This is not a sponsored post. On my 146th appointment with Horizakura, he spent two hours adding white (and a little black) to the claws and fact of the dragon. We missed an appointment while Horizakura was guesting at The Diamond Club, so we had a bit to catch up on. He also tipped me off to a Bunraku exhibit at The Japan Society in Manhattan. I had never heard of Bunraku before but its similiar to kabuki or noh theater performed with puppets. This was also the first appointment where I allowed myself to be distracted by my phone. I am a Baltimore Ravens fan and they had a game against the Begals that I was very excited to watch. I did watch on mute though, as there was a fairly interesting retrospective on Kris Kristofferson who passed away last week. I’m not a country fan at all but I can appreciate the classics. Not much else to say about this one, it was a real hoot.
For sessions 144 and 145 (2 hours of tebori each), Horizakura continued to add white highlights to the wings and whiskers of the dragon on my back. It can be a little difficult to see where it was added because of how closely it resembles my skintone, but it’s definitely there. I’m also optimistic that the white will pop a lot more once the rest of the color is in. On appointment 144 he added white to the dragon’s right feathers. Appointment 145 included two final feathers on that same wing and the addition of white all along the spikey little whiskers on the dragon’s face. I’m a huge fan of this look on other people’s dragons. I think it makes them look old and serious. I was very happy to see that Horizakura decided to take that approach with my dragon. Our next appointment was cancelled while Horizakura does some travelling, so we will be back at it in October!
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.
I wrote this post shortly after attending the convention, but did not publish it. There are some time/date references that might not make sense without this context.
This past weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of attending (and getting tattooed at) the 1st Annual New York City Tattoo Arts Convention. Under any other circumstance, I might have pushed this blog post to a later date, but this is one of those situations where I need to leverage this blog as a way to chronicle an experience that I might lose to bad memory over time. Even now that I’ve had a day or so to ruminate on the whole thing, I’m not sure where to begin.
Several months ago, when I first became aware of the convention, a little idea sparked inside me that I decided to pursue. I thought it might be neat to try to arrange for a social gathering of Japanese tattoo wearers and/or enthusiasts. I imagined an empty meeting room in the convention hall or at a hotel, or perhaps a public park if that’s all I could find. Hoping against hope, I messaged the organizers of the convention and asked them if there was any space in the venue where such an meeting might occur. I have been in some extraordinarily cramped tattoo conventions in my life, I could only image the absolute chaos and disruption a gathering of 10 – 15 people might impose upon an unsuspecting convention floor. After a brief back-and-forth, I was told that the rooftop of the venue would be available to us at 3pm on the Saturday of the convention. I was overjoyed. I immediately began to spread the word with what limited reach I had, leaning on the fact that the support of Meri and Civ (the Mighty Duo that ran the ship) would hopefully be enough to get some people together. I purchased a three day pass and shot out as much social media advertisement for the event as I felt was appropriate. During the weeks that followed, Elivia Iannaccone signed on to photograph the meetup and Ruri from Wuhao NYC offered to provide fundoshi and tenugui for any that were interested. I couldn’t believe how it was all coming together.
When the weekend finally came, I was able to attend on Friday as a way to say hello to some tattooers, see some friends, and get a lay of the land. A completely unforeseen bonus to the whole ordeal was walking the show floor with my friend Eileen as it was her first tattoo convention ever. I would have made one helluva sherpa. We took our time walking the show floors, talking to folks here and there and shaking the hands of some of the greatest to ever hold a machine. Just the details of that first night would have been enough for a truly bloated blog post, I could not have imagined what was to come.
On Saturday afternoon, I met Ruri on the roof of the building with an (unknowingly second hand) pop-up changing booth from Walmart. I opened it up to find that it was chock full of sand but was sold to me as if it was new. I cleaned it up as best I could and we pressed on. As 3 o’clock arrived, more and more people began to join us on the roof. I put on my fundoshi to lead the charge and eventually a gathering of about 15 bodysuits in various states of completion (a good number of them finished) were joined by lots more sleeves and backpieces and tattoo lovers. Just the fact that I was not up there alone made it a success in my eyes. Not long after, Civ expressed his desire that we all go down to the main stage for a photo there. The vast majority of the group agreed and we all went down into the venue with naught but some bits of cloth covering our tender bits. First they photographed our backpieces and then we turned and what I saw was three floors of eye balls staring and countless phones out for photos. It was at that point that I realized perhaps my previous bar for success was not properly calibrated. Once that was over, the meet up largely fizzled as well. I returned to the roof to clean up the booth, get dressed (though I didn’t put my shirt back on until the day was over) and hangout with friends until my tattoo appointment at 7pm. Just like the previous day, I spent most of my time exchanging words with some of tattoo’s finest. It was a true pleasure. I swung by Shinji’s booth about an hour before my appointment just to say hey and check in. Shindou was setting up for a one point tattoo and I knew in that moment that I was getting bumped. A few minute later I saw Shinji in the hallway and he told me he was going to cancel our one hour appointment so Shindou could do this tattoo. The booth was not large enough for both of them to work at the same time and it’s really important that Shindou have as many opportunities as possible to build their client base, so of course I was fine with it (no hard feelings if you’re reading this Alfonso!). I knew my usual Sunday appointment was locked in and that would be good enough for me, especially after the weekend I was having.
On Sunday, my wife and son came into the city with me to watch me get tattooed and visit the convention. There is absolutely nothing easy about having a toddler at a tattoo convention, but it was really fun to have them both their. I can’t say enough about Shindou’s and Horizakura’s patience as we battled tight quarters so my family could visit with me a bit. Also, shout out to RG for letting us store a stroller under his table. As for the appointment itself, Horizakura continued to shade different black details on my backpiece for two hours. To my left, RG, Damien Rodriguez, and Horimomo. To my right, Kiku and Mutsuo. In 2016, I was blessed by Pope Francis in the Papal Audience Chamber in Vatican City. This tattoo appointment felt a lot like that except better in every conceivable way.
I have left out a lot of details in this weekend account (which included two sandwiches) because it’s simply too much to type and I lack the skills to make it all into one coherent post. I know I started out by explaining how important this blog is for supporting my terrible memory… but as I reflect on it all, I’m not sure I could ever forget this weekend and the friends I spent time with and the new people I met. I know that nothing in life is immune from having the sort of mean, ugly side that can turn even the most ardent supporters bitter or jaded. I am sure a great many tattooers have witnessed that meanness or felt the threat of that apathy first hand. Even still, it is hard for me to not look back on this weekend and view tattooing as anything other than an incredible gift.
One was a pastrami reuben with mustard and the other was an Italian sub with too much mayo.
Photos of the Meetup by Elvia:
These are photos from after appointment 142 at the convention. Two hours of tebori on various details. The last of the feathers on the left wing, the left horn on the dragon, in the teeth, and the claw on my left side.
Appointments 140 and 141 have been pretty easy and comfortably routine. Horizakura has continued to shade the dragon’s wings on my back. I don’t really have much more to offer up on these appointments. I think we are getting to be so close to color that I’m not really thinking too deeply about these appointments. It’s exciting to be nearing that milestone, but really I can continue to be patient as things develop. As I type this, I’m gearing up for a weekend at the NYC Tattoo Convention. I have two appointments lined up there as well as some fun other things that I will be posting about here. Until then, have a look at these photos.
Any person that follows my tattoo progress across various online platforms will by now have seen no end of predictions about the contents of this post. Across Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and this very blog, loudly and proudly did I proclaim that surely my next appointment would be the start of color! “The outline is done!” “There’s naught to shade but a single whisker!” Oh how I laughed and cajolled and clicked my heels at the wisdom of my assessment! I know full well that Horizakura does not read this blog. Yet for how consistently he manages to subvert my expectation, you would be forgiven for assuming that he did in fact keep a very close eye on every word I type. Imagine the scene: a short tattooed man-child brightly skips up the steps of a Queens building with visions of bright tebori colors swirling in his head, only to be dashed to pieces on the rocky shores of hope when, upon entering a studio, he sees laid out before him a tattoo machine for line work.
I am covered from my wrist to my ankles, what on earth is left to line?!
It turns out Horizakura had plans that I was not aware of. I was not aware of the plans because I didn’t ask. Why didn’t I ask? Perhaps I didn’t want to be a nuisance. Perhaps I’m just not very bright. I never asked. I had always assumed that the feathers on the dragon on my back would be solid blocks of color or color gradient. Instead, Horizakura added a “rachis” or shaft to each of the feathers. Looking at it now, I’m extremely happy with the results. Yet again, my blind, unwavering trust in my tattooer has paid off. Additionally, at least some of the feathers are going to be black, which I did not know. Turns out there was more than just one whisker left after all.
My next appointment is this weekend. I will not be making any predicitons. For now, I’m posting cellphone pics that were taken in a Florida hotel. I have been traveling quite a bit for work the past couple weeks and I haven’t had access to my usual camera. I’m hoping to add more photos to this post later. As an added bonus, I am providing a concept image of what the color might look like when we finally do begin.
I know it’s been awhile since I had an update here. I’ve been taking pictures after each appointment, but thought I would wait for this milestone to aggregate all three sessions into one post. Sessions 136, 137, and 138 were pretty similar, a nice return to form after so many new tattoo experiences the past couple months. Each was two hours of tebori on my left arm and a bit of shoulder. With the conclusion of appointment 138 with Horizakura, I can confidently say that our next appointment he will begin coloring my tattoo. We are one dragon’s whisker away from being totally done with the shading. I assume it won’t take more than 30 minutes to complete, after which it is my assumption that we will offically switch to color. I can’t believe it’s finally here. I’m so incredibly excited to see how this bodysuit begins to change over the coming months. Unfortunately, that appointment will not be for another two weeks. It can’t come soon enough!
Horizakura finished all the black and gray shading on my arm during our 135th appointment! I am very excited to have passed another milestone in the process. After we wrapped up the appointment, Horizakura had mentioned that the next appointment would be the start of color! While you might imagine that I was exploding with joy at the news, I had to burst the bubble myself. I pointed out a couple spots that had been missed as Horizakura worked his way around my body. There is a wave on my left arm, a spot on my shoulder, and one of the dragon’s whiskers on my back never got shaded back in 2017 when he was working on that area. As Horizakura looked these parts over, he also realized that he still needed to shade Fudo’s skin as well! This was absent from my own list because Fudo-Myoo is sometimes rendered with blue skin and I wasn’t sure if Horizakura would choose to go that route or the (probably more traditional) black/gray skin route. He tends to show a lot of restraint with color in his work, so I should have guessed the skin would be tattooed black. Anyway, all that is to say we are not quite out of the Black and Gray Woods yet! We are very, very close though and I am very, very excited!
As mentioned in my December update, my 134th appointment with Horizakura took place at the Star of Texas Tattoo Convention in Austin, TX. This was a pretty special experience for me all around. It was the first time I’ve attended a tattoo convention in another state all by myself, which afforded me lots and lots of time to bullshit with people and hang around. I was proud of the opportunity to sit in Horizakura’s booth to talk to folks while he and his apprentice were busy tattooing. I was also really happy to be able to meet a couple of Horizakura’s other clients (shout out to Cole and Joe Chatt). I had the chance to meet up with a buddy from out of state too which was nice (sorry if I bullied you into getting tattooed Trev). I ate delicious barbeque and tacos and Thai food and tacos and tacos. I like tacos.
As for the actual work on my suit, with the way my flights in/out of town worked and Horizakura’s schedule, on Saturday we were able to get in 2 hours of tattooing on my right sleeve. My appointment also overlapped with the NFL Divisional round between the Ravens and the Texans. This is the first time I have ever watched or listened to something while getting tattooed. I didn’t care for it much but it was the playoffs, baby! It’s must watch TV. I’m writing this the day before the Superbowl so clearly things didn’t go the way I wanted, but it doesn’t change the fact that I got to eat tacos for breakfast, get tattooed at a convention, drink beer, and watch the Ravens win a playoff game. That’s a winner on the Great Day for Jordan Bingo Card. FYI: Drinking beer would be the Free Space on that bingo card.
One last exciting note from the trip before I hit you with a photo dump: Upon arriving at the convention and looking over Horizakura’s booth, I noticed a little sign that revealed the title he had given to his apprentice! Congratulations Shindo, it has been very exciting to be an outside observer of your path as a horishi! Ganbatte!
Another year of tattooing is in the books for Horizakura and me. We had a couple milestones in there. We crossed 200 hours of tattooing and finished the outline of my bodysuit. We are also maybe two or three appointments away from being finished with all the bokashi.
In 2023, I had 19 appointments with Horizakura and racked up 34 hours of tattooing. This ties my record for number of appointments in a year (2017) which is extra upsetting if you recall that I spaced out and missed an appointment over the summer. I could have broken the record! On a brighter note, I did log two more total hours this year than I did in 2017 (32 hours). This is likely a function of the outline being mostly complete so less time was spent drawing during appointments this year.
I think this year moreso than other years, I have been struck by the number of doors this tattoo has opened for me. I have had the opportunity to meet many of my tattoo heroes and many tattooers that are new to me. I’ve been allowed to walk through some incredible tattoo shops just to take in the history on the walls. I was honored to wear the fabrics of wuhao newyork Tenugui Art for a photo shoot. I was almost as honored to recreate this fantastic meme with Dan and Joe. I had a great time talking with Jean at Waboripedia about my tattoo experience over the last ten years. Many, many people are quick to thank me for sharing so much of this tattoo process with the world. The truth is that even if nobody had any interest at all in this blog or my tattoo, I would still keep track of it for myself. It’s important to me to have something I can look back on to remember these appointments and this journey. That said, this year has made me realize this isn’t a totally selfless endeavor. I believe I have received more from the tattoo community than what I have given by sharing these pictures of my gut and butt. Just having the opportunity to say “Yes!” to so many of these experiences is more than I ever could have hoped would come out of this tattoo. I never imagined that people would care so much or show as much authentic interest in the work as they have, and I certainly never expected that care to manifest itself in these different experiences. I know that I haven’t done anything besides show up and that the real hero of our story is Horizakura. It’s a mutual love for his work and this style of tattoo that has brought all of this to my doorstep. It is a great privilege to be able to share that work with whomever wants to see it. Thanks again for another great year!
(This was my first time ever tying a real fundoshi, so don’t give me any shit for my sloppy work here.)
gaijink 