The reason I added getting a tattoo to the list was to try and demonstrate how seriously I was taking the project. Most of the tasks were essentially a “moment in time”, a meeting or an event that passes with a photographic record for posterity; but this was totally different. This would be permanent. And an area of my body would forever bear a tattoo as a constant reminder both of the whole adventure (if that’s the right word... I wasn’t going to say “journey”) and also of the person who had changed my life.
 
Ste Carne, the owner of the Brothers In-Ink studio, was kind enough to agree to carry out the work. Strangely, as someone for whom a rollercoaster ride proved genuinely terrifying, I wasn’t nervous at all about visiting Ste’s studio. A small design had been prepared, and was duly transferred onto the top of my back, just under my right shoulder, after my manly hairs had been removed.
 
I chose that side because I’m left-handed and just in case something went badly wrong and my right arm fell off….
 
Ste chatted through everything, and made sure I was totally comfortable before getting underway. I was expecting it to hurt a bit, and although I could obviously feel the needle, it certainly wasn’t painful. Obviously having worked for the Blood Service for so many years, and having given nearly thirty pints of blood, I was well aware of the effect that a needle can have on some people. Ste certainly had one or two tales to tell - let’s just say I am officially a very brave boy!
 
After the outline was completed, there was a change of needle to fill in the design, and then back to the first needle to finish off. And that was it. Probably no more than twenty minutes.
 
So what did I get done?
 
Mine and my darling wife Elaine’s initials in old English lettering. I know I should have put Elaine’s initial first, but then it would have looked like I’d got a tattoo commemorating the Queen!
 
Tattoo virginity lost… now all I had to worry about was showing my Mum!