On How I Didn't Get my Free Tattoo
As related somewhere in these many QOTW, many years ago I and the missus attended a motorcycle rally. The only significant difference between this event and your typical music festival being the typical participant.
Instead of hundreds of drunk college students, we were confronted with hundreds of drunk bikers. That's not to say the difference is insignificant. While both groups are just as likely to feature rolling in mud, inappropriate nudity, shouting, fighting, etc.; the biker festival is likely to also feature drunks plowing through crowds on high-powered motorcycles, stabbings, gang wars (with machine guns), and a lack of police presence (due to police being outnumbered and out-gunned).

That said, we had a generally great time. I'm quite large and mellow, as were my friends in attendance, and since we knew the organizers, our campsite was close to the main area of the compound, thus well away from most of the craziness. The highlight of the events, after the wet t-shirt contest, was the raffle. Many prizes were donated, but you had to be present to win, and much of the crowd had evaporated well before the raffle was over. As such, being in attendance the entire time, I won a metric buttload of goodies.

Much of the loot was in the form of gift certificates. One of these was for a local tattooist, who fortuitously had set up shop inside the large pavilion area. I could get my tattoo immediately! So there I am, paging through the flash books, the missus relunctantly agreeing that some of the designs were quite nice.

I'd just settled on a funky dragon, clearly ripped off from Dave Trampier's Wormy comic, when directly outside the tattoo area someone started moaning and crying.

"What's going on"? my wife asked.

"Oh, she's pretty strung out on smack -- don't pay any attention to her." replied my erstwhile tattoo artist.

Not possible -- we left the area post-haste, and I never did get that tattoo.
(danalan Pretty good, for an amateur., Fri 5 Jun 2009, 4:42, 1 reply)

Sturgis?
Was it Sturgis, by any chance? That's an awesome time.
(FleetlordVT, Wed 10 Jun 2009, 11:33, closed)