A month back, the tattoo artist that I’ve gone to most often (Devony at Thieves of Virtue) put up a flash sale for Friday the 13th + Valentine’s. Pre-drawn designs with no changes, at a reduced rate, with only five slots available. Other than my last two tiny cat-tributes on my back over the fall, it’s been a good long while since I got a bigger tattoo. This one wasn’t super big and the price was a good deal, so I went ahead and booked. The design I chose was an atlas moth with florals around it, to go next to the other moth Devony did for me a few years back.

The 13th came around, and it happened to be the same day Rainstorm had their tattoo, and also the day the GO season 3 date was announced, so fun times! I was in such a good mood, and excited because Devony had told me she could integrate the new design in with the other moth. We worked with the size and placement so that there would be overlap but not too much, and she verified that I liked the color palate (which I didn’t see until day-of, and also which was perfect!). I was a little concerned that some of the flowers would be tattooed right on the edge of my elbow crease, especially as part of that original moth was so incredibly painful when it went on.

However, the really good work I put into exfoliating, hydrating, and moisturizing the skin in the weeks leading up to the appointment seemed to do my skin good! I had almost no pain at all, in either the outlining or the color/shading. The parts closer to the outside of my elbow hurt worse than the soft skin of the crease, but even then, it was barely anything. This was one of the easiest tattoos I’ve ever gotten and I’m completely in love with it! There’s just enough room wrapping around my arm that I could put another moth or two with continued florals to make it a whole sleeve without encroaching down on my gaysychain bracelet. If at all possible, I’d like to get this done before my move to Europe so I can have the same artist do the whole thing!

Thankfully, we know now that I’m allergic to the second skin, so the post-tattoo inflammation was nowhere near as insane as with the moth. I did get a little redness and soreness (potential mild infection) in the area around the elbow crease, mostly because the skin kept sticking to itself in my sleep as I’d bend my arms up. I started keeping K-tape on the upper arm while I slept to keep the lower part from at least not getting skin-to-skin contact, and that helped. Still, it was NOTHING like the really bad reaction I had with the purple moth.

(a collage of screenshots from a video showing the whole thing – hard to get a full photo as it wraps around the arm!)

A month after getting it, there are a few raised white spots that are probably from too much moisture. I have a tendency to get these on any of my heavily-shaded tattoos, so I’m not too worried about them. I’ll need a few touchups later, but generally this one came out really good!