Tattoo Collection Part: 1

I've decided to make a post completely dedicated to my tattoo collection. Since I have more than 30 tattoos I'm going to split them up into different parts and I'll be sharing about five tattoos in a post depending. (This may take forever...) I do have a video I posted up on Youtube dedicated to my tattoo collection although it was a pretty long video I ended up forgetting to mention a few things about certain pieces. I will have that video linked if anyone hasn't seen it and would like to see it. I have gotten a lot more work done since I posted that video so this works out pretty good. I may not go incomplete order that I got my tattoos in since I have accumulated so many throughout the past almost 10 years that I have forgotten what order they came in.

I know many people do not like tattoos which are completely fine, but I do. Keep in mind all this art is on my body and no one else's so please keep any rude comments to yourself thank you. Also in no way am I any kind of a professional on tattoos as you will see from my stories. These are just my personal experiences and what I have learned on my own. Everyone is different.

(This is the only photo I have left of this tattoo haha.)

I am going to start with my very first tattoo, the one that started it all. I was 18 and knew absolutely nothing about tattoos other than thinking they were so cool and always knew I wanted to get some. I knew that I wanted to get a pink heart on my forearm. I was with an ex-boyfriend at the time and used the excuse to get matching tattoos for me to get the tattoo I had been wanting. We ended up going to two different tattoo shops that night and got "matching heart tattoos". I got my pink heart while he got a red one. I think back and I really don't know why I wanted such a random object on my forearm but I thought it was pretty cool at the time. It was so simple and I didn't pay for it so it was fine. The pain level on this tattoo was probably about a 2-3. I was so surprised how painless this as though it was a pretty small piece. I told myself I wouldn't have any problem getting more tattoos in the future. Clearly, I don't haha.

I want to say about 3-4 years later I eventually got my heart covered up with some cherry blossoms. I had broken up with my ex and I really didn't like the idea of having a matching tattoo with him anymore. When I went to go get it covered up, again I was still naive when it came to tattoos and I just wanted it covered. This is when I wished I took a little more time to do some research and find something better to have covered up the heart but you live and you learn right. I love cherry blossoms but I could have definitely found someone to have done away better job at covering it. You can still see the outline of the heart if you really pay attention but at least it's covered up.

My second tattoo was on my right foot, a crown. I loved this tattoo when I got it. I was obsessed with crowns and Juicy Couture. The logo of Juicy Couture is a crown and two Yorkies. I once again didn't do any research on the shop or artist and only went by what I had heard from people I knew that told me about the shop so I thought I'd check it out. I think the tattoo came out really well but I'm just not into crowns as I once was. Sadly it was just a phase. I have thought about getting it covered but it will be something pretty hard to cover so I haven't put too much thought into it. If I do decide to get it covered up I know better now than just rushing into it. I was in so much pain when I get this done that I really didn't think I was going to make it to the end. I kept telling people to distract me from the pain to talk to me. Once it was over I was so relieved and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

For my third tattoo, I got my first finger tattoo. I still really like this tattoo and I ended up going to the same shop I got my crown done at. I got a peace sign on my middle finger. There is no reason why I chose to get it on that specific finger just wanted it right on my middle which ended up being my middle finger haha. This was a very quick and painless tattoo that took about maybe 3-5 mins at the most. My last name is Paz and that means peace in Portuguese and also in Spanish. I thought that was really neat and meaningful. After this tattoo, I didn't get another one for a few months if not a year which ended up being the next tattoos I will talk about.

One day I randomly hopped in my car and drove to a local tattoo shop to get two random things tattooed. It was such a spur of the moment thing and I just really wanted to get a new tattoo. I ended up getting these two on the same day. Je t'aime on my wrists says I love you in french. I always wished I knew how to speak French ever since I was a little girl. I always wanted to move to Paris and go to school out there. This isn't a piece I love but I also don't dislike it. If I could go back and stop myself from getting it I probably would but at the end of the day, it doesn't really bother me too much. It's still a dream of mine to visit Paris and go to Disneyland. Maybe it can be a place where Rudy and I decide to Honeymoon ;) The pain tolerance for my wrist wasn't too bad, it mainly stung more than anything.

This diamond on my pinky I do not like. I liked it for a while after I got it done but sadly like the crown, it was only a phase. I had one of my tattoo artists told me he can turn it into a heart but I wouldn't really want a black heart on my finger plus so close to my beautiful engagement ring. I always heard that finger tattoos fade so quickly, clearly its not the case for this one. A lot of people complain about finger tattoos being the worst pain during a tattoo but I don't think so, at least not on the knuckles. The diamond did hurt me a little more than when I got my peace sign. Once again this one also stung more but it is little and was done before I knew it. Shortly after I got these two tattoos done I got my cover-up of the cherry blossoms.

I want to say about a year or two later I got a bow on the back on my neck. I love bows, still do to this day. They are so cute and girly. I had made an appointment at a tattoo shop that I had heard good things about. This had to have been one the most painful spots I got a tattooed, at least from what I remember. I didn't know what to do and it felt like the pain was never-ending. At one point during the session, I saw a black tunnel and felt like I was about to pass out. I don't know how I got through it without passing out but I did.

Before the guy started on the tattoo I told him I wanted a simple classic pink bow. All pink! He drew it up and I loved what he came up with. Once he was done and I took a look I wanted to scream. He added way too much black shading than he had to, especially right on the middle of the bow. I was so mad and wanted to cry. This is the biggest reason I am disappointed in the tattoo all the black in it. I took a long break from getting tattoos for a few years mainly because of the pain I had experienced. Once I began to get more tattoos again I stuck to one artist for the majority of my work. He would always make fun of my bow because I had told him the story behind it and he would always tell me for us to touch it up but I refuse to ever get that touched up. I remember the pain I went through and don't want to go through it again. My pain tolerance may have changed but I don't want to risk it. I always wear my hair down anyways so you can't even see it.

This is where I am going to end part 1 of my tattoo collections. I hope you guys enjoy this little "series" type of post that I'm going to be doing because I'm pretty excited. I love tattoos as you guys may have noticed and just love talking about them. Feel free to share some of your tattoo stories with me, I would love to hear them.

Xo
Juliana