RoryQ

If it's really just about looking more like a jaguar, and not particularly about wanting a tattoo as such... Less permanent, less painful, cheaper? Not something I'd ordinarily suggest, but in this case I don't feel like it's any odder than this conversation already is.

This isn't the thread to pose that question: it's for people to post about their upcoming tattoos. You could start your own thread on it if you haven't already.

Those are stunning, really nice...

And.. Done.

I bought a weird book that was recommended to me by Robert Bly. It's called 'Iron John'. He appears to be a Jungian and folklorist who has written this book about masculinity, and how fairy-tales are basically heavy duty wisdom handed down from our pre-writing ancestors. I'm not totally sure I buy into the whole thing, but it's interesting so far. I feel like it's the kind of book I would have appreciated more during my college days.

I have to give CrossFit kudos because without it I wouldn't have actually learned the olympic lifts at all. We did certs with people like Mike Burgener and ended up competing in a few amateur competitions. I felt like it was good to hit a basic benchmark like bodyweight snatch, but after that it was diminishing returns for me. A few people I know kept o-lifting intensively, and although several years have passed they've really had to fight to add fairly modest weight. Only a couple of them really broke the ceiling and are snatching and clean and jerking really big numbers. Part of me also rejects too much o-lifting because unless you've really got the genes then they won't hypertrophy. I hate the idea of training so hard and looking like you don't train at all. In my view the same logic as with the OHS applies: Unless you're a CFer or (obviously) O-lifter there is too little return for the investment required. The absolute king of alternatives, when it comes to power movements, is the power clean. Mark Rippetoe champions this and obviously it's part of Starting Strength, so I guess I can appeal to his authority in my argument. To me the power clean is easier to learn, safer and also probably translates into more raw power development because more people are able to comfortably add more weight to the bar quicker (whew, what a sentence). Of course then I gradually buggered up my neck doing BJJ and now I tend to steer clear of power cleans also, but for anyone whose spine is in one healthy piece I heartily recommend them.

A classic OHS squat challenge in CrossFit used to be 50 overhead squats at half bodyweight. My shoulders went to sleep and I nearly knocked myself out. There was a lot of that :0 I think OHS are a good illustrator of whether you can stabilise weight overhead and your shoulder mobility but unless you're doing o-lifting or CF (and need them for your sport, essentially) I feel like there are better barbell squat variations if the goal is strength building or hypertrophy. Most people seem to need months before they can put working weight on the bar. Haven't featured them since last year, I'd hazard a guess they'd be a struggle now.

Going to cook this top shoulder of pork low 'n slow overnight ... 24 hour marinade in the fridge first though. 8-10 hours at about 120 degrees should leave this super soft and pull-able.

Welcome. I saw an article in the press here saying that tattoos were still frowned upon by older Israelis- what's it like over there? The tattoo looks good to me. You won't see a lot of new school stuff like that on this forum for whatever reason.

Hiking / outdoorsy stuff would probably be my wife's first choice of a holiday... I'm more the "find a craft beer bar and visit every second hand bookshop in the city" type. We've done some good eating in Tokyo previously, but it will be harder this time with the baby. You feel like a bit of a loud gaijin at the best of times, bringing a baby along could be a step too far for some places I imagine. Definitely going to go back to Tsukiji fish market for early morning sushi but the fine dinning options, such as they were, money permitting, are probably curtailed.

I see someone else has commented on it above, but I happened to notice again today that none of my tapatalk 'likes' are showing up. I guess given it's probably a problem on their end there isn't much that can be done, but it's unfortunate, as more and more I find myself browsing the forum on tapatalk via my phone.

Just pulled the trigger on flights to Tokyo in September. The wife and kid are coming along this time and we'll make a bit of a family holiday out of it. I'm going to get two days in with Tomo at Yellow Blaze to chip away at some more of my front piece. Then, bar an unforseen change, another day on it at the London Tattoo Convention, which will be interesting. Not my ideal place to get work like that done, but I'll take any opportunity I get to make headway on it. I don't think three more days will finish it, which is kind of a relief, because then my wife would tell me I have to take a break from going to Japan for a while.

I must admit I'm sceptical that he'll stay in one place for too long!

At least you'll die relaxed!

@misterJ Getting your back tattooed is no joke. If you sat for that long you can't call yourself a wimp in my opinion!

6 hours on your back or front would be very painful but do-able. On your forearm? Should be even more do-able, not a bad place to be tattooed. Good luck, you may be being tattooed as I type this!

@eisen777 Sounds like good progress. You'll probably see a lot more if you stick with it. The upside of making strength gains is that when you start doing conditioning workouts for the fat loss (barbell complexes for example) you'll be able to use challenging weights. Agreed, good time of year for sports, walking and no-frills park workouts. Yeah, 3 sets of 10 would probably be 'good' going at the moment. Be interesting to see whether after this GTG my max has moved up... I think it probably already has. I think I'm going to aim for 50-60 a day for now. Switched from regular push-ups to diamond push-ups, looking for 60-80 a day. I'll stop this when my elbows complain! DeFranco is, for me, one of the best "one stop shop" guys for programming and sensible advice on training. I think I saw an older incarnation of that mobility set from him but not this version.

Sounds bonkers but I guess if it works... Homer Simpson's "miracle spine o cylinder" always struck me as just being a giant PVC roller.

I got out the book I was referring to and I see the term that some use for Maori tattooing applied to non-Maori is kirituhi. Couldn't quite recall it. Great, scholarly, book by the way:- Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo: Ngahuia Te Awekotuku: 9780143566854: Amazon.com: Books Quite a lot of discussion about kirituhi, attitudes to Maori tattooing on non-Maori, whether it is 'meaningless' in lacking the cultural signifiers it has for a Maori etc.

I take the point regarding the difference between cultural appropriation versus cross cultural sharing, that's fair. I would be curious to hear someone like Gloyne's take on the issue of things like Indian lady head war bonnet tattoos etc. I've got to admit that when it comes to any kind of pin up, whether it's an Indian, geisha, sexy genie or whatever that I don't think of it as saying that much about the sexual predilections or views of the wearer. I kind of think of them as being tattoo iconography probably removed, at this point, from their original meaning. In the same way as a Rock of Ages might rarely have a Christian undertone for people wearing them these days. If I see, for example, that awesome big Valerie Vargas Indian dancer backpiece I am not thinking of it as a sexualised image in the same way as I would a really realistic black and grey tattoo of a nude. I'm thinking more about the history of traditional tattooing, flash, etc than anything else.

I have it Kyle, a great resource. I'm more likely to crack open the book than watch a whole video by him. Another related book I found good lately was Neupert & Anderson's "Original Strength". Tough to sum up, but it's on floor work type movements that are intended to be practiced several times daily. It Involves segmental rolling, rocking movements, neck mobility, crawling movements and diaphragmatic breathing. I've tried a lot of that type of health / mobility stuff before and it hasn't clicked with me but for some reason I really think this OS is good. Doing the segmental rolling on a hard floor is like whole body self myofascial release, it's replaced the foam roller for me. I'm doing Pavel Taatsouline's "grease the groove" protocol at the moment because I can't get to the gym. I've picked the pull-up and push-up as movements and basically I'm just doing sets randomly through the day, accumulating volume. No sets to failure. Yesterday I did 55 pull-ups and 92 push-ups. Mostly sets of 5-7 and 10-14 respectively. The only issue is in not sure when 'enough is enough' per day? I've been at it a week so far, still adding reps daily.

'From Hell' was heavily recommended to me, and I bought the big paperback compendium. Really sombre, simple black and white illustration and impressive research into the history of the period. There's a whole deep freemasonry plot thread: He weaves in all kind of stuff, including Hawksmoor's architecture and its secret language. A bit highbrow (for me, anyway) and slow in parts at times though.

I'm genuinely curious how people who are concerned about cultural appropriation in tattooing regard other art forms. Is it problematic if a westerner learns and eventually teaches a Japanese martial art? What about people in non-western societies playing violin or learning how to paint... Are they culturally confused? We'd end up with a very stratified view of art and cultural practices. To take the example of martial arts again: you could argue that it was western interest and support that has underpinned and ensured the survival of Japanese martial arts. Judo is in the Olympics... French aikido is a sensation etc. When we share art cross fertilisation occurs and something new can come of it. To take the example of filipino martial arts and western boxing: There's a good argument that the structure and dynamism of modern boxing draws from experience of westerners and immigrants familiar with the Filipino martial arts. Meanwhile many filipino styles have incorporated the use of western protective equipment for use in sparring etc. it's a two way street. Yes, sometimes power imbalances between societies can result in injustices but I feel like the issue there is the power imbalance not the cross cultural art relations itself. To get back to tattoo specific discussion:- There's some fascinating stuff written by NZ tattoo researchers on the whole idea of ta mojo as a cultural practice for Maoris only ('if no Maori blood is spilled it's not ta moko'). There is a different term for moko style tattooing applied to non Maori used by some artists but there's no widespread agreement that this is correct.

My wife gave birth a little over a week ago. The new baby is our first, so it's exciting but a little frightening and very tiring. He's doing well. We're super sleep deprived. I think that sums it up :)

Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics' is a great meditation to the medium of comics / graphic novels / sequential art... In the form of a comic itself of course. Sounds boring, but it is funny, intelligent and provides a phenomenal insight into how the medium and it's users really work. After that, some personal favourites:- 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman (already recommended!) 'The Sandman' written by Neil Gaiman 'The Walking Dead' 'Northmen' I grew up reading '2000AD' so although they're dated now to some degree I loved some of the weirder shit that came out of that... Some 'Judge Dredd', 'Slaine', 'Rogue Trooper' etc.