More Bear Paw Ink

So i've been pondering getting another bear paw tattoo for a while now. I had decided that the most likely placement would be above my ass cheek. Well today I decided to get it done.

I wanted to try out this shop in San Francisco that a few people had recommended and i'd been curious about. I walked in and there were no other customers there. The artist was a cool, nice dude named Michael. After talking to him about the tattoo idea I had, he went over some sketches with me and he came up with a simple one I liked, light blue, outlined in black. So I decided to go for it and get it done. After he finnished it, he asked if I wanted to try some shading around the pawprint, to give it some more character. I had originally mentioned the color orange and he showed me a sketch idea of it with orange shading around. I liked it so I told him yeah and he added a nice orange shade around it. So no, this is not an excuse to show my ass, but just to show my new ink, number 8.

Sticky Tricks, Tattoos and the Undead

I recently got together with this dude that i've kinda known for some time. I invited him over to my place and i'm sure you know what we did. It was fun and he gave me some helpful info about stuff i've been pondering. The next day he texts me and asks if I wanna meet up again. Sure, why not? So I invite him over. The next day he texts again, and though I was a bit tired I said yeah and had him over, again. And the next day I get another text again, asking me what time I get off work and if i'm free. I pondered it for a while but then said no, made up some excuse. He seemed disappointed and upset. He claimed he was really craving "it". Apparantly the 3 days in a row wasn't enough for him. And I thought I was bad? A few days later he calls again. I didn't answer and then seconds later he texts, asking if i'm free. Ugh! I spent most of last weekend avoiding his texts. I decided to be civil and reply to his text yesterday, as I was busy out with friends anyway and would have an excuse to say no. Instead he asks me for advice regarding his cats, who are spraying inside his place. I cautiously replied, expecting the true motive of his texting to reveal itself. But it never did. I was relieved. Not that I don't enjoy spending time with him, but when you start to want to stick like glue, that makes me uneasy. Yeah, i'm one of those types.

When I wasn't busy avoiding certain texts last weekend, I decided to stop by my tattoo shop and inquire about my latest tattoo idea, maybe put a deposit and make an appointment for the next coming weeks. When I asked for my tattoo artist the owner then tells me that he's in Mexico getting married and plans on opening his own shop, maybe down south (as in Southern California area). My heart sank as I really liked him (his work, that is, not him..... though he is kinda.... ahh nevermind!). So the owner asks me if I want to check out books of some other artists there. After flipping through a few I found this one artist who's work was really good. Turns out he was sitting there in the shop, had some free hours, so I showed him the design, went to the ATM to get out the $$ and 2 hours later I walked out with fresh ink. It's a cross with a rosary draped around it on my left arm. I've been wanting to get a rosary tattooed for some time, and this design really spoke to me when I saw it. Wasn't planning on getting inked so soon again but that's how the cookie crumbled. And i'm already thinking of other ideas for future ink.... perhaps a small bearpaw on my butt.  ;-)

Last night I attended the Zombie-O-Rama fest in my town. It's the 3rd year they had it, I went last year and had fun. Basically it's a festival in downtown area where people are invited to attend dressed like zombies. They have vendors selling food and merchandise, businesses around the area have drink and food specials and will post signs on their door saying "this is a zombie-friendly establishment", they'll have live entertainment and when the sun goes down they'll show a zombie film outdoors on a huge screen in the middle of the park. Last year it was Sean Of The Dead, this year they showed Fido. I got me some make-up and went to my friend's, where we put on our make-up and fake blood and then walked to the event, which is a few blocks from her place. I was pleased with how my make-up came out, with fake shards of glass sticking out of my bloody face. There were lots of cool people dressed in really cool zombie costumes and make-up. My favorite was this girl who was walking her dog, only the dog leash was her intestines that were sticking out of her side. It was a lot of fun watching the reaction of drivers and passersby when they would see us walking down the street, all bloody and rotting.  I'll definitely be making this a yearly tradition.

Fresh Ink

This last Friday I got my 6th tattoo, a skull and crossbones/heart design. I got the design from the Italian company called Tokidoki, that makes Japanese style toys, clothes and make-up. I've been buying their stuff for quite a while now, and have always been drawn to their crossbones and heart design.

When I saw a skull version of this design (with 2 facing silouhette skulls in the heart) I immediately fell in love with it and knew that it was a tattoo that I wanted. So this week I made an appointment at the tattoo shop I frequent, and the next day I went in and got it inked.

I like this design for a variety of reason, it's representative of several things in my life. That got me to thinking about what I would tell people when they ask, because you know that there's always people who have to ask why you got that tattoo, what it means, etc. I admit that this is something that's always kind of annoyed me. People always ask me about my forearm tattoo (a star-arrow design that's the symbol of the Science Patrol for the Ultraman show). Usually i'll tell them and they'll react with a blank "oh", because most people don't know who Ultraman is anyway. I just feel that it's an intrusive, slightly dumb question. I don't go around asking people why they wear the clothes they wear, why they wear the shoes they wear, why they wear their hair like that, why they're wearing that color make-up, why they're driving that car, why they're married to that douchebag.... Maybe it's a silly pet peeve or hang-up of mine, but I always find myself a bit put off when people ask me. Perhaps if I felt that they were sincerely trying to get to know something about me, but I find that most of the time it's just to satisfy they're morbid curiousity. I've considered making up a long, intricate, explicit story just to make fools of them. Or I could just say "it's kind of personal" and leave it at that. I think in the end it all ties in to the fact that I tend to have strong boundaries and don't feel the need to share every intimate detail of my life with a perfect stranger. So before I go rambling on and on i'll just end this blog by saying I really love my new tattoo.

Tattoos and Reading

When I was a teenager I used to read a lot. I remember walking to the library and picking out books excitedly on a weekly or semi-weekly basis. My first reading love was horror: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, etc. From there I started reading the cheesy stuff of Sidney Sheldon and Lawrence Sanders. It was also in that public library that I got my first real dose of gayness. No, I did not blow anyone in the bathroom! I discovered some gay novels and magazines, which at that young age was like an exciting taboo. I remember reading John Fox's novel The Boys On The Rocks and completely relating to the title character, a teenage boy who begins exploring his sexuality. I also remember reading John Rechy's Numbers, which chronicled one young man's sex odyssey as he goes around having sex with random strangers. At the time I thought it was bizarre and didn't quite understand someone randomly having casual sex with strangers, boy how young and naive was I. At 39 I now look back and understand what he was writing about.

But sometime in my mid-twenties I kind of lost touch with reading. I would attempt to pick up a book here and there but would find that I wouldn't have the concentration or focus to really finnish it, even though I may have found it interesting. Now that I think of it it's probably because I set about actually living and experiencing things instead of reading about them. As a kid you read and hear about things and as an adult you do them I suppose. Still, the desire to go back to the world of reading remained with me, if vaguely buried deep in my subconscious.

Then not too long ago I was in a bookstore with a gal pal and she showed me a book she read about a girl who becomes a vampire. She said it was funny and sarcastic. I picked up a few other books by this same author and found one that had an interesting premise: a guy in San Francisco is appointed the role of Death. The novel is A Dirty Job and the author is Christopher Moore. I bought it and started reading pages here and there, finding it interesting. Then for a few weeks I stopped reading it. Which brings me to now.

Just a few days ago I had an appointment to get a tattoo. Stay with me, this is related to reading.... So I thought about what to do while I get my tattoo, since none of my friends were going with me like they had during past tattoos. Talk to the tattoo artist, look at the decor of the tattoo shop, check my e-mails from my phone, read a magazine.... then I thought, why not bring my book and read while i'm getting inked? So I brought it along and while I lay there, shirtless on the table while the artist sliced some ink into my chest I found myself picking up where I left off and enjoying myself. Midway through a customer came in and started talking to my tattoo artist. She must have been a regular because he told her he needed to show her a piece he was working on for her. While he took a break from my tat the woman noticed the book I was reading and enthusiastically said how much she loved it. We chatted for a while about it, and it was nice to bond with a complete stranger while laying on a table shirtless with ink being sliced into my body, haha! She even talked about how she was inspired to get a tattoo based on the cover art of the book. So all in all I found it pretty amusing how getting a tattoo has indirectly jump-started my enjoyment of reading again. Don't know how long it will last but for now i'm going with it. Hell, if i'm going to consider myself a geek bear then reading would fit in well with that category, no?