RoryQ

Visiting Toronto right now. Walk in at The Okey Doke on Sunday looks like it's a runner. I'm thinking some small fillers from Franz Stefanik if he's there. I'm minding my son all week while my wife works so this is something non kid friendly to do at the very end. ...Not that it isn't nice to be wandering around the city with him anyway. Really good place for families.

Stuart McGill is good on on low back issues (backfitpro.com). His school of thought is that for your lumbar spine to be well supported and healthy you actually want the low back strong and stable, not too stretchy.... He talks about developing 'super stiffness' in the core muscles and muscles around the lumbar spine. He recommends a lot of planking and asymmetric weighted carries ... not so keen on things that bend the spine, like crunches and twists. He cautions against too much stretching of the lower back (including some yoga). If you MRId the general population a huge portion of them would show up things like bulging discs, stenosis, degenerated discs etc The question is why some people are asymptiomatic and others have pain and discomfort... It's quite subjective, it seems. McGills view is that people with stronger backs seem to do better or report less symptoms if they train after having issues. If I was on the west coast of the U.S I would also try to get to a Kelly Starrett ( mobilitywod,com ) seminar. He does some really good stuff on posture and it would be relevant to those of us forced into sitting / hunching a lot when we work. I feel like training can relieve things (although I've also jacked my neck up pretty well through BJJ) but at the end of the day it's your daily posture and work life that make or break you.

I was doing a Bryan Haycock hypertrophy program there for several months. It's 3 whole body sessions a week. The first fortnight is in the 15 rep range, working up to a max, then the second fortnight it's the 10 rep range ... Third it's 5 rep range etc. Anyway, I did a couple cycles and grew somewhat. Squatting three times a week though, even only 2-3 work sets... I'm fried now. No zap. Going to switch into something like Dan John's 40 day workout or Simple & Sinister again for a bit.

The other thing that throws me off when I travel for a tattoo is if an appointment is delayed or moved. No big deal for a local but if you're on a schedule it's awkward. I've told my wife I'd done by 2pm... And turned up at 6pm. Happens more with street shops and one shots obviously. The most punctual set-up ever for me was, unsurprisingly, In Japan. 1030 really means 1030...

It sucks when things like this happen. A guy tried and failed to break into our house a few weeks ago. Still caused €800 of damage making a mess of the profile of a door. Thieves and criminals... [emoji107]

Mods and rules aside, I agree with what (I think) SeaSee is saying - that the best forums (in terms of the signal to noise ratio) tend to develop a culture that encourages thoughtful posts that add value. It's why some forums are awesome resources and others are spam-fests full of flaming. When non mods complain I think it's often less that they want to be the "mod police" and more that they are invested enough in the community to want a standard of discussion to be maintained. In fairness, we've also had relatively new members do a fair bit of ranting over the years, and no one stopped them... Remember the guy with the wonky star? Is people sticking their oar in about inane or unnecessary posts really inherently unfair ... does it somehow infringe on people's rights? Meh. This is a privately owned forum with public access. Also, The pushing goes both ways and if we're indeed all adults here then no harm done. No one is exactly oppressed here.

What's described in the OP's post is a distraction theft really. It's cold comfort now but staff tend to be quicker to see things coming the second time around and less likely to let a situation develop where an opportunistic or planned theft can take place. Sometimes clearly being alert is enough (guess it's hard to do if you're alone and making a tattoo at the time). If force or a threat of force was used you're into robbery territory and that's a different kettle of fish. In either scenario my take is that physical security measures are your first line of defence if you're a cash business open to the public. In terms of distraction thefts they tend to occur when the public has access to places like shop floors with goods out. In a tattoo shop it's not clear to me how the ink was lifted in the OP's post, wouldn't have thought they be ordinarily accessible in most shops I've been in. The counter separating the work space and public area is a good idea that should work as a deterrent. Were some or all of the 6 people allowed 'in back' where the tattooing was going on? Other stuff worth considering:- Whether it's theft or robbery visible CCTV can be a deterrent also. There's a trade off between accessibility and security but there's a case to be made for making access to the shop by buzzer entry after a certain time of day maybe. If there were a till it shouldn't be visible to the public and doesn't need to be at the counter - unlike in, say, a takeaway outlet where that's your point of service as well as point of contact with the public. Out of hours if things are going to be left in the shop then if it were me I would want composite or steel doors, anti bump, anti snap locks, shutters etc. And a monitored alarm with an autodialler set for a few people's phones. Make friends with your local cops :) Chances are if there was CCTV they could ID the people in the OP's post.

I like long, consolidated threads ... But there's also a case to be made for closing really long-running ones and starting a sequel thread. On another forum I'm on this is the done thing and I think it does add to their readability. I've been here a long time and actually I probably wouldn't mind re-reading 5-6 pages of a resurrected thread but if it's 10+ it's probably not going to happen. I'm sure newcomers aren't reading some of the bigger threads from scratch. And if you dip in towards the end some of them are "cruising" with updates - the keystone posts might be scattered earlier on. Not that it's a big deal either way. Things seem to be working OK.

When I'm doing two days back to back I unwrap and shower at the end of the day... The rewrap overnight... Shower in the morning to get rid of the blood / plasma and then wrap again before heading to the studio. Personally I don't bother with ointments / barrier creams if I'm going to be wrapping. For me it's partly about the tattoo and mainly about not leaving massive bio leakage on the hotel bed sheets...

I got a pretty big thigh piece done on holidays in Chicago (Chris Smith) and I recall it being no problem - it's a good meaty and non-articulating place. I also got my knee done the following year and, to be honest, even that didn't stop me walking around enjoying things. Tegaderm helped though... no leaking, no dressing moving around. So I'd say go for it. Rule of thumb is leave it till as late in possible on the trip though. I'm in Toronto next week and might get a walk-in but leaving it till my last day so I can still swim with my son the rest of the time.

Yes, I heard that. There's a scene in Fringe where the senior guy leading Fringe division is being questioned by some kind of senate oversight committee and the chair mentions 'old X designation cases' ... A direct nod to the X Files I thought.

The trailers for 'Daredevil' look ok... Kind of gritty looking, with the bandana and no costume. I tried to like Gotham and Agents of SHIELD but no dice. Watching Fringe on Netflix right now... On season 2. It's no X-Files but has moments of brilliance.

My wife's getting tattooed by Calle at King Carlos in June. I'm going to be around but no plans to get tattooed ... The shoe is on the other foot. Sebastian Murphy at Stockholm Classic impresses me.. Quite a personal style I think, traditional yet hint of Mad Magazine illustration or something.

Everyone's hands have to get used to training. The friction and pressure combined with aggressive knurling on some bars and Dumbbells can cause some redness and whatnot at first, but I'd urge you to just let your hands adjust... Some callousing is inevitable and will help with the discomfort. You can still take care of your hands after your workouts - a pumice stone after showering to keep the callouses low-profile etc. Lifting straps are, in my view, not needed here. They're usually used in the context of lifts where the trainee wants to lift more weight than their grip strength will allow- deadlifts really. They should probably be left to intermediate or advanced trainees. --- On the whole low rep versus high rep training thing:- I did a lot of 1-3 rep range in my 20s and I actually do regret not doing more classic hypertophy work in the higher rep ranges then. I think there are a lot of guys doing max effort work who might stand to put on a few kg of muscle first. This is my reading also of why DeFranco created the classic "Westside for skinny bastards" templates. With that said, you can arguable get big AND strong on 5x5, Starting Strength etc. Or, at least some people can. I feel like I didn't start hypertrophying at all until I started doing higher rep work in the 10-15 rep range. Now I kind of oscillate between doing a few weeks of higher rep hypertrophy specific, with isolation work included, work and then going back to low rep compound only. Safety wise I think there is some validity to the argument that doing max effort 1-3 rep lifting is potentially more risky than higher rep work. A max single rep squat or dead is putting the max compressive force on your spine that you can arrange. However (I did say "some" validity) the other side of the coin is that people get sloppy at sub maximal weights. Deadlifts in particular... If you're only doing 3-5 heavy reps you hopefully will set up carefully and maintain your form. With high rep deadlifts people are tempted to start doing touch and go reps and rush things.

Mark, thanks! I could get there an hour early... good to know. I might be in Toronto in April - if it works out I'll post here again.

@Mark Bee or anyone else who knows... How early does the line form for the Okey Dokey walk-in day on Sundays? Might be in Toronto this summer. Was curious how much of a madhouse it is. If you get there are 1130 or so is there already a queue?

I have a 9 month old. From time to time he tries to pick up a tattoo that he sees on me - a maple leaf off my arm etc. But in general he appears to not notice them yet. It'll be interesting to see whether he considers tattoos square because his mum and dad have plenty of them. I'm curious.

Hey guys- I've seen this motif used as a filler regularly. A pair of thick spikes or nails. I assumed they had a religious connotation - crucifixion nails maybe... but I gather they could have a more left hand path meaning also. Googling it turns up things about nails in the beautician sense. Anyone point me in the right direction? (Franz Stefanik, The Okey Dokey Tattoo Shop)

To be honest, I'm not sure that an effective, low-cost means of removing tattoos will necessarily devalue or undermine the whole process of getting them. At the end of the day, even if you can slather on a cream that will safely and quickly remove a tattoo (..and I still think we'll be waiting a while for that) then, even so, the process of getting the tattoo is still going to remain expensive, time-consuming and painful, right? I can't see anyone having a whim and spending $2000+ dollars on large tattoos on their backs, fronts etc. just because there now exists a means of removing them easier than laser. There are still a lot of bad tattoos out there that people might get rid of if they had the means. On balance, I'm in favour of giving it to them if possible. What really freaks me out is the totally unrelated technology that someone is developing around robotic / automated tattooing....

Booked a sneaky one with Oliver Mackintosh at FST in June... I'm in London for the weekend. Not exactly spontaneous, it's ages away, but looking forward to it. It'll be a s-------.

Booked what will probably be my final trip to Japan for a few years... Tomo is sure he can finish my front-piece this visit, so...I'm going over next September. Flights and hotel booked. It'll be an interesting trip. He's finished up in Yellow Blaze by then and I'll be getting the shinkansen from Tokyo to his home city (1.5 hours) to his new studio. I'm really bummed out to be finishing, in many ways. When I started this front piece I remember feeling like "oh my god, what have I done - this thing will never be finished". Now that it's within my grasp it's all a bit anti-climactic - I almost wish there was more to do. This will be my last big piece, I have room for no more big work.

This is more of a general comment on bereavement than this specific situation, but my observation is that people handle things in different ways. Sometimes you will meet someone who wants to talk about their deceased family member / spouse etc. and you can see that it's clearly helping them and it's part of their way of addressing things. On the other hand, there are people who are less keen on talking and here in Ireland at least I know that some people find it really difficult when, for months, they have to hear people's condolences endlessly. I fell into the latter category! It's not that I hate people, but I'm just not a big talker in that sense. I think in the situation described the key, at least as far as talking to the lady about the work you have, would be to suss out whether she is open to talking about something that personal.

Yep, I know Paul does great work. There are a couple of others too! But IMO, just as a customer, overall Dublin is still not a great place in Ireland for tattooing, even though it's the capital. Incidentally Paul has linked up with Ross Nagle, to tattoo in Limerick and Cork.

Tomo from Yellow Blaze is opening a studio in his home city in Nagaoka (think I'm right in saying Niigata prefecture). It looks like it's an hour and a half from Tokyo on a Shinkansen.

Little Uncle Alan reaper head on the side of my knee. Really cool shop to get tattooed at- probably the most unique / nicely finished I've seen.