surprise!

Thanks to good old blogger's schedule poster, I accidentally posted this too soon, it was meant to post on Monday next week, but ended up posting on Friday.  (whoops).  While Kyle and I had planned on going out of town, or actually doing some fun things during the holiday weekend, Sophie was still sick, my poor baby.  We didn't want to travel with a sick baby at all so we stayed at home and cleaned the entire weekend. However, I can still talk about what I did on one weekend a few weekends back.
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Remember in late June when I alluded to a surprise in one of my 5 on Friday posts ?  Well here we are in July and I'm ready to reveal my surprise.  Drum roll.....

I got a tattoo, what???  You read that right, I got my first tattoo and a very good first experience with getting a tattoo.

So what did I get?
I got an arrow, in particular, this one, in black, I literally pinterest searched it and found the arrow that I connected the most.  I knew I wanted an arrow, but had to look at several images to find the arrow that met my wants.

The tattoo itself is about 2.5 inches long and not even half an inch thick.  As a first tattoo it was something that didn't go out of my comfort zone, but also was something that I fell in love with immediately.

Why the location?
At first I originally wanted the arrow on the back of my arm like this (left picture):

and then after some serious consideration and seeing the picture on the right, I decided it would be best to place it in a similar position.  why the change of heart?  I wasn't sure how well my upper arm would look in a few years and knew that my forearm had much better definition as well.  I also wanted it to be easily seen when I wanted, but easily hide as needed. I  wear sweaters every day so it's hidden then, but when I'm at home I can have it out especially during the summer.  Since I wear a lot of t-shirts, it's better having it on my lower arm to show it off.  To be honest, most days I actually forget it's even there.

What does it mean?
The arrow has many meanings, but this is what it means to me.  Two in fact, the first one is "An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it's going to launch you into something great." I truly believe this, now more than ever.  It falls into line with the philosophy I've always believed in "everything happens for a reason."  Sure I've had some hard times, but each time I've made it through that hard time, I have gained something great.

The second one is: it is important to move forward and let go of the past.  An arrow can only move forward when it is let go.  I spend my life focusing on my present and future, and never my past (meaning I never look back). Every decision I've made is a part of making me who I am today and I don't regret any decision I've made either.

How did I decide?
It took over two years to decide what tattoo I wanted.  I've wanted a tattoo since I was 19, but my ex at the time didn't care for them so I never decided what  I would get until I started dating Kyle.  If you don't know, Kyle has four tattoos, all of them with a separate meaning.  He had them before we met, so it's just something I've never knew Kyle not having.

In May I finally picked a person I thought would see things from my point of view, enter Craig.  I brought him my ideas, an arrow and a quote.  We talked and worked out placement and how much it would cost.  I clearly changed my ideas when it came to it, getting one instead of two, and changing the placement.

The process
Craig was really easy to work with and listened to what I wanted.  He didn't judge or question what I wanted, he just confirmed if it was what and where I wanted. Would I like it in a few years?  How big would I want it?  What color would I like? Once that was decided, he printed out the stencil (in blue temp ink).  He the cleaned up my arm and shaved any possible hair then, and then cleaned it up again to make sure it was ready for the stencil.  After the stencil was placed, he began getting the ink ready.  It only took 20 minutes to be completely inked.  The entire time Craig joked and we talked about our lives and when he was done he let me take a picture and then he wrapped it up.  He did a great job explaining the aftercare and I would definitely go back to him if I so choose to get another tattoo.

The aftercare
While I had read all sorts of information on what to do for aftercare, it ended up being a lot easier than I thought.  While I swelled a bit after, the swelling went down later that night and it was hardly noticeable that I had gotten the tattoo earlier that day.  All I had to do was put A&D on it that night once, and then just simple lotion for the next week or so until it healed.  Because it was such a small tattoo, it didn't have such a long healing process as other tattoos.

Will I get another?
Actually yes.  I'm adding onto this tattoo.  I'll be adding a heart.  Why you may ask?  Remember earlier when I said I wanted two tattoos?  One of them was a quote.  "Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backwards" by ee cummings.  Which to me means, follow your heart even when the world is in chaos, and love will guide you through anything.  Adding the heart to the arrow will fall perfectly into the tattoo design.  Here are the two inspiration photos that I'll bring to Craig.  Of course I'll have to wait the obligatory 6 weeks before the heart can be added.  Thankfully Craig is making some other changes to the arrow so the additional heart will be free of cost.