On my 128th appointment with Horizakura we finished the outline of my bodysuit.

If you have been following along with me for any amount of time, I’m sure you can guess how happy I am to have reached this milestone. Just like everything in life, I have found that actually achieving the goal doesn’t feel quite like I imagined it would feel. I guess in my head I expected a lot of high-fiving and flowing whisky, maybe some music and somebody doing a wheelie on a motorcycle. The reality has been mixed feelings of tranquility, pride, resolve, and sadness. Out of everything, the sadness was perhaps the most unexpected, but really when you think about it, it’s not that far outside the realm of comprehension. A completed outline means that, in large part, the tattoo has been defined in its entirety. The shading and the color will change it all by giving depth and life to the content, but there is a sort of bittersweet feeling knowing that a good amount of the mystery is gone. Even with that bittersweet sensation on my mind, there is no doubt that the most exciting times are still ahead of me. I know from my experience with my half sleeve just how much color changes a tattoo. The prospect of beginning with the color before this year is over is almost too much to hope for, but with steady progress I think we are very likely to get there.

As for this appointment, it was just fine. I’ve mentioned before how unpleasant the chest was for me, so forearms, elbows, and elbow ditches are nothing by comparison. Horizakura spent a little while drawing in the rest of the background on my forearm. Just before we started, I reminded him that he had previously mentioned that he would shorten the V in my right armpit to match what he had designed for my left sleeve. I wasn’t sure that he wanted to do that during this appointment, but I decided to speak up about it anyway. He seemed glad that I mentioned it because he made the measurements and added the necessary linework there. By the time he wrapped up the outlines, there was still about an hour left for our appointment. In the past, he has always just cut the appointment short if he reached a natural stopping point for the day. However for this appointment, almost as a pracitcal manifestation of the momentum we seem to be building, after he finished with the outline, he took 15 minutes and set up his station for tebori and got into some shading as well! This is the first time I can recall him outlining and shading me in the same appointment. I love the spirit of using all the time available to us. It feels like we’re really moving now!

From here on out, it looks like it’s all tebori all the time. I couldn’t be happier.