Tears welled up in her eyes as we limped the last block back to the house. We showered, and dressed her wounds as best we could. She had scraped her knee and gouged her elbow, and glared accusingly at me when she thought I wasn't looking. We managed to get to the tattoo parlour without further incident, and walked in at the appointed time armed with water and candy (for little bursts of energy as required).

Mary Ann had worked up several treatments of the design for Una, and she decided on one with blue shading. Then we went back to her working area in the back. Mary Ann was pretty good about explaining everything, and answering questions as we went along. The first thing she did was shave the back of Una's neck where the tattoo was to go, then applied Speed Stick antiperspirant on the area. This was to provide a smooth, sticky surface area to apply the stencil of the design. Mary Ann took the stenciled image and pressed it onto Una's back, and when she pulled it away, the image of Una's chop remained on her skin, as a guide for her to follow.

Unfortunately, the stenciled design was not quite level on Una's back. Una wanted the design directly on the middle of her upper back, and since the chop was a squarish design, any kind of distortion was easily visible. Not a problem declared Mary Ann, as she sprayed green soap onto the image, wiped it off, and attempted to apply the stencil again. It eventually took four tries before we were satisfied with the placement of the design. After a little bit of settling down (getting the right height stool, getting a fresh needle, putting a few drops of ink into the inkwell, getting Una's hair out of the way), we began. Una straddled a chair backwards so that the back of the chair supported her upper body. Mary Ann was behind her applying the tattoo, and I was in front holding Una's hand.

When the needle hit her skin, I expected her to stiffen up, to start sweating, to break my hand, etc. Instead, she calmly looked at pictures on the wall, made idle conversation, sucked on hard candies, and said it wasn't all that bad. Later, we conjectured that the fall had pumped her full of endorphins and adrenaline or something, or perhaps her throbbing elbow made the tattoo needle feel like a mosquito in comparison. In any case, she took it really well. Even Mary Ann was impressed, saying that one time she had something put on her back and the pain made her cry.

Since Una obviously didn't need my support, I got up and watched. Mary Ann would outline sections of the chop, then wipe away excess ink. After she had the whole thing outlined, then she started in with filling in the outlines with a different type of needle. It supposedly hurts less than the outlining needle, but Una said it all felt the same. She let Una take a stretch break every now and then, and in about an hour, the black ink section was done, and then it took another 15 minutes or so to put in the blue shading. We were done!