The Pic-man & I (by Brendan)

Have you ever had a time when you had to "walk the talk", even though you were really, really scared? I recently had such a time.
Kelly and I have always talked about getting matching tattoos, as corny as that may sound. We thought it quite a romantic idea. As all of you who know me understand, I have a very real fear of pain, but I always talk the talk with the best of them. (for any Hepburnites reading, I'm lying to make the story sound better! Of course I'm not really like that...) As I was saying, as long as we were talking about getting a tattoo I was in, but when the proverbial rubber met the road I wasn't really all that serious. Kelly on the other hand was serious, serious enough to ask an artist for help with a design and make an appointment to get it done. Only problem here was that she didn't make an appointment for both of us, but only for herself. Being a man, I had to save a little face and let her know how insulted I was that she was going alone, that she didn't think I was serious about it...preposterous! Well, it worked, she felt bad, but in spite of her efforts, the tattoo place couldn't fit me in...sweet! I save face, look like I wasn't a chicken and I don't have to go through with anything painful.
The day of the appointment, I accompany my wife to Pic-man, she feeling a bit nervous and scared, me smiling inside holding my Starbucks takeout. At this point I will skip past the fact that Kelly looked like she might cry, and I also won't mention the blood, but I'll jump ahead to the part where we were supposed to be going home...Much to my shock Marc ("pic-man") offers to go ahead and do my tattoo because Kelly's didn't take as long as expected. Being of sound mind I came out with the first and best and only excuse I could come up with...the design was too girly, soI wanted to go home and "man" it up a bit and then come back. Yeah, that didn't fly, in no time I was in 'the chair' waiting to experience something that I can only describe as letting someone draw on your arm with a steak knife. Now to my credit I will say that I lasted a full 2 or maybe even 3 minutes before he had to stop and get me some water as I was passing out, only to restart and finish with no problems.

Now I have not written all this as some kind of whimsical tale of a modern day hero...no, there is actually a lesson to be found in this story. Please share the following with others you meet, who knows who might need this advice! "If you feel like passing out while getting a tattoo, ask the tattoo guy for a lollipop"...saved my life and I saved face.



PS: (this part is by Kelly!) We are official Saskatchewan bloggers! We've met many people who have blogs and we've even been added to someone's blogroll on their site. Guess its official.. we're starting to feel like we belong in this new place! Check out Paul's site, (see links on sidebar below) -- he's O's youth pastor. There are some good shots of Owen on the site ... and one of a bunch of boys in our bathtub!