Day 12 of 14

Tattoo Day! I Have a day session booked for 12. I woke up excited and nervous. This will be my first tattoo. I want a mandala design on my left forearm. I have a few specific things I want included int he design that I communicated i with the artist earlier in the week:

• A central star / lighter point. This will use negative space i.e. my skin. To me that will represent my new beginning / origin. I want to look at that spot every day and use it as both a reminder of what my life was like just over 10 years ago when I was at the worst point in my alcoholism, and as a motivation and light for my path forward.

• 6 pointed star / flower / leaf design surrounding the above center star. This will represent my family (Me, wife + 4 kids), the most important things in the world to me.

• Inner Circle surrounding the 6 sided flower / star. I'm not 100% sure why I'm drawn to this shape, maybe its a circle of family, circle of influence, circle of trust, but i feel like I need it as part of the design.

I did my dog walk and then got a good session on the heavy bag in followed by some weights. I'll need to be careful with the tattoo for a few days so I'll not be doing any upper body weights or bag work for a few days. I need a good leg and core session anyway, so probably not a bad thing if I mix things up.

I got to the tattoo studio at 12, the artist had the design finished by around 1. I needed a few bits to be coloured in on paper so I could be sure what it'd look like on my skin. He had nailed the pieces I wanted in the design and I was happy to progress without any changes. We started work by around 1. They print a stencil and then transfer the ink to where the tattoo will sit on the body. Things get real at this point! I loved the design and thought the outline look great on my skin so he started inking my skin. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected - it felt like a hot needle. Some of the areas on my forearm were more sensitive than others; closer to the wrist and elbow were tender, but nothing too bad.

I love the finished tattoo! It hit all of my design points and I think it looks really nice on my forearm. I'll probably add it it and am already thinking about a sleeve or cuff. I'll sit with this one until my fight in November and think about adding to it, or a different tattoo in a different spot to commemorate stepping into the ring (and all going to plan, winning!), later in the year.

Apparently you burn a lot of calories getting tattooed. This makes sense as I went through periods of sleepiness and hunger throughout the day. I took some extra food; a couple of sushi rolls, some beef jerky and a couple of bananas. I ate these throughout the session. I was super hungry when we got done at 7pm and had a big munch of pasta and mince when i got home. It wasn't the best day eating, a lot more carbs than I'd usually have in the afternoon and evening, but its not every day you have some guy piercing your skin with a tattoo needle for 6+ hours!