Logging into my blog and checking my last post is typically how I figure out which appointment number I’m on. I absolutely could not believe my eyes when I saw the date of my last post. November 4th?! How can that BE?! I suppose it was especially surprising because, although I’ve been very bad at posting here, I have been very consistent with taking progress photos. The bad news is any possible interesting tidbit that I was likely to want to share from these appointments is now absolutely lost to the dark abyss of my horrible memory. I can, however, share a couple reflections on the process of adding color!

After over 250 hours of tattooing, you start to feel like a bit of an expert on your own experience. I’m no expert in telling people how to care for their tattoos, how to get tattooed, or what to do before a tattoo, but I am an expert on what works for me. The amount of time things take to heal, which parts will be more difficult than others, and the like are all things I have developed a really good sense for over the last 9 years. Moving on to color has been a bit of a shake up for me! Seeing how different colors heal at different speeds has been especially surprising. After a typical sumi appointment, it would only take about two weeks for my skin to look outwardly healed. There would be some tenderness, but from the outside, the skin would appear smooth and perhaps a bit dry (I dry heal). There are some areas of red that are still visibly healing after 8 weeks! Wild stuff.

People who have been following along with my work for a while may also know that I tend to sit for a tattoo without any distractions. By that I mean, I would not bring my phone over to the table while I was getting tattooed. I would listen to whatever Shinji was playing in the shop or engage in light discussion with him. I have always valued my time getting tattooed as a chance to unplug from my technology and media dominated life (I don’t count the music because Shinji plays music on a vintage analog radio). Most of the last 250 hours has been me turning inward and sitting in silence with my thoughts. Starting in 2024, I decided to afford myself a little reprieve if the Ravens are playing football. I really do enjoy watching football and moving my appoitments to Sundays was in conflict with that for quite a while. If the Ravens aren’t playing during my appointment, however, I still sit in silence as I normally would.

I’m sure there’s a handful of other thoughts that are escaping me now, but I’m sure I will bring them up in another post as they come to mind. Until then, to summarize the last two months: Horizakura tattooed me for 8 hours over the last 4 appointments (appointment numbers 149 – 152) during which he continued to fill in the cherry blossoms on my legs.

Session 149

Session 150!

Session 151

Somehow my camera was changed from shooting RAW to shooting JPEGs. It must have happened during a family Christmas photo. I would like to blame my son as he does like to fiddle with my camera. Anyway, I have limited color correction control on these photos so things might look a little too vibrant and the white balance is off.

Session 152

Same deal with the JPEGs as above.