bluegargantua

...the book Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed by Carl Zimmer. Page after page of scientific tattoos covering every arena of knowledge. There's some really beautiful stuff in there.

later
Tom

Hey,

Guess who spent six hours (SIX HOURS!) under the needle?

Yeah.

On the upside, it's gorgeous (pictures once it heals up).

On the downside....ow.

later
Tom

Hi,

So a few weeks ago I got a tattoo on my leg. Lots of you have seen it, some of you still haven't. The lovely and talented coraline was kind enough to take a few photos of the work-in-progress and I'm happy to present them to you.

( pics behind the cut )

Overall, I'm really happy and can't wait to be finished with the coloring.

later
Tom

Hi,

My tattoo is currently at the crusty healing stage so any photos will be less than thrilling. I'll post them as soon as it looks presentable. If you see me in person, I'm happy to show it off.

In the meantime, the short version is: I got a mesoamerican-style earth serpent coiled about my lower left leg. It's just spare outlines work right now but, like the fire cats on my right leg, will get a serious color fill in a few months.

later
Tom

Hey,

As I mentioned last week, I got my taotie tattoo colored in.

( pictures behind the cut )

The tattoo isn't fully healed yet (still a few crusty spots), but it's pretty much good to go. I really like the molten look, the oranges have really come out a lot better than it first looked. The whole process took around 3.5 hours to finish. The artist and I decided that the best way to do it was to put down the red, then go back and do the orange, then go back and do the yellow and then finish up with the eyes. That was absolutely the right way to do it (as opposed to completely coloring in one section and then moving to another one). True, each time he went back over an area it hurt a little bit more, but there was less area to color in each time. He really flew over the piece.

Still...that last half hour was pretty agonizing.

But it's all over with and I'm really happy with it.

later
Tom

*drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive*
*sleep sleep sleep*
ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow OW F@$KING OW!!
ahhh
*pet pet pet*
*sleep sleep sleep*
new shinys!
*drive drive drive drive drive drive drive drive*

*post*
Tom

ps. Pictures will be forthcoming. Also, I'll be at Diesel.

Right.

So as promised...the pictures:

( sizeable pics behind the cut )

The design is inspired by taotie motifs found on Shang Dynasty ritual bronzes. These designs were two stylized animal figures in profile, facing each other so that where their heads touched together, it formed a single animal mask. In this case, it's a pair of tigers. Viewed head-on it can be difficult to discern (a number of people thought it was a dragon head), but if you look at the side pictures on my leg, you can see each individual tiger.

Yeah, so this took 3 hours to do and passed over shin bones and Achilles tendon. I'm afraid I wasn't a very good canvas for this, but my artist was very patient and we had a couple people holding me down so in the end it came off really well. It's still a little sore and red, but seems to be healing up nicely.

The only downside is that it's not done yet. I've still got to fill it in with color. Luckily, when you do fill work, there are multiple needles so it goes faster and the discomfort is spread out over a (slightly) wider area. But that's a few months away still.

later
Tom

Yes. Yes it did.

Ow.

Pictures soonish.

Ow.
Tom