Being the left of centre character I am, I was always curious about tattoos:  what they felt like, my pain threshold, what I would get done and where, and how addictive they might be. The only thing that ever put me off getting a tattoo was the whole ‘permanence’ thing. Luckily there are tattoo removal parlours for that. So on a recent university exchange trip to Mexico I decided to grow a pair of tits and act on my curiosity.

After doing some ‘research’, I ended up at a tattoo parlour that a Mexican guy I had a crush on recommended to me. The place was clean and run by an attractive young tattoo artist with beautiful skin. Although I didn’t understand a thing he said, I smiled out of politeness and flirtatiously giggled at every word. For most people, language barriers are a challenge, but for that tattooist and I, love knew no boundaries. We managed perfectly well. It was fortunate though that my first tattoo was a simple ‘M’ on my wrist and nothing too complicated.

I found the whole experience fascinating. From the moment I sat down for him to start tattooing me I was completely mesmerised. The ‘pain’ people spoke of was a simple discomfort. I recall telling people how relaxing the experience was until he went over the same areas twice, or around the curve of my wrist. The experience cost me 500 pesos ($AUD35-40), two or three times less than prices back in Melbourne for a similar tattoo.