okay, here goes my first REAL blog (on my own blog anyway). first off, i have to say, that i really should erase all the stupid little posts i made earlier, but...i'm really just too lazy. second, i admit...i have succumbed to the online journal mania. not that it's a bad thing. i think this will be a good outlet for me. much better than bashing my head into my monitor. third...i know most of you have probably read that stupid little comment about edible pulpy mass in my aim info, but i felt i should explain the title for people who don't know me and would otherwise think i've had a frontal lobotomy and am just rambling nonsensically (think "hannibal lecter"). hmm...okay, i think that's it for introductory crap, or whatever. onto something that's actually semi-interesting (in my scary head anyway).

so i went up to berkeley again on sunday to get a second tattoo with deb, ha, and deb's friend grace. yeah, before you go "what?! ha?!", no, ha did not get a tattoo or piercing or bong. she just came along and kindly gave me a ride to bart. deb and grace changed their minds on what they wanted tattooed like at the last minute. deb's was more last minute though. of course, i can't really say anything since my first tattoo was a pretty last minute decision too. anyway, kudos to me for finding the design of the tattoo just above deb's ass crack. she was like mulling over what design to get for like ages. started off wanting a chinese dragon. then a dolphin. then some other weird stuff. then japanese flowers. and then i printed out this really cool butterfly tattoo that's actually just an outline of a butterfly with a full moon and clouds drawn inside the butterfly.

okay okay, i think i'm getting off track. i tend to talk a lot, so i'm hoping blogging will help me try to talk more succinctly. hahaha, right. aaanyway, so we get to zebra's in berkeley at noon. the guy who's scheduled to tattoo us (his name is reed) is still sketching the transfers, so he tells us to go get some coffee and come back in like twenty minutes. so we went to jamba (none of us drink coffee) and they were giving out like free water bottles but it was like those HUGE cups that look like irish beer mugs except with those two little caps on either side of the lid. does anyone know what i'm talking about? cuz i feel like i'm not making any sense. anyway, it was a little embarrassing toting these stupid cups around. of course, it was more embarrassing for ha since she had to drink out of hers. so we go back to zebra's carrying these stupid jamba cups which are of course too big to stash in any of our purses. so reed is done sketching our transfers and we fill out some paper work and pay at the register. since we each spent over $75 on our tattoo, they let us choose a free shirt (zebra's was having this special or something where they give you a free shirt if you spend over $75 on anything in the place). me and deb both chose these really cute tank tops that say "zebra" and "berkeley" in the center. she chose a black one and i chose this light green one. yay! free shirts!! that made me really happy.

so when we were finally done with all that, the three of us headed to the back room. originally, i was thinking that i should go first this time since deb went first last time, but at the last minute i had like a mini freak out (in my head. i did not actually freak out at zebra's), and asked deb to go first. she didn't mind (at least that's what she said) and said that she wanted to get it over with anyway. so we sat there and watched deb get tattooed first. it was a tiny bit embarrassing for debra. since she wanted to get the tattoo in the center of her lower back (like really lower), reed told her that he would have to see a bit of butt crack. i am serious here. although right now, i'm giggling to myself as i write this. so she had to unzip her jeans and fold down the top. but it wasn't too bad; nothing explicit. funny thing is, when i got my tattoo in that same position last time, the tattoo artist (his name was stash; did me and debra last time) didn't ask to see my butt crack. deb's is probably lower though. anyway, reed was really really nice about it. actually, he was just plain nice in general. he looks like the typical white tattoo punk, sorta. this guy had tattoos up the wazoo. he was wearing a black tank top so you could see like his entire left arm was covered in tattoos. he even had tattoos on the back of his fingers. but like deb said, that just goes to show you that appearances don't matter. cuz reed was a really nice guy. even though we were all getting our second tattoos, he kept asking us if we were okay while he was tattooing us. and he was way more talkative than the guy who tattooed me and deb the first time (his name was stash). stash didn't even talk to us or ask us our names while he was tattooing us.

anyway, so reed finally finished deb. took like, i dunno, forty five minutes? then it was my turn. i started getting really nervous right about here. i thought i would be fine, but no. oh, btw, yes, they sterilized all their equipment before starting on me. we had to wait about five minutes while another guy came and cleaned the station. then i watched while reed pulled a clean needle out of a package. actually, i shouldn't have watched that. the whole time i was watching, i was getting more and more nervous even though he told me that this tattoo was really simple and wouldn't take long. the needle is HUGE. my god. i had never actually looked at it. anyway, he was right. it only took like twenty minutes, although deb says it was shorter, like fifteen minutes. but something kinda amusing happened while he was tattooing me. there's this red privacy curtain that separates the front desk and the tattoo room. it was drawn the entire time deb was getting tattooed and while i started to get my tattoo. then, halfway through, the guy at the front desk pulls the curtain aside and tells reed, "these girls wanna see the process." i look up and see like a huge crowd of white bubble girls staring open-mouthed at me and reed. okay, so maybe i'm exaggerating. there were maybe like five girls, but zebra is a small shop, so it looked like a big crowd. anyway, reed starts telling me "make faces like it really really hurts" and i just smiled and chuckled. i couldn't tell since he was behind me, but i think like he made some sudden gesture towards me because all of a sudden i see this one blond girl gasp and go "ohmygod!" then, while he was tattooing me, he started jokingly wincing in pain and going "oooowww..." this whole time, i'm just sitting there giggling stupidly. those girls really did look horrified. anyway, that was that, and i was done pretty soon after. there were only like two really brief moments when it hurt like hell. he was tattooing my upper back in the center just below my neck. so the two times he went over bone, i could have cried. but i didn't. i was a cool cat. :)

so then, it's grace's turn. she looked pretty nervous. more nervous than me or deb. she wanted to come late so that she wouldn't sit there waiting and watching me and deb, but she ended up watching half of deb's process and all of mine. reed barely started tattooing her when two of her roommates showed up, so me and deb and ha offered to leave to make room since it was a pretty tiny room. reed went over basic safety care with us real quick and we thanked him and left. he was really nice. i know, i said that already.

okay, anyway, this is turning out to be a REAALLY long blog and if you've even gotten this far, good job. so i'm just gonna wrap this up now. after we left zebra, we went to deb's apartment, sat there for a while, then went to eat pizza with jason, then did a little shopping, then went back to deb's apartment. deb and ha fell asleep on her bed (which is kinda small so it was a funny picture. too bad i didn't have my camera on me). they woke up later. we sat around some more. jen and her parents arrived with more stuff for her room. then jen's parents gave me and ha a ride back to fremont. the end. :)