Cork

Workout the day of, sure. Suffer from DOMS on the day of, not recommended. I had really bad upper back soreness on the day of one of my sessions, it was one of the worst.

@Shaggy I saw that on Instagram and was waiting for you to post. Grats on finishing it, it looks amazing.

My view on pocket watches is that I'd rather look at my phone or a wrist watch if I want to know the time.

He attends a convention in New Jersey every year, and I always forget, and email him too late. I actually did email him last week in regards to it and asked if he had open time. He responded within the same day, but regretfully said he did not have any open time. He suggested I come to Tokyo! I told him that I will try again next year. I figure the stars will align eventually and it'll happen.

@SeeSea Congrats on getting that wrapped up! It looks great.

@tavoz Thanks for the comment. I knew the tebori took longer, but I didn't realize the time frame for a kame-no-koh was 8 years, or maybe I just forgot. Your arm looks very good!

@hellamuch Yeah, keep it to yourself. I think it's clear that no one would be interested in an freaking back piece by Freddy Corbin are you crazy post pictures now!

Very awesome @tavoz, you have quite a unique experience. Are you working on a full body suit?

Hilarious choice of words.

@cltattooing So good! I can't wait to see the start of shading/color.

All said and done between May 2013 and November 2014. 18 months, roughly 1 appointment per month.

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth. This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana. I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time. I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club. And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

Well I've always been of the mindset to give the people what they want. It looks like I can only bundle 20 pictures per post, so here you have the first half. Of note in this set of pictures; My back is really only my third tattoo, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I always had an interest in this type of stuff, and it was something I had to do. The very first lining session reminded me of the pain of my previous tattoos, but the worst part was the hair. I distinctly remember clutching the table as the 5th hour rolled around and it was time to start the hair. 30 minutes later, soaked in sweat, I can say I did what needed to be done. After that session, Dana says that he is notorious for pushing his clients, and that if I really needed to take a break, to just let him know. The guy is a machine and just rolls on forever once he gets started. Once that love handle got hit, I knew I had to turn to chemical relief. The average session was 4-5 hours and I didn't want to let Dana down by tapping out early. That may be frowned upon by those who never turned to relief, but anyone who has turned to pain killers will tell you that it hardly does anything. It just takes the edge off and lets you breath a little. Make no mistake, you definitely still feel it. Kudos to anyone who goes through the ass without any assistance. I don't think I could have managed sessions any longer than 2 hours if so. We did a ton of lines and shading. We both got a little bored with it and decided to color in some fire before finishing the shading. We were both itching to see color and it was a great change of pace. One major thing to note, and I want everyone to take notice about how a tattoo changes and you just roll with what works. At first, Kongo Yasha was going to have a nice yellow aura, and the lines were down to lay the path, but that changed once the fire got started. Since Kongo Yasha is an angry ass dude, we decided a full fire aura would look the best. Dana put some lines down and I think it was a change for the better. You can hardly even tell what was originally intended.

@Lance I saw that post and didn't really understand. Did she take a break from tattooing for a while? Also, it seems like Eddy comes to NY once a year or so. This year I just can't make it happen, that's why I try and share it with you guys. I'm hoping next year I'll be in a better spot to take advantage of it.

I went around between Instagram, my phone, and the back piece thread and pulled together as many shots of my back progress as I could. Anyone interested in seeing the process? The only reason I ask is it is a lot of gratuitous ass. Like, a lot. Obviously it's all already on the internet, but just seeing it one folder on my hard drive seems excessive as it is so I figure I'd gauge interest here before posting.

@MrToby That texture <3

Aw yeah, that's the money shot.

Way to tough it out! Looking forward to seeing more updates.

Eddy Deutsche coming to Smith Street Aug 27-Sept 3.

That looks like that was a fun session.

Nah, the color would not look bad with the shading on the skull. Here is an example from Chris O'Donnell, which may or may not be on a member here. I know I've seen this one before.

Get a tattoo of a penis and see what you think it looks like. Probably not a lighthouse.

Cool video man, great to see a glimpse at the person behind the keyboard.

Whichever one of you it was that said Hogg's lat spread was a C+ at best, I was dying.

hogg's guest on livedintattoos had me realize yesterday that I had not been following Matt on Instagram. I fixed that.