Diary - Thursday, June 14th, 2001

Only, what...nine more sessions?

Last night was interesting.

I went in for more work. Claudia was late, and two women were waiting, one to see her, one to see one of the other artists. The one who was to see Claudia had a red dragon, actually a rip off of an Easley picture, that she wanted done. It's amusing that one of the skills I've gained from roleplaying is an ability to recognise Easley, Elmore or Clyde Caldwell pictures from several feet away.

I talked with them both, tried to be somewhat reassuring about the whole process, since by now I felt as though I could regard myself as experienced. Which made me feel a little silly and a little amused at the same time. Still, my assurances that the pain was not quite the issue people made it out to be seemed to help them.

Then I went under the gun myself for my next patch of work.

And it was one of the rough sessions. But different. Each time seems to be different. There was no point here where I wept, but I started shaking in shock five minutes into it.

Not good. Not when you have two hours ahead of you.

The needles felt different. Last time they had been painful, but smooth. This time they were rough, like nails rather than the tiny etching claws they really are. It felt as though Claudia was grinding the ink into my skin hard. When she hit the edge of my shoulder blade, I flinched.

I don't have much meat there. Like most people, my body image is somewhat skewed, but I'm pretty sure it felt as though there was no more than half a centimeter of flesh over the bone. And the needle ramming. I winced, and muttered 'Ow', but that was about it.

Then it got stranger. She worked near my spine, and the pain gradually drained away. And the room began to spin...

Brandt propped me back up. I couldn't hear what he said. There was a dim roaring in my ears, and I began to sink forward again, and at that point Claudia hastily took a break. Brandt got me hot, sweet tea and a barley sweet, which helped. I felt faint for the rest of the night, but I didn't collapse again.

There was one, last strange period where the pain, absolutely intense, suddenly switched to pleasure. It was as though my body had simply become confused from the fierceness of sensation and the signals were crossing over.

Fuzzily, through the noise and the etching close to my spine, I found myself dreamily thinking 'Oh, that's nice. I wish she'd press it harder'.

Unfortunately, that lasted only for a few seconds.

I took much more, this session, colouring an area almost as large as the previous two sessions combined. Claudia also did some touch up work, explaining that reds were hard to work with coverage wise, as the skin itself reddens with the work, and it can be hard to tell if you have coloured an area or not.

The chevrons on the delicate feathers in the center were highlighted, which was so painful I couldn't stand to have them completed this time around. Still, apparently she did eleven out of fourteen, so next time will not be so bad. I speculated with Brandt that perhaps because the tattooed area had shed its skin recently that it was more sensitive.

I guess overall I achieved a lot yesterday. I coped well, I bore the pain with reasonable bravery, and oh, if only I had managed to sleep last night I would be awake now.