Went to Miami and Got My First Tattoo

Its been a couple years since I had a vacation, so I decided to take off on a cruise in the Caribbeans and then a week in South Beach, Miami from January 6 to 21, 2018. This is the story of how I got my first tattoo.

I've desired to get inked for a long time in my life now, however, I was never able to commit to a tattoo idea.

When I arrived in Miami on January 14, I was sitting on the couch of my AirBNB, and thought, it's time to get a tattoo. So I Googled and found an article in the Miami New Times.

In the article I went through each of the tattoo shops mentioned, and the one that I liked most was Ochos Placas Tattoo Company. There were two artists I liked in particular, which were Julio Betancourt and Javier Betancourt. I'm not sure if they were related.

There was a panther design Javier did that caught my eye. I liked the vibrancy of the colors, and the hard lines.

I was stuck between this and Julio's skull and snake drawing.

I consulted with a friend from back home, who was a tattoo apprentice. She gave me valuable insight, and from there I decided to go with Javier as I liked his color shading, however Julio's line work is also great.

I went into Ochos, and was sad to hear Javier was booked up for the entire week. So I asked to be put on a waiting list. Luckily, hours after, the receptionist called. I got the appointment for Friday!

When I met with Javier, I showed him the designs I liked, and asked for a panther head on my left forearm. He came up with an initial drawing, but I didn't connect with it. In my mind, I was really stuck with the ones I saw on his Instagram.

I gave a few comments, and then he worked on a complete redesign. My initial impression was that I liked it, but wasn't sure, because it was a front-symmetrical view of the panther head. I guess I had it set in my head that it was going to be an angular view.

After some thinking, and with Javier's insight, I realized the frontal view would work best on my forearm. So we decided to start work on the piece.

We did some prep on my arm. I was feeling a bit anxious, as I heard there is some level of pain. It's hard to gauge because everyone has a different threshold of pain.

However, it really wasn't that bad when the machine made contact to my arm. It is uncomfortable, let's be honest. It feels like a knife slicing through your arm. So it is not for everyone, if you don't like pain. But I saw the pain as part of the process, almost like a transformative or meditative process. It helps when you focus on breathing, or focus on a thought, detaching you from the immediate sensations.

After the line work was done, Javier began shading.

After the black shading, came the red.

To keep the color profile balanced, Javier decided to go with minimal colors. Mainly blacks, red, and a tiny bit of white on the pupils. The other pieces he did in the past had yellow tones in the eyes and whites on the teeth. I really think Javier made the right choice by limiting the coloring as the minimalist aesthetic work a lot better with my style and personality.

I am beyond satisfied with my first tattoo. I am super impressed by Javier's creative intuition, from picking up that a symmetrical view of the panther, and that a minimal color profile would be best. During the process I wasn't sure about those decisions, however, in hindsight, I am so happy that Javier did what he did. I would not have had it any other way, as this was the best decision for my style. I will surely work with Javier again and put my full trust in his artistic vision the next time I visit Miami.