Don't follow the shadows

Number of hours for this session: 3
Total number of hours tattooed so far: 22.5

Friday night’s session went a lot better than the last one. I was the only one there getting tattooed, and Lane was the only artist working, so he played Vader and Melechesh the whole time. \m/ I don’t know why, but I hate listening to soft music while getting tattooed, so this session was particularly enjoyable. The last hour wasn’t so easy, since the lower back hurts so fucking much and part of it was over my tailbone, making my whole pelvis vibrate. At least the machine he used for the majority of the session was the one that doesn’t hurt as much, so it was still better than last time.

( Two possibly NSFW photos – bare back )

The wings are done! They’ll look a little less awkward once they are healed and the rest is colored in. Right now they're a little fuzzy and dark because they are starting to scab over, but I love how he shaded them. They have a lot of dimension and the blue and green-grays will help unify them with the rest of the body.

Number of hours for this session: 3.5
Total number of hours tattooed so far: 17.5

As previously mentioned, I got tattooed again yesterday. The outline is now finished and the color will be started this Saturday.

Most of the gray outlines on my faded, so Lane had to redo the stenciling, which meant…more rubbing alcohol. The pain for the first hour was nearly unbearable, but the following hour was filled with the best high I’ve ever had from the endorphin rush, and I was able to relax my body as he was using a different needle. The last hour and a half got progressively worse, and at the end, I was shaking. But it’s done! Unfortunately, I didn’t know that clenching your muscles can irritate the sciatic nerve, so I’ve been experiencing shooting pain from my tailbone down the back of my leg since then. Getting tattooed over the tailbone, hipbone, and the bottom of the buttock was also quite painful. Enough bitching, onto the good stuff!

( Cut for (censored) crack: 2 large NSFW photos )

So, it’s been a week since classes have started. Surprisingly, everything academic-wise is going well. I like my Digital Art instructors much better and their curriculums are not as involved, so I’ll be able to get through this semester without dropping a class. I’ll be glad when I’m finished with the Pre-Art program and get those General Education credit required classes out of the way.

Living in Sandburg is another story. I never thought I’d say this, but I miss my old suitemates from last year. Like I said, it’s only been a week, and here is a taste of what has materialized thus far:

• Every year, a suitemate has to have a loud, obnoxious, gay friend that stays for hours and hours and won’t shut up. It never fails.
• If you open the door once, see someone in the bathroom stall and the shower running, why would you open the door again five minutes later to ask if anyone’s in there when you should clearly be able to hear the shower running?
• The one who’s a total ghetto-ass hood rat talks freely about how she thought my backpiece was a rash. What a dumbass. There are other tattoos out there besides the tacky black and gray airbrushed graffiti-esque memorial script stamped into your skin by some scratcher.
• Being awakened by a blast of “A Whole New World” half an hour before my alarm is supposed to go off from the next room, and they don’t even have the decency to keep the door closed.
• The aforementioned classiest one of the bunch leaving the radio blasting the filth that spews forth from Kiss FM when she’s not in her room.
• Another one who was in the shower for over forty-five minutes when I was supposed to clean it before my tattoo appointment. (I ended up leaving with her still in the shower and was still late.)
• The two white small-town ones screaming like a bunch of idiots during the Packer game. This is why women still don’t have equal rights in this country. You sound like a bunch of fucking retards screaming shrilly at the television for the players to “go”. I thought we were smarter than this, but then again I tend to overestimate the abilities of my own gender.
• It's like there's a block party going on below my room for twenty hours out of the day. There are several tables set up where a bunch of drunk, loud idiots like to yell nonsense with their neanderthal-esque friends. They also like to start screaming matches between people of various floors in all four towers, which is actually more entertaining than annoying. However, listening to some guy yell, "Blueberry! Blueberry!! Blueberry!!!" at the top of his lungs at 3:30 AM isn't so much fun.

The one good thing is that the bathroom is still clean, and we have a weekly cleaning schedule, although I have a feeling two of them will refuse to clean up after “white bitches” because they bring up racism everyday. And I’m the one being accused when my ancestors didn’t even immigrate to this country until after slavery was abolished and none of them settled in the South. What a joke. They’re the ones who are being racist, and it’s only fair that if I clean up after you one week, you do the same for one week. It’s only the fucking bathroom. ...Not to mention that the bookshelf is still in the hall, which is a great source of annoyance to me when I'm trying to get through with a messenger bag and a portfolio and is probably a fire hazard. *facepalm*

I think it's a good time to use this comic.

In lighter news, now that I’m over the shock and pain of the large addition to my back, I thought I’d mention that I’m very happy with the progress. It’s kind of hard to judge what the end product will look like, since Lane just finished the drawing before he tattooed the outline on me, but the peacock has a rather cute face. I also took a vote, and decided to name him Fritz. The outline is in gray right now, so before more permanent marks are made, Lane will probably have the drawing more developed so I can get a better idea and work with him on anything I may not like. On Saturday, I had my belated birthday dinner with Catherine at Olive Garden followed by white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, and she came over to my house afterward to hang out. She got me a photo album disguised as a clutch that was filled with random inside-joke related pictures of us and Joe hanging out, and a shirt and scarf from The Gap. As for Sunday, I was in a mad rush to finish all my homework, and ended up hastily packing and forget to pack underwear! I have one spare pair here and don’t have the time nor energy to take the bus downtown to buy new ones, so I’ve resorted to hand washing them. I can’t use the washing machines here because you have to have money in a special account. Lame.