SeeSea

@mattwallace24 - that's a tough haul, but driving and sitting! Make sure to post pictures!

We had to let Molly go yesterday. The cancer just started to take her down. The surgery gave us a little more time and I had a couple good days spoiling her rotten, but with only probably weeks to live with decreasing QoL, we let her go before the pain got too bad for her. She had good meds and had good parts to every day, but it was hard to accept that she would never feel any better than she did at that point. And unbelievably hard yesterday morning when she rallied and trotted around like a 10 year old, eating up a storm. But we let her go at home. I had promised her that she'd never have to get in that horrible pet carrier again. Maybe people don't understand caring for a pet and how much a pet becomes an integrated part of your life. And now it's just a gaping hole. I read a lot online yesterday about euthanasia and when the time is right and grieving for pets, when we were hanging out and she was curled sleeping under my arm. I found this very helpful suggestion about pet memorials below. I'm going to visit family this fall, and I'm going to call SoG and see about getting a spot.

@TrixieFaux - awesome! This one is really special - I love how the snake and cat look at each other. How long did the entire session take?

@Colored Guy - i'm sorry to hear your news. It's a testament to her how many people came to the memorial. I hope that gives you some peace.

Nah, don't have an underwater case for my phone yet. But we're leaving for Utila on Saturday!

I'm seesealisa - random trail running pics, cats, etc.

Howdy. Looks pretty cool. 1) I didn't really notice it - since it's on your spine, it looks (to me) just due to the curvature of your body. 2) Didn't notice. Don't bother. Sometimes things that are too symmetrical don't look real. The only thing I would offer is the lack of contrast/definition in the face/beard/head piece. Perhaps making it more obvious that the hair and beard are darker and are separate from his face, or just that there is a clear delineation between the two. But I understand there are different stylized ways of doing this symbol, so my opinion isn't worth anything. And I wouldn't even put this out there, except that you're asking and you're already going back and this may be something easy if you thought it fit with your vision of the piece. But don't obsess over it. Just get more. :)

But daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa now!

There is already action afoot after the Mike Tyson tattoo thing, and professional sports players are being asked to address this before they get a tattoo. Tattooers want to claim that the work is being displayed during games without their recognition, with some thought that the player is somehow making money from it. But in the case below, I have to agree with the artist with regard to the character waking up with a replica of Tyson's tattoo: Tattoo artists are asserting their copyright claims - - - Updated - - - There is no reason you can't ask the contract to be revised to have assigned to yourself some degree of limited use license while the tattooer retains ownership of the copyright. This could specifically address the Tyson-like issues and specifically allow a person wearing the tattoo to go about their daily life without threat of future lawsuit if they happen to choose to do something that reveals the tattoo to an extended audience, god forbid, in the course of their making money doing something that has nothing to do with the tattoo. This is a scary specter. Here's a wonderful gray area - I model in a swimsuit and the photos clearly show my back tattoo. Can my tattooer claim a cut? If it's in a tattoo magazine and I get paid, perhaps he's got a claim. I dunno. At a minimum he should get written credit. If it's in Sports Illustrated, I would think not. Although if I could actually get into Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, I'd gladly give him credit and a cut!!!

I'm new to the tattoo scene, but this strikes me as utter horse shit. I would turn around from a tattooer who asked me to do this. I consider this a collaboration - my reference work and his design. I am currently honoring my tattooer's request that I don't tag him in any in-progress photos I post and I have no problem with this. But this notion that you don't actually "own" your tattoos is ridiculous. This isn't exactly a pen-and-ink drawing laid down on some high quality paper you randomly purchased off the internet. If he is talking about copyright, that's a funny issue. He doesn't have to ask you to sign anything in order to claim the work is copyrighted. My artist can do that right now. Technically in some cases he could claim to hold the copyright for the original work, but he can't sue you unless he's registered it with the Copyright Office (U.S.). It's also very doubtful that your presenting the work would be considered infringing on his copyright because you aren't doing it for profit, and displaying the work doesn't degrade the value of the work itself. (Except if you're displaying it in excessive sunlight without sun protection...now that's an interesting thought...). This isn't like signing away a copyright to get an article published in a journal for example, because such a journal will often restrict access to the article in order to make money from it (i.e., subscription only or per-article purchase). Without owning copyright, they can't turn a profit. As much as I hate that, we end up having to do that. Depending on how a contract is worded, he could claim that you don't have the right to take off your shirt in public and display the tattoo at all. Or ever display the tattoo on the internet. He should be more worried about another tattooer stealing it, not targeting you, unless you planned to sell the design to someone else - which is legit to request that you don't do. It's a screwy world. Don't sign any contracts without asking some really serious questions first.

My pretty Molly took a turn for the worse and was back in the hospital yesterday. She is home now, with a DX of the worst pancreatic carcinoma around. We'll have to say goodbye soon, and taking it day by day, but we only have a few days left. This is the worse part of being owned by a pet. Letting them go when they need to, rather than when we are ready to.

@TrixieFaux - oh poor kitty! I am glad he is ok - we have wire-chewers too, but nothing so terrible. I bet every outlet in your house is perfect now!

Well, the concern is clothing sticking to the new tattoo, and getting all gummed up in the healing process. The goal is to keep clothing off it as long as possible. If you get "stuck" to clothing, don't pull it off, get in the shower (or run under water) until the clothing releases from the tattoo. If you can wear clothing and keep it off the tattoo, or keep pulling it away so that it doesn't stick, then go with that. Otherwise, do whatever you can to keep it from sticking. I sleep without a shirt (back tattoo) as long as possible and get creative with work shirts and bras. Definitely harder in the summer when I can't hide behind a loose sweater!!! Not sure that answered your concern...

Maybe some kind of tattoo-BMI. That would put those without any tattoos in the "anorexic" end of the scale :-)

Boy needs to plan ahead. But hey, he should fit in around here because he's got Ok, so that was a waste of 10 minutes of my life.

@Zillah - no!!! That stinks.

Thank you @Fala, @Pugilist, @Euchlid, @MadeIndelible, @Breakme - Yesterday was a tough day - she was pretty knocked out. I had hard food and 6 cans of wet food to tempt her. Tuna juice out of the can got 2 paws up. It just sucks seeing her dragging herself to the litterbox, but she was a *good girl* in the potty department. This morning she looks noticeably better - some brighter eyes, and she was sitting by the window. Yay kitteh!

This has real potential as a .sig.

...so you made go look at some Yelp reviews of local shops around me. One in particular looks like the ratings were a concerted effort to get 5 stars. Most of them talk about 1) it's clean 2) people are nice 3) they came around and asked if anyone wanted coffee, 4) the art deco is cool (unlike the "shady parlors in NYC") and 5) everyone is very professional. Very little about the actual tattoos. This is in a new area and clearly caters to those who are very afraid to step outside their comfort zone. Nothing wrong with that, but the reviews always seem to be about the shop rather than the tattoo. What also screws up the ratings are the drama queens who go in for piercings - "XYZ was very rude and spoke to me in an arrogant tone." Too bad there isn't an outlet to review particular tattooers and leave the shop and drama out of it.

Hi @Breakme and @Pugilist - thank you for asking :) She came home today - she got through the surgery just fine yesterday and was a model patient - kicked butt for a little old lady. She's upstairs passed out after a good supper. They removed a liver mass but she had a big mass right in the middle of her pancreas. They got a lot of it which will help with her nausea and barfing discomfort - it was really pressing on her stomach, but whatever it is, it will grow back. It is too invasive. They also found a shadow in her chest on the X-rays. Test results for the two masses on Monday, sigh, but I think we all know where this is going. We just hope it's gonna go there slowly and that we can keep her a happy kitty for all that time. I think about her being a monmon kitty on me somewhere. She has the perfect coloring for a koi.

Yeah, yours has the sultry. The other chick looks zoned out or ready to sneeze. Any thought to contact them and ask WTF, even if you aren't upset?

10 days out of a rough session, more scabby than usual, and almost no itching. So bizarre. Last session was 5 inches away and I was massively itchy for about 3 weeks. Just when you think there is a "normal" ...

My bad. I misread your question. Train on a railroad track? Monorail cat?

Thank you @TrixieFaux, @ironchef, @scubaron. Tests were inconclusive. We're taking her for emergency surgery in the morning. I have to drive 4 hours to get home tonight. So please keep her in your little animal prayers - she's mommy's little girl.

She's happy - everyone's happy. Don't bring it up unless she does any sort of wondering about how it might be different, then you could offer some thoughts, but not criticisms. If she ever says something along the lines of $$ and gives you any idea she might think less of it because of $$ or wished it was more/different because of trying to save $$, you could always say if she wants it *enhanced* you'd help her with that (if that's the case!) So what's your first tattoo going to be?