my first cutting

Before we began, John placed a stencil of the design on my arm, the same as you would with a tattoo, and made sure I was happy with the location, size, angle, etc.  Once that was settled we began the cut.  He started by first tracing the stencil with a scalpel, making only a shallow cut on the surface of my skin.  This part of the cutting was really no more painful than getting a tattoo outline (and a lot quicker).  Once the outline was cut he applied a blue gel (very generically named “Blue Gel”) which contains lidocaine and epinephrine.  The lidocaine numbs the skin and the epinephrine helps control bleeding.  I’m told the skin needs to be opened up for the Blue Gel to get in and do its thing which is the reason for doing an initial outline cutting first before going in for a deeper cut.