Tattoo in Tucson

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Yes Mum, you are reading the title correctly. Your baby, the youngest has once again permanently disfigured her body, with black Indian ink. This time you also can't blame Claire, as she dislikes it!



Tucson is known for two things tattoos and food. Arizona is known for guns, guns and more guns...a guy walking down the street was packing (I have been delightfully informed that packing means carrying a gun) 7 different guns ranging in size from a tiny pistol to a sawn off shotgun. When I queried why he was carrying such a weapon, it's for protection apparently. He explained to me how the ammunition he was carrying was meant for total destruction, because as he correctly informed me dead people can't sue. ... Wonderful. He spoke with such a blasé attitude about the whole thing, it was borderline worrying. He spoke as if he was discussing weather not the killing of another human being. Welcome to Arizona! I thought I was in hell with the attitude of the people, but no the weather can be best described as hotter than hell, and incredibly dry. So different from the humidity of Texas. It is literally too hot for insects, so no fear of mosquito bites here; instead I have to worry about rattlesnakes, coyotes, and a weird wild pig with a very specific name that I can not spell.



Tucson is literally a city surrounded by barren land, and mountainous treacherous landscapes. Mount lemon stands on one side and the Catalina mountains on the other, which effectively creates a crevice in the middle where a city has been built that traps heat. I travelled up mount lemon on one of my free days, it's a 30 minute drive in which you climb 8,000 feet in about 15 miles. The views were pretty incredible you can see all of Tucson and off into the distance though to be fair after that all you see is dust. But it was a nice practice for the grand canyon.



Now for the food, my first stop was Lindy's on fourth; a renowned burger bar, known for its late openings and it's massive burgers. I only went for a double, god it was good, amazing. Americans know how to make good burgers if nothing else. I avoided their specialty burger which is just ridiculous in size and calories though if you eat it in 20 minutes you get it free. My second stop was a Mexican place that had been visited by the then president bill Clinton it wasn't amazing but it was still good food with very little wait which always equals happy me.



Now for the part my mother is dreading, I got a tattoo on my ankle. A silhouette of an eagle as a homage to my trip state side. The tattoo artist was a lovely guy called Wells, who was also unsurprisingly packing heat... After tattooing me he pulled out the gun he had in back pocket the entire time he was sat down and it was loaded... At that point I knew that not paying for anything was never an option in Tucson.

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