I'm at the point with tattooing where I have a lot more ideas than I can ever use, so I have to prioritize my favorites, commit to a lot of coverage, and have a plan. I was at Burial Tattoo yesterday working with Gage on my right shoulder when the next few sessions came together in my mind. First, I consulted with him about something I'd like to do to on my left just below the ribs, and I have a couple of ideas for right above that with Daniel at Foundation, who hasn't tattooed me yet.

When I left Burial yesterday I made a stop at Lion's Paw to finally book two hours with Sarah so she can finish up the band around my right bicep. I need that done before Gage can resume work on my shoulder because he's going to fill in all the remaining space and extend the sky in the design to extend all the way behind other things nearby. Jimmy was also there, and I'd texted him to ask if he had time to consult about the right side of my chest soon, so we did that. He took a photo of my chest so he can plan it out. It's going to be big so I'm not sure exactly how soon we'll really dive in, but I said I'd like to do the outline as soon as we can so I can't change my mind and won't inadvertently grab any portion of the space.

I'm more concscientious about planning now because the very tattoo we worked on yesterday ended up taking part of the space from something I had planned for a gap next to it and now I'm not sure I'll be able to do that. It's an idea I previously discussed with Jimmy and he even has a rough trace of the spot, so we can make that determination when we line in the chest piece.

I can't remember if I talked here about the saga with my right nipple piercing. Long story short-ish, when I was in college, I had them both pierced and ended up creating the first website for the shop where I got all my piercings done. In exchange for that, the owner's brother made me an incredible pair of 4ga rings for them out of titanium, along with a very unique pair of smaller pieces to wear initially that wouldn't move around as much so the stretch could heal easier. Basiclly each was a shorter piece of the same wire bent over and he removed a bit of material from the opposing sides so a bead could pop in and close it. Really quite clever.

It was stupid of me to take those piercings out after I graduated from college in 1997, and ten years after that I decided to pierce them again and was much more aggressive. The piercer's largest needs were 6ga so we used those and immediately stretched to 4ga and used those custom pieces. My left nipple has been pierced ever since, and I've tried to do the right one five or six times since then but it's rejected every attempt. I decided less than a year ago that we would try one final time but would use a dermal punch rather than a needle so it would immediately be the gauge we were after and would also remove as much of the old scar tissue as possible. Unfortunately, it still rejected, but Vaella the apprentice piercer had an interesting point: maybe now that it's healed from that attempt, a new piercing might finally succeed. The reason I'm mentioning all of this is that the big chest tattoo I'm planning will in all likelihood cover that nipple, so while I was considering getting it pierced soon since I'm planning multiple tattoos in succession, it's best to wait now because of the tattoo. I'm not thrilled with the idea of tattooing over it, but Garrett's full chest is done and it looks way better since they included his nipples in the design rather than leaving cutouts around them.

And of course there's still the issue of my right leg, which is fully claimed because it'll be totally covered in stuff from TRON. It's been far too long since I had a session wtth Tyler for that. I need to pick an image of Bruce Boxleitner for the back of my thigh and from there the rest will be covered in scenery. I kinda want to start with some of the scenery on my lower leg since it's more visible. But that's a plan for another day.

Shortly after I got the leather daddy worm tattoo from Kayla Conner's flash, I decided I'd also get a capybara in leather. She took it in a Western direction when she drew him up, and that was fine with me because country bars and leather bars go hand in hand and can sometimes even be found in the same building. One change I asked for was what he's holding; she drew him with a gun and I don't like guns, so I asked for a martini instead.



Kayla works at Foundation Body Arts, the shop we go to for piercings and sometimes tattoos. Garrett recently made them an awesome new website!