Showing posts with label Monju Bosatsu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monju Bosatsu. Show all posts
14 September 2015
2 April 2015
10th Session - Finished!
Tuesday 25th November
3 Hours
So today was the day to finish my back. It's been a fairly long process to get this far but at the same time it seems to have reached completion rather suddenly. It's quite a big milestone to get this far and I'm really grateful for all of Diego's hard work. I'm really happy with the results but as always I'm kind of sad that another big chunk of work is now finished. I hate the pain at the time, but afterwards I'm always aware how much I'll miss the sessions once the piece is complete.
I'm certainly not going to miss having my ass cheeks tattooed though. That's got to be the worst feeling ever. And the not being able to sit down properly for a week after gets old pretty quick too.
Anyway, here's some pictures of it healed and settled into the skin.
As always though, I'm not done yet. I already know what I want doing on my torso and legs so I'll update this as soon as I can with some more work and tales of pain at the hand of the nicest guy I've ever met.
3 Hours
So today was the day to finish my back. It's been a fairly long process to get this far but at the same time it seems to have reached completion rather suddenly. It's quite a big milestone to get this far and I'm really grateful for all of Diego's hard work. I'm really happy with the results but as always I'm kind of sad that another big chunk of work is now finished. I hate the pain at the time, but afterwards I'm always aware how much I'll miss the sessions once the piece is complete.
I'm certainly not going to miss having my ass cheeks tattooed though. That's got to be the worst feeling ever. And the not being able to sit down properly for a week after gets old pretty quick too.
Anyway, here's some pictures of it healed and settled into the skin.
As always though, I'm not done yet. I already know what I want doing on my torso and legs so I'll update this as soon as I can with some more work and tales of pain at the hand of the nicest guy I've ever met.
2 August 2014
Session 9
Friday 1st August 2014
3 Hours
It hadn't really dawned on me until this session how close to completion my back is now. I only realised just how little was left to do when Diego started saying one more session would finish it off including any touch ups!
This was kind of exciting and a little heartbreaking all at the same time. Obviously I want to get it all done to see the finished product and start living with it completed, but part of me feels like I'm going to miss seeing the progression of such a large piece. It seems like I only started this project 5 minutes ago, and it's almost over now.
I think that might be the difference between people who want tattoos, and people who are genuinely passionate about tattooing. I put myself in the second category as I love the process and the environment of tattooing as much as the finished tattoo. And that's what I'll miss when this is finally complete. I'd love nothing more than to be able to just hang around a studio all day talking tattoos and seeing work progress.
Anyway, enough of my wistfulness for tattooing, here's some progress pics.
3 Hours
It hadn't really dawned on me until this session how close to completion my back is now. I only realised just how little was left to do when Diego started saying one more session would finish it off including any touch ups!
This was kind of exciting and a little heartbreaking all at the same time. Obviously I want to get it all done to see the finished product and start living with it completed, but part of me feels like I'm going to miss seeing the progression of such a large piece. It seems like I only started this project 5 minutes ago, and it's almost over now.
I think that might be the difference between people who want tattoos, and people who are genuinely passionate about tattooing. I put myself in the second category as I love the process and the environment of tattooing as much as the finished tattoo. And that's what I'll miss when this is finally complete. I'd love nothing more than to be able to just hang around a studio all day talking tattoos and seeing work progress.
Anyway, enough of my wistfulness for tattooing, here's some progress pics.
1 August 2014
7th & 8th Session
Saturday 3rd May & Monday 12th May 2014
7 Hours
7 Hours
 |
| Please excuse the censorship, Instagram now employs the ass police to ban photographs that are too sexy for the internet |
Now that Diego has moved back to Argentina sessions are dictated by when he's in the country so when I heard he was back here for 10 days I snapped up 2 appointments knowing we could make some good progress in that time. These two sessions were all about finishing off the background.
The background shading around the top of my shoulders was very manageable in terms of pain and I happily sat through it without too much problem. The background up the sides which touches the ribs was a different story however. This was a very bad area to be tattooed! Luckily we used numbing cream on one side which made that half a walk in the park. The side without the numbing cream was a deeply unpleasant experience. Diego knew this was going to hurt so decided to do it as quick as possible rather than being too picky over how perfect it would look knowing that we can do some minor touch ups later. This was fine with me!
We also finished off the background around the inside leg. This is a bit of an awkward area as it sort of feels like someone is fishing around near your junk and stabbing you a bit too close to the fun sack for my liking! Thankfully Diego is a good guy and got out of the danger zone as soon as possible. I can't imagine either of us were having any fun down there.
7 December 2013
5th & 6th Session
Friday 15th November & Tuesday 3rd December 2013
8 Hours
I've done another two sessions in fairly quick succession again so I've combined my blog posts again. It feels like we've achieved quite a lot in these last two sessions and it's all coming together quite well now.
Session five involved putting all the outlines for the background in which is great because I can now see what the whole thing will look like as one coherent piece. I say it's great now, but at the time I must admit to being slightly filled with dread at the return of the outliner. There's something about the sound of an outliner buzzing away that just makes me nervous! I'll admit that outlines hurt me a lot, particularly on my back as the lines are quite thick so it was a relief when that bit was completed! Actually this whole session turned out to be quite a painful one. For some reason all areas seemed to be particularly sensitive on this occasion, but I got through it.
We also started colouring the clothing on the character. Diego suggested using a palette of blues for this based on a really nice old image he had. I really like the colours we chose and think it will look great when done. We talked about adding a pattern to the clothing in a darker blue at a later date which should be cool.
Session six seems to have made a big difference to the overall look. We did the halo behind the head, connected the background on my shoulders to my sleeves, coloured the jewellery and did some of the hair on the foo dog. Thankfully this session seemed a lot easier to deal with in terms of pain. I can't help think this might be partly to do with the fact we were chatting for the whole time. This is what I enjoy more than anything else about sessions with Diego.
It's going to be a while until I can do any more on this now as Diego is moving back to Argentina in about a week. He'll be coming back to the UK to carry on with projects every six months so it'll be some time in May before I can get any more done. I'm not sure how I'll cope without a tattoo session for six months. I think it's the longest period of time without a session since I started getting tattooed two years ago! I hope I don't get withdrawal symptoms. One thing I won't miss however is getting my butt tattooed. Having to sit down for the first few days after the session is pretty unpleasant!
8 Hours
 |
| Reference for the clothing |
I've done another two sessions in fairly quick succession again so I've combined my blog posts again. It feels like we've achieved quite a lot in these last two sessions and it's all coming together quite well now.
Session five involved putting all the outlines for the background in which is great because I can now see what the whole thing will look like as one coherent piece. I say it's great now, but at the time I must admit to being slightly filled with dread at the return of the outliner. There's something about the sound of an outliner buzzing away that just makes me nervous! I'll admit that outlines hurt me a lot, particularly on my back as the lines are quite thick so it was a relief when that bit was completed! Actually this whole session turned out to be quite a painful one. For some reason all areas seemed to be particularly sensitive on this occasion, but I got through it.
We also started colouring the clothing on the character. Diego suggested using a palette of blues for this based on a really nice old image he had. I really like the colours we chose and think it will look great when done. We talked about adding a pattern to the clothing in a darker blue at a later date which should be cool.
Session six seems to have made a big difference to the overall look. We did the halo behind the head, connected the background on my shoulders to my sleeves, coloured the jewellery and did some of the hair on the foo dog. Thankfully this session seemed a lot easier to deal with in terms of pain. I can't help think this might be partly to do with the fact we were chatting for the whole time. This is what I enjoy more than anything else about sessions with Diego.
It's going to be a while until I can do any more on this now as Diego is moving back to Argentina in about a week. He'll be coming back to the UK to carry on with projects every six months so it'll be some time in May before I can get any more done. I'm not sure how I'll cope without a tattoo session for six months. I think it's the longest period of time without a session since I started getting tattooed two years ago! I hope I don't get withdrawal symptoms. One thing I won't miss however is getting my butt tattooed. Having to sit down for the first few days after the session is pretty unpleasant!
1 November 2013
Session Three & Four (Numb Bum)
Friday 18th & Wednesday 30th October 2013
7 Hours
 |
| Session four |
My last two sessions have happened in fairly quick succession being less than two weeks apart so I've combined them into one blog post. Diego will be moving back to Argentina in December so I want to get as much done as possible before he moves. After that he'll be visiting the UK a couple of times a year to continue ongoing work so I'm hoping to get another few sessions in before the move.
As I've written about in previous posts, the first two sessions were pretty intense pain wise! I've always found outlining more painful than shading, so the thickness of the lines involved in a back piece only amplify the pain. Fortunately the last two sessions have been much easier as we focussed on the shading which I find much less painful. We started on the back of the legs which felt surprisingly easy which helped ease my anxiety about the session. We got a good chunk of the background done, some of the Foo Dog body and the shading on the face.
The next session started with the flames around the halo. We decided on a really nice dark orange colour which looks nice and bold, I really love it! We also did the flesh highlights on the character and got some more done on the body of the Foo Dog.
Incidentally I'm still using some numbing cream, but only on the most sensitive areas such as the ass cheeks. This lead to a pretty funny scenario at one point. The cream has to be left on and wrapped in cling film for two hours for it to work so we do two hours without any numbing and spend the last hour or so doing the numbed area. Anyway, Diego had to clean the cream off before tattooing that area, and I suddenly started chuckling to myself as the reality of the situation sank in. At that point I was paying a very nice Argentinian man with a beard to wipe cream off my ass. That's not a sentence I ever thought I'd be writing, but I guess you have to look for the comedy in any situation to get you through. I guess being a tattoo artist isn't always as cool as you might imagine.
Incidentally I'm still using some numbing cream, but only on the most sensitive areas such as the ass cheeks. This lead to a pretty funny scenario at one point. The cream has to be left on and wrapped in cling film for two hours for it to work so we do two hours without any numbing and spend the last hour or so doing the numbed area. Anyway, Diego had to clean the cream off before tattooing that area, and I suddenly started chuckling to myself as the reality of the situation sank in. At that point I was paying a very nice Argentinian man with a beard to wipe cream off my ass. That's not a sentence I ever thought I'd be writing, but I guess you have to look for the comedy in any situation to get you through. I guess being a tattoo artist isn't always as cool as you might imagine.
8 September 2013
Hurt
Saturday 7th September 2013
3.5 Hours
"I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real, the needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting, try to kill it all away, but I remember everything"
Nine Inch Nails (Hurt)
As well as this being some lyrics from a brilliant song by Nine Inch Nails it also pretty well describes what it's like getting tattooed on your back. I try to zone out and think of something else but really, all that's going through your mind is the pain.
I must admit I was a bit nervous about my second session on my back as the first session was a bit of a shock pain wise after the relative ease of the arms. I was finding the outlining particularly painful, especially as some of the lines are very thick and I knew there was still quite a lot of outlines to complete.
Now here's the bit where I have a bit of a confession to make. I knew that I really couldn't deal with the pain from the waist down. The upper body I can just about do, but below the waist and especially on the ass cheeks was just brutal last time. So I cheated. I used some numbing cream for the first time ever. There I said it, I'm a big cheater. But you know what, I don't care because it worked. We applied the cream at the start of the session and wrapped it up in cling film as it takes a couple of hours to work so we started on the upper back and did a couple of hours before doing the lower part once it was numb. It was quite an odd sensation to be tattooed but not to be able to feel it, but at that point I wasn't complaining! I'm still going to do from the waist up the old fashioned
Anyway, onto the actual design itself. We decided that it would be cool to add some flames around the halo to add some more interest and I'm really happy that we did. I think it looks awesome! We got quite a lot done in the session and it's really coming together nicely now. I can't wait to see how it looks after the next session.
"I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real, the needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting, try to kill it all away, but I remember everything"
Nine Inch Nails (Hurt)
As well as this being some lyrics from a brilliant song by Nine Inch Nails it also pretty well describes what it's like getting tattooed on your back. I try to zone out and think of something else but really, all that's going through your mind is the pain.
I must admit I was a bit nervous about my second session on my back as the first session was a bit of a shock pain wise after the relative ease of the arms. I was finding the outlining particularly painful, especially as some of the lines are very thick and I knew there was still quite a lot of outlines to complete.
Now here's the bit where I have a bit of a confession to make. I knew that I really couldn't deal with the pain from the waist down. The upper body I can just about do, but below the waist and especially on the ass cheeks was just brutal last time. So I cheated. I used some numbing cream for the first time ever. There I said it, I'm a big cheater. But you know what, I don't care because it worked. We applied the cream at the start of the session and wrapped it up in cling film as it takes a couple of hours to work so we started on the upper back and did a couple of hours before doing the lower part once it was numb. It was quite an odd sensation to be tattooed but not to be able to feel it, but at that point I wasn't complaining! I'm still going to do from the waist up the old fashioned
Anyway, onto the actual design itself. We decided that it would be cool to add some flames around the halo to add some more interest and I'm really happy that we did. I think it looks awesome! We got quite a lot done in the session and it's really coming together nicely now. I can't wait to see how it looks after the next session.
30 August 2013
Go Big or go Home
Wednesday 7th August 2013
Right, I might as well just come out and admit I'm a full blown addict. I thought I could just do it a couple of times, keep it under control and it wouldn't be a problem. But the truth is once you try it there's no going back. Fortunately I'm not talking about crystal meth. No, I'm talking about something much more addictive. Tattoo's. Specifically large Japanese tattoo's in my case. So the inevitable has happened and I've started on a full back piece. This is going to be a pretty long term project as it's such a large area to cover, and will probably take years to fully complete as I want a full background eventually.
I'd discussed the design with Diego for a few months and had settled on a character called Monju Bosatsu who is one of the reincarnations of Buddha. She is depicted sat on top of a Foo Dog so that ties in nicely with my left sleeve too. I'd seen an initial drawing by Diego for this so I knew roughly what it would look like, but when I arrived for my session and saw the final drawing it looked even better than I had imagined.
Once the stencil was ready and applied to my back Diego tweaked, refined and added more details to the design by hand to complete it. This probably took about an hour an a half altogether. Then we were ready to start.
To say I was nervous about this one was a bit of an understatement. standing around in the studio with your arse out for long periods doesn't do much to calm the nerves, but apart from that I knew this was going to hurt more than my arms, a lot more. I've always found outlining quite painful anyway and due to the thickness of the lines (I think I heard Diego say it was an 18 needle) on this I knew I was in for a rough session. I assumed the worst would be going over the spine, but I was wrong. Very wrong. The worst pain of all was the ass cheeks. It felt like someone was using a power drill on my ass. It was brutal in that area and as that's where we started I thought I was only going to last about 5 minutes. After the initial shock, and due to the fact we were moving up the body I managed to zone out a bit and relax. Diego even commented how well I was coping once we got into it. This temporary bravery and Zen like outlook wasn't going to last forever though. After what seemed like forever laying face down on the table I new I'd done as much as I could for one day. All the adrenaline had worn off and I'd reached the limit of my pain threshold, so I did something I've never done before and threw in the towel.
We didn't get all the outlines done so I've got another session to look forward to of painful outlining, but I did as much as I could in one go. Anyway, here's what it looks like with all the unfinished bits still drawn in.
And here's what it looked like once all the sharpie was washed off. As you can see, we still need to add a lot of the detail to the foo dog and also the clouds and halo at the top of the piece.
3.5 Hours
Right, I might as well just come out and admit I'm a full blown addict. I thought I could just do it a couple of times, keep it under control and it wouldn't be a problem. But the truth is once you try it there's no going back. Fortunately I'm not talking about crystal meth. No, I'm talking about something much more addictive. Tattoo's. Specifically large Japanese tattoo's in my case. So the inevitable has happened and I've started on a full back piece. This is going to be a pretty long term project as it's such a large area to cover, and will probably take years to fully complete as I want a full background eventually.
I'd discussed the design with Diego for a few months and had settled on a character called Monju Bosatsu who is one of the reincarnations of Buddha. She is depicted sat on top of a Foo Dog so that ties in nicely with my left sleeve too. I'd seen an initial drawing by Diego for this so I knew roughly what it would look like, but when I arrived for my session and saw the final drawing it looked even better than I had imagined.
Once the stencil was ready and applied to my back Diego tweaked, refined and added more details to the design by hand to complete it. This probably took about an hour an a half altogether. Then we were ready to start.
To say I was nervous about this one was a bit of an understatement. standing around in the studio with your arse out for long periods doesn't do much to calm the nerves, but apart from that I knew this was going to hurt more than my arms, a lot more. I've always found outlining quite painful anyway and due to the thickness of the lines (I think I heard Diego say it was an 18 needle) on this I knew I was in for a rough session. I assumed the worst would be going over the spine, but I was wrong. Very wrong. The worst pain of all was the ass cheeks. It felt like someone was using a power drill on my ass. It was brutal in that area and as that's where we started I thought I was only going to last about 5 minutes. After the initial shock, and due to the fact we were moving up the body I managed to zone out a bit and relax. Diego even commented how well I was coping once we got into it. This temporary bravery and Zen like outlook wasn't going to last forever though. After what seemed like forever laying face down on the table I new I'd done as much as I could for one day. All the adrenaline had worn off and I'd reached the limit of my pain threshold, so I did something I've never done before and threw in the towel.
We didn't get all the outlines done so I've got another session to look forward to of painful outlining, but I did as much as I could in one go. Anyway, here's what it looks like with all the unfinished bits still drawn in.
And here's what it looked like once all the sharpie was washed off. As you can see, we still need to add a lot of the detail to the foo dog and also the clouds and halo at the top of the piece.
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