MY STORY PART 2

First Tattoos, Bill Cooke & Ed Tibbitts

Once home after my discussion with Bill Cooke at the Hammersmith convention, I was still excited by the thought of having a tattoo that I could hardly sleep. So almost immediately I rang Bill to make an appointment, asking for the
earliest appointment possible, which was at the end of the week in the evening on 14th August 1986.

When I arrived at his studio he was waiting for me but he did not rush me and as I had not made up my mind exactly what I wanted so he suggested that I look at all the flash (pictures) around the walls. I chose a small bird, which we agreed, would look nice on my right shoulder blade. I was expecting it to be quite painful whilst being done and to my surprise, perhaps because I was on a high, the discomfort was minimal once he got going and I was waiting keenly to see the finished product. When this moment arrived and I looked at it in the mirror I immediately fell in love with it and I think, to Bill's surprise, straight away I asked him if he would do another tattoo that evening.
Happily he agreed as I was his last customer, so I again looked through his flash and chose an orchid. This I chose
to have it on my left thigh, which he immediately got down to do. This time, because of its position, it was a little uncomfortable but quite bearable.

I was delighted with the result again and I left his studio on an incredible high, feeling really proud of these new tattoos. Well, from that moment onwards, although I didn't know it at the time, I was hooked on tattoos, so this was the start of a very long trail in tattooing. Although I was pleased with Bill’s work, the following month I visited Ed Tibbitts who had a studio in a town not far from my home.

Ed tattooed a number of lovely small pieces on my thigh, arm and back and as now I was beginning to become less inhibited, I took my pants down and asked to tattoo a mouse blowing on my genitals. This he tattooed as close as possible to my genitals. The tattoo looked fantastic.

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