RoryQ

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.

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.

All of those traditional designs look the same to me, ha. That's like saying you have a clawing panther and you can't believe that someone else got one too. Although that rose morph issue... yeah. @Graeme yours looks way better anyhow.
Mr Toby, you'll just have to find comfort in the the fact that you have an epic back piece. Be mad when that gets copied.

To the OP, I can pretty much guarantee that was a classic eagle design that Bert put on you. I highly doubt he drew that custom for you. He most likely was flipping through some classic flash designs, saw that eagle, and performed that eagle. The other tattoo was done by someone probably looking at the exact same design.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So many people have bulging discs, and report such varying degrees of discomfort, that there's no way to know.
There's a big mental component when it comes to back and neck injuries IMO. Some people with a bulging disc take months off work sick and really struggle when someone else with a full blown herniation might be still doing everything they were doing before.
For what it's worth I have a couple of bulging discs and never felt them to be an issue getting my back done other than to experience some added stiffness from needing to sit still so long.
Objectively speaking I can't see why the tattoo process would reach deep enough to interfere with anything going on at the level of the spine.

A fucking tattoo... Like, shunga?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you read earlier in the thread, and other specific threads, you'll see it's not uncommon to do two day sessions - especially if you're travelling a long way.
They suck- especially the second day, when you're already tired and inflamed from day one.
But it's a good way to make progress quickly, and the mortality rate is pretty low. ;)

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.