While in Ho Chi Minh City, I decided to get a tattoo. I went to Saigon Ink, which was supposed to be one of the higher-end spots.
While I was waiting, I met a Vietnamese-American kid who was in town visiting his cousins and, unbeknownst to his parents back home, getting a sleeve inked. He was in so much pain that he looked like he was going to cry! I sat down and tried to distract him. It didn't work very well because he'd already been under the needle for four hours. My tattoo only took twenty minutes or so, so afterwards I took the kid out for a beer around the corner. He was barely old enough, but he needed a drink! We chatted for half an hour or so and then went our separate ways. I don't even remember his name. Just one of those brief interactions one has when traveling alone, but I treasure all of them.
As for the tattoo, I knew I wanted to get the Vietnamese word for "hope", but I did not have a design in mind. After discussing it a bit, the tattoo artist grabbed a calligraphy pen and came up with this:
I live-streamed the process on Facebook. If you are interested, you can watch the video here. Oh, and at $35 USD, it was by far my cheapest tattoo.
While I was waiting, I met a Vietnamese-American kid who was in town visiting his cousins and, unbeknownst to his parents back home, getting a sleeve inked. He was in so much pain that he looked like he was going to cry! I sat down and tried to distract him. It didn't work very well because he'd already been under the needle for four hours. My tattoo only took twenty minutes or so, so afterwards I took the kid out for a beer around the corner. He was barely old enough, but he needed a drink! We chatted for half an hour or so and then went our separate ways. I don't even remember his name. Just one of those brief interactions one has when traveling alone, but I treasure all of them.
As for the tattoo, I knew I wanted to get the Vietnamese word for "hope", but I did not have a design in mind. After discussing it a bit, the tattoo artist grabbed a calligraphy pen and came up with this:
And I thought it was perfect.
Here I am with the tattoo artist, Jet Lee:
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