Saigon Ink baby!!!!!

Right getting on this 5 month trip wasn't crazy enough, I had to go get a tattoo done in Saigon,Vietnam!!
It's been a long (almost prehistoric) dream of mine, that if I ever do this crazy trip (which also has been a long dream), I certainly will get my first tattoo done as a memory of it!!!

Now it being my first tattoo I had no idea what I was getting myself into....acting like blond bimbo Inga from Sweden my vision was to get a big black dragon lingering up my body, starting from my (yes I know, perfect) arse, over my lower back and turning over the side of my body and torso! Yeah I think anyone with some tattoo experience out there can see where I was heading with that idea =) To the exquisite world of mass pain!!!

Filling in the contours in the beginning- Ok pain still!

So I looked up the best artist(s) in town, called Saigon Ink, sort of like famous american TV show Miami Ink, these guys were the shit!! They'd been doing it for years and had 2 shops and tv performances to back it up with!! Plus they did a really clean job....remember clean is half the tattoo!!!
So they drew up a nice dragon with my guidance, attached it to my body, where as I went "No I want it bigger, it's the only one I'm gonna get!!!" So they made it bigger hehehe
A girl tattooer said I was either totally dumb or masterly brave to do a huge tattoo going over the ribs and side...."He he heh", I thought, I survived 4 months lying in bed with arthritis, how bad could it be??!!

Truth now afterwards folks, do not make a huge tattoo in those places. THE PAIN WAS GARGANTUOUS, MASSIVE  AND OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! It was fine when they started filling in the contours with 1 needle, I mean it still hurt over the ribs.
However there is nothing I can give to caompare the pain when they start to fill in the tattoo, see they use a pen with 9 needles at once!!!!! Oh did I forget to mention it took 6 hours to complete!!! Longer than a triple by- pass hahahah. After 4 h of lying in one position with a small break in between, having to squeeze together every inch of my body and muscles from the pain of the needle, I was ready to give in! Just lying on the seat, sweating from the torture, aching in every muscle I couldn't concentrate on anything except the trembling of the needle and the 3 sec pause between the filling when he dipped the needle(s) in ink again!! At one point it got so bad (it really did) a second guy had to keep me down with force cause the pain made my whole body shake!!! To make it worse, at that point I felt he was working on the tail piece and soon would finish, little did I suspect when I suddenly felt the needle back on the rib parts...see apparently I have thick skin and he couldn't penetrate enough just once, so he had to go back again....OUCH!!!!

My little baby!! (and I'm not talking of the easy go girl in the picture hehe!

Aftermath:
There's a saying that after you get your first tattoo, you'll be wanting more! The guy who came up with that must been as thick as shit or eating "happy pizza" aka pizza with magic mushrooms (yes they have it here). The tattoo turned out really beautiful, even the tattoo guys were amazed and started taking pics, but remembering the pain I think im just gonna stay with my one big tattoo!!!

So it turned out fab!!! Me sooo happy!!!