No Turning Back

So the "Driedorf Coat of Arms" shown in my last post came out really good, so I had the Killustrator draw a nice piece for my chest. After a few weeks, he called me and said he was ready to unveil the art work. I was very delighted to see what he came up with, and made an appointment right away. J.D. was pretty stoked to do a full chest tattoo since a great number of people want hearts, flowers, little cartoon characters, and other small tattoos. You can see from the drawing below that this was the beginning of something beautiful.

For those of you who know me you must be thinking "Doode, what in the hell are you doing?" My answer would simply be "Something I have wanted to do for a long time." The drawing above is by no means the completed drawing, but it is the beginning with more to come.

So I arrived promptly for my appointment and had a really cool adrenaline rush going before we even started. J.D. put the drawing on my chest and began. A full chest tattoo is not something I would recommend for the faint hearted, you must have extreme focus and ability to take a tremendous amount of pain. The breast bone in the middle of my boney chest, my sternum, and the top of my chest where the head of the Eagle is were by far the most painful areas. This visit was only for the line work and I sat like a rock for over five hours. As you can see, J.D. is an amazing artist as is evident by some of his work hanging on the walls of his studio.

The endorphins produced from running the machines on your chest for hours on end deliver a feeling unlike any other and leave you thirsting for more of the same. My Jennifer was completely awe struck that I had decided to get such a large tattoo on my otherwise unblemished body. A feeling of betrayal came over me, but I had already started, and there really was no turning back unless I wanted to have an unfinished tattoo on my chest. I quickly overcame this feeling, and rejoiced in having made the decision to adorn such beautiful art on my body. The secret to having the best tattoos with no regrets is to plan them out, make sure they have meaning, and find the absolute best artist. My tattoos are near and dear to my heart because they represent my home and my people, they represent who I am, and remind me that I can be proud to be German. We definitely had fun.