RoryQ

My local pub at Christmas. They're not hipsters being ironic with the dressers and glittery Christmas tree btw... They just have lots of old tat around the place.

Drove down to Allstar in Limerick for around midday. I had a quick breakfast first and then threw the car on cruise control for the motorway trip down (takes around two hours from Dublin). There's nothing quite like the sensation of speeding down the country knowing that you're on your way to get some (hopefully) world-class tattoos when you actually should be working for The Man and watching the clock hands tick by. Allstar was the same as when I was there the previous week: Full of guest artists and with a great atmosphere as a result. To be honest I recommend anyone to go there and get tattooed by Ross or one of his guys at any time: You'll enjoy looking at the amazing flash and art collection on the walls if nothing else. Everything from Smith Street / Frank Carter / Nick Colella sheets to one-off signed pieces by many of the greats. Fortified with a large americano I ended up getting tattooed by Chad first, who rapidly elected to do one of the two ideas I had come with: A rock of ages on the back of my leg. I gave him a free hand and you can see the results further down my post. I'm super pleased with this, I feel like he got all of the elements I like about the ROA motif and managed to somehow get them into a leg piece without having it feel crammed. Next up was Oliver Peck, rubbing his hands and querying what I wanted on my other foot (he had tattooed a panther head on the other one the year before). I had originally thought a matching cat head, but he pointed out that really so long as it was the same size I could get something else if I wanted. Taking the hint, I mentioned that I'd always wanted an anvil tattoo, and suggested putting that over some flowers. We chucked around some other ideas, but he seemed stoked to do the anvil so in no time at all I was in the chair for the second time and getting zapped once more. The mismatched size of the images in this post reflects my complete lack of technological know-how, sorry. I tried to get my own photo of the ROA but I practically pulled a muscle trying to get a decent shot of the back of my leg. As a result I've stolen the pic Chad put up on instagram, which is not ideal, but hey - at least it's my leg, right? It's just a pity my calves are so skinny... Years of squatting and you wouldn't know to look. I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger had the same problem in his early days.

I wasn't trying to be a smart-ass btw ... But when I think about Japanese style tattooing and the diversity of approaches - there are important guys dotted all around the globe. And even in the same country or region we see a plethora of approaches. Calle in King Carlos is pretty different in his take on it than another Scandinavian like Henning J... Then you've got guys like Pino Cafaro, an Italian based in Germany, The UK (everything from interpretive type guys to a Horiyoshi III disciple), amazing Australians and so on. The U.S scene is obviously important but I guess I'm saying isn't it a global phenomenon now, moreso than just being concerned with just the U.S or Japan?

Do we need another thread for all the people doing Japanese style who aren't American or Japanese? ;)

@Delicious Just one of those things, unfortunately. I have to keep going back there for a while anyway - we'll see what happens I guess.

@Delicious Yes, she was supposed to be being tattooed last year with me at Yellow Blaze, but she had to cancel. So this ended up being her first.

@real meta Nice... I like lots of red in reaper tattoos, looks awesome. And the wolfen is cool too. Made me think of the horror movie of the same name.

I think it's close enough now that it looks like it will go ahead, so I'll risk jinxing myself. Next Wednesday I should be doing a bit of an all-dayer at Allstar Tattoo in Limerick (Ross Nagle's shop). Booked in to get tattooed by both Oliver Peck and Chad Koeplinger. Need to get a match for the foot tattoo that Oliver did on me last year, and I'm going to get a leg piece from Chad afterwards hopefully - got a couple of options in mind for that, and I'm going to go with whichever he seems the most interested in doing. Limerick is a two hour drive from Dublin, so I took the day off work. It'll be a bit of a tattoo road-trip, all going well.

I mentioned my GF getting tattooed by Forrest Cavacco in another thread. That was her first tattoo, and it was 2.5 hrs on her ribs. There's a pic on his instagram - a yellow chrysanthemum. She was nervous going in, but got through it OK in the end. I think the anticipation because it was her first was the main cause of the nerves. ...When she gets around to some other spots at least most won't be any sorer!

Consult with Mo Coppoletta today in TFB for bringing down my left arm sleeve. It was good to see him, felt like I was going back to my tattoo collecting roots, because he was the first guy to do big work on me! The shop is still cool as ever. Roll on The first Friday in March so the work can begin...

What's up Billy. My fiancé grew up in Glasgow so I end up back there several times a year. It's always an adventure. Enjoy the forum and good to see another UK contributor...

I was going to make the credit card recommendation too, to be honest. You get a lot of protection on your purchases that way too. Bear in mind you might need a card for accommodation anyway, at check in. I would just use your ATM card for withdrawals if you're weekending somewhere that's non euro. But If I know I need a particular sum in advance to pay for a tattoo, or know I'm going to need a decent whack of sterling because I'm in the UK for a while, then I order currency in advance from my bank and make sure they don't screw me by adding anything on top of whatever the currency exchange rate is. I pick up the money before I go and that's one less thing to worry about. Just beware of currency exchange places and ATMs which will add a commission on top of what you're ordering- they abound in airports in particular.

That's what they call a coup d'état ...

Been working in farmer's walks a few days a week now. Mixed weights, sometimes heavy, sometimes lighter for distance or with an overhead carry or other awkward way. Today I filled up a rucksack and chucked that on too, felt like I was being pulled in a couple different directions. Went for distance (about 10 mins, minimum rest) ... suitcase, waiter and seesaw carries.

Drove my girl down to All Star in Limerick yesterday. She had an appointment to get tattooed by Forrest Cavacco. Ended up with a really nice chrysanthemum and leaves on her ribs. Forrest = a super nice guy (wouldn't mind getting tattooed by him in the future myself, just because of that- although I love his Japanese style anyway). I'm back in All Star myself next week, cannot wait now. Awesome selection of original flash and paintings on the walls by some of the greats, old and new.

Well I, for one, welcome our new Norwegian overlord! Congratulations @Iwar, you will make a good mod...

Enhancing lower back health through stabilisation exercise - Stuart McGill This is a really concise summary of his work- worth a read. http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~mcgill/fitnessleadersguide.pdf

+1 Tim Pausinger, IMO, is just knocking it out of the park lately... Really love his stuff.

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast... Not for breakfast. (Incidentally, the forum software wouldn't let me post this without making the post at least 60 characters ... ?)

Some super stouts and porters made in the U.S too, for sure... I think I had a Founder's breakfast stout at Publican in Chicago last year... For brunch. It'd put hairs on your chest. Had head cheese while I was there too... That was less successful.

O Hara's does export to the U.S, on tap and in bottles, but admittedly I think it's only the larger cities right now...

Beef and stout stew. I used a strong craft stout called O Haras Leanne Follain. Far more flavour than Guinness... It's a bold statement, but I believe this is the best Irish stout available today, hands down.

This kind of feeds into what Dan is alluding to above... I used to use a mixture of dynamic and static exercises for my core. For the dynamic things like GHD sit-ups, weighted sit-ups, hanging leg raises, dumbell side bends and russian twists. For the static I did lots of weighted planks, regular and lateral. When I hurt my neck I ended up, in the course of figuring out how the spine works, reading anything I could find by Stuart McGill and ended up ordering his book 'Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance'. McGill is a back expert who has consulted with the NFL and basically his work has revolved around figuring out how to put together a core that will support an injured spine and allow people to continue competing and training. He didn't really have a lot to say about my neck issues in the end, but his take on core training was fascinating, because for him it is both a cause of low back injuries as commonly performed, but also potentially the answer. (This old McGill interview is good - there are more recent ones on T-nation too. This isn't a work / family safe site T NATION | Meet Mister Spine Stuart McGill - Part 1 ) Without getting to far into it, he argues that if you've got a hint of low back problems (or want to avoid them) then any high rep flexion of the spine, as results from the way many people perform dynamic abdominal exercises, is a contributing factor to future back injuries. There's other stuff on his list (like compression of the spine under heavy loads, or early morning flexion) but essentially he promotes a take on core training revolving around 'super stiffness' of the area surrounding the spine. He has a few key exercises he promotes, but the ones I mainly use are plank variations and, interestingly, many farmer's walk variations. I think Dan John and McGill are on the same page in regarding the farmer's walk as a 'moving plank' if you are performing something asymmetric like a one-sided walk. I also try and do one-handed overhead pressing and one-arm benching from time to time - another good way to work the core. I probably neglect my core according to the standards of McGill, but I also can't help but feel that people are obsessed with core training at the expense of other fundamental strength standards. I see people who want to perform hundreds of sit-ups or spend 20 minutes in the gym doing a 'core circuit', and yet they don't seem to be as worried about being able to do a decent amount of strict pull-ups, or bench / deadlift decent for their weight. I think it is all interlinked and when one thing becomes trendy or thought to be especially 'healthy' the overall picture stuffers. (Not a trainer either, btw, just a ranter!)

Actually, looking at some recent threads... Maybe issuing a warning could be skipped in some flagrant cases.

This is only a suggestion, and I'm conscious that the people behind LST have a vision for it that includes it being open and welcoming, but FWIW:- If mods observe a pattern of one-line posting along the lines of what we're talking about, what about a policy of issuing a warning (once) via PM and then applying a ban if the behaviour persists?