No kidding.
There was a few times I thought about tapping out.
A 5.5 hour hand poked (tebori) tattoo kicked my ass yesterday,
and didn't feel too much better today.
Bunshin Horitoshi was awesome, though.
He met us at the train station,
and we walked to his studio together.
He let Alex and Meryl take a gazillion photos while I tried not to cry.
Here's a fish eye lens shot that Alex took,
and a link to a few other ones he took here.
Here's the torture sticks.
He pushes them into the skin really quickly,
and they make a popping sound as they exit the skin each time.
So gross.
But Horitoshi was really fast,
and otherwise super gentle.
Here's the finished tattoo.
(I stole the photo from his website)
It's a kirin, a mythical (vegetarian) giraffe creature who spits fire.
I had told Horitoshi ahead of time to tattoo whatever he wanted in that spot,
and that's what he chose.
It fits in there perfectly, and looks awesome.
I'm excited to drop my pants every day to show everyone when I return.
After the tattoo, Meryl and I took him out to Indian food,
and he gave us lots of pointers for the rest of our stay.
I'll be seeing Horitoshi again at the Philly Tattoo Convention,
which is exciting,
and I'm considering future visits to Japan.
(maybe even to work)
During the tattoo, Alex had to head back to Nagoya.
We really enjoyed having him come visit us,
and he couldn't possibly have been more helpful or awesome.
He even scored us last minute tickets to the Ghibli Museum,
which was a pretty incredible place.
Alex posted some other photos from our few days together here.
