My last appointment of 2016. An hour and a half spent on my right leg. Again, this area is easy to handle and easy to heal, so not very much to report. Also, this part isn’t fully healed, so don’t mind the scabbing/dry skin.
Slowly, slowly, slowly the background goes in.
My nineteenth session spanned from my left thigh to my fleshy love-handles. There was some really odd gastro business happening while he was railing away on my side. It felt really strange… like he was pulling my skin away from my guts and making pockets of air. It’s difficult to explain the feeling. When I left the studio I let fly with a pretty enormous burp so something was definitely happening to my guts. Wacky and wild stuff, folks.
So far, this has been the absolute worst area for healing. Having jeans tight-ish around my hips and waist made the process absolutely brutal. Without exaggeration, for two weeks after this appointment I would be limping by the end of the day. Even after the tattoo was no longer raw, the scabbing was much worse because of the contact from my clothes. My clothes then would rub on those scabs creating a fairly vicious cycle. When the opposing area is tattooed on my right side, I’m going to be investing is a few pairs of sweatpants in an effort to mitigate my suffering. The healing was so much worse than getting the tattoo.
If anybody has tips on how to wear sweatpants in public without looking like a hobo, please let me know.
I’m way behind on these updates! Shame! Shaaaaaaaame!! This appointment was the back of my right leg. Nothing much to report here as that area isn’t very sensitive. I wish every part of the body was as easy as the leg.
Here are a couple quick snaps after my 17th appointment. This was done in the same compromising body position of the 16th appointment. I would say I’m glad to be done with that, but if you’ll notice, there is a small area half finished near my crevasse. Almost there though! This appointment was entirely on my right ass cheek, south of the wave. It was unpleasant.
Session 18 is healing right now, very excited to post photos of that work! This thing is really coming together.
This is a pretty well shot and very interesting 15 minute doc with Horiyoshi III. I really enjoyed it and I hope you will too! I had my 18th appointment today. An update with the results of the 17th will be up soon. In the mean time, watch this!
“Cherish each stroke of the needle and each second of life.” -Horiyoshi III
My 16th appointment just about finished the background on my left leg. Very happy to have one leg down. This appointment finished off the left butt cheek and also a bit on the hip? kidney? region. I cannot begin to tell you the awkward position one must be in for this to happen. It was unpleasant to say the least. I once again forgot to take pictures before the appointment, so these were on my phone hastily done before work (mind you, not at work. I’m not one of those…).
So much for it not becoming a trend! I forgot to take pictures after session 14. 14 and 15 were only a week apart, plus I had was super busy at work and also got married. Cut me some slack. During my 14th appointment, Horizakura filled in the wave under my left butt cheek. It’s pretty difficult to see without me pulling my butt cheek up, but I’ll spare you that image. He also shaded the wave to the right of the koi’s face and finished the background to the right of the koi.
My 15th appointment really demonstrated what Horizakura was saying about stretchy parts of the body being slower to tattoo. The skin on my thigh is pretty tight so Horizakura was able to cover a lot of area in the usual two hour time frame. Good stuff! As you can see, he shaded the background to the left of the koi and the wave on the top. I learned something interesting about the process after this session as well. The scalloped edges of the background are drawn on by hand with marker before we start each time. However, I always noticed that he would poke me a few times on each marker line before he would get started. It always felt a little bit different than when he’s shading and I was never sure why. Turns out, he’s stabbing me without any ink on the needles! He basically gives me a cut where the scalloped edges will be so that when the marker wipes away, he still has a guideline! You can see evidence of one of these cuts on the left edge of the tattoo on my thigh, just above the topmost shaded background.
Session 15 put me at about 28 hours on my back so far. Not too bad! It did occur to me recently that it’s a pretty good thing I’m not a taller person… that would just be more space to fill in.
Below are the results of my 13th appointment. I found the results to be pretty inspiring. Appointments 12 and 13 were only a week apart (instead of my usual 2-3 weeks) and as a result, he had to begin work on a completely different part of my body because the previous week was still healing. He began to shade my left thigh. After taking the pictures, I really can start to see the background of this thing come together. It’s really exciting!
As a technical note, Horizakura explained that his plan was to get through all of the background shading on my butt first. He said the rest of it would be fast. I’m assuming fast is relative in this case, but nonetheless it was exciting to hear my back might progress more quickly than the current pace. Not that I’m getting impatient. But(t) seriously. I’m getting impatient. When I asked why he wanted to finish this area first, why it was slower, Horizakura explained that because the skin stretches so much in fatty areas (news flash: I have a fat ass) it takes more time to fill with ink. He said the position is also awkward. He didn’t clarify, but it’s fair to say it’s awkward for him to have to touch my butt and for me to have my butt touched. Overall, I feel like it’s a good policy. Let’s just get this nonsense finished so we can move on. Also, it’s by far the most uncomfortable place I’ve been tattooed. I look forward to having this part BEHIND me. I would like to dedicate that pun to Mike Leonard.
Welp. It finally happened. I forgot to document an appointment. It was only a matter of time, but I’m really hoping this isn’t the beginning of a trend. It’s interesting how the process of getting to the next appointment can make you forget about the previous appointment. I often realize the morning of a session that I forgot to take pictures of the previous session’s progress. I guess part of that has to do with my previous work not being fully healed before the next appointment begins. I think to work against that, I’m going to start showing more pictures of unhealed or actively healing work. Sure, it doesn’t represent the final product, but it does illustrate a major part of the process. Below shows the results of both session 11 and 12. If it isn’t clear, mystery session 11 was finishing the wave on my butt (perma-dump) and adding background on my right hip. Session 12 was 100% left butt cheek. There is some black behind the wave, I can’t remember if that happened during 11 or 12.
Session number 10 came with a surprise! I was under the impression that Horizakura would be finishing the outline around the sides of my back and across my shoulders. After he looked me over though, he decided that he would instead begin shading. The outline over my shoulders will have to connect with my left arm and since we haven’t started planning that arm yet, I guess this is the best course of action. He began to shade the wave on my butt and also thickened the lines in the dragon’s face. All of this was done using tebori, and I have to say I am super happy to not have to listen to the tattoo machine anymore. These appointments are much more relaxing!
I also noticed that having only the wave shaded on my butt kinda makes it look like I’m poopin! My friends have dubbed it Perma-dump.
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