Dr Benway

Thanks jade, as someone with a healing tattoo (for the first time) at the moment it is really interesting to see the process. It's easy for me to think that I'm the only person with mass flaking and new thin skin that is wrinkly, but I guess that's the way it is for everyone. There are so few photos of healing tattoos.

@ShawnPorter - I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed Tinker, Tailor, but I totally get your point. Performances in themselves cannot carry a film if the story isn't good. Overall I liked it a lot, despite the end being pretty obvious from the get-go. Mainly I liked the view of how Britain in the early 70s looked much like our view of the early 60s. It wasn't how films usually portray the early-70s, with a glam and Bowie soundtrack. I think it took a foreign director to see that, and Tinker, Tailor had a lot of the atmosphere that Alfredson nailed in Let the Right One In. @RoryQ - It says a lot that they weren't prepared to remake Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, keeping to the chronology of the trilogy, but instead went straight for the most high-concept story instead. Still, I'm glad it's Spike Lee and not Michael Bay or Ridley Scott, or even worse, Tony Scott.

She was offended? Not embarassed? Or ashamed? But offended? I honestly don't think I know anyone that wouldn't let someone with visible tattoos into their home. Perhaps I'm being naive.

I wholeheartedly support this.

Bloody hell. I don't expect historical accuracy at all, but Poe on a horse firing a gun? Poe was a very interesting person without all this. Not least marrying his 13-year-old cousin.

I think there will be more demand for neck script and general cholo culture tattoos.

"Where's your tool!?"

There is a really wonderful tattoo by Valerie that isn't up anymore, so instead I will go for second place, which is a tattoo from back in March by Thomas Hooper. It's probably not objectively his best tattoo of the year, but I really love the choice of subject for this chest piece. It is a far less obviously aggressive animal choice than you tend to get on chest pieces, which is great because swans are as hard as fucking nails. I like the wing positions and it's webbed feet.

Cell 211 was a wonderful little prison movie. I agree that a lot of these 're-adaptations' need to be considered film projects that go back to the original source material, rather than remakes, but they don't exist in a vacuum and are influenced in so many ways. And as Rory said, are unlikely to have been made if it hadn't been for the original adaptations. I have gone off Fincher quite a bit, largely because I think he can be style over substance, but Zodiac was a decent yarn.

Thanks Stewart. I know some of you guys probably tire of repeating the same info time after time, but it is useful to hear practical and learned advice about certain practices that get discussed on this forum. I'll put that down to my dyscalculia. Yeah, I sat in Bar Italia and had a decent sandwich and a bottle of water and just read through my tattoo notes, and it made the world of difference. I also managed to get 10 hours of sleep, which was great. That's for sure - a great deal of the experience is watching the tattooing process, which is very interesting and ritualistic, but I agree the romance of that must wear off for the heavily tattooed. Looking at the wall art was very useful, and on the painful inner-elbow I found myself looking at one image on the wall (I can't remember what it was) and counting the small images on it. By the time I got to 30 it was done. I was facing the counter so found myself looking at some of the people who come in to look through the portfolios who were all taking sneaky glimpses at my tattoo, which was amusing and distracting, so that was also useful. I reckon I was pretty still, in the main I shut the fuck up, and I certainly did enjoy it.

Cheers - I love boxing docs!

That's interesting Gregor. I know that they keep burns wrapped for quite some time in hospital and prefer them to wet heal. I just assume that the moisture and the greenhouse conditions of a plastic wrap encourages the skin to leech ink out.

@kylegrey - I didn't even know they had made a doc about that fight. That was was an insane time in boxing, and McClellan was just one of the boxers who were getting very, very hurt. I will hunt it out.

I love music videos with a passion. I recommend Adam Buxton's Bug website for loads of innovative and bonkers music videos. He does a really fantastic video event night at the BFI too. NEWS - BUG Videos It's hard to pick one amongst all the Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze videos, but if I had to I would go for Cunningham's Aphex Twin 'Rubber Johnny' video/film and Jonze's excellent video for the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs 'Y-Control'. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7382676545570345084 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1gfdp_yeah-yeah-yeahs-y-control_music

Boom! Boom! :-)

Stewart - I have heard that ibuprofen can be a useful thing to take just prior to tattooing because it can reduce inflammation, therefore making the skin easier to work on. Is this another myth? I didn't take any, but as someone with fair and rather sensitive skin (I'm a redhead) I wonder if it might help the tattooer?

Welcome welcome.

I found myself starting to twitch a bit and realised that I was tensing up my arm in an effort to keep it still. Turns out it is completely counter-productive. After I willed myself to completely relax I was fine (I think). I am the sort of person who will sit in a cinema and watch a 3-hour film and barely move a muscle so I think I'm ok with that sort of thing. I don't know how twitchers and shufflers cope with being tattooed.

Dead Man's Shoes is wonderful. Have you seen Paddy Considine's directorial debut Tyrannosaur? I have it here but haven't seen it yet. I'm intrigued to see how he is as a director because he is an incredibly fine actor (and the short film he directed was great too). I got round to seeing the Brit thriller Kill List yesterday. People have been raving about it but I was pretty unimpressed.

I saw the first image and was just about to go get the Vargas image, but you were one step ahead of me. It's actually fascinating that these people can't even rip-off well. The wolf's nose shows that he can't quite nail the perspective, but most importantly the execution of the brows gives it a completely different tone. In the Vargas tattoo the wolf is dead-eyed but serious, and the girl is thoughtful and focussed. In the Kmyta tattoo, the brown makes the wolf look sad and slightly animated, whilst the girl looks just blank and dolly-bird like. I'm probably analysing it too much, but as a non-artist it is fascinating how the small nuances create a completely different subject. I'll say one thing in his favour - he obviously knows his limits, judging by his choice for ear-rings.

Gregor, you're so right. I'm not going to go the way the herd do. Instead I'm going to get a moustache finger tattoo (makes it look like you have a real moustache!!!1).

The Hooper tattoo is more of a dream than a reality. But yes, getting the sleeve finished by Valerie will be one of the most incredible moments of my life, and you have every right to hate me!

I'm going to get my sleeve finished by Valerie by May and then start the process of getting some work done by Thomas Hooper. I might start looking into taking advantage of cancellations/walk-ins at Frith St and Into You...if finances allow :-)

My advice would be to put your time, energy and money into some new tattoos and perhaps chalk this one up to experience. If you REALLY want to get it covered up in 5-years or so then do, but for now why not just get what you want instead of spending your time rectifying mistakes.