Surface

No worries, it's just info to chew on, so I appreciate your candor. 🙂

Well, I appreciate your honesty, at least, but we'll see where life takes me, haha. Decision is still mine, in the end. 🙂

It seems like you’ve made your decision, but just wanted to chime in as someone else with GAD. I’ve wanfed a tattoo for years.  Finally I knew what I wanted, and I put down a deposit. I was nervous as hell the day before. But, about an hour before the appointment, I realized that this is a transition (no tattoo to having a tattoo) and being nervous is NORMAL. I’ve had a number of body piercings in the past but those were easily removed. Of course I’d be nervous about this. 
Once I got to the shop, I felt totally calm. I figured that was the most important thing. I trust my artist and felt comfortable in the shop, and even the pain wasn’t bad. Because this was my first tattoo, and because I’ve got a history of fainting, I opted for just the line work. 24 hours later I was so stoked about the outcome that I made my next appointment. 
All of this is to say that, I think, as somebody with GAD, I’m often constantly questioning myself. “Is of normal to be nervous? Is this GAD or should I really be nervous? But realizing that a little anxiety is normal helped me be a lot more okay with everything.  
Attached is a photo from -right- after she did it— outline of one of the giant elk inside Lascaux cave. The cave painting has some grey shading along the base of the elk’s body and inside the antlers, so that’s what I’ll get done next...and then hopefully a few more cave critters. 

Yup yup. I've always been very go big or go home. The stress isn't necessarily from the idea of pain or size so much as it is different, and different is always scary. I've had things like henna or other semi-permanent body art (won't go into detail here, but one I thought was going to wind up being permanent after it didn't disappear for six months and the design was super embarrassing and I strangely just went "meh" about it), without too much freak out, so I swing between "okay this will happen, it's cool" and "oh my god this is happening."

Definitely taking time to sit on it a little longer and see how I feel, though the doctor may just solve the problem in the first place and say no altogether! I have GAD, so that probably doesn't help much either. I get super anxious on big, life changing decisions in general. 🙂
I appreciate all your responses and I'll see how I feel in the next handful of months.