I was 18. I had to wait until the day after my 18th birthday, though, because my birthday was on Easter Sunday that year so the shop was closed. I had only picked out the design for it maybe a month earlier, and I hung it up in my room so that I could get used to looking at it every day. My mom wanted me to wait longer before I decided on it, but I was sure. To this day, I don't regret it. Although, it's only been 4 years...there's still time!

I remember thinking it didn't hurt as bad as I expected...I got it on my right shoulder because mom insisted it be somewhere I could cover up, and because I figured it would hurt less. Today, with an arm and a chest (and some extra) done, I still think I was right.

I was super nervous about how it would heal, and I considered calling the shop like 50 times about things that I know now are totally normal. I freaked out about ruining it somehow every single day until it was perfectly healed. I still worry about the healing process even though I've never messed one up. I guess I'm just a worrier.

I got my first tattoo fairly recently. Just thus past summer in fact. It felt like a much bigger decicion before it actually began, but once the first line was inked all my nerves vanished. It wasn't the most comfortable experience, but wasn't nearly as painful as I psyched myself out for. When it was over I was exstatic. I loved it. It was my own drawing on me, and it felt so personal. I often forget it's there do to the placement (right shoulder blade), and sometimes wish it was in a more visible spot. However, that just meant I had to get my second.

I got my first tattoo in the winter of 2010. I actually got two at the same time: one I had been sitting on for a little over a year, and one to match the one my best friend was getting. The process itself was so simple and while it wasn't a pleasant feeling, I got myself so wound up over the pain that I psyched myself up almost a little too high (it wasn't that bad, and I've definitely gotten worse since!).

But since it was my first tattoo, I was so worried about what I was going to get and what I was going to say to people when they inevitably asked "but what does it mean?" So I spent a lot of time planning and thinking about what I was going to get and where and what it was going to look like. I nearly drove myself crazy over the course of a year and a half just trying to figure out a little 3 inch high ink girl.

The biggest issue I ran into when getting my first tattoos was how to hide them from my father. He was adamantly against them and I had finally talked him into eventually letting me get one. What I didn't explain to him was that I would be getting them a week after discussing it with him. I've never regretted getting my tattoos (and I have gotten and will continue to get more) but having my father tell me he was disappointed in me for getting them was probably the worst feeling in the world (and honestly the most painful part about getting any of my tattoos).