#gwyg

Get What You Give (GWYG)

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For those who don't know, a GWYG tattoo is where you get a random tattoo design from a gumball machine. Most artists will offer re-rolls for a fee.

I was originally scheduled to get this back in May, but the artist needed to reschedule - to AUGUST.

My mental health has been shite, and even on the day of the tattoo, I was not excited as I usually am before getting tattooed.

I have been following the artist carefully and checking off the mons that had already been rolled and tattooed. Some of the heavy hitters had already gone - Umbreon, Wooper, Quagsire, Celebi - but the 3 I knew I would 100% need to re-roll on had not yet been tattooed. They were Smoochum, Ariados and Spinarak.

Anyway. I got my ball, opened it and... Smoochum.

Y'ALL.

I re-rolled. Knowing I would need to get whatever it was and praying on account of my possibly overactive arachnophobia that it wasn't one of the spider mons.

It was Ho-Oh. HO-OH. A FREAKIN' LEGENDARY.

We found the perfect place for it - below my spooky Gengar tattoo, done by the same artist last October - filling out the front of my right leg.

I returned to Brum and caught up with my partner, who had made a start on grocery shopping. He did a cursory sweep over the body parts he could see when I found him in the supermarket, but I knew he hadn't spotted it.

Later, he guessed what it was. He wanted the first letter - H. He must have guessed every other H Gen2 mon before I was like "It's a legendary" & he was like "HO-OH?!??!?".

Now, I have been with my partner for... 13 years? When we first got together, he was playing through Soulsilver. As a kid he had played Silver for a million hours and had several Level 100 mons. I had played Pokémon Yellow as a kid but due to being 💫 poor 💫 stopped there.

So. I ended up buying a 2nd-hand Nintendo DS & a copy of HeartGold to compliment his SS.

Guys, it was a STUPIDLY fortuitous run. I caught the Pokérus in-game, and caught a shiny Articuno after just 15 minutes of semi-serious soft resets. I had also used a Ho-Oh in the Elite 4.

My partner was rather sweet. Said he liked how it was almost like a throw-back to that time, to our first few months as a couple when we were at university. How it was meaningful without meaning to be.

I may not have gotten a Yadoking, or a Murkrow, or any of the others I secretly thought would be awesome to get - but I got a little nostalgic piece that both does & doesn't call back to us as much younger people, desperately eager to share the experience of HGSS with each other.

When I told the tattoo artist I was re-rolling, she said she was surprised with how many people had said they disliked Smoochum.

When she uploaded the reel onto IG, some people were upset I had re-rolled, whilst others understood. I commented & said this was a good thing because it means she will (hopefully) be tattooed on someone who really, really likes her.

I got lucky - very lucky.