Sam’s Tattoo Diaries is a series where Sam shares additions to her personal tattoo collection. It’s easy and fun for her to write about, although she hopes to incorporate more voices and topics on this fun little blog of hers. If you’re also a tattoo enthusiast and writerly type, please feel free to drop Sam a line with a pitch for a guest post.
Different day, same ol’ arm! Yesterday (Saturday), I decided to spontaneously get tattooed by one of the lovely ladies at Rosendale’s Guts N’ Glory Ink. There’s a little, awkward-shaped gap on my arm between my beautiful rose trio and my first professional tattoo ever, my not-so-beautiful feather quill.
Previously, I’ve been tattooed by Maria Vonn, the shop apprentice. But I know and trust all of the wonderful folks who work there and would feel 110% comfortable getting tattooed by anybody on the team.
I had a rough idea in mind of what I wanted (a burning match stick), but as I usually do with artists I trust, I gave Mandi Deluccy, who had some free time that day, the reins. Turns out, Maria actually had some match flash (say that 10 times fast!) in her flash book—and it fit the awkward gap perfectly! For those who have weird gaps in their patchwork sleeves/tattoo projects, you know how rare this is; usually, odd gaps require an artist to sketch the piece directly into the gap, or at the very least, take a rough sketch of the gap’s shape and draw the stencil design within the “gap.” But I truly lucked out—and now, I have an awesome tatty to show for it!
In terms of pain, the spot was very easy. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: I wish I had a million arms to get tattooed because tattooing arms isn’t painful at all. In fact, certain spots on the arm—the outer forearm, the outer bicep—are virtually painless. And, since this tattoo is literally like 3 inches large, it took all of 20 minutes to tattoo. Easy, peasy, lemon fucking squeezey.
If you’re in the New Paltz/Rosendale area: Be sure to give Mandi (@mandi_deluccy on Instagram) a follow—or better yet, stop by Guts N’ Glory Ink.
To Mandi—thanks so much! I love my new tattoo, and I’ll be back soon!
THE TATTOO COLLECTOR 