Tattoo, the day after

t's gotta be a law. Or the sick joke of the Universe.

You know how when you have an injured or sore body part, that's the part you poke, pinch, slam into a door frame (fuck, that hurts!) with alarming frequency? The same thing holds for freshly tattooed bits.

Slammed the wrist into the door frame this morning, saw stars. Poke the wrist with my badge. Banged wrist into desk. Bumped wrist on PowerBook just now. Go fig.

I'm apprehensive about Phase 2. It will be around my whole wrist and slightly wider than the Apple. Jon said the really tender bit is where the wrist and hand connect. I think the top of my wrist will be OK because there's muscle there, unlike the underside.

I made the mistake of putting scented lotion on it this evening. It was soothing ... right up until it felt like there were burning needles shooting through my arm. I ran and rinsed it off. The skin around the tat was red and angry. After leaving Scott's, I made a quick trip to Freddy's. I knew there had to be something on the organic aisle that would help. And so we have acquired 99% aloe vera gelly, certified 99% organic. No parabens, no artificial colors, no synthetic fragrance (thank fucking dog) and no animal testing (yeah, we'll test that shit on me).

First application went to the yin yang on the left arm. That felt pretty good. Then we did the wrist. Soothing, cool ... warmth, pain... did my best to ignore and ate my Hot Pockets while checking email. Now, the skin is still a little red, but cooler to the touch. The apple is starting to look like it was inked on an elephant; those layers of skin are dying off and drying quick. I can see the ink below the skin were the drier skin is shrinking. The muscles in my forearm feel taught from trying to keep my wrist still, and it hurts to roll my wrist toward me.

Yeah, it's all self-inflicted, I know. And I'm not really gonna weenie out on the finished product. I'm gonna load up on my echinacea and pau d'arco to make sure the immune system is doing all it can. I'll make a conscious effort to NOT smack into things.

And then I'll grin. Because after seeing some of the other Apple tats out there, I know that Jon hooked me up with some very solid artwork. Can't wait to get it finished.