{"id":1872,"date":"2013-10-20T09:11:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-20T13:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mikejandreau.com\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2013-10-22T09:58:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T13:58:25","slug":"tattoo-removal-process-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mikejandreau.com\/tattoo-removal-process-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Tattoo Removal Process – Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’ve had three tattoos on my body since I was 18 years old. \u00a0I turned 34 three weeks ago and I’m very clearly not the same person that I was 16 years ago. \u00a0I started on my 18th birthday with this little gem<\/p>\n
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I figured “Hey, I’m a drummer. I’m a badass, let’s get a skull!” \u00a0The version of this that I picked out had “Rock & Roll” around it, too, but I asked for that to be removed. \u00a0The artist said he’d have not done the tattoo with the wording. \u00a0I wish, all these years later, that he’d have talked me out of putting this on my body at all. \u00a0It’s been on my upper right arm for over 16 years now.<\/p>\n
Around a month later, my best friend at the time turned 18. So I did what any good friend does, I took him first to a strip club and then to a tattoo parlor — the same one I went to for my 18th birthday. \u00a0I got this gem:<\/p>\n
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What’s the meaning of it? What does it symbolize? \u00a0Absolutely nothing. It symbolizes that I had $40 on me after I paid for John’s tattoo and this was the $40 tattoo I could afford.<\/p>\n
Then it gets interesting from there. \u00a0I worked with the artist, who’s name I believe was Steven, to design a piece for my back. An epic piece of giant proportions and amazing color and design! \u00a0I loved it, so much! \u00a0I went in one day with the $1500 in hand ready to have it done, only to be told that there wasn’t enough time to get it all done that day. \u00a018 year old me had no idea how long it’d take to do, so I left empty handed.<\/p>\n
When I finally went back to do the piece, the artist felt bad and only charge me $100 for the entire session, which lasted close to 10 hours. \u00a0(I may be misremembering that total amount of time, but it was definitely over 8 hours because we got there at noon and left after dark.)<\/p>\n
This beauty has been on my back since March (or April, I really can’t remember) of 1998<\/p>\n
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It’s tough to tell the scale of it from the crappy iPhone photo (I’m taking actual photos of the removal process with my camera and will post a gallery when that’s all done in about 18 months), but it’s from shoulder to shoulder and around 10″ tall. \u00a0It’s, according to the removal guy, Rob, the largest tattoo that he could do in a single sitting.<\/p>\n
So there you have it, there’s the backstory on the tattoos and if you know me at all now, you know why I would want to have these removed. \u00a0They’re definitely not me. \u00a0The “Destination Unknown” still\u00a0sort<\/em> of describes me, but I have a pretty firm grasp on what I’m doing now and have a good idea of where I’ll end up in life.<\/p>\n