Hello all,
I've had a couple of comments on my Tattoos so I thought I'd address them
I had always wanted some type of tattoo for as long as I remember (I blame Popeye...probably why I smoke a pipe too...but that's another thread) When I was working in China at the tender age of 46 decided now is the time to act. I worked with several people who sported full sleeves of dead relatives, Viking skulls, Harley Davidson themes, and tribal art....they were all great, and meant a great deal to the wearer, but it wasn't "me".
I found a tattoo parlor in a strip mall at the end of an alley, and checked out some of his works, he had 15 3" binders full of his work and nothing was pedestrian, as it turned out, all his work was freehand so no 2 pieces would be the same on different people...after 6 months of contemplation and several visits I felt comfortable with the hygiene of his establishment (autoclave, disposable needles, gloves, etc.), I brought a translator with me and told him I would like a dragon (just seemed like a good idea) so we agreed on a price, and he sat me down in the chair around 7PM on a Saturday night, took out a ballpoint pen, and started drawing on me for about an hour, then the buzzing began...he worked until 1AM without any breaks on the outline...at that point I named him "Ming the Merciless" because he dug deep, and went over each line 3 time to burn them in. Due to Chinese New Year, this endeavor took 6 weeks to complete. 3 visits for a total of 23 hours Mushu (as my kids call it) was complete!
Toward the end of my tour in Guangzhou, I loved his work so much and felt 'unbalanced' with such a heavy piece on one side and a blank slate on the other. A little about me at this point, I was adopted at 1 year old, I was the youngest of 7 children, and I currently have 2 biological sons, and 5 adopted daughters. I wanted to commemorate my family and my own journey and after a lot of thought, and scotch had the brilliant idea of a Phoenix (born again from fire/ash) it seemed fitting for my life, but how do you put so much into ink? After more consideration, and scotch I figured coins to represent everyone, one coin for my brothers/sisters with a roman numeral 6, one for me, 7 for my kids.
Brought the translator back who explained what I was looking for, and he thought about it for 5 minutes, then pulled out the ballpoint pen...this was probably the most pain I had endured, he was inspired, and you don't interrupt an artist who is on track. For the next 12 hours I was popping Advil, I did not leave until 2AM, he was on a tight schedule and wanted me back at 10AM to finish, 10 hours the next day, and it was done. Faux (named by my kids obsession with Harry Potter) was born for the first time.
It has been a few years since I got these inked on, but I still enjoy looking at them still. The main reason I stopped the art short was due to my work, I am a contractor with the USG and bureaucrats look for any reason to doubt a person, one day when I either get out of this work, or retire I will go full sleeve.
For those of you who have ink, I don't need to explain this, for everyone else, tattoos are addictive, akin to eating a potato chip...you can't eat only one and close the bag. Currently I am considering a full back piece of an Arabic Hamsa (erect hand with all seeing eye) but I will hold off until I can get back to Ming!
Thanks for reading!
