Since I turned 40 earlier this year, it was time my mid-life crisis kicked in.

Ok, that’s not true – two years ago my wife and I each set some goals, with the reward of getting a tattoo.  She set a running goal (I don’t remember how many miles she had to run over the course of the year) and my goal was to get under 200 pounds.  In just over 2 years, I’ve lost 40 pounds, and that was mostly stopping and starting running and working out.  I lost about 20 pounds that way and got more serious about it this summer and have been consistently watching my diet, working out, biking, and running and have been under 200 pounds now for about 6 weeks.  I still have 15 more pounds to go, but I’m getting there.

A friend who has had a lot of work done recommended Electric Dragonland in Hopkins, MN.  I finally worked up the courage to call and make an appointment for a consultation – and of course they had an opening that day.  I got lucky as they’re usually a few months booked out and Damion did a great job:

If you’re not familiar with the symbol, it’s a 45 adapter for a turntable.  A little bigger than I had planned, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.  My backup tattoo was the Pearl Jam stick man from their first single, Alive.  Coincidentally, Gimme Noise had an article yesterday with the writer talking about his first and only tattoo – the Pearl Jam stick man.