about 4 or 5, he walked in on me getting dressed one morning.  He pointed at it and screamed excitedly “NEMO!!!”  A couple days later my mother stopped by and point blank asked me if I had a tattoo, to which I replied “What do YOU think?”  She said “WE are not the type of people who get tattoos”.  I asked her “what people are the type that get tattoos??”  Her response is not something I’m inclined to post on here…it might be offensive to some, so please use your imagination. Please keep in mind, my mother is very southern and old-fashioned and something like this is appalling to her!  

I didn’t lie to her about it exactly… besides, I think she’s suspected it all the time.  

Over the last 15 ½ years, it has faded tremendously… to this…

It looks terrible!  I want to be rid of it so bad and I couldn’t wait for it to just disappear on its own.

So, last week, I decided to go here…

… for this…

(Disclaimer: This is NOT a picture of my arm!)

After the initial consultation, the technician got to work with the laser thingy.  She warned me that the laser would feel like small, very hot rubber bands smacking my skin with great force.  That is 100% the truth!!!!  It hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before!!  They do offer a local anesthetic for an extra fee.  I declined that, I wanted to feel the pain so that I’ll remember what its like if I ever consider getting another one, which is highly doubtful…plus, I needed to be coherent to drive home.  

So, here are the results after one session…

It looks so weird right now.  The tech said I’d probably need several more sessions because of the orange in the design.  Apparently, orange pigment is really difficult to remove.  I go back for my next zapping on my birthday next month… what fun.

This was my first and only tattoo.  Don’t worry, I don’t foresee any more in my future.  

Please remember…

Think before you Ink!

Mommy, do you still love me?  

Until next time…

Happy Blogging!