Tag / tattoos

by theremonster

The Bee’s Knee

It was only a matter of time until I had to learn what it’s like to have my knees tattooed.  That is precisely what happened last night and it was just absolutely no fun at all.  Everybody deals with pain in different ways and everybody experiences it differently, so I don’t consider my take on this to be a fact.  That said, I find when we get to an area that hurts more than usual, I find the best method for dealing with it is to accept the presence of the pain while forcing my mind to focus elsewhere.  It seems to help for me, if for no other reason than it keeps my mind occupied.  The tricky thing with the knee, however, was that every time my mind would start to wander, I would feel my reflex kick in or my leg would want to flinch.  It’s hard to flinch a butt cheek, so I hadn’t had this problem before.  My mental gymnastics were rendered useless and I had no choice but to focus on what was happening and try like hell to not let my leg wiggle.  It was a blast.

What’s better than that? Knowing I still have one more knee to go. And they both have to get shaded.  I have made good choices.

Ok, enough whining.  It hurt like hell at the time, but feels pretty good now and that’s what matters.  Horizakura added some cheery blossoms and water/waves on my knee.  I love how kinetic it looks, especially when I bend my leg.  As always, I’m really happy with the results!  He worked really hard to get the waves on the inside of my knee positioned so that it would look good with my knee bent and straight.  Gotta love that attention to detail!  Two notes before photos: 1) I’m so swollen it looks like I have no knee cap. It’s under there somewhere.  Is there a such thing as cankles for knees?  Thiees? 2) I took a side photo but the door was in focus, not my leg.  I am too ashamed to post it, but not so ashamed that I wouldn’t tell you about it.  It mostly just showed where this appointment stopped and the empty space on the back of my leg.

I’m sorry this post was so long.  Photos!

by theremonster

Real Cool Tunes

Last night, Horizakura opted do a little shading on my leg.  Since the last four appointments were all outline, it was nice to get back into shading.  It’s so much more peaceful without the noise of the machine.  This was complimented by Horizakura’s music selection for that evening.  Normally we listen to different kinds of jazz (I don’t know much about jazz, so I’m not going to try to be specific), but last night he was playing this experimental improvisation by a guy named Marc Ribot.  I found a link to the exact video on YouTube.  I don’t really know how else to describe it, but it was really, really cool to get tattooed and listen to this:

Below are pictures from this morning. For some reason, my leg looks like it has already begun to heal.  Normally it doesn’t look like this until later in the evening or the next day.  The only logical conclusion is that I have developed advanced healing powers a la Wolverine.  Behold!

by theremonster

Reflexes

Photos from my last appointment are below.  This was only about 45-60 min of tattooing, but Horizakura spent quite a lot of time drawing on me and planning out the motion of the water.  By the time he had finished, there was marker all over my stomach and right leg and left thigh.  With this appointment, he finished the outline on my left calf, adding another lil fishy in a leaping motion. It’s cute! And manly and tough, of course.

Little anecdote from this appointment:  I have been living in mortal dread of what the back of my knee was going to feel like.  You can see the waves in the back are getting dangerously close, and each time he’s been in that area, it feels like he’s right on the back of my knee.  I find myself thinking, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad!” and then I see he’s still below it and realize the worst is yet to come.  A fun little ride that I DIDN’T expect was the sensation of being tattooed over where my reflex point is below my knee cap.  There has been some pretty unpleasant areas during this process, but the feeling of having a reflex stimulated but not being able to flail around was nearly torturous.  It was like being tickled but not being able to move.  Once again, you will notice that he isn’t even truly over my reflex point yet, so I have more of that to look forward to.  Tattoos are a helluva drug…

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by theremonster

34

Feels good to be back in our groove.  Taking so much time off was a total bummer, but work has finally calmed down a little and I think my schedule is back to normal.  Below are pictures of last night’s session as well as recap from the previous week.  As you can see, he added another goldfish.  The plan is for there to be a third gold fish underwater in that (currently) silky smooth bald spot and a third koi fish on the inner left thigh moving downward towards my knee.  But plans change, so only time will tell!  Until then, have a look:

by theremonster

25th Appointment, 10 Year Anniversary

Yesterday marked my 25th appointment on my back and the ten year anniversary of my first ever tattoo appointment (details on that can be read here).  I’m inclined to think back to the start of all of this and wax philosophical.  I had some pretty ridiculous ideas in my head about how all of this would pan out.  In the end, I don’t feel it would be terribly kind of me to subject my 3 readers to that.  The next time we meet, feel free to thank me for sparing you any more overwrought exposition.  ON TO THE BUTT STUFF!

The joy I felt at finally being tattooed above my waistline left as quickly as it came.  Horizakura started shading the tail of the dragon (euphemism not intended) on my hip and butt.  This would have been an incredibly easy and relaxing session if not for the fact that I am getting old.  By the end of our two hours together, my hips and knees hurt so much from being in the fetal position that I wanted to scream.  I was determined to not interrupt him to stretch out though because the tattoo was feeling really good and I didn’t wanna disrupt his flow.  Worth it!

 

If I’ve held your attention this long, I also wanted to make a book recommendation if you’re interested in learning more about Japanese tattoo.  Japanese Tattoos: History * Culture * Design by Brian Ashcraft with Hori Benny, is a really great look into the symbolic and thematic elements of Japanese tattoo.  I have quite a few books on Japanese tattoo and none of them has as clear an outline of the symbolism behind this art form.  The introduction is a brief history and assessment of current tattoo culture in Japan.  Factually, it is accurate based on what I have read elsewhere, but it is by no means the most exhaustive or thorough source of that information.  The real meat-and-potatoes is in the chapter by chapter breakdowns of Japanese tattoo elements.  In some ways, I really wish I had had access to this book 10 years ago when I began planning out my tattoos.  It would have been amazing to have.  On the other hand, not having this resource forced me to really lean on the artistry and talents of my tattoo artists, which I believe has its own merits.  If you’re interested in the book, you can read the Table of Contents on Amazon to see the breadth of content covered.  Let me know what you think!

by theremonster

Session 24

Session 24 was all over the place!  This really shows the difference in speed between fatty areas and more muscular areas.  Just compare what Horizakura accomplished in 2 hours here vs any of the two hour appointments on my butt.  He got a lot done and as usual, I’m thrilled by the results!  Every month we get closer and closer to having the background finished.  After that, it will be on to the dragon and koi scales!  I am PUMPED!!!

by theremonster

Session 23

I took these after my 24th appointment, so you can see some of that on my back.  This session was more background on my leg up to my waist.  You can see it’s still very much in the healing process.  This area is the worst to heal through because of where my pants fall.  Pretty sure I mentioned this when the left side was done, but I recommend soft waist bands and stretchy pants.  Yoga pants would be ideal… but I’m not sure that would be a great look for a me.

by theremonster

Twenty Two

Here are pictures from last night’s appointment.  Horizakura covered a good amount during this two hour period.  I suspect the reason for that is that it was mostly solid black.  I think the gray shading of the waves is more time consuming because of the mixing and blending he has to do.  That’s just a guess though.

The most exciting part about this appointment was that he has finally traveled north of my waistline. Typically when people ask about my tattoo, I have to just tell them about it because wherever we are at the time isn’t the best place to drop my pants.  Now, I can just lift my shirt a little.  It’s a small thing, but it’s a win in my book.

BEHOLD!

by theremonster

My Tattoo Can Drink!

Ok I guess it’s 21 appointments old… not 21 years.  Shut up.  Also maybe you aren’t in the US and the legal drinking age is lower by you. You can also shut up.  It’s just a title.

This hour and a half was spent on the waves on my right leg.  You can see it’s still healing (as is the previous session), but I had another appointment tonight and wanted to get these pictures before that happened.

In fact, I’m so stoked about how much got done tonight that I’m going to break my habit and take pictures of this tomorrow morning after I take off the wrap.

Without further I do…

(Yes I know that’s wrong, but I don’t speak French.)