At 5pm of Monday March 9, 2009, I entered Aces Tattoo with Kelly. She already has a couple of tattoos, so she came with me for moral support, photographic documentation (which she did great, as you can see above), and to find out if I was going to endure the pain.

After a little bit of waiting and hanging out, I was called to the table by Jared. My hands started sweating as soon as I sat down. The first poke of the needle wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. A sharp, very localized pain, but nothing too great.
In less than a minute, the outline was done! I was excited, this wasn’t bad at all.

Then the coloring began, and the story changed. Kelly says my face went pale. And with reason. I was hurtin’. The worst part was at the top, over the eyes section. I also felt the most intense discomfort when he’d been doing a long streak, without stopping. Breaks were a welcome thing, although I didn’t say anything and tried to take it like a manly man. But I don’t think I fooled anyone.

Luckily, 40 minutes later, no tears had been shed, and the job was done! The owl was now in, on my left shoulder. It was wrapped up, and I was on my way out the door.

I’ve been babying the fresh tattoo with Aquaphor, and it’s healing up nicely. The colors are starting to come in, and I expect to have it fully healed and looking awesome in a couple of weeks. A picture will certainly come.

And another tattoo, sometime in the future, will definitely come as well.

The biggest hurdle has been trying to figure out what to have permanently stamped on my body. And I think I’ve found it!

What the fuck, right? This owl, “Luca”, is the mascot of my high school in Mendoza, Argentina: The good old Colegio Universitario Central (aka CUC).
This high school had a huge impact on me, and not only on my education. It shaped the way I socialized, politicized and faced challenges.

Back then, a student would go to High School at the equivalent of 8th grade. You get out of “Primary” school after 7th grade, and move on to the big boy school, which went all the way to 12th grade. Things have changed now, but that’s irrelevant to my story.

What’s relevant is that CUC was (and probably still is) the very best public school in Mendoza. Thousands of students in the 7th grade applied for admission to it, and had to take a two-part test in the process: Half math, half social sciences/spanish.
I obviously passed the test, but not only did I do that, I also got the 12th best result, at something like 93% (I don’t remember exactly).

So what happens when you get into a school that only lets you in if you pass a test that is hard, and thousands of kids are taking? Well, you get in an elitist environment, or one of great camaraderie. Luckily for me, I found my way to the latter group, and my years in High School were excellent.

Blah blah blah, I went to a cool high school. Big deal.

Exactly. It was a big deal. And a huge factor in me having become the person that I am now. That’s why when I was surfing Facebook and joined a couple of different groups of alumni, it dawned on me: The owl would be awesome as my tattoo!

Now I just have to figure out how it’d look best in ink, on skin, and go for it. Yeah!