Got Ink?

A couple days ago (specifically on April 7^th) I was being a little vague or “mysterious” (as some people wanted to point out to me) with my tweets and facebook statuses. If anyone felt that way it’s probably because you didn’t catch any of the earlier things that I had posted the days leading up to it. Well now I’m here to clear it all up: I got a tattoo.

On April 7^th at 1:15 I walked in for my tattoo appointment at Funhouse Tattoo (located right on the corner of Cambie and 14^th). I’m mostly here to chronicle that experience and a little of the back story as to what/why I got it.

Now I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo – starting way, way back. Sure maybe when I was younger it was about being rebellious, but if you know me, I’m about as rebellious as a pinecone. It wasn’t too hard for me to work out the pros and cons of getting a tattoo. Yes, I do realize it is permanent and that in like 40 years it’s going to look all saggy with my old age, but I’m not one to do/not do something just because of appearances sake. As tempting as a dragon across the cleavage or wild roses up my arm was, I always knew I wanted to get something that would mean something important to me. For the longest time I was juggling between whether I wanted this particular picture or a quote for my first ink job, but it wasn't until recently I had found my reason for getting one and the image I wanted, which in the end was something different from what I had initially narrowed it down to.

With the recent events that had happened in the world, and more especially the loss of someone important in my life, I chose something that would honor his memory and keep him with me forever: a rune. "What is a rune?" people ask.

Rune: a form of letters from an alphabet used by Germanic/Northern Europeans in olden days before Latin became the standard. They almost look like images - think of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but more letter-like.

And no, I did not get his initials tattooed into my skin with it. To shorten what always seems to be a long story, this is the story behind my choice:

The rune stands for heal/hurt not  comes from a book series (The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, which if you haven’t read go pick it up and if you have read it, well you’ll know it’s awesome) that I had gotten him to read after a bit of nagging, a little reading aloud to him, and mostly him actually enjoying what he heard and then going out to buy the first book for himself. He liked the book so much he bought the second one. And then the third. He liked it so much he actually wanted to talk  about it with me afterwards. That alone felt like a huge feat since I never thought books would be a common interest we’d share, let alone be something we talked about together. This series is probably only one of sixty book suggestions that he ever followed through with.

So really when it came to deciding on my first tattoo, this rune just felt perfect: its meaning and the ties and memories it shared with this person and me. Even when I went in to make my appointment, the fact that the tattoo artist had the time on that exact date (the 7^th)… it sincerely felt meant to be.

With my image for my first tattoo chosen, I ran it by with the parental. Now there is something that you have to understand in Asian cultures. Regardless of your age, something like this you run it by your parents. It doesn’t mean you’re necessarily asking for their permission, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the power to prevent you from doing it. I realize I am a special breed of Asian-offspring where despite any protests from parents, I’ll argue my way right out of the situation to more or less do what I want to do in the end. My telling my parents was mostly out of courtesy to let them know what I was planning on doing. After lengthy discussions with fellow Asian friends, I realize they’re not as fortunate as me to get away with what they want in the end or live to talk about it for very long afterwards. That is to say my dad was actually rather indifferent about my decision, whereas with my mom, had I not had the reason to get one as I do now, she probably would have dragged me out of the tattoo place by my hair ends. I’ll probably be keeping any future ink-jobs to myself now though.

Picking where to get my tattoo took a bit of research. And like the image that I settled on getting, the place that I actually went to wasn’t one of my initial two final choices. It wasn’t until I went on to yelp.ca that I read about Funhouse tattoo. It had some of the best reviews, and in particular a lot of previous clients were talking about Sasha and how great she was. That was pretty much the reason why I decided on her and that location. The place is great: hair-salon type furniture, clean, great interior feel and art with sweet pictures of past tattoo jobs done by the artists. Everyone there was really nice and Sasha definitely did not disappoint. She cracked some jokes, put on some sweet music in the store (which I regret not asking who the artist was, but do know it had a Mexican-feel to), and conversed while she was tattooing me. She and the store is definitely something I’ll be recommending to friends who are interested in getting some work done and will be returning myself for any future tattoos I’ll be getting.

The process of getting the actual tattoo was just as it was expected: nerve-racking at first but in the end, not as bad as what was expected. I chose my back, over the left shoulder. At first I wanted to get it as close to my heart as possible but didn’t like the idea of getting it done near/on my boob. I know in its location on my back, it is less likely to be seen but that’s what later tattoos are for. This one is really just for me and him.

What does getting a tattoo feel like? Well, my friend really said it best when she described it as getting “a freakin’ needle stabbing you over and over again really fast.” (In all fairness, she did warn me properly, so thanks Jess.) In some areas the skin was numb and didn’t really register any real sort of pain, but there were definitely areas where I was thinking HOLY FUCK I FEEL THAT! I FEEL IT! IT FUCKING HURTS! But that feeling was really fleeting and it mostly just required me to breathe through it. FYI: Holding your breath does not mean you won’t feel it. I just kept repeating to myself: Nothing can hurt as much as finding out that day. This will probably be my mantra for the rest of my days.

The entire thing took an hour, which went by quickly thanks to my sister who cancelled volunteer that day to be there with me for moral support. Before getting the tattoo, we went for a sushi lunch on Broadway. I was told by the guy who made my appointment and by several other people to make sure I eat something before getting the tattoo because it would keep me from fainting and focus my body on digesting the food rather than registering any pain. We walked to Funhouse rather than taking the bus just because the weather was gorgeous outside (I take as another sign that everything lined up perfectly). My sister was just as surprised as I was that I actually went through with it since we both know how I.Seriously.Fucking.Hate.Needles. For that reason and also because of my extremely low pain-tolerance, it’s no reason why she calls me the Cowardly Lion.

Sasha did a great job of prepping me beforehand, giving me time to ask questions and then going over aftercare instructions. It’s been a couple days and the skin over the tattoo is starting to peel, which I was told is normal. It doesn’t hurt or anything, but feels more like a sunburn just on that area of my body. My sister was there, not only to hold my hand, but take plenty of pictures. Unfortunately the blog won't let me upload any of my polaroid images but here's some she got on her phone.

      

  

Here are some pictures we took a couple days after. You can definitely tell the swelling has gone down quite a bit, yet the skin-peeling has yet to take place.

Overall, I definitely recommend Funhouse tattoo as the place to go. The price was incredibly reasonable and the staff are all really nice and professional. I know my sister and I plan on returning again when we finally decide to get ours done. It’s a modest first tattoo but I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. It’s something I'll wear fondly for however many years of my life to come to help remember the good times we had together.

Before signing off, another song:

Wake up

Look me in the eyes again

I need to feel your hands

Upon my face

Words can be like knives

They can cut you open

And the silence surrounds you

And holds you

I think I might’ve inhaled you

I can feel you behind my eyes

You’ve gotten into my bloodstream

I can feel you flowing in me

Words can be like knives

They can cut you open

And the silence surrounds you

And holds you

I think I might’ve inhaled you

I can feel you behind my eyes

You’ve gotten into my bloodstream

I can feel you flowing in me

The spaces in between

Two minds and all the places they have been

The spaces in between

I tried to put my finger on it

I tried to put my finger on it

I tried to put my finger on it

I think I might’ve inhaled you

I can feel you behind my eyes

You’ve gotten into my bloodstream

I can feel you flowing in me

I think I might’ve inhaled you

I can feel you behind my eyes

You’ve gotten into my bloodstream

I can feel you flowing in me

Sports Week

*cue in Hockey Night in Canada song* Da-da-da-da-da! DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!

This week is really about experiencing a lot of firsts for my world in sports: I got to go to my first hockey and soccer game.

On Thursday I watched the Canucks take on the L.A. Kings. These were tickets that I bought way back last fall when season tickets first went on sale. This was all planned to be part of my sister’s birthday present so the long wait was well worth it.

Our seats were awesome, second row in the lower plaza almost in the corner and in perfect view of the goalie and where they do the corner face-offs.

·         Canucks won the game (3-1) and the President’s Trophy!

·         Hearing Jenn cry out “Leave him alone!” when Daniel was getting rough-handled by the Kings.

·         Flinching whenever the players got slammed up against the glass right in front of us (seriously, it happened about six times and I’m pretty sure 4 out of the 6 was Lapierre).

·         Beer and churros although they no longer have sippy-cup lids which was kind of disappointing.

·         Watching the 2-man advantage power play during third period.
·         Seeing the Green Men do their thing.

If money weren’t an issue I would definitely see myself getting a season’s pass but it looks like I’ll be settling for a one-game-a-year instead which I’m still excited about. Here a couple pictures I took throughout the game:

 

Now I’ve been to plenty of concerts at various venues, but there is just this undeniable feeling while being at that game. It is entirely different from just watching it on TV, probably because it was 100 times better. 90% of us were decked out in a variety of Canucks fan gear (I, myself, was wearing a Henrik Sedin jersey and my sister wore a shirt that had the older yellow, red and black Canucks logo). The game was sold out which I found meant that there were over 18,000 spectators.

We actually had some Kings fans sitting right behind us but they left right after Kesler scored the third goal. Sore losers really, since considering ticket costs I would have stayed ‘til the end whether we won or lost... but we won (muhahaha)

At the time of deciding which game tickets to purchase it was a hard decision since I wanted to be sure that we would see a good game. Originally I wanted to buy tickets for when they played against Calgary Flames but tickets for those were insanely more expensive than the ones I settled with. L.A. Kings came as a recommendation from a beloved hockey buff. He’s really the one who got me even more into hockey and we even had bets during last year’s playoffs and the winter Olympics (which I happily won each time). I wish he was still here so that I could have talked about my first experience at a game; so that we could have gone to a game together. He was so excited for me – I still miss you.

On Saturday my friend took me to the Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Sporting Kansas City game. It was a chance for us to hang out together even in the midst of end-of-term-craze and get me out of the house (Thank you Jess).

                                   This is us soaking in some sun.

Despite that we were sitting in an undercover area and would have been semi-protected by the supposed scheduled rain, the day turned out to be gorgeously sunny.

I had a great time at the game and seriously did not realize how many Whitecaps fans there were in the city. Though it didn’t look like it was a sold out game, there was definitely a sizeable crowd. We had a couple real “enthusiasts” several rows behind us.

The second half of the game was where everything really picked up. Despite the 3-0 lead Kansas city had entering into it, the Whitecaps were able to tie the game within like the last two minutes of the game. Oh, and we also had an attempted streaker. He didn't get very far but I did manage to catch the part where he was being dragged away by security in briefs (or maybe it was shorts... the point in he was still covered).

This guy actually scored the first goal for us. Yay Harris!

Watching the soccer game definitely had its tense, nerve-racking moments. I had a great time overall and definitely want to be back for more games. So again my thanks go out to my friend for inviting me.

Until next time!