First Tattoo

Missing Ship's movement has to be one of the most serious thing's a sailor can do, but not this time....

Of all the places I have been Scotland, had to be one of my favorite places of all, for many reasons.  The people, the history, the architecture of the buildings, there is just so much of it all.  The people are fantastic and it has to be but one of the many reasons I like Scotland so much.

The first time I visited Scotland, Edinburgh first and foremost, was back in 1982, when things were very different all over the world, in many different ways than they are now.  About 25 years later, I returned to Edinburgh, and many things had changed about the city, the people and the attitudes of it all.  More about that later though, for now, let me tell you about this visit in particular and many of the things that occurred during my visit.

Without a doubt, if drinking is on your mind, Scotland has to be one of the best places in the world to do it!  Especially in that time and day.  The atmosphere in the pubs is so much different than the bars and club of the United States. For a thirsty sailor, it is almost 'ideal' since you could go into a pub in the 'middle of the afternoon' and it was acceptable, almost expected and 'wet your whistle' while downing a pint or two!

On this particular afternoon, several other shipmates and myself, were out seeing the town and pub hopping to get our fill!  Sometime in the early afternoon, we spotted a tattoo shop and the consent was we should go and get a tattoo.  A natural thing for a sailor to do right?  So off to the tattoo shop we went, four or five us.  Upon arriving at the tattoo shop, we were 'revved' up and all motivated to get our 'first' tattoo.  When we got to the shop though, we were informed it would be 'awhile,' but we were welcome to wait.  Well the decision was made to wait our turn, but the wait turned out to be longer than our ability to wait for the next pint.  So in search of another pub, we abandoned the tattoo shop and ventured forward to the nearest pub!

While we sat in the pub, socializing and getting our fill of ale, we learned of a concert going on later that 'night' in the local 'hall.'  Though we had never heard of the performed, Elvis Costello, we decided it was worth a go and decided to attend. 

What a good decision it turned out to be as well.  The venue was small, maybe 800-1000 people and it was more like a school auditorium.  We must not have sat down the whole concert though, instead standing to enjoy the music and see the performers over the heads of the rest of the crowd there. The acoustics in the hall were great, as was the music! 

It was a pretty calm night with not a lot happening as we became acquainted with city, more playing like tourists than sailors.  It all worked out well though, never did get the 'first' tattoo at that time.  Learning that the 'wait' was due to another shipmate getting work done on a 'massive' tattoo that 'ran' from his shoulder to his calf!  Seemed one of his 'traditions' was to get a little more work done on the tat in each port.

From some aspects and points of view, it was a somewhat boring day but for us, it was 'great' just to take it all in and be able to drink and experience an 'unheard' of 'local' performer.  The 'trip' did get better though!