It’s been two days and the tat now hurts like a bish (think of your worst ever sunburn sensation two days after foolishly baking yourself under the high summer sun). Got mine done by the great Dyani Lao, the same artist who did Anne’s magnificent Sandman tattoo. For the design, I chose to have an Ouroboros, influenced heavily by the tattoo worn by the Humunculus in the animated series Fullmetal Alchemist (bite me).

Not on impulse, I’ve been wanting to get one for the longest time but I had to be absolutely sure that I have the most perfect design I won’t regret having for eternity. I needed to have a great tattoo artist, too, skilled and worthy enough to stain my skin with art so fine, anyone who has a glimpse of it would want to be my groupie. Without hesitation. For life (4evr-4real LOL). Right, that coming from somebody who considered having Alfonse Elric’s tattoo on his right leg.

When I attended Globe‘s YOUNIVERSE and IMMORTALTXT launch around a month ago, I would have ended going home that night branded with the Alchemist’s symbol (above).  You see, attendees were challenged with a dare that most had a hard time refusing. Dare to get a tat right there and right then and, when your name gets picked, you’re going home with not just a tattoo but a brand new laptop as well. Simple as that! Without hesitation (having cleared that we get to choose the design of our own liking), I and around four others (let’s see, there’s Anne, Lauren, Jewel, Juned and myself) apparently were insane enough to sign up.  In the end, Lauren won. Losing that day worked fine for me because around two weeks later, my mind was set to getting nothing but an Ouroboros.

The Wikipedia pretty much has concise text on the Ouroboro’s origin and meaning, spanning centuries, cultures, disciplines, and beliefs. Below, for me, are the notable bits:

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare Phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished.

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe—an immortal, perfectly constructed animal.

The notion of a serpent or dragon eating its own tail can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 BC. From ancient Egypt it passed to Phoenicia where it was used as a symbol for Janus, before it passed to the Greek philosophers, who gave it the name Ouroboros (“tail-devourer”).

Before leaving for Bangkok on September 9, I commissioned my tattoo artist, Dyani, to do my design. I initially gave him this sketch, done by deviantartist Danli Zhou (I was going to contact the artist and ask permission from him had I used his creation) for reference (as you may observed, I’ve retained the revised “Star of David” detail of FMA tattoo, shown above):

Dyani said I’d lose the details if we limit the size. WHAT? Me, get something as wide as a CD as my first? NO WAY!!!

Fast forward to two days before tattoo day, I have come prepared, armed with unwavering resolve and already managed expectations. I gave Dyani free hand with the depiction of the Ouroboros, telling him to feel free and make sure he incorporates his own unique style to the output. Size would not matter much, either. The larger it is, the more detailed it would look, he explained. I figured: he’ll get to express his art + I’ll get an original design = A win-win situation. He emailed me the final sketch, a day before tattoo day:

For me to boast that the entire process was painless will only make me sound like a jerk. The first 2 hours and 45 minutes, however, were quite bearable. My hands would uncontrollably jerk and twitch from the pain once in a while while my face showed few signs of suffering, save for the sweat forming on my upper lip, nose, and forehead (and pits, don’t forget the pits!). I compared the pain to that of a paper-cut’s sting, if you can imagine it spreading all over your back, made worse, nay, amplified, by the buzzing sound of the tattoo instrument and prolonged for the duration of the dutdutan. Good thing fitness celebrity Noelle, flickr celebrity Helga, and talented writer cum expert paper crane maker Marck kept me company during my self-initiated ordeal. (Thanks again, gais! I really mean it!)

The last 15 minutes were the worst. WORST! That was when Dyani added white highlights onto the design, over my already swelling back. The final output with the whites, however, looked awesome. His great effort can be seen on the littlest detail he managed to incorporate on the wyvern: a perfect circle there (somewhere), the lines, scales, shades, highlights, and the shadows. Harmony depicted permanently on my skin. The win-win outcome. What a master!

Just look at those pores! So red and angry! More angry looking than my wyvern! Later that same night, when all my pores has shriveled back to normal size, I had Anne took another photo, for posterity.

Not so small for somebody’s first tattoo, yes? IRK. For the more adventurous, you may want to play the HD videos (taken using the nifteh new cam yo, reprazent!) below, taken by Mr-Steady-Hands (Marck) during my session. First one has the first time the needle punctured my skin (yeaouch!), second’s a continuation of the first (a bit longer, too), and the third will show how Dyani does the shading of the wyvern’s right wing (gigil na gigil lang o!). Enjoy!