Of course, Greg. I'd be happy to 🙂
As I said earlier, my tattoo artist is one of my best friends, and is fully aware of my love for tickling. I think he MAY have a bit of a Ler side to him, but he has never admitted it. Anyway, onto my experience....
Since I wanted a design that would symbolize my tickling adoration, he had to draw a custom design for me. I know many of you may not want to believe it, but they just do not market tattoo flash (artwork) that incorporates tickling of any kind. At least I have never seen any (much to my disappointment). So he sat down with his sketch pad and started doodling out a few ideas. He crumpled up sample after sample, and finally, in frustration, he tossed the pad on the floor. I gave him a quizzical look, and he said "it's not working." He sat thinking for a moment, and then told me to bring my foot to him. I obeyed, and he positioned my leg on his drawing table. Then he sat on my leg, straddling my calf to keep me in place, and took the cap off his pen. I shivered then, knowing what his intention was. He turned around and smirked at me, saying "you wanted this on the BOTTOM of your foot, right?" I squealed "NO!", but he proceeded to start drawing on my sole anyway, ignoring my begging. His wife, who was in the bathtub, then came running out in a towel to find out what all my laughing and yelling was about 😀 Once she saw my predicament, she understood and told him to behave and draw it RIGHT. He still managed to draw a smiley face on each of my toes though, before he moved on to sketching the actual design on the top of my foot, where it was intended to go. I can't say that was much better though...LOL. And of course, he had to try multiple times before he finally got it the way he wanted it.
Then, after I was sitting there bright red and breathless, we were ready to begin the tattoo. Not before he got another segment of torture in, however. He plugged his gun in and turned it on, before adding the needles or the tube to it. For anyone who has never seen a tattoo gun, without the tube and needles added to it, it's more or less a square shaped black box with a rotating wheel protruding off of it, and the whole contraption vibrates. He then grabbed my ankle, holding my foot in place, and said he wanted to perform a "reflex" test to see how bad I was going to jump once the tattoo began. Once again, my howls filled the house as he ran the box up and down the sole, toes, and sides of my foot. I again had to remind him the tattoo was going on the TOP of my foot, and to stick with the original intentions. With playtime over, he finished putting the gun together and we began.
It did not hurt NEARLY as much as I was afraid it would. The only time I experienced pain was when he would hit a bone. Otherwise is was a soothing, vibrating feeling. Very relaxing, in fact. (note to self...gotta get one of those)
We finished up, and after dawdling so much beforehand, it had gotten quite late. So I gathered my things and got ready to head for home. He did manage to get in a few quick rib tickles though, while trying to persuade me to stay the night. I unfortunately had to refuse, but promised I would soon (I can't resist playing with him THAT long). He dug into my sides again as I was walking out the door, and I darn near fell down the stairs. He remarked, "What's the matter with you? You keep jumping and squealing like someone was tickling you! You really should see someone about that condition of yours." After mutual raspberries, I was at last able to leave his house and head for home. And that is the end of my tattoo story (or novel, as it turned out) 😀
Mimi
