Garbine Muguruza v. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (30)
Garbine played solid tennis, was confident and aggressive, and kept on rolling. It was a good match. It looks like no one attended, but in fact everyone was just trying to escape the blistering sun by moving to the ends of the areas that were covered by the roof. It was the first day in a short string of wicked hot temperatures in Melbourne. A few days after this the temperatures topped triple digits. At this point it wasn't ridiculously hot, but it was unbearable in the direct sunlight. As the match progressed my seat went from being in the shade to being in the sun. Thankfully I was able to scoot over a few seats and watched the remainder of the match in the shade.
Garbine's match was the only one on my schedule for the day, so I had a bunch of free time. I wanted to use my time wisely, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I knew I should take advantage of a mostly open afternoon and evening by going to a museum or checking out a significant tourist attraction, but I had an impulse that was nagging at me. When I was in the Whitsundays I had the urge to get a new tattoo. I hadn't thought about a new tattoo in years. I had absolutely zero desire to get one, but it's like once I had a few enjoyable days in the Whitsundays the idea got under my skin and I couldn't let it go. In the past I have sworn that I would absolutely never get a tattoo in a foreign country, but you know what they say - never say never. :)
I held on to the idea from the Whitsundays to Sydney and then to Melbourne. It felt right in the Whitsundays, but I couldn't come up with an image I really wanted. I didn't feel right in Sydney at all, but I kept the door open. I was interested, but I wanted the moment to feel right and I didn't want to force it. There were three things that ended up tipping the scales for me Melbourne . First after asking around and reading some articles, I learned that the tattoo industry in Australia is just as stringent when it comes to safety, cleanliness, and health as it is in the US. From a clinical perspective, it wasn't any riskier to get a tattoo in Australia than it would be in the US. Plus, culturally tattoos are SUPER accepted in Australia. It's more uncommon to find someone who doesn't have one at all, as opposed to the other way around like most of us are used to. I was surprised to see how many people have neck tattoos in Australia and have prevalent tattoo parlors are.
The second thing that led me to go for it was the fact that I found what I wanted. Like I said, I wasn't thinking of getting a tattoo at all before coming to Australia. In the Whitsundays I got the idea of doing it, but didn't have an idea of what to get. I wanted it to be something "Australia" but I didn't want it to be cheesy. I wanted it to feel organic. A koala bear on a beach holding a tennis racquet wasn't quite what I was going for even though all of the elements would represent my time in Australia. A few days before I actually went to get the tattoo I was walking down one of the streets in central Melbourne and I found a t-shirt that had a graphic I like. Anyone who has seen my other three tattoos can attest that mine are all fairly simplistic and geometric. I wanted to keep a new one in the same vein and the graphic I found would do just that.
The third thing that fell into place was that I found a well-respected tattoo parlor that accepted walk-ins at a reasonable price. I found a few articles on the internet about the best tattoo parlors in Melbourne and several were repeated on all of the lists. After the Muguruza match I called Good Luck Tattoo and they told me that if I wanted to could come over and get it done right then. So I did!
When I reached the tattoo parlor I started getting more nervous. What if I was being too impulsive? What if I regretted getting it? What if it turned out kind of cheesy and feel really juvenile? These thoughts raced through my mind and were at war with the opposing ones. Spontaneous is not the same as impulsive. What if I regretted not getting it? I can always get it removed or hide it. I've had some great experiences in life because I'm spontaneous, and maybe a bit impulsive. :) That's how I ended up with a shaved head, a nose ring, a trampoline, and I'm sure a ton of things that weren't momentous, but also never caused me real harm. So, I went with my gut at did it!
I know that my foot/ ankle looks kind of grubby in some of these pictures. I took special care to wash and shave really well in the morning as I was tossing around the idea of getting the tattoo in my head, but I wore sandals that day and walked around the tennis grounds and Melbourne for half the day. Once I got the tattoo parlor my feet were kind of gross. In general my feet have been pretty grubby this entire trip because of walking around so much in sandals.
This guy isn't anyone special, just a guy I thought was hot waiting to get a tattoo. He was very tall. And Australian. He was eventually replaced by another tall Australian. I enjoyed my time in the shop.
The thing about tattoos is that you can never remember exactly what it's like to get one. I alway describe it as having someone drag a shard of glass through your skin. People who don't have them assume the needles feel the same as getting a short or getting blood drawn. I couldn't disagree more. To me, it's a totally different sensation. When the artist, Hwaro, started all I could think was, "Holy fuck this is way more painful than I remember!" It was not great. After a few minutes he moved on to a different section and it was almost like I wasn't feeling it at all. It turns out that the spot where he started was just the most sensitive spot. I think it was probably the most sensitive spot I had with any of my tattoos.
I'm really happy with my tattoo choice, the color, and it's placement, but I'll be honest and say I'm disappointed in the quality of the work by the artist, especially since this parlor was so highly praised. The artist's other works are amazing with impeccable lines. I thought it would turn out that way, but once it healed and the scabs fell off you can the uneven thickness of the line. The above picture is from right after I got it done. The below picture was from two or three weeks after I got it done. You can tell that there is a distinctively thicker section of line on the kangaroo's back. If it really bothers me over time I can get it worked on, but I'll probably leave it. The color will fade over time because it's brown and also because of where it's located/ high skin cell turnover rate. When that starts to happen it'll probably be even less noticeable. I'm also pretty sure that no one will be able to tell from a normal vantage point. I'm still glad I got it.
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