Getting My First Vegan Tattoo

Happy New Year loves! My New Year's resolution is to blog more, so here's my first post for 2016. 

To commemorate my 2 year vegan anniversary, I decided to finally get my first tattoo! I've waited more than a decade to decide on a meaningful tattoo design that I would love for the rest of my life. I've drawn many potential designs over the years, but decided that the most significant symbol is the American Vegan Society's "V". I like its simple design and the work that the AVS does. I'm committed to living a compassionate vegan life that's free from animal consumption/exploitation and to practicing ahimsa for as long as the tattoo is on me! Vegan for Life.

Once I decided on the design, I searched for a tattoo artist who uses vegan ink - because I don't want any animal products in my skin. My search lead to Josh Hall of J. Hall & Co. Gentleman Tattooers right here in Dallas, TX. 

Since this was my first tattoo, Josh was very kind to answer all of my questions and for letting us capture the experience. He started by placing the stencil of the design on my inner left wrist over the veins to my heart. 

Who knew that Thomas Edison inspired the first tattoo machine ?

If you've never had a tattoo done, it's like a cat scratching your sunburn....really really fast. The discomfort was brief (5 minutes) and I'm glad I started with a small design. I decided to do a gradient color from black to bright green to represent my vegan journey from darkness (unawareness of human inflicted animal sufferings and exploitations) to green growth and awareness. 

Pssst...I want to be a tattoo artist. I have so much respect for their artistry in creating living works of art.

The finished tattoo! I like the juxtaposition of my single tattoo against Josh's full tattoo sleeves. 

 The gradient and colors are gorgeous! 

The final step, putting a bandage on the tattoo to protect it from infections as it heals. The whole process took less than 10 minutes but we chatted for about 30 minutes. Josh made my first tattoo experience fun, safe, and most importantly - cruelty-free! Can't wait to rock my healed tattoo and share more of my vegan journey with you guys this year.