Tattoo Time

After finding out that we were supposed to tip the stripper we decided it was time to move on, time for the tattoo. Across the street we went, all of us had a bit of a light head, filled with enthusiasm, we were going to permanently mark-up our bodies! Woohooo!

How fun was this going to be.

Into the shop we went, looking at all of the different pictures on the wall, watching people getting "work" done and trying to decide which tattoo was the "coolest" one for us.

Hey dude, does it hurt?

Well, it's been nearly 30 years and during that time I've trained as a Tattoo Artist under a guy named "Toomer" and began my tattoo career, ok, not career but my sideline for extra money, after all at that time the military was my "career", and to this day I wear a shirt that I get from my Art Supplier that has a skull in the background (kind of a gray print on a black shirt) and bold white letters that state: "HELL YES, IT HURTS!"

We each picked out out tattoo, each had a reason for what we chose, I went first. Into the chair, the artist shot a template of the design, placed it on my arm (bicep area) and began to work. I sat there sweating for two hours while he put my "leopard perched upon a skull" design on to my arm. I now try to remember what the reason was that I chose a leopard, the skull doesn't surprise me in the least... but the leopard that one baffles me. All that I know for sure is that each of the five of us have a leopard of some type on our left arm.

And the band of brothers is:

Maui
Woody
Wolf
Hillbilly (from someplace called Devo Mountain, TN)
and Moose

We all did our Boot Camp together and later our Advanced.  Maui went on to Military Intelligence School in Southern Arizona, Wolf ended up in Korea, Hillbilly - he had a bit of a tough time and was asked to leave Uncle Sam's party, and Moose, well, Moose was last seen jumping out of a plane someplace over the swamps of Louisiana training for Ranger School - no one really knows what happened to that crazy SOB.

Once the group had all been freshly "Inked" we all headed to the convenience store bought what we thought would be to much beer and went back to the hotel room to drink the night away.

The sun was in mid-sky before we woke from our haze, foggy headed and bandaged arms we grabbed a cab to the bus depot and headed back to the base.



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