James See

Well, I've done 12 hours on my back in the past three days. Six the first day, then a day of rest, then six today.
I went in with the mindset that the back is one of the most painful places to get tattooed, and specifically the love handles and ass (Valerie Vargas' posts re clients automatic reactions sunk in). Probably because of this I was a lot cleaner in the run-up to this week than for anything else I've done. Very little alcohol, lots and lots of sleep all week. The end result was that the first day actually felt OK, a lot better than I expected. To me it felt like towards the end it was beginning to bite more because of the time involved than because of the location.
Today was a little harder, it started to get sore around lunchtime. I figure that whatever stock of endorphins I had built back up by resting yesterday just didn't go as far. At the four hour mark today I was feeling like throwing in the towel, but then Ching sat me up (I'd been lying on my stomach) and this totally pepped me up - it was weird, I was feeling nauseous but just the change of position made a huge difference. I actually felt like the last two hours were OK... Although then again I was also getting my upper back worked and I feel like around the shoulder blade was easier than lower down towards the love-handles / ass.
In conclusion: I'm a convert to the no-drinking-in-the-run-up approach, and I reckon as much sleep as possible is important. The only other thing I came away with is that taking the day off between the two sessions felt like a really good idea. I have no doubt that going straight into it yesterday morning would have had me wanting to tap far earlier.
My girlfriend has been watching anxiously, because she's got a pretty gruelling schedule planned for next year. Four sessions in two weeks in Japan. I think, after this week, that it is do-able. I feel like I could get tattooed next week (if I really had to).

I was thinking the same thing about the vcr, seems a little too perfect. I do dig the tattoo, though, in spite of the questionable conditions and/or motivations.