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Ian talks about having tattoos. Which of these words do you think he uses?

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Having tattoos … probably … erm … when I was, I guess in the work environment that I was in, erm … a lot of my friends probably had it, the music that we were into, a lot of our friends also that would have had tattoos, and the guys who performed would have had tattoos and so I think that’s kind of where it probably stemmed from. And seeing different people have them erm … And just being around them kind of made me probably wanna get one erm … And just kind of being confronted by it. So I think that’s kind of probably where I started to think about them erm ... And then from there, looking at maybe what I would like and the things that I was into and how that would relate into a t-, into tattoos, and then kind of, I guess just seeing what I like. I guess it is the idea of, because it is an art form, and just seeing it more of a-, as an art form, than actually individual, I guess, pieces of work, it’s just more about the art side of stuff and just, you know, seeing skin as being a bit more of a blank canvas.

So erm ... for many years I worked at a place called Dogfish, which was a clothes st-, a clothes store and where we sold erm … sort of high-end fashion clothing. Erm … and so, yeah, I worked there for almost 11 years, and so together with a few of the guys erm … we all decided just to represent our time together. We’d all get ta-, matching tattoos. Erm … and so, yeah, one day we just went in, to a friend who we know, and he designed them for us and we spent a whole day- And so, one after the other we all got our tattoos done together. And everyone got them in different places, and they are all slightly different. Erm but yeah, we just used them as like a, guess like a bit of a … a thing for togetherness … brothers together.

So, I think when I get them done, I think every time I do get them done, I think to myself never again, because it hurts. Erm … you know, someone’s taking a ... you know a needle and dragging it across your arm and so it does, er … it hurts. So, I often think never again, but then once you’ve spent some time and you just see spaces and so you wanna fill inn those spaces and then so you think of something else and so you do it. And then, yeah, er, I never understand what people kind of say “Oh, I had a tattoo done and it didn’t hurt!” because it’s just like the greatest lie ever! It’s like, tattoos hurt and that’s just something you’ve got to experience. And I think, when I … I was nervous getting my fi-, very first one done, a friend t-, said to me “Just imagine the worst pain you could ever imagine and times it by a hundred, and then tattoo(ing) just won’t be that bad”. And erm, so that’s what I did. Erm, then for my second one I thought, “Hey, I’m a pro at this!” and then I er … turned up and I almost fainted! Because I hadn’t eaten er …, and I wasn’t ready for it. And I er … was sitting there in the chair and drained of colour, and the woman just looked at me and was like “Are you OK?” and I was like “I think I’m gonna faint”, and she was like “I think you are too”. And so quickly I had to eat lots of sugar and like got a Mars bar, had … had a ca-, can of Coke and had some sugar tablets and stuff, and thankfully recovered. Then we started again. So ... yeah, it’s awful!

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