Ten Years of a Tattooed Finger

My tattoo turned ten last February 17. I got it when I was a jock in NU 107. I was assigned to cover a music/tattoo

festival at Intramuros and immediately thought of actually getting one on my finger. Two weeks after getting the assignment and countless design ideas in my head, I went to the festival set on subjecting my skin to a lifetime of permanent ink, painfully etched on in less than five minutes.

Seriously.

Nothing prepared me for the agony of the needle but submit myself I did to the expert hands of Alfred Guevara. Could he put an anesthetic or some kind of numbing solution? I asked. No, was his reply. I figured it was a rite of passage for anyone with body art to simply endure. So I sat and screamed and forced my body to relax and screamed some more and tried to recall my Lamaze breathing techniques - but to no avail. It hurt. Bony parts are the most painful, Alfred explained. Thanks, Alfred, I know.

The agony went on for a good three minutes. The whole time I kept remembering my mom's voice that afternoon. "You're going to look like an ex-con!", "You'll be stuck with it forever, Thelma Elaine!", "What's gotten into you?!", "Baka isipin ng mga tao, kriminal ka!" ["People might think you're a criminal!"] Twenty-seven year old me could only smile and say, "Mom, I know what I'm doing. I'll have to live with it. I want to live with it." To which she gave her resigned, "Bahala ka. ["It's up to you."] It's your choice."

And choose I did. To stop Alfred from taking the design full circle around my finger. The pain had gotten even worse as he reached the skin where the top meets the palm. It literally felt like he was cutting off my finger! So stop he did as tears rolled down my cheeks.

I looked at him and smiled. "It's so pretty..." Sob. Sob.

The night went on with me sharing my experience live on the air. I went home with petroleum jelly covering my new ring and the pride in knowing I was now part of an unspoken club - the tattooed.

Over the years I have added more - a ring around my toe, a tribal anklet, a floral anklet and dainty leaves on my left ear lobe. Many people ask - those with untrained eyes at least - are those real? To which I reply yes. Did they hurt? Of course they did! Why'd you get them? I wanted them, I always smile.