First Sitting - Water Sleeve

Today marks the first sitting for my sleeve.  After three hours, with minimal breaks, we have a pretty fabulous start if I do say so myself!  I can not wait until it is completely colored in.

Here is a picture of the outline Mark drew up for me:

Outline/Sketch

I fell in love with it the moment I saw it.  It was just what I was wanting and luckily when he placed the stencil on my arm, it fit perfect.  The stencil was actually a little small for my arm and we ended up having a whole section we will need to fill in of empty space.  (My arm was fatter than he anticipated!)

Empty space...

Here are some pictures of the finished outline.  I will write about the actual process shortly...

Here are some detailed shots:

Butterfly Koi number one

Butterfly Koi number two

Peony one

Peony one with Peony bud

Peony two

Peony two

Mark and I decided that we would go for the full sleeve, instead of the 3/4 sleeve he had mentioned at our initial consultation.  He is confident we will be able to work my existing pieces into the sleeve without it being awkward.

Overall, the actual process of the tattooing was not nearly as bad as I had expected.  I think only sitting for three hours was the key.  I think if I had sat for four or even five hours it would have been too much.  We covered a lot of space in the three hours, all things considered.  Mark is wonderfully fast and has a fairly light hand which definitely helped!

Some of the areas that hurt the most were the areas I least expected.  I anticipated the inside of my arm would hurt, and my elbow crease.

Elbow crease

The top of my shoulder hurt more than I anticipated, as well as the small section that went over my wrist bone:

Top of shoulder

Wrist

The section that did not hurt nearly as bad was my elbow:

Elbow waves

Now I have to wait for the healing to begin.  I am anticipating some swelling and bruising, but so far it is not that bad.  I think tomorrow will be the worse day as far as the "aftermath".  So keep an eye out for updates.  I will be posting info about tattoo aftercare, updated pictures as my work heals, and more information about upcoming pieces.  Night all!