By in Donna Nicholson - Editorial, General

THE LOMBAX FANGIRL

I’ve been a fan of the Ratchet & Clank franchise since the first game was released for the PS2. I’m not sure how many hours I’ve spent wielding a wrench, hoarding bolts, and fighting the likes of Captain Qwark and Dr. Nafarious.  It’s been several, you can be sure of that. And I intend to add several more hours to the already hefty number when the new game, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, is released next week.

So what’s my story? Well, I’d been contemplating a tattoo for quite some time. I knew I wanted something gaming related – gaming has been an integral part of who I am since I was eight-years-old and played Pong at a friend’s house. I thought for a while about a game I’d find worthy enough to permanently display on my body.

It wasn’t an easy choice.

I wasn’t going to pay homage to Pong, though I feel it deserves it, because seriously – how boring a tattoo would that be?

I loved Unreal Tournament and Halo, but as the cliché goes, I pictured myself as a little, blue-haired, lady and thought perhaps Master Chief or the UT logo tattooed on my shoulder or someplace even less “appropriate” might not be the best decision. I adore Nathan Drake and thought perhaps someplace less appropriate might be more appropriate for him (hubba hubba) but thought better of that too.

Honestly, I’m not sure when the Ratchet & Clank epiphany came to me, but when I thought of them I immediately knew – I wanted a tattoo with my favorite gaming duo.

I searched the internet high and low to find the perfect image of my gaming heroes and finally found this one (image) except I had my tattoo artist put Ratchet’s foot on a bolt instead.

And here’s the completed tattoo (image)

The day I got it done, one of my Twitter friends retweeted the photo I had posted of it. Insomniac Games contacted me and said they would send me the entire first series of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One action figures to thank me for being such a big fan! Here’s a photo of the action figures they sent me (image)

And just for giggles, here is a picture of my dog. His name is – wait for it – Ratchet! (image)

So, yes. I am a fangirl!

Donna is Community Manager and Digital High Podcast Co-host at the awesome www.playeraffinity.com.