From Mad Props To Tattoo Shops

A couple weeks ago I was just having a regular ol' planned Saturday (some errands, lunch with Amanda) when Katie asked if I wanted to get our tattoos that same day. I told her "Yes, let's do it!". I'm not hating on spur of the moment tattoos because I'm sure I'll have one or two of those in my lifetime but these suckers have been planned for the better part of a year. But finding a tattoo artist to do something so small was brutal. I have been emailing and calling and researching for months. I'm not going to call out shops by name but I will say this about the ones I contacted:

• Shop One - Told me we would need to first come in for a consultation and then come back for the actual tattoo. The tattoo is just literally dots and dashes and Katie and I both agreed did not require a consultation visit. She and I have both had larger pieces done and even those didn't require a consultation. 
• Shop Two - They wanted something like $200 for the tattoo...EACH. That's cute. Hilarious. Katie and I were willing to pay up to $100 (shop minimums usually range from $50-100) not including tip. $200 for a tiny tattoo. PFFFT.
• Shop Three - A reputable (always heard great things) shop but when we walked in didn't have a great vibe and the guy at the front counter was rude. Plus they couldn't even do it that day. 

I called Ascension Tattoo and Becca was super friendly and said she might be able to squeeze us in with someone later in the day and she would call us back in an hour. She indeed called us back within an hour and said she had someone ready to go. Katie and I jumped in my car and drove straight there. We filled out all of the paperwork iPad work and boom Katie was up. It took Jime all of 5 minutes. He cleaned his station and next thing I knew was shaving my ankle. (Related Side Note: And for the record that shit has not been shaved since because I'm super scared to shave over the tattoo because it's still too fresh. So my ankle hairs are gnarly right now. This is the first tattoo I've gotten in a place that I shave daily.) We wanted the tattoo to match as much as possible so Katie and I stood very close with our ankles touching while he lined it up on the floor. It looked like we were playing some weird tattoo twister. Another 5 minutes and I, too, was done. He wrapped us up and we were on our way. 

Jime Litwalk was our tattoo artist. You may have seen him on (Dustin's favorite show) 'InkMaster'. He definitely does a lot of cool, more intricate, bigger piece tattoos so we really appreciate him taking time to do our little baby ones. Also we appreciate Ascension for their rad customer service and reasonable prices. (I'm pretty sure this is the same shop I got my first tattoo in but it has been totally reworked inside and possibly renamed. Weird!)

My InstaBook caption:

We did a thing. A BFF kind of thing. Dots and dashes that in morse code say BFF. After 14 years of all the good (marriages and kids and cats and lots of laughs) and a lot of bad too (deaths and health issues and job shit and all the things life throws at you) she’s still my girl. We met at what was then SCC and it was an instant connection. What started as a mutual love for The OC (Seth 😍) and interior design evolved into something deeper like planning our retirement home situation together. 😉 If it wasn’t for her adding me to her MySpace top 8 Dustin and I may have never found each other. So yeah, we’re tight. Ride or die. Thanks for all of your support over the years but especially this last year. I love your girls like they’re my own and since I don’t want any human children I’ll take them off your hands when puberty kicks in and makes them unbearable. Ha! I love you.