hey all~

three days ago, i got a tattoo on the arch of my foot (the underside), smack in the middle. it’s a black outlined and green-filled recycling symbol about the size of an egg, and i told my friend/tattoo artist that i wanted it to stay. in the end, it was a full hour of pretty hardcore pain, but it looked *beautiful* and i was very happy with the work, even knowing that it would fade with time.

but a day after getting it, i had to go up on a high-altitude mountain summit for work, where i need to wear sneakers (can be loose) half the time. now, i’m at “base camp” most of the time (~9500 feet).

my foot is very painful and i still can’t walk, but the pain has gone down a little. no more random nasty throbbing bouts. the tattoo has been weeping for a while (which i sort of expected). it’s also still pretty swollen – the swelling doesn’t seem to have gone down, even after not wearing shoes for ~15 hours and trying not to put pressure on that foot. does that sound like a normal reaction? is the decreased air pressure exaggerating the swelling? i’m really worried about the healing time. all of my other tattoos were pretty pain-free by about the 5th day and definitely didn’t swell this long. any insight? does anyone have a similar story with this area and what the rest of the healing process might be like?

thanks~ sara