Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

The arm is feeling a little itchy, though not at a level where it's difficult not to scratch—this is ten days after I got the tattoo, which feels like a long time. I knew that healing takes longer at my age than it did 15? years ago, when I got that cardinal the first time, but I didn't expect this big a difference. The loose/floppy-sleeved shirts I get from Deva have been a big help, because they are long sleeved but don't rub against the healing tattoo, unlike my other long-sleeved shirts.

Other than that, when I looked at the really large photo the artist sent me I was worrying "oh, no, there are huge white streaks I didn't want" but when I look at my actual arm I think it's going to be fine. I hope so: the slowness of this, and how long it was tender/sore, has me disinclined to get more tattooing done now, maybe ever.

I know the common advice to people considering being tattooed is "take your time, be sure of what you want," but there may be physiological reasons not to wait for too many years. And of course your body will vary.

The next time you want tattoo work, don't get it done shortly before traveling.

That goes double if you are going to visit a sweetie, or if it's winter.

Also, you're something like 15 years older when you got that cardinal done the first time, and don't heal as fast.

That said, what would have been ideal is several days at home, in which it doesn't matter if I don't sleep well. That's not an easy order to fill—though I could probably have managed it by waiting until next week.

Also, between our respective energy levels and the weather, we were already planning mostly on cozy time at home, rather than going out for much besides dinners.

I got my cardinal tattoo redone today, at the place that took care of my ear piercing/missing bead a couple of weeks ago. I may post a photo in a bit, because it's at the especially shiny/colorful stage right now (possibly one of the ones that Val, the tattoo artist, took when he was done tattooing me). When he showed me what he thought was final, I decided there was too much white in there, and not enough red, and got him to add some more red and make the white area smaller. (It's a cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis; see page 268 of the Peterson guide to birds of Eastern North America.) Then I bought chocolate, and coffee beans for cattitude and came home.

Before getting re-tattooed, I spent some time looking for pants. adrian_turtle assures me that time spent eliminating possibilities or stores is not wasted; this makes some sense, but I am still having trouble finding suitably warm clothes. Macy's had nothing worth trying on. JC Penney had one pair of pants like the ones I walked in there wearing (out of a large stack, including two others allegedly the same size and style but in different colors. Being in Midtown did get me a salad for lunch—I've been a little short on vegetables of late—and I picked up a library book, so I can't call it wasted.

(The userpic is the previous version of the tattoo.)

juliansinger offered to pick a letter for anyone who asked, and then we're supposed to pick ten things that start with that letter, and write about them and what they mean to us.

She gave me T. I started by listing some things, and then selected from them based on what I felt ready to write about. This proved trickier than I thought it would be (lots of T's in that sentence, but not ones I want to use) and the results may be more free-associative than was being asked for.( cut because it got quite long )

I had Craig stop after he'd finished doing the outlining on the tattoo, and take a couple of photos using cattitude's digital camera. Mostly for my own records, because while there will be plenty of opportunities to take more photos of the completed tattoo, this was the only chance to get a picture of just the outlines.

( cut-tagged to save bandwidth )

I think this is progress: I just reached for my belly, and caught myself in time to say "don't scratch" (and not scratch). I say "I think" because, through my clothes, I'm not sure if that was the fish or a spot just below it.

I hadn't counted on the area still feeling tender two days later, nor on that tenderness being particularly noticeable whenever I use those muscles in a significant way, such as walking. I'll consider the gym tomorrow, depending how it feels. (More precisely, I'll consider whether it's worth even packing gym clothes.)

Here's the coelacanth, cut-tagged for your convenience ( view more )

I have the coelacanth tattoo.

It is very cool--and that's not just the endorphins talking, the artist and his business partner were saying cool things about it, and he was being enthusiastic while he inked it. There's one more color than I expected: just a bit of orange.

He also said I took it very well: it's on a sensitive spot, and hurt rather more than the previous three.

Afterwards, roadnotes and I walked up to La Lanterna and sat in the garden with tea and sweets and talked. Not much new in either of our lives, but it's good to spend time together. I'd asked her to come with me for dim sum beforehand, so I could be sure of getting a reasonable amount of protein for lunch, and double-check positioning with me. That was because while Craig (the artist) and I had agreed on a placement, I'd forgotten exactly what it was, which left me feeling unsure. He remembered, showed it to me, and she agreed with me that it was good. And it is.

No pictures yet, because I have to keep the tattoo covered a little longer and cattitude wants to see it in the flesh before looking at the photos the artist took for me on the digital camera.

My boss told me to leave work a little early today, so I took the F train to the Lower East Side and walked in to the tattoo parlor. Craig and I spent a little while discussing how long it had been since he'd seen me (we're neither of us great at remembering duration), and I showed him how well his earlier work is holding up, and we discussed tattoo size, placement, and such. I have an appointment for October 1 (a week from Saturday); he estimates it'll be two hours' work. I left behind one sheet of color printout of coelacanths: he's going to use one of the images on that page for shape and the other for color.
He also asked me whether I'd put a picture of the armband on the Web--because someone had emailed him that image a couple of days ago, after he hadn't thought about it in ages.