ouchyyyy...

So, I got my new tattoo done last Tuesday.  Tattooing has just recently become legal in Korea, not to say that people haven't been doing it for a long time, but, if you got caught doing it, you would be in some serious shit.  It used to be that only licensed physicians could give tattoos, and large tattoos were also used as a way to draft dodge (although it is a criminal offense) by men not wanting to serve their country (military service is mandatory for about two years in Korea), but this has slowly changed, and tattoo parlors are no longer illegal!  The place I went to is called DJ Tattoo, and it was a cool little shop on the third floor of a building in downtown Yeosu.  The people who worked there spoke little English, but were generally helpful, and had their little phone dictionaries ready if something needed to be translated to me.  I think they did a fabulous job, I'm in love with my new tattoo.  I took in a design of my own, and they just re-traced it with the tattoo magic marker and went from there.  Being the picky person I am (and really, I'm the one that has to have the tattoo on them forever), I may have not liked the placement in the first place, and the woman doing my tattoo may have had to retrace it.  The original picture I brought in had been destroyed in the first placement fiasco, but, luckily, she had taken a picture of the design.  Thank goodness.  Despite the fact that the tattoo is relatively small, it was a complicated design with a lot of vines and stuff, so, it took two and a half hours to complete.  TWO AND A HALF HOURS!  They had to double outline each line and then slowly fill in between, it was painful and felt like I was there for days.  It looks pretty, though!  It somehow only cost me 150 000 won, which is like... $125 Canadian (depending on the exchange rate)... for two and a half hours of work!  And really well done work, at that!  I may go back and get some more work done before going back to Canada.  I came to the realization last week that I didn't even have to save up to get the work done, and that, really, I could theoretically get a new tattoo each month.  DON'T WORRY MOM, I WON'T!  (That had to be written in caps, for my mom reads my blog and was probably ready to flip shit after reading that, and would have probably skipped the whole "I won't" statement and gone right to writing me a really upset e-mail. [love you mom!!!!])

There was another girl in there getting a tattoo done when I went to get mine.  She was getting "Carpe Diem" tattooed on her... and not just anywhere, but on her friggin collar bone!  Oh, sorry, I mean "Carpe Diem!" yes, with the exclamation point, too.  I didn't get that, but who am I to judge.  She was a champion, guys, for real.  She was on her cellphone, texting people, barely reacting to the fact that SHE WAS GETTING HER COLLARBONE TATTOOED!!!  When she was done, we noticed that she had been crying a little bit, but, holy jeeze, if that was me... I would be balling my eyes out and screaming like a baby... not even joking, it would be bad news bears.  The tattoo looked really great once it was finished, until she asked for the finishing touch.  She wanted a cartoon stylized hand doing the peace sign fingers thing (you know, like every Korean person does in pictures...).  It made me think that -just maybe- she isn't actually aware of what carpe diem means... and that she also may not be aware that tattoos are permanent and that for the rest of her life she will have cartoon hands holding up a peace sign on her.  Luckily the guy told her he didn't have time that night to do it... I really hope she re-thought it and didn't go back for it.  She must come from an uber liberal family, to get a tattoo on her chest like that, I can't imagine most Korean parents would react favorably to that.

Oh!  And the lady that was doing my tattoo had a tattoo of Salvador Dali on her arm!!!  I got so excited.  And it was a really really well done tattoo of Salvador Dali, too!  I love Salvador Dali, I could barely contain myself!  And I love that she actually got Salvador Dali, and not just some of his artwork.  I love Salvador Dali for his artwork, but I also love him for the person he was, too... and what better tribute to him, than to actually get -him- tattooed on yourself.  I thought it was pretty cool, and I tried not to be a total fan girl about it.

Not much else has happened, I went to Suncheon with Annie last Friday for Mexican food, and the we came back to Yeosu and went to LSG and played Jenga and Scattergories, I won both!  I just chilled for most of the weekend, it was super rainy.  I don't have any classes this week, so I spend 8 hours a day on facebook and I'm putting the finishing touches on my summer camp.  Yup, it's been a boringgg week so far!

Time to get back to making study questions for Finding Nemo!

Toodles