Happy (early) Birthday to Me!

As unbelievable as it sounds (especially to me!), I turn 50 in 2 weeks. The good news is that the Yarn Harlot is coming to Hill Country Weavers in Austin on the 29th just to help me celebrate (well, that's what I keep saying!).

This afternoon, while my friends were stichin'n'bitchin' at the Candlelight Coffeehouse, I got my birthday present to myself -- a tattoo! This is something I've been thinking about doing for years, but I never knew what I wanted. I considered a knitting-related tattoo like Julia's, but decided I wanted something more traditional. I looked at a lot of tattoo websites, and realized I liked the Celtic designs. Then, a couple months ago, I saw exactly what I wanted. It was the pattern on my watchband!

So I dragged my sister (who has two tattoos of her own) to Dandyland and got this on my upper back -- where it won't be seen most of the time, unless I want it to be.

It's still a little pink around the edges, and is shiny from the InkFixx, but I'm really, really happy with it. If you're in San Antonio, and get an urge for a tattoo, I would really recommend Dandyland and, especially, Laraine. She's got a BA in Art for Baylor (a Baptist university - I don't think tattoo artist is a common occupation for their grads!) and it really shows. She took my watchband, drew the rough design, talked to me about colors and shading, then came up the final art. That part took probably 45 minutes, with another 30-40 minutes for the actual tattoo.

As for pain -- it didn't really hurt. Mostly, it was annoying, and there were a few times, when she was filling in the red parts, where I wished she would just get it over with, but it wasn't really bad at all. It was kind of a scraping feeling, with vibration, and the needle sounds a lot like a dentist's drill. And there was one point at the top of the left side where, every time she hit it, I got goosebumps all over my left arm and leg!

Oh, I have been knitting, too! I'll show you some pictures in a day or two!