Semi-Charmed Life

Getting Inked

After I was done sitting on the chair for my first tattoo, I didn't know if I ever wanted any more tattoos ever again. That shit fucking hurt! People say the back area is not really supposed to hurt that much but I really don't know what the heck they're talking about because I was in agony!

The first hour went by relatively okay. It hurt but it was generally tolerable. Then Loic (the artist) took a break for about 20 minutes. I didn't know if it was because the break or not, but it just started sucking. I kept making retarded grimacing faces and he even asked me if I wanted the "pussy spray," which was some type of painkiller liquid spray. I said no the first few times but as the session went on, when he asked me again I was like fuck yes pour that shit on.

So yeah, I'm a bitch when it comes to pain. I mean I was able to sit there quietly and remained relatively still, but I was dying. If you saw my face you would think the guy was sawing off a limb or something. It hurt that much.

After it was all over, I was so relieved and thought it came out pretty well. Then I thought to myself: What the hell was I thinking, of planning out all these things I wanted to get after this? I'm done!

Well maybe I'm a sucker for pain because a few weeks ago I started to think about what I want for my second one.

I always thought angels were pretty cool but it's hard to do right on a guy. I think it makes men look more effeminate. But one image I had in mind was . . . wait for it . . . from Magic: The Gathering.

It was something I liked a lot in junior high and all through high school. One of the colors I used was white and one card in particular was one of my favorites:

Besides being a reasonably mana-efficient flying badass, her best quality is that she it both an attacker and a defender. Visually speaking, I like how valiant she looks and the glory and majesty she portrays.

My initial idea was to have an artist do an interpretation of that image.

Then I found another image of her fighting a Hypnotic Spectre and I thought holy shit, this is perfect!

Badass drawing and I like the good versus evil depiction. The best part is that good is always going to win because everybody knows a Serra is stronger than a Hypnotic Spectre.

But I've been having a lot of difficulty finding an artist to do that. Going through their portfolios, I haven't really fell in love with any artist. All the artists that I like are not in New York!

Yesterday though, I had another idea for a tattoo. I believe that knowledge is power. That the more you learn, the better you are. Everything is a learning experience and we should be doing our best to just acquire as much knowledge as possible. Everything I do aspires to this idea. Or at least I try to.

I wish I was a good artist so I could sketch it out but the best I can do is verbalize as best I can.

I want a book, or maybe books, with their pages open and the sentences are being lifted off the pages. The sentences are forming a figure of Perseus holding Medusa's head in one hand.

This isn't the exact image I want to use but it gives more or less a good idea:

Well, he won't be having his penis showing or anything, but you can look up more images of him. It's a pretty famous depiction of Perseus.You can read up on him here if you don't know much about him. He's a badass.

I want the image of him to be partially composed of a lot of text and sentences.

The book represents knowledge and and the letters and words forming Perseus represent. If he can throw this in there, I'd be really happy. This is the quote I want to use:

“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.”

I thought that the artist that worked on my first tattoo would be great for this piece so I impulsively booked an appointment with him for May of next year. He's flying in from France in May and will be a guest artist at Tattoo Culture.

I'm not DEFINITE on this particular design but it's the direction I'm heading in right now.

Wow this post was longer than I wanted it to be!