I got my first tattoo done about nine months ago (I was 18; I'm now 19) during my first semester of college. My best friend went with me when I picked it out and when I went back to get it done. We live in a small town and it's hard finding a good tattoo artist around here.  I knew nothing about the man doing my tattoo, nothing about his work (not to mention, he had only been tattooing for six months!). But it was the best that I could do and I went ahead with it. My friend, at the spur of the moment, got a tattoo on her hip before me. And then it was my turn.

My tattoo was on my back and the tattoo itself was rather large. When he first started, I couldn't sit still. I kept jerking every time he started a new line. But just minutes into it, I was fine. I had gotten used to the pain, which wasn't really that bad, like I had been told countless times that it would be ... I actually fell asleep during it at one point!  Chad, the tattooist, was great. Very intelligent and fun to talk to, he kept me at ease even when it did hurt, and he was very patient with me at the beginning, while I was still getting used to the feeling.  The tattoo is fantastic. He was so proud of it that he called his girlfriend and had her rush his camera over so that he could take a picture for his book.
- rachel26280

I have eight tattoos. Got my first one the day after I turned 18. I drove two and a half hours to get it. Anyway, one of my last tattoos is a Maltese cross with flames - I got it as a symbol of my dad.  It was supposed to say "Fire" on the top and "Rescue" on the bottom. Well, let's just say you should always look before the artist starts ... The guy spelled "Rescue" as "Resc." Well, there is no such thing as "Resc." I was so upset! So the lesson learned: Always look and pay attention.
- rhinytinysmama

Last August, for my 50th birthday, I had one of the radiation tattoo dots I have from breast cancer treatment done into a flower -  the dot is on the inside center of the flower. Pretty boring, really - but meaningful and symbolic to me.
- jackson-cgc

I wanted a dragon on my leg, from a magnet that my mom had on the fridge since I was 5. She wanted to get it, but my stepdad told her that he didn't want to be married to the tattooed lady, so I got it. Well, when it was finished it looked great; a little purple dragon with green wings, sitting on a cloud blowing bubbles. The detail in it is amazing!

Anyway, I had to go to the store right after, so I had my pant leg rolled up. Well, the first comment that I got was from a little 4-year-old girl who said, "Look, Mommy! It's Barney."  I was in shock, then, to make it even better, the mom looks and says, " No, honey, that's what we call Puff the Magic Dragon."  I could not believe what I was hearing. It isn't Barney or Puff; it is just the little dragon that I got for my mom.
- cali_girl85

I went in to get my second tattoo in a shop in the small town where I had just started teaching. As I was sitting in the chair, I was making small talk with the employees. I was talking about how I was a teacher and the places I had taught before. When all of the sudden one of the employees screams, "Mr. Barry, you were my seventh-grade science teacher!" To my surprise, one of my former students ended up 300 miles away in a very small town in the same tattoo parlor I decided to frequent.
- age91

When my hubby and I were dating, my MaMa liked him; except for his Navy tattoo. She thought "U.S.N." was some girl's initials. She's from Taiwan, so she had no clue what a Navy tattoo was. My uncle came home on leave; ironically, he was in the Navy at the time; and admired my hubby's tattoo. MaMa asked my uncle how he could like something with some other woman's initials and my uncle explained that "U.S.N." wasn't a woman, but was the "United States Navy." She finally believed him because we'd been at her for months and she just couldn't get used to it. Now she works for a Harley dealership and gets to see lots of ink. She gets a laugh when she sees "U.S.N." on somebody; though she still checks to see if it's some woman's initials.
- dragonlady1964

I have fallen asleep during a few, but I did pass out when I got my first one done. I was getting a bull skull in the middle of my back, just below my neck, and everything was going smoothly. Then, I just remember one of the guys asking me if I was OK. I said yes and he said, "Are ya sure? Because you just passed out." We had a laugh and a break and then finished it up.
- gottibond