Getting new ink in Puerto Rico
*** Photography by the gorgeous lady at Megan Jean Photography (@MeganJean_Photo)***
For those of you keeping up with the latest blogs (and please do if you aren't!) then you already know how this story started... with a haircut. After leaving JJ Barbershop Megan and I wandered down the road towards where the barber told us that we could find Senzala Tattoo.
First tattoo
My beautiful bride has quite a few tattoos. I'm a sucker for a girl with ink, and she's just so damn beautiful anyways... It's like art on art. Me, on the other hand, well, I've been hesitant. After graduating from Coast Guard boot camp right out of high school, I planned a tattoo. The artwork was done and ready to go. And then I didn't do it. After my first daughter was born, I planned to get something to represent her, but I wasn't sure what. After completing my Army training I again designed a tattoo, but ultimately wimped out. Now... finally... After 16 years, I had a plan I liked. A flower.
Flor de Maga (Why a flower?)
I love the beauty, diversity, and color of flowers, so when I wanted to represent my love for Megan and our trip to Puerto Rico, I could only think of one thing that I would truly love. Something tropical, but to me evergreen: the State Flower of Puerto Rico.
The National Flower of Puerto Rico, the Flor de Maga or false Hibiscus
The Flor de Maga is often called a hibiscus due to its similar looks, but is in fact closer related to the cotton plant. You can find this tree and their bright pink petals all over Puerto Rico from the coast to the mountains. While the flowers are simply used for ornamental purposes, the wood of the tree has been used for generations for construction and many other wooden products. After hundreds of years of history the Maga was finally declared the National Flower of Puerto Rico in 2019.
Tattoo inks being prepped at Senzala Tattoo
The shop
We walked down the street just to find the door closed and locked, but some guys were sitting on the sidewalk out front smoking a cigarette. As we continued they asked "hey, you looking for tattoos?" "Why yes we are. Do you know when they open?" "We're open now man, we're just taking a break. Come back in a bit and we'll hook you up." So we kept walking and got a beer.
About an hour later we returned (now a bit more relaxed) and walked through the unlocked doors. They looked shocked that we actually came back. The shop has bright red walls...
Megan, being the expert on the matter, talked to them about the idea and the artists got to work. We were quoted $250 each for the work. After about 20 minutes we got to preview our artwork and meet the artists. Soon, it was time
The tattoo artist gets ready to lay in the first line of my first tattoo
The experience
Loving bright colors, my design was drawn up to be a vivid flash-style Maga flower, while Megan opted to have a more realistic design in black and white. I was nervous until I sat down. Once I was in the chair I was really just more curious than anything. I had seen people get tattoos on TV, but had never actually seen one in real life, much less experienced the real deal myself! The artist was patient and happy to answer all of my questions. He started by shaving my forearm and then cleaning it with a sanitizing soap. The chair, armrest, and tattoo gun were already sanitized and wrapped in plastic. Next he applied the outline and prepared his inks. It was getting real now. The anxiety was back. Maybe I should say no. LIke, do I even need this? Does anyone need this?
As he applied the first line I realized that it was too late now. My anxiousness faded and I became hooked. The pain was nice. It was actually quite relaxing (other than some heavy coloring at the end which did hurt a bit). Watching the artist work was quite an experience. His gun was able to glide with little resistance as it cut across my skin revealing the new tattoo almost as if it were always there and simply needed my natural skin scraped away.
About 30 minutes later he was done. The fresh wound was cleaned and sealed. They gave me a set of instructions before we left and he took some quick videos for his social media.
Safety and sanitation
As I alluded to in the section above, sanitation was top notch. Puerto Rico has a well regulated tattoo industry and keeps strict licensing and sanitation laws on the books. Senzala was of course a licensed studio, but each artist also had their own license. You can read more about Puerto Rico's tattoo policies here. Everything was clean looking, clean smelling, and they did the sanitation as well as breaking of needles right in front of you. I never had any issues during or after the process even with the shenanigans that Megan and I got into shortly after. Speaking of which...
Swimming with new ink
Yeah, I know. I can hear you screaming at the screen... "DON'T SWIM WITH A NEW TATTOO!!!" Well, too bad. There's way too much gorgeous water around Puerto Rico to not swim, and I wasn't about to give that up. We protected the fresh wounds with some Aquaphor each day, and I personally tried to keep the shower water off a bit, but that only lasted so long. When you're on a tropical island in the Caribbean, you don't stay dry. Even if we were to stay on land, the tropics have near-daily rain, so why even try? Anyways it was way more fun to just embrace whatever the water would bring to the tattoo. To me, it's part of the artwork itself. Part of the story. So we went swimming.
We went snorkeling...
Megan and I spent a lot of time in the ocean for two weeks… even with fresh ink
We went surfing…
A surfer walks along the beach during sunset a Jobos beach
We went played in the ocean and a private jungle river...
We even went swimming in a biofluorescent bay with dolphins!!!
We saw this amazing double rainbow on the way to the bio bay
Now after the better part of a year later, I'm still very happy with my new, and first tattoo, but that won't be the case for long; more flower tattoos are just around the corner!
Senzalla Tattoo has been operating in Old San Juan since 1998 and is located at 354 Calle de San Francisco, San Juan, PR. You can find them online at www.senzalatattoo.com or give them a call at 787-722-3676. They didn't ask me to write this story; I'm just a fan of their work and telling y'all what we're up to. I did make sure to share this blog with them though so if you found me from there (yay!) make sure to check out some of my other posts from Puerto Rico and beyond!
Check out the shop on IG: @SenzalaTatoo
Check out the artist on IG: @Gala_Tatoos
