My tattoos and piercings, pain and experience.

In 2015 I marked two things off my list:

69. Get my bellybutton pierced
70. Get a tattoo

I completed those two things about two weeks apart from each other, which was pretty cool.  Now, over a year later I have three tattoos, two non-ear piercings, and I've stretched my ears to 4G.

My first and third tattoos were done at Fianna Studio fundraisers for the ARLGP.  I was incredibly nervous to get this done, because it was my first tattoo.  I had just gotten my belly button pierced about two weeks prior, and that hurt, so I was extra nervous for the tattoo.
As I found out, tattoos and piercings don't feel alike at all.  The most surprising thing when I got my belly button piercing was how much it hurt - everything I'd heard said I'd barely feel it.  The most surprising thing about the tattoo was how little it hurt.





My second tattoo is the only personalized piece of the three I currently have.  The artist designed it, picked the colors, and everything, all I said was I want a Betta fish.
Now, there is actually meaning behind this tattoo.  Other than my being a fish-enthusiast.
Something many people don't realize about Bettas is that even though they're small, delicate-looking, gorgeous fish they are extremely aggressive.  They can and will easily take down another fish, especially the males.
I always compare them to the black-tipped reef shark.  Which are small, but still maintain the "scary" shark look.  They are shy, have been known to live in social groups, and can actually be quite friendly towards divers; especially if the people have snacks for them.
I consider it a yin and yang kind of thing, one beautiful small freshwater fish that will kill another of it's species just for being in the same tank, and one large "scary" (personally, I find them rather adorable) shark that is gentle, shy, and will only bite humans under very rare circumstances.

I already mentioned my third tattoo being another animal shelter fundraiser tattoo.  This one is a little better hidden, it can only be seen while I'm wearing fairly short shorts.  I got it where I did thinking that it wouldn't be any more painful than my arm.  I was wrong.  It was quite a bit more painful, though still bearable.

My septum piercing is an interesting story.  I apparently don't have what is referred to as a "sweet spot".  Which basically means that if you pull the skin down on my septum there's no good place to pierce through the skin.  Generally, they want to pierce through that skin, and not through the cartilage.
My is through my cartilage.
The biggest issues with piercing through the cartilage are:

1) A longer healing time.
2) It's more painful to have done.

Current personal piercing/tattoo location pain ratings (least to most painful):

1. My first tattoo, the pawprint on my arm. Hurt less, and healed better than any piercing/tattoo I've ever had. Never had any problems except when I sunburned it (that was stupid and my fault, I know) and when the cat sunk her claws into it.
2. Septum. Didn't hurt at all, though since it went through cartilage it should have hurt more than normal. Healing time was ~2 months for me, but not too bad.
3. The betta fish tattoo. Hurt more than the first because it hits my shoulder, and pretty close to my armpit. Still not too bad.
4. Earlobe. I don't remember getting the piercing really, but I know it got infected every time I wore heavy earrings, which sucked!
5. Thigh tattoo. My most painful tattoo to date, but not bad. However, healing was weird because I got it a week before going on a backpacking trip, so it got pretty dried out and that wasn't great.
6. Stretching. I got impatient and ripped my ear once causing two days of intense pain and swelling before I took the jewelry out. Another time my ears randomly swelled and closed up a lot. And recently I stretched, and it worked fine. The next day they were sore, and a day or two later I took the jewelry out because it hurt and ended up bleeding and swollen. Otherwise stretching has been easy, and even less painful than anything else.
7. Belly button, because of how it was done. The clamps hurt, the needle going through hurt (they're not really supposed to wiggle the needle through the way he did), the jewelry going through hurt. And being the genius I am, I got it when I was wearing a harness everyday the entire time I was working. Healing took foreverrrr.

Next Saturday I have my next tattoo appointment, and hopefully within the next month or so I'll be getting my industrial piercing, which will knock another thing off the list!

Laser Tag, Trips, and Electronics

Finally I post about my trip to play laser tag, one of the things on my list that I finally got to cross off!

On Valentine's day this year my boyfriend decided to take me to play laser tag.  He read my list and saw it, so that's what we did! We visited Hilltop Arcade in Somersworth, played some arcade games, and then played laser tag.  I had a lot of fun, and I will definitely play laser tag again.  It was the perfect Valentine's date.  

As the title says I have a couple of trips planned that are coming up pretty fast.  First, my friend Amy, and I are going to be taking a train down to Boston for a weekend in April.  I won't post too much about it not, but some of the trip highlights will be visiting the aquarium, getting piercings, my first visit to the cheesecake factory, and much more! It's going to be a let's do as much as we can in Boston in a weekend as possible type trip.  I'll post a detail plan soon.

And the last subject of this post, electronics.  My boyfriend bought a new laptop and gave me his old Macbook, and today I ordered a Canon Rebel T5 off Amazon.  The camera should be here before our Boston trip, and hopefully I'll have a couple days to play around with it and figure it out beforehand.  Definitely look forward to those pictures, and keep an eye on my Instagram, and Flickr to see them all.  I've got three lenses, and a couple filter sets coming with it, so I'll be able to do some cool stuff.

Full Week of "Adulting", + Crossing Things off the List!

You may not know what "adulting" means, so before I dive into this post I'm going to give you a brief definition.

Adulting: the term for when a young adult (usually 18-24, or so), does something by themselves that is something that's basically required of adults in this day and age.  Such as, making an appointment, going to a job interview, buying a car, renting an apartment, etc.  An "Adulting win" is when they do something successfully, usually for the first time, I.E. getting their first job.  An "Adulting Fail" is when they attempt to do something "adulty" and screw up, such as microwaving tin foil.

Last week, my week of adulting was:
Sunday: I Ordered several things off of ebay, including a refurbed 2009 MacBook, without a charger.  I had to be very careful and research the seller before I bought the computer, to make sure the under $200 laptop was worth it.  It definitely ending up being worth it! I received it two days before I was supposed to, and only two days after it shipped.

Monday: I went to work? (Um, I did that four days this week though...) That was the most adult thing I did on Monday, I believe,

Tuesday: I made my own appointment to get my haircut, in person. I also made an appointment to get my belly button pierced over the phone.

Wednesday: First potluck I've been to by myself, I even made a cake to bring.  It was at my new job, we had an employee potluck.  It was certainly a lot of fun!

Thursday: Just my normal music lessons and volunteering... Though volunteering at the animal shelter could almost be considered an adult thing.

Friday: Payed for my own belly button piercing, and for my haircut.  I even tipped both places! I didn't try to figure out the correct tip amount, though, I just gave them extra money.  I was shocked, I had most of my hair cut off, I got it shampoo'd, and styled, and the whole thing only cost $27 before the tip!

So, with my full week of adulting, I also knocked something off of my list: getting my belly button pierced.

I'm going to be honest, it hurt more than I was expecting.  I've read a lot of people say that they barely felt it at all, or that they didn't feel it.  I definitely felt it.  I didn't bleed, but it felt like he had pierced too much of my skin, and was having a hard time getting the needle through.  Maybe it was just me, but it seemed to take a long time to poke all the way through.
It's doing better now, except for when I accidentally pull on it, or brush it wrong.  I'm sure it will be sore for a few days. The piercer I went to was pretty bad, too, from research and talking to people, so that could have been part of it.