After years of toing and froing, Picnic’s Tanja Ting finally decided the time was right to get a tattoo. And she knew who to go to – Neil Ahern of Inkadelic is arguably one of the best known tattoo artists in the world – his reputation reaches far beyond the shores of Ibiza. So off she went to see Neil in his diminutive treasure trove of a studio on Ibiza’s Plaza de Mercado Viejo. The occasion that finally prompted Tanja’s decision to go for it was none other than her 10th wedding anniversary. The idea was to have her husband, Lars, sign his name for the motif, to be placed on her inner wrist, and for him to have a matching one of her signature.  When holding hands the tattoos would be next to each other. Romantic and original!
This is Tanja’s account of  T-day.

My husband was never a fan of wedding rings and I have always liked tattoos.  We met Neil when we moved to the island and I think that Niel and I have talked about doing a tattoo for about 3 years. I did not just want to pick one out of a book, it had to have meaning, so this was the perfect opportunity and occasion to make one and show my love for Lars.

Once I had made my decision I didn’t so much have doubts – it was more the fear of pain! I was really nervous about it hurting but I can honestly say there was nothing to be worried about, it did not hurt at all.  Maybe that was all due to Neil’s skill of course!  During the whole procedure, which took about 30 minutes, he was chatting away and making funny comments on everything under the sun, so that helped to take my mind off things. Afterwards there were no special instructions as such.  It was very easy, just  keep it clean.  Just in case though,  I was very careful with sun, sand and pool for one week. There was no soreness whatsoever!

Today tattoos are not just for Hell’s Angels – take a closer look at your circle of friends and no doubt you will uncover quite a few tattoos!  It’s definitely got the Zeitgeist – shows such as Miami Ink bear witness to this fact.  Neil Ahern has amassed something of a cult following in this world.  He has strong ideas about the ethos and motivation of having a tattoo done.  ”A lot of people have a tattoo for a sad reason (the death of someone close for example), but you don’t need a special reason to do it – it should be enough just to have the inner desire to have a tattoo. A mark is a mark. And the stuff they choose if often boring; it doesn’t communicate anything. A tattoo should be original. It’s a form of visual communication. It’s very common to choose your child’s name or date of birth for example. Why not wait until they can write “Papa” or “Mama” for the first time and get them to write it for the design. That would be a tattoo with “cojones” and have emotional power for many years into the future.”

www.inkadelic.com