So we're home now after a weekend of tattoo getting and hanging out in the Poconos. I promised Mike I wouldn't blog about certain aspects of his tattoo experience so you only get photos to look at (he's fine of course):

Before:


After:It took about 2.5 hours for Mike to get this done. It's very bright. I took the photo without the flash since it just bounced off the A&D ointment. But I assure you, this photo does it no justice.

As for my session, well, I managed to piss Larry off pretty much instantly and he needed a little time to switch gears after going crazy with Mike's forearm. Basically Larry told me all my ideas were stupid and I agreed with him and told him to do what he thought would look best then he got annoyed I wasn't prepared but I reminded him that he never does what I want anyway and that's why I saved him the trouble by not coming prepared and around and around we went. He spent a bit of time reacquainting himself with my arm and finally said the problem is that he has honed his style in the two years since I've been to him and then he scolded me for waiting two years to get work done. He said in order for him to figure out what the hell he was gonna do he first needed to clean up some of his previous work.

This is the amazing thing about Larry. He'll only do what he thinks will look best. His attitude is (and we heard this today when he told our friend Rudy) if you want something stupid or ugly you can get drunk and get it done in Wildwood, NJ. Larry's an artist and he won't put his name on anything he doesn't approve of. This is why he doesn't work in a shop. He'd get in too much trouble for turning people away for "being gay" or "being stupid". Now he gets to do "consultant" work at shops and only the best jobs come his way. He's the showcase or guest artist rather. Pretty cool. But I think it's given him a pretty large ego.

So anyway Larry started with a heavy outline of the angel and sunflower. Then he started the sky. We spent a lot of time discussing color and I confessed I didn't really like the pink rays and wanted more of a burgundy color. The three rays you see that are blue were done three different ways. He wants me to let them heal and then when I come back (September 14) we'll (more like he'll) decide which method we like best. I can't tell the difference yet.

Before:

After:
Before:
After:
As you can see I am completely and utterly incomplete. I'm not used to that one bit. Hence the September appointment. Once the sky heals Larry asked me to fill in the upper rays with a yellow highlighter and let him know what I think. I asked for miniature silhouettes of birds flying through the sky and was amazed when Larry didn't give me shit and actually agreed it would look alright.

I still have a lot of work to get done and admit I was mildly disappointed by how little I feel I got accomplished. I know we spent a lot of time under discussion but I'm used to four plus hour appointments and this one ran about 2.5. But you don't question Larry so oh well. But I do really like the way the angel pops now due to the thicker outline and I do like the slight Japanese-ish thing that's cropping up on my arm. You'll see he also added the blue around my sunflower. I rather he didn't since now I have to do that to the sunflower on my left arm so they continue to match.

I don't know what we'll do first in September but I have my whole underam to finish, the pink rays all need their color change and the aky has to be finished up. I'm thinking I need four more appointments. Then I am done. Done done done done. I honestly don't know right now If I'll do anything else after finishing up my right arm and touching up my left.

I really do like what he did with the sky though and I have a feeling a bit more color will end up in there. It must sound crazy that I don't really know too much about the end result but it's in Larry's head so I just go with it.