The process of this tattoo has often included with it a consistent subversion of my expectations. Sometimes, even the most familiar experiences can surprise you. For my 143rd appointment with Horizakura, we did not continue to shade my bodysuit. I expected that based on my previous appointment, perhaps the last claw and the damned whisker would be the next things to be shaded. Instead, I arrived at the shop yesterday to see a little cup of white ink on Horizakura’s tray. MUCH EXCITE.

I have continued my relatively hands-off approach to this tattoo with the choices and application of the color. I am content to receive what Horizakura thinks is best. As such, I knew his plan was to add white and gold to the dragon, but I wasn’t sure exactly what the distribution of those colors would be. As he was tattooing me, I was trying to discern what parts he was working on, but I was having trouble figuring out if was the edges of the feathers or the spines of the feathers. Shortly after the appointment, I found it difficult to even tell what had been done through the plastic wrap that was covering the tattoo. While I was extremely excited about this milestone, I was also feeling a bit discouraged as the two hours did not seem to yield very much progress. At first, I thought he was only able to shade the feathers of the right wing during our appointment. I also, however, remembered him working over my spine and there are no feathers there. That was when I realized the true scope of his progress and relief washed over me. As you can see in the photos, he added white to the right wing, the spine of the dragon, and the small tufted feathers under the dragons left wing. The latter in particular is a great place to see the difference between the white ink and my skin tone. Much like black ink, I find that white ink pops the most when additional colors are filled in around it. Color applied by tebori also takes some time to reach it’s true vibrancy. You will also notice in the pictures there is a sort of red tint in the white since it’s a fresh tattoo. With that context, I’m very excited to see how this will develop over time and I’m already looking forward to our next appointment.