Month / May 2022

by theremonster

Horizakura Art Exhibit – Nepenthes NYC

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had a non-tattoo update. I know last post I made some sort of vague promise about reading books. Let’s be real, me having the time and energy to read a book may very well be a pipe dream. Instead, you will get these photos from the event and you will be happy with it. For context, Horizakura had arranged to hang several pieces of art for sale in the store. The display also includes a short biography as well as a line of photos of more recent clients (including yours truly). The event was well attended by friends, clients, and other tattooers. In all the time that I have been getting tattooed by Horizakura, this was the first time I was afforded the opportunity to really engage the with the tattoo community that surrounds him. It is, perhaps, the only drawback to getting tattooed in a private studio setting. I love everything about it, but the interaction with other clients as they come and go just isn’t there. It was a true pleasure to be able to meet and talk with other clients or tattoo enthusiasts in person. I also really appreciated those of you I met that had kind words for me about Gaijink. Selfishly, I really do this for myself so that I can remember the journey. I would do it even if nobody read it, but knowing that people do is really encouraging to me.

In reflecting on the night, it feels like a missing piece to my tattoo experience has begun to fall into place. I look forward to future opportunities to meet up and hang out with these like-minded people. I hope you enjoy these quick snaps I took of the event. If you are in the area, the exhibit will be up for at least a few weeks (I unfortunately don’t remember the exact date). Swing by and take a look!

by theremonster

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

Things have been a little hectic between a busy work schedule and having a baby at home, so I kinda forgot to post an update after my 103rd appointment. Fortunately for us all, appointment 104 was on a different area of my body, so I was able to get a clean shot of the work done during 103. Overall I’m not sure there is much to say for either of these appointments. Of course, it’s always a pleasure to just be engaged in the process. Tebori is also always so much more pleasant to experience than machine tattooing. We’ve been bouncing back and forth between outline and shading a little bit more than usual over the last few months which has also been nice. I am eager to see the outline finished, but even as I consider that, the pictures of the shading remind me of how much this tattoo will change as the shading and color are complete. It’s all very exciting! Horizakura asked to cancel my next appointment because of a project he’s working on, so I will likely not have another update here for a few weeks. I have been thinking more and more about diving into some of these books I have. I think it would be useful to have some information about them here for the public to see. Perhaps I can squeeze one of those in before my next appointment.

Appointment 103 – 1 hour tebori on the clouds and bar just below the clouds

104 – 2 hours of tebori – You’ll notice that two of these photos are very similar. I wanted to illustrate how the tattoo (specifically the dragon’s head) and lighting changes by simply hunching my back a little. I think it’s important to keep body position in mind when you’re looking at photos of tattoos. Shapes and reflections can change pretty dramatically with even slight body movement and you shouldn’t necessarily be so quick to judge an artist’s rendering from a photo. Certainly things like the smoothness of shading or clean linework won’t be affected, but proportions and shape and light might be.