RoryQ

@Hurbarb You better not take a look at the price of some Horiyoshi III shirts then! At least it's a limited edition shirt, but yeah - too rich for my blood...

In February I'm booked in with Ching from East Tattoo to finish my backpiece ... Just a half-day should do it. My right arm half-seeve is a bit of a mish-mash- most of it is by a deceased Irish artist, barring an oni head by Mo Coppoletta on the inside. Ching has measured to bring it down into a full sleeve, to be done either during another European guest spot or else around / at the London Tattoo Convention. We've discussed a big hannya mask, but it's up in the air - the only thing I've specified is that I want big contrast and something that is readable from a distance. I've got my name on a list for an appointment with Chad Koeplinger when he's back in Ireland - date to be announced as far as I know. Got a few ideas for this but nothing concrete yet. If I could get him for two appointments I probably would take them. When I'm in Chicago I'm thinking of getting a nautical star / north star compass on my right knee. Chris Smith has done a homeward bound on that same leg and I would likely go back to him, but I've been following Nick Colella and Mario Desa on their instagram accounts too... ...And my GF is starting her backpiece with Shige in Japan in November - four sessions...

@exume - Same thing with me, I have to actively make myself not see the crosses. I see the point about the nature of his blog, and his followers: It seems surprising that someone would be signed up to follow his posts and yet be offended by a pattern like that (surely it has featured before, even if only incidentally, in a pic of Jondix's work or similar).

@CaptCanada I'm only speculating, really, given that there's not much information about this online. Some police departments are pretty big organisations, people can be in and out on sick leave, self-medicating etc. and slowly slipping through the cracks. To me it kind of reads like he had a psychotic break, but I guess it'll come out in the wash eventually.

There was a brief trend in one of the more downmarket parts of Dublin for young guys to get their first names tattooed on their necks in gothic lettering. I kind of approved, because it made it hard for them to give me a false name.

@tammy I something similar to those pork belly buns at an asian fusion restaurant in Chicago last year. ... Awesome dish! Just had maple-syrup flavoured sausages for breakfast. Maybe they're glazed, I dunno - from a fancy butcher's.

Mental illness maybe?

Bunshin Horitoshi looks to do some really nice foot tattoos. Bunshin Horitoshi site

Will take a look in the new year. Been meaning to go back to the Pot Still again too.

There's cock tattoos and there's cock tattoos ... You're getting the bird, right?

@Gregor Thin Lizzy a guilty pleasure!? Dude...

Sweet... Must check out that brewdog bar. I liked their Christmas ale - 'there Is no Santa'. Surprisingly mellow for them, I associate them more with face-melting hoppier stuff. Been drinking lots of stouts lately... And porter. Last night HArviestoun old engine oil.

I always had a sort of inner radar when I was drunk, kept me out of the worst trouble. I feel down an open manhole once, and came out with just a bruise on my shin - blessed! Then again, possibly it's the relaxing effects of aclohol. A sober person might have broken their legs. CaptCanada- I was a third dan (I think) when I stopped. I had begun training relatively young (17, 18) and I train all through college and for a little bit after. Then, I went away to police college and basically had all these new things to contend with in terms of work, new skills to learn etc. I had always wanted to try MMA, and I also wanted something that was going to have more of an emphasis on athleticism - I wanted to spar, do padwork etc. I think it was just a matter of going into a new phase of my life. I'm still on good terms with the guys I used to train with. Maybe I'll go back to it sometime.

Looks like Thomas Hooper has fallen afoul of some of the controversy around this symbol : Anyone else on his newsletter? He posted a picture of himself wearing a new t-shirt with the asian 'repeat pattern' described in this thread, and later sent out an apology message because he got complaints...

If I had the money and they had the time I would have got tattooed! Maybe next time...

CaptCanada - No way, I used to train in the Bujinkan (for about six or seven years I guess). I made it over to the hombu dojo twice. Noguchi sensei, Nagato sensei ... Good times. Hope the pelvis feels better, something that central can't be fun to have a problem with. Kyle - I would completely agree with you and obviously in this instance I did the opposite of what I know I should have done. The worst injuries, by their nature, are usually the ones you don't see coming. But not taking warning signs or the aftermath of an injury seriously or trying to train through a problem is a recipe for disaster. I'm taking until well after Christmas off, and going to get my physio to check me over again before I do anything remotely like training.

I was in London from Thursday to Sunday. Stayed pretty close to Frith St. (St. Martin's lane), so I went in for a look on Thursday (I think around 3-4). I always feel like a bit of a mug wandering into a studio without anything tangible to actually say or do so I sort of looked around, made sure that Chad Koeplinger hadn't stayed on an extra few days or anything (he hadn't!) and then headed off. Cool studio, I like that open-counter look.

Good advice about tapping early - if anyone comes even remotely close to something resembling a leglock I tap, same with armbars, kimuras etc. Once they've got the position right I usually won't resist it unless it's in competition. On this occasion, with the guillotine, it honestly didn't feel like I was under that much pressure at the time - but lesson learned. I'm usually quite careful to shrug up and protect my neck against snap-downs, people clinching with me and pulling me around etc.

Got my girlfriend a Stephen Wiltshire print for Christmas. He's an unsual guy. An an autistic child growing up, he didn't speak, but used art materials to communicate. Over time it became clear he was both a talented artist and someone who had an unusually good visual memory. He's best know for drawing street scenes and city panoramas from memory, using fine-line black pens. The Stephen Wiltshire Gallery - Drawings, paintings and prints Bought her a print of the Toronto skyline (it's a city we visit together a lot). What I really want, though, is one of the big panoramas ... Tokyo, ideally.

Great, we'll look forward to the pics - glad it went well. I called into Frith St. very very briefly when I was over in London at the weekend and had a snoop around, but I didn't see any familliar faces.

As I type this I've still got a slightly tingling in my right hand, and my neck still not very good at flexing forward. Last week I managed to injure myself in a new and relatively frightening way (for the first day or two at least). Basically I trained brazilian jiu jitsu on a Wednesday and at some point probably used my neck muscles pretty extensively to try and resist a choke called a 'guillotine'. The clue is in the name, in terms of the type of effect this can have on the neck as a whole. That night I woke up at about 3am with my neck pretty inflamed, bad enough that I struggled to sleep. I put it down to some stiffness and, being the idiot that I am, decided that it would still be really clever to go ahead and do a max-effort upper body weights day on Friday. Anyway, long story short I didn't get any sleep on Saturday or Sunday night because it felt like someone was tasering my right arm on a low-setting, plus my neck had obviously been totally aggravated by the weights session. Saw a physio and doctor and they basically said looks like transient neuropraxia - where the muscles are inflammed/aggravated because they're protecting a bruised nerve (at a particular point on the cervical vertebrae, in my case). The tingling sense of a slight shooting pain in my right arm was because the area affected was or touched on the brachial plexus, which I guess runs down the arms. My physio doesn't think I've done anything more serious or got a bulging or ruptured disc or anything, but basically she suggested that had this been worse I could have had worse loss of sensation in my arm or potentially on the really bad end of things needed surgery and maybe done permanent nerve damage. I'm doing some nerve flossing exercises at the moment and there might be a bit of specific rehab to do after Christmas. I'm starting to feel more back to normal now, and she thinks I'll be back to normal in 10-14 days, describing it as a reasonably lucky escape. It's made me re-think, once again, my BJJ career. Prior to this the worst injuries I have had have been a few cuts, broken front tooth (no gumshield - stupid), bruised ribs twice and a torn MCL in my knee (that was pretty annoying too). Some shoulder tendonitis too, but I'm not sure that counts as that was benching, not BJJ. Sometimes I think being a couch potato might actually be less harmful to my health in the long run - or at this point at least. I love BJJ as a sport, but there's a lot of scope for injuring yourself in a long-term way (guess that's true of things like rugby too though). After christmas I'm going to try and rethink training and I might actually try and do things that make me feel supple and healthy without the byproduct of having periodically to visit E.Rs or ask my girlfriend to pass the ibuprofen. Then again, maybe the trade-off is worth it. My girlfriend's dad has had a hip replacement (in his late 50s). He says it's the price of having been able to run a good marathon time in his 20s, and that he'd pay it again. Any of you guys injured yourself? I'm presuming some of our CA posters must have fallen off some skateboards in their misspent youths, at least.

Made a Jamie Oliver recipe last night for pork belly tacos. Fried them in paprika along with haricot beans, served on corn tacos (store-bought) with greek yoghurt and a salsa of ripe tomato and avocado diced.

Ate at some great restaurants not a million miles away from Frith St. Tattoo. Friday night: Abeno Too. Pretty authentic (in taste, if not setting) okonomiyaki place. They served Asahi kuro nama (black lager), a bonus. Saturday night: Hawksmoor Seven Dials. Shared a 1.4 kg steak with beef dripping chips. If you like Old Fashioneds, the bar makes an interesting 'tobacco Old Fashioned' using a homemade tobacco bitters. They spray some kind of alcohol on the ice and light it to fast-melt them into icewater also... Unusual take on preparing the OF, basically, but it tasted reassuringly traditional. Sunday lunch: Polpo, a venetian tapas place in Soho. The bartender mixes a pretty good Old Fashioned here also.

Getting back to Perez mentioning asia- I am a little vague on it but I think kongo zen among other traditions still make use of it (maybe those signs are directions for temples?). I remember training in the budokan, a martial arts centre in Tokyo, and there was a large group of Shorinji Kempo practitioners training next to us with the same symbol embroidered on the chest of their dogi. If you google 'shorinji kempo' and swastika there are various references to their use of it. I guess I admire the idea of the 'reclaim the swastika' movement in principle, but in practice I suspect (a) the symbol is just too far gone in most parts of the world and (b) as others have said, you have to wonder about the motivations of someone who would go so far as to get it tattooed on them.

I'm pretty sure Thomas Hooper is still taking clients if you go about it the right way.