Animal the Tattooist and the Tats he has done for me.

I have a great friend called "Animal" who I met in Tenerife. Now Animal is one of the best tattooists I have ever known, and his work is legendary as he was trained by one of the top UK tattooists in the country.

When I met Animal I only had one tattoo, which was a unicorn on my left shoulderblade. This was a blue tattoo I had previously had years before, that by now had blurred, and was not too distinct.

When I got to know Animal I was fascinated by his work, and in addition to this we became fast friends as I needed a good friend and was living with a complete control freak at the time.

Soon after I finally parted from my ex, Animal used to come round to my apartment in Tenerife for the evening along with the street dog "Scamp" that had adopted him. Animal and I would drink a few glasses of wine, smoke a few spliffs and chat endlessly. Sharing the apartment with me at the time was "Bard of Ely" (fellow hubber), and he was also really interested in Animal's work.

When I first asked Animal to do a tattoo for me I spent ages looking on the Internet to find the "right one". Finally I found it, and fell in love with the concept of 'dragon' tattoos. I showed Animal my choice of tattoo, and he was sure he could do it really well, and so I braved myself for the pain, and planned to go ahead, especially as Animal said he would happily do the tattoo in my living room in Tenerife. To make it easier he then said he had a cream that I could apply 45 mins in advance to numb any pain, a bonus after the pain I had gone through when the Unicorn had been done on my shoulder originally. Apparently this cream is used by hospitals for children to avoid them feeling the pain of the needle entering for blood tests, and my God it works.

Animal spent several hours working on my tattoo, during which time my wonderful friend Steve (Bard of Ely) was so interested that he took pictures as displayed on this hub, (thanks Steve, I hope you don't mind me using them). As I couldn't feel anything this was truly addictive viewing for me, and I could watch avidly from start to finish without pain getting in the way.

It is true what they say about getting tattooed being addictive, as I soon wanted more, and as I already had a nasty horizontal scar across my bikini line where I had previously had a cyst removed from an ovary a number of years earlier, it wasn't long before I asked Animal if he thought he could cover it up. Of course he said he could, and so my new quest for an appropriate tattoo began. I soon found exactly the right shape I wanted, and yet again it was a dragon, but one that would virtually completely cover the unsightly scar. Yet again I used the anaesthetic cream, and still halfway through we took a break to go to the pub, (more because we fancied it than because of any pain). Unfortunately upon our return the cream had worn off, and it now felt like Animal was tattooing on top of sunburn, so in the end I had to call a halt for a few days until the pain wore off. Eventually Animal could continue, and the end result was great, and completely covered my scar, as well as looking pretty cool.

After this one, I later got Animal to tart up the Unicorn on my shoulder, and redefine the blurry lines that had developed. The work he did really improved it, and I was truly grateful for his work.

Animal is a fantastic tattooist, and best of all he has done all his work on me in the comfort of a living room, and not in a shop.

I now have plans for Animal to do a further tattoo on me when he next comes to visit us in Guernsey. the location will be the base of my back, and yes, it is another dragon, but I love the design and think it will look perfect. See below for design). It needs to be without colour though, as I truly prefer the black and white look to colours, even though the one on my leg is brightly coloured.