The next step in getting a tattoo, was finding a place to have it done. When my wife had her eyebrows tattooed on, she went to dermatologist. They had valet parking and Latte’s. It was expensive. Some how, I didn’t think that my tattoo parlor would offer Latte’s and valet parking. And I was right.

One of my co-workers referred me to the place where she got her tattoos. I arrived at 1:59. They opened at 2, so I waited. At 2:15, the place was still dark, so I decided to move on to plan B, a place near MSU.

They opened at 1 pm and seemed to be quite busy. No valet parking, no lattes.

When I arrived, there were 6 people in the waiting room. The man behind the counter asked if he could help me. I told him that I was interested in tattoo. ( No duh! If I had been interested in a wedding cake, I would have gone to the bakery.)

Seeing all of the people in the waiting room, I wondered how long it would be. The counter man reassured me that there were only 2 people ahead of me and that I would only have to wait 15 minutes. Apparently, the rest were spectators. Fine.

The first group consisted of three 50ish women. One was apparently the recipient of the tattoo and the other two were guests. Then, there was the 20ish woman who was there by her self. The other two were guys who would like to get a tattoo if only they could afford it. So much for them.

After 15 minutes, James, my tattooist, appeared. He had never done Hebrew before. He looked over what I wanted and decided to look for a better font on line. After about 30 minutes, we agreed on a script.

He made a reverse image of the text. And after shaving the area and applying some disinfectant, he then applied it to my forearm. This provided a template for the text. Just like on Miami Ink.

Next, was the ink gun. I imagine it was just like it was back in the 50s. The actual needle and such were packaged in a sterile bag. The gun consisted of 2 coils which were designed to move the needle in and out at a rapid rate.

James dipped the needle into the ink and began coloring in the template. He would color a little and then wipe the area. He repeated the process until he was done. It took about 10 minutes and was exactly what I wanted.

Of course, my wife thinks that I am going to run off and join the circus now. But, she will get over it.