Here is my entry for

@papa-pepper 's Tattoo Story Contest

#tattoostorycontest

I was about 18... seems like everyone was fantasizing about a tattoo.

One day my little brother comes home and he pulls out a tattoo machine he had acquired from a guy in the neighbourhood. It was not a professional machine, nope. This was selfmade rig, like something you would expect to see in prison. It was made from a electric razor; there was a pen cylinder attached to the hull with a piece of wire going through it that was connected to the machinery. There were some premade needles which you could change on the other end. They consisting of something like insect needle and a piece of the plastic tube that you have inside pens holding the ink, melted together. The thing held together with thin angle iron(don't know where that was from) and some tape along with some rubberbands.
Along with the set came some inks, they were china inks that you could buy from a bookstore that sold art suplies. Also some longer sticks with multiple needles that you would use by hand. I think there was also somekind of pencil you could draw on your sketch with and use that to transfer the image with water on your skin.

It was on the same night that i had quickly sketched a cobra and tattooed it on my brothers arm. I may have done some lines on an orange, that was what you're suppose to do i had heard, but not enough to call it practice.
I had the idea back then that i could draw well and tattooing is another thing..

Next day i would sketch one for myself, it took a little longer to plan and i hacked it in. I did managed the front side of my arm ok but the backside was kinda tricky, the ink did not seem to stick so good and it was left faded. I did experiment with the sticks also trying to enforce the lines. It did not turn up very nice. But it would not be the worse i ever did.

Word would spread and soon a some of my old friends from childrens home, where i spent a few years in my teens, would come over and i would make them tattoos aswell. Skulls with daggers and crosses, dragons, tribals.. Some people even paid me. At first the tattoos would seem nice, but inside i knew they weren't that good. As years have gone you'll have random encounters with those guys and some would show their cover ups and i would sigh in relief. Some still have them on like my brother has.

I used to hear some comments about my tattoo. One guy in bar was asking about it,"did it hurt" and all that, till he showed his full sleeve. People ask me why i don't cover it up or refreshen the lines or something. It doesn't really bother me, though it's not pretty it's mine. it reminds me of those others i did for my friends that were not so good. Some of them really horrible. Sometimes i've thought about getting another picture, but they're kinda low on my priorities.

There it is. My spine thing with spikes coming out of it that goes around the forearm. My grandpa thought it was some kind of lizard.

Later on i would get to study art and it is my life now. Follow me @mikkolyytinen