Yesterday was an indulgent celebration day in honor of my new job that starts July 14. I hit the Korean spa for a scrub and massage, then went to a Thai place for lunch. I was very impressed by their menu and messaged Garrett to ask if he'd like me to bring home some curry since we learned recently that Thai curry is a safe dish for him allergy-wise. He said yes, so I ended up also getting their pad thai for my dinner. My lunch while there was salad rolls and duck noodle soup, and everything was great.

Then I popped over to Foundation hoping to do a project with Ben that we previously discussed. Unlike with many of our previous projects, he said he could do it any time with jewelry the shop keeps stocked; no jewelry order required. Score! Unfortunately, he was out that day, and the apprentice wasn't comfortable trying the complicated project. But Aubrey the tattoo artist was available to do walk-ins, so she and I consulted my long list of ideas for something that sounded fun. We ended up tattooing the outline of something I've wanted for a while and it ended up on my inner thigh. She apologized because she'd have to, uh, shift things around once in a while. I said that was fine because the guy who did my scrub at the K spa had already done that.

In fact, we had an unusally hard time shaving the area, and I think it was because of that masseur. The scrub is a wet procedure and the guys who worked there before him always used lotion for the massage after. He had me dry off so he could use massage oil, and I think that's why the hair on my thigh was laying super flat.

Since we were tattooing anyway, it made sense to also do something really small from my list, and we did one on the side of my hand. That was after I got as far as the outline on the thigh tattoo and tapped out, saving the color for another day. I probably could have done at least some of the color if it wasn't such a sensitive spot.

Aubrey had a fun question that I couldn't answer immediately: how many artists had tattooed me? I told her there was no way to figure it out in the moment but it would be easy to add a column to my "tattoo have" tab in my spreadsheet and take a little stroll down memory lane. It's actually the same spreadsheet I used to use to make SchadenFriday and Caturday. I've been using it forever and it has tons of hidden tabs.

I went back to the shop today to pick up the water bottle I left there and get the piercing, and was able to tell her that I've now been tattooed by 22 different people. And I'm fortunate to say they all did a good job and none of them are people I wouldn't return to based on quality of work. There are three I wouldn't be tattooed by again because of events that have transpired since then, but nothing so bad has happened that I'd cover up or remove their work.

The piercing turned out super cool and I'll share photos when my ear's less angry. I did something else on that ear recently and that's why I went ahead with the new one now. It'll be a long time before the first project is healed, so why wait all that time and then start the healing process over? May as well heal a few things together. Piercing/tattoo enthusiast logic at its finest.

I was at my regular piercing shop (Foundation Body Arts) on Friday the 13th to get a couple of flash tattoos. If you didn't know, most tattoo shops do special events every Friday the 13th where the artists draw up new sheets of designs, often with a Friday the 13th theme, and offer them at a discount. Some shops make a bigger event out of it than others. For example, my regular tattoo shop (Lion's Paw) will end up having artists tattoo well into the night.

I'd gotten one tattoo at Foundation before, but it wasn't until Friday the 13th that I was laying on a table in the right direction to notice something amazing hanging high up on the wall. An absolutely pristine print of the famous Duran Duran Rio album cover by Patrick Nagel! You know, the one that's incorporated into my back tattoo.





I told my piercer Ben, jokingly, that if that print should ever go missing, that it wasn't me. He said I could have it! I suggested a trade and sent him some photos of some of my old orange artwork that doesn't really go well in the new orange bathroom. He liked it so I took it over there today on my way to teach a class. I can hardly believe I have this incredible print in my collection now.



It's in perfect shape, unlike my others which have all seen better days. It'll be hard to decide where to put it. There's plenty of space in my room, but I want people to see it!