Let’s try not to get too excited here, but I was finally able to make two appointments in a row without a cancellation. I wish that wasn’t something worth celebrating, but with the way my schedule has been lately, it is. My 108th appointment with Horizakura was an hour of shading on my right ribs. Overall an endurable appointment and I felt good for the duration. I still had issues getting into the city in a timely fashion. I spent the bulk of my blind-rage commute considering why this could be and I believe the answer is noobs. I’m so used to driving in the city during business hours when the bulk of the traffic is other people who are used to working and driving in the New York City. On a Sunday, the roads are filled-to-bursting with morons who have no idea what they’re doing or where they’re going. They don’t follow any of the unwritten rules of highly aggressive New York City traffic and the result is a slow, grinding chaos. I spent so much time driving in and out of the city under those conditions on Sunday that I feel like I could probably write a dissertation on it. This platform isn’t the place for that, but you can tell that I’m having a difficult time stopping myself.

Though my tattoo appointment may have been bookended with significant (suppressed) road rage, the appointment itself was a little bit sad. Upon entering the studio, I found that Horizakura had cleared out most of the art, photos, books, and furniture in the space as he has begun to move his studio to a new location. I’m sure many of you know how private he is which is why I haven’t really mentioned anything about it here, but at this point it’s so integral to my experience that this blog would be incomplete and inaccurate if I didn’t mention it. He has been planning to move for a few months now and I knew we were getting close, but walking into the studio and seeing it that way made it very real to me. I didn’t expect to feel the way I did about him moving, but up to now, my entire experience has been in that space. I’m not the type of person to shy away from change, in fact one of the things I love so much about getting tattooed regularly is that my body is constantly changing, but the realization that this would be my last appointment on the Lower East Side filled me with nostalgia for it all. Thinking of the restaurants that have come and gone, the route I used to take, my incredibly lucky streak of awesome parking spots right in front of the studio, and every moment of non-tattoo time spent inside that quiet, cozy room makes the excitement of change bitter sweet. Nonetheless, as this chapter comes to a close I find myself eager for my next appointment in the new studio and to begin a new chapter in my tattoo experience with Horizakura.

New haircut not pictured.

I’m still getting used to having tattoo appointments on Sundays. This was only my second time having a Sunday appointment. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my previous appointment because my wife, son, and I all got Covid. Everybody is in good health now though, and I’m am thrilled to be back at it. Getting used to commuting into the city on a Sunday is a little tricky though. The commute from my office was always pretty fast so getting to the studio from home needs a little more flexibility for traffic. I ended up being a few minutes late for my 107th appointment with Horizakura. Fortunately, tebori was on the docket for this appointment so we didn’t lose out on any drawing time like we would if this was an outline session. For a little less than two hours, Horizakura shaded swirling wind on my left side. Overall, this session was pretty easy for me and (being well fed and well rested) I sat way better than I did for my last appointment. It was a really nice session, especially the couple times the record Shinji was playing ended and there was just some light street noise and the shakki of tebori. It was very peaceful.

I’m not sure that I have anything else to say here… We discussed Horizakura’s plan to move his studio and some of the details that are involved with that process. He also gifted me two really nice prints from a couple of tattoo artists, though I will not be posting them here as I prefer to keep them private. At least for now.

I still need a haircut.

Included this picture of me stretching my arm up just because I thought it was interesting how the tattoo moves and changes shape as I stretch.