beez

Err slightly off-topic: Hey @else, whatcha doin in OK? It's my home state, was surprised to see it pop up in conversation! Are you familiar with any in the burgeoning tattoo scene in the state? I moved away a year before tattooing was legalized there and so don't know too much about the work coming out of the state. Re post tattoo blues: haven't read the first post in the thread, but I do generally get kinda down...mostly that the tattoo is finished and I wanna start something new! With that said, I did notice after this last tattoo session that I was kinda emotional for a few hours post tattoo...the last few times I was fine but a little nauseous directly after being tattooed. I come in from out of town to get tattooed, so the sittings are a little longer, and I think the adrenaline/endorphin rush and come down and whatever affect me pretty strongly after 5 or 6 hours! Buuut also this last one was only like 4.5 hours (and a totally awesome experience), so I was surprised at having any reaction at all, honestly. Edit: Just read the OP - YES, I have had those feelings! Sounds like what I experienced after my most recent tattoo...glad to know it's not just me :).

Depends on who's distributing it and if they have any theaters in NY. I self-distributed a movie, which means that we worked directly with groups of theaters (Laemmle etc), individual producer's reps who had relationships with individual theaters, and companies like Truly Indie who have relationships with a larger groups of theaters (e.g. Landmark) and will place your movie in those theaters. So if there is no NY theater in that chain - or no desirable demographic in the NY area - then there will be no screening! The first weekend is the most important weekend as far as getting it into other theaters the week after...theater owners look to see what the box office looks like the first weekend (and week) to see if they are going to keep it in the theaters for another week, or possibly to expand the opening to theaters that were not included in the initial run. It looks like they are being distributed digitally (which is awesome)...maybe none of their partner theaters in NY are set up for that? That could also be the case ;). Okay, my $.02 is now in. :) - - - Updated - - - Oy, no Seattle screenings either!! Wonder what demographic testing they did for that release pattern? Does anyone know if they premiered at festivals before this? Also has an impact on the release. (I will now go look into this and see what I can find...)

I like the idea of anniversary tattoos done by Freddy Corbin!! A great gift, IMHO. Awesome setting (SF), awesome tattooist (Freddy Corbin), perfect occasion (your one and only first anniversary, right?!?). Talk her into it!! :) :) :)

Will do @hogg! Yes, totally awesome people, I love getting tattooed here!

Diamond Club! Junii's adding a couple of karajishi to my peonies as we speak. Wooo! Man, I love it here. Happy, happy sigh! Go SF!

I LOVE this city!!! There is art everywhere! Lots of tattoos! Eye candy to the max! It is also sunny and I've been deep in the dark days of the Seattle winter and early spring, so maybe my sudden and intense (though hardly new) love for this place is influenced by the sun and warm(er) weather... Getting some work done at a coffee shop before a tattoo afternoon...today is a good day! <3 SF and you crazy people who live here. :)

Laura Satana at Exxxotic Tattoos if you can get in to see her. I had great success with Fred @ Tribal Act Tattoo in Paris recently. I would certainly recommend him and the other artists (based on the portfolios I saw)! Also check out the thread @gougetheeyes linked to. Def good info there!

I first started sneaking cigarettes when I was twelve, but didn't have enough access on the regular to be a full-time smoker 'til I was 15, and then I was off! Always a chain smoker, from the day I was able to get actual packs of cigarettes in my grimy teenage hands! Anyway, I was finally able to quit in Oct '11. I was dating a non-smoker and hiding how much I smoked was annoying/felt like high school/kinda dumb - a friend of mine had found an e-cig that she really liked, I tried it and decided to give it a go. Best decision ever! Having the e-cigarette was the ticket. I could still blow 'smoke' rings and pull it out and go for a smoke when my cigarette smoking friends went out. At some point I got really sick for 6 days and didn't smoke the e-cig et voila! Non-smoker. Lost the nicotine craving. @Tatanium2012 I keep an e-cig with me at all times. I haven't actually taken a puff of one for close to a year, but having it is helpful! I don't drink anymore (believe it or not, you can develop an allergy to alcohol!), but when I did I could never quit smoking, I tried! Those two go together! The minute I started sipping a drink I would start thinking/obsessing/searching for cigarettes. By the time I quit smoking I had already had to quit drinking - functioning at parties was still a new and curious thing for me. I found that my e-cig allowed me to hang out with the smokers like I was used to without having a smoke. Worked for me!! Congrats to all the non-smokers etc out there now! It was hard but I am really glad to be a non-smoker now.

@VCarter thank you kindly for the advice! As soon as I can get to the store I'll grab some Lysol spray and begin that process. Looks like it's going to be a sunny day here in Seattle, doesn't feel right being inside!

@VCarter do you have any suggestions for how I might disinfect my mattress? Early in the sickness the sheets came off and were thrown in the washer, and I have been too weak to put them back on the bed, strange as that might sound. So I've been passed out on the mattress with some fuzzy blankets or my couch with same fuzzy blankets. I can wash the sheets and blankets, of course, but how to tackle the mattress? I thought I was feeling better earlier today, but it appears I tried too much too soon and I am most certainly back in the sick and it is, again, most unpleasant.

Sarcasm? (hard to read via the internets sometimes!)

Omg...do we really want to ask?!?! - - - Updated - - - @Mark Bee - thanks! recovery is happening, slowly but surely. few steps forward, couple of steps back, that sort of thing.

Cyanide & Happiness

Hah, my mom tried to stab herself in the mouth with a glass of whiskey when she saw mine ;)

Not wrong, it's a tattoo forum after all! Thank you for your sympathy @gougetheeyes, it is much-appreciated. I've actually been wondering myself how it has affected my tattoo. In short: I think the bug has slowed down the healing a tiny bit, yes. The longer conversation: My last tattoos have been on my rear/side area and have healed extraordinarily well, so well that in a separate conversation I have wondered if it is because of my tattoo artist, the pre-tattoo skin prep I did, the general condition of my skin, or possibly the type of machine she was using. Those rather large tattoos healed without any itching, flaking or peeling - craziest (awesome) thing I ever saw. Well, to be fair there was very minimal flaking - small itty bitty tiny flakes that i barely noticed, just like having a little bit of dry skin. This latest tattoo is on my left arm, right on and above the elbow and ditch - so an area that gets more exposure and movement than my rear/side (um I'm too sick for the jokes that belong in this parentheses right now, but I think I walked right into a few ;)). This tattoo has been super flaky and incredibly itchy. Big ol' flakes just hanging off my skin! I had been prepping the area for a few weeks, but the skin is decidedly less smooth and untouched than on my side, so...is it the initial condition of the skin, the gentle or heavy hand of the tattoo artist, the type of machine being used, or my health as a whole? I think all of these things contribute to how a tattoo heals, but in this case I am not sure which part has contributed to what. My body was already a little tired and stressed from intercontinental travel, and the skin is different in this area than around my never-sees-the-sun behind, so... I'm ready for the itchy/flaky stage to be over. I've been spoiled by how well the last tattoos healed! - - - Updated - - - Oh gosh, good luck to you @chrisnoluck! That sounds like exactly what I went through/am going through. There's a definite outbreak in the states right now, so likely what you had. I couldn't keep pain relievers (or water or anything) down for several days, but have just been able to start taking ibuprofen again, and it is a godsend. I hope your body is up to being tattooed after all of this! I actually had a sick-dream where I was at my regular tattoo parlor and then walked out into the parlor shirtless (???) and they told me that I was obviously still sick and couldn't be tattooed, and I woke up very confused as to where I was and why I had no shirt on and did I miss a tattoo appointment? and then I puked. so. there was that. My doc said to reintroduce food with the BRAT diet - Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast, so you may try those things to help fortify yourself for getting tattooed and healing in general! I eat a grain free diet normally, which is to say no rice or toast, and unfortunately I did not take that into account when I listened to my doc and it has caused a bit of tummy upset for me - not the same upset from a few days ago, but enough that it's keeping me wrapped up in a blanket and on my couch. The only reason I am even on the comp right now is because i have a writing deadline! And I'm totally procrastinating by writing needlessly long posts and responses here...ughz. Stopping now. Back to bike tire buying guide (gotta pay the bills you know).

Soo as some of you may have seen from an earlier post, I just made a quick trip to Paris. I came home with a new tattoo from Fred at Tribal Act Tattoo (solid guy! thumbs up for the work, bedside manner et al!) and also a nasty case of norovirus that I picked up somewhere between duty free in gay Paree and my apartment on the last leg of my trip. For those unfamiliar with this lovely little bug it includes simultaneous explosions from both ends, violent chills, and horribly achey joints and muscles (the chills and aches hit me quite hard, anyway) from the very surprising moment it starts to the blessed moment that it ends. It's been a helluva a few days, I can say that, and I'm just now peeking my head over on the other side of it. By 'peeking' I mean desperately clawing my way up a smooth and slippery surface that does not want to give way. Yuck! I am for sure on the better end of it, though, no more pukey, just very weak and still quite unsettled. I hear over in the UK and Europe it's called "winter vomiting virus" - anyone have any experience with this? Am I alone in my (surprisingly intense for such a short time period) suffering? It's literally like it went from 0-60 with no warning whatsover, leaving my weak and shattered (and apparently very melodramatic this morning) body to pick up the pieces. Oy!! Anyway - if you haven't already heard of this, look out for it this winter! It is highly contagious and is apparently going around worldwide at the moment. I had not heard of this, nor was I aware of the outbreak, before it gifted me with its shining, glorious presence late Monday night. I'll post pics of the new tattoo when I am strong enough to hold a camera up again. Ack.

This is largely how I feel about tattoos at all times! hahaha ;)

My first tattoos were little tiny pieces of flash - a kanji symbol (i know, i know. it was 2000! also i was underage and using a fake id...) and a little black flower on my back. My mom saw the flower through a mirror when I was changing, and then I inadvertently showed her my hip forgetting it was there. Fast forward 7 years, and I hid my large forearm piece (first 'real' tattoo) from my family for several years - and then they invited me to a beach vacation! So I 'fessed up before they bought the tickets (was a little tiny chance of being shunned by my family...so I didn't want them to go to the expense of a the ticket if that was the case) . I have an AWESOME stepdad who is so accepting and wonderful! prob would not be a member of my family if he weren't in it. Both my mother and little sister get kinda sad when I show 'em my new work...but when their friends are around it's "hey, come here, show [xyz] your tattoos!" hehehe.

I would love to pop over to Frith Street, but I am only in town for a few short days to see my sister, and unfortunately our schedule does not allow it! It is on my list and I will absolutely get there at some point - just not this trip. :) I scored an appointment with Fred at Tribal Act tattoo for tomorrow!!! :) :) :) Your suggestions have been aces so far - thanks again! - - - Updated - - - I haven't heard of him - I'm glad to have a new artist to learn about though! Thanks @MoistTowelette! Googled it and it looks like the proper spelling is: stephane chaudesaigues. :)

Hello from Seattle, Kahlan! LOVE the belly dancer. Can't wait to see it all finished. Welcome to LST!

Wow, that list looks super solid! Thanks @kylegrey :) Now let's all keep our fingers crossed. Tin-tin and Exxxotic tattoos are already out, they are booked solid. Let's see what I come up with next :)

I have really enjoyed your contributions on LST, please let me (and all of us!) know when/if that blog (or other tattoo related writing project, eh?) gets started. I am writer too, I'm also looking for a more constructive, informative and unique way of adding to the dialogue - end story: i get where you're comin' from ;).

Tin-tin was the first person I emailed! They are all booked up! My sister lives here, so next time I actually plan a trip I will plan ahead, with plenty of notice, and get some damn good tattooing. Thanks Brock! I remember you mentioned you were thinking of starting a blog - how's that going? (off topic sorry!)