Needle Torture

Why hello there. I hope you're all having a fantastic day. Mine has been an eclectic day full of fun, friends, agony, excitement and accomplishment. It started bright and early with some snickerdoodle coffee and breakfast. I had an egg white scramble, an english muffin with sugar free apricot preserves and a banana.


After breakfast I did some chores around the house, got caught up on some blog reading and did a bit of laundry. EXCITING RIGHT? At about noon I got dressed and ready to make the somewhat long drive to Massillon for the dreaded yet exciting third session of my shoulder tattoo. I won't even lie, I was lightweight freaking out. I knew that it would take my friend Blair HOURS to finish it and the discomfort of my last session three weeks ago was still fresh on my mind. He basically told me to be there by 1:00 and said that he would just keep working till he was done. EEEEK!!!!

Before we left I made Nick and I quick protein smoothies to have a bit later at the tattoo shop since lunch was clearly not going to be possible. Here's what went into my mix.

• 1 cup Vanilla Almond Breeze
• frozen blueberries
• frozen pineapple
• frozen strawberries
• frozen blackberries
• 1/2 of a banana
• 1 scoop of chocolate whey protein
• 2 packets of splenda

Nick had the same mix except I made his with regular milk. And then we were off. I nervously made my way down to the shop, settled into the chair and let Blair torture me for 4 hours.


Here is the before, before, before picture of my tattoo...


Here it is after session #1 about six weeks ago...


Here is after session #2 about three weeks ago...


Here it is two hours in when we took the first break today...


We took another break an hour later (the arm was swollen something AWFUL) but I didn't get a progress picture at that stage.

And here is the final end result after roughly 4 hours of pain. SWOLLEN!!!


It may have been a bit longer then 4 hours. Honestly I'm not sure how long the breaks were in between and I was left somewhat exhausted and dazed from the aching pain. Let's just say we got there at 1:00 and he was done at about 6:00. :-O

Blair wrapped my arm up in some very sexy saran wrap and taped me up. I looked like a swoolen beast! HA! Nick and I left the shop for a bit and grabbed dinner at Rocknee's. I'm not crazy about the place but we were both starving and it was right down the street. Nick had a huge double decker burger with coleslaw and I had a grilled chicken salad with light honey mustard dressing and some tea. IT WAS SO COLD OUT! The tea was lovely!


Sorry, the lighting was dim so the pictures didn't turn out all that great.

After dinner we went back to the shop and hung out with everyone till they closed up at 8:00. Then we decided to follow Blair home to hang out for a bit longer and watch the Rally Race.

I can feel my heart beating in my arm.... Is that normal? HA!

We left Canton at about 10:00. I couldn't WAIT to take the saran wrap off, wash and clean my arm, put my pajamas on and curl up on the couch! I was SO TIRED!!

And guess what?? I'm on the couch, in my pajamas, and my arm is clean and breathing fresh air again! YAY!!!

Now it's time for bed!!! Goodnight!