Cork

That's awesome @ironchef. I bet you're excited to see it done at least from one perspective.

So who's next? I'm headed in on the 13th.

Hey @Cork a guy actually won that same yakuza back piece as part of a promotional thing for the game you can see it here Sydney man gets Yakuza-inspired tattoo - GameSpot

Of course, they don't give credit to the artist. But that's a really weird thing to auction off.

I would second Smith Street. I didn't actually get tattooed by the guys there, but they are good and atmosphere is great.

The thickest of the thick.

Koji Ichimaru

you guys are riding it backwards.

...

yes?

Ha yes! If you ever want to 1 man row a canoe, you have to get in it backwards. So much easier to steer. Canoe tip of the day.

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@haervaerk Sweet stache!

I find all the other Myo-o to be very underrated, that's why I took a stab at Kongo-Yasha. I've only ever seen a Gundari Myo-o back piece. Everything else is Fudo.

Got Monmon Cats in the mail today. An excellent little book to go over with the cat loving wife. Unfortunately it wasn't signed because @hogg is a real Christmas grinch, but I guess he is still kind of cool.

Sorry for the nightmares!

And then this was a medical illustration of a humerus bone. This is actually on a dude who is from the same town that I apprenticed in. It was pretty nuts actually, he told me that he had gotten work done at the shop I was at, and turns out he had a tattoo that I had drawn for my mentor to use. Small world..

Someone's got a secret admirer <3

What is your aftercare routine? I scabbed bad when I tried healing with ointment (aquphor, etc) and dry healing. As a result I have some large patchy areas on my first tattoos :( but I think I only notice because I can inspect my tattoos all day long and can find at least one healing "imperfection" on all my tattoos. It was very frustrating so I switched to rewrapping the area in plastic wrap every 8 hours for the first 2-3 days. Ans have had great success so far.

Yes it was with dry healing and lotion. I normally re-wrap for the night after the tattoo, I guess I'll wrap the following 2 nights as well and make sure the area stays soft. I never really got in to aquaphor. I just use Neosporin combined with hand lotion. Thanks for the input. Hopefully it works for me.

Does any one deal with scabbing on a regular basis? After every appointment with Dana I suffer from it and lose ink density in the worst spots. My windbars are patchy at the darkest parts and he'll have to touch up almost every one.

Here's a good one of me before the epic back piece progress. Nothing better than canoeing and camping.

Bonus points to anyone who can point out why the canoe looks "off".

You guys look like a good crowd.

Higgs' back piece was in my dream last night. My girlfriend was wearing it though. Spooky.

@Cork great back piece. Dana does some of my favorite Japanese work.

Thank you sir. I am flattered.

Looks great Fudo!

Damn @a1steaks you got your back and front killed recently.

Awesome. Looks great.

Saw the teaser on Instagram. I love that green!

Starting my full back down to back of knees in 3 weeks.

I have a pretty active job, that does include a fair amount of driving.

I've been a bit concerned for how my cheeks, and cheek ditch is gonna feel and heal?

Anyone out there who can share their experiences healing their ass cheeks?!

Cheeks have healed pretty well so far (I'm not fully covered yet), my problems have been the hamstrings with regards to sitting. Right about the spot where the edge of the chair/seat would be. I was told that those spots should be lotioned a little extra since they dry out quicker to prevent major scabs from forming. You might still get scabs but just do what you can.

Awesome! Thanks a lot for the share.

@Cork looking dope as hell! 5 hour + session...pretty tough brother. Honestly dredding next session of inner thigh and pure cheeks...not until January though. What is Dana's color theme for the project? Snake, etc...

Mike

Funny you should ask. 2 sessions ago when I asked what he was thinking about colors he just said "Cool ones." And that was a solid answer. All I know is that Kongoyasha will be dark blue like he is supposed to be. We haven't decided on anything else yet. I'm leaning toward pinkish lotuses, and his yellow snakes look baddass. I'm 100% open to his suggestions though.

Thanks guys.

@Ben87 The movement in that is incredible.

Ugh for whatever reason, insert excuse here, this was the most painful session I've had so far. I was the only one all day and all I could muster was ~5 hours. That being said, I am crazy stoked about the progress. Finished off one thigh's background and added some color!! Honestly, I think the color looks out of place just because I've been staring at black and grey so long, haha. Very excited for more progress. The next session will be to kill the background on the other thigh/lower back, then maybe hit some more fire. That's going to be a rough one if it's anything like today was. Dana has some pics on his Instagram, one of my ass, one of my back, but here is the full monty. And I just noticed that my ass has a hilariously straight shelf on the under cheek. That's weird looking, I can't take my eyes off it.

Also I'd like to give a serious thank you to the fundoshi for providing some level of decorum so that Dana didn't have to stare at my hole as he destroyed my inner butt cheek.

You may take note of the wind bar direction out of my ass. Dana referred to that as "The Wind of Doom". Good thing he has a sense of humor, even if he did lose his appetite.

Beer can be very inspiring. I don't want to derail the thread any further though.

@Cork Nadezhda 'Norma' Gnatyuk. She's awesome. I'm not even complaining about being stuck in Russia for at least a year, ha. I figured I might as well get my back piece done.. ))

Ha cool. Is going to extend down the ass? It looks pretty complete as is.