Above are two pictures from today's session. The first was after about an hour of drawing; the second is after about two hours with the machine. It's really starting to show character now.
We talked more about the background again. The last time we spoke about it—several months ago—Shinji was talking about doing several more peonies with the dragon, and suggesting maybe just a black background....? Today, he suggested maple leaves. He said with a white dragon (a "high" dragon), he said maple leaves will maybe be best. And definitely background too. "With white dragon needs background. Black dragon, maybe no. But with white dragon needs background." So with background it is.
I'm into the maple leaves too. I was visiting garden centers and nurseries last month to try to find new plants for the shop windows, and I can across one place that had Japanese maples for sale. I didn't get them because they really don't work indoors, but I did fall in love with them a little. They're quite beautiful, so I'm thinking maple leaves are good.
The worst part of today's session was standing in one place for an hour while he drew on my back. The first half hour was great; after the two-plus-hour bus ride, standing up was a relief. By the end of it the long trip and too little sleep hit me hard; I could feel myself getting flush and had to sit for a bit. I broke into my pick-me-up food before we even started tattooing! Shinji asked if I was okay, because I "look blue." I definitely did.
But the tattooing part sucked too. My friend Jason, the one with the full tattoo suit from Horiyoshi 3, always dismisses questions of how much the process hurts in certain areas with an, "It's not too bad." ("The crook of the arm?" "It's not too bad.") Every area, that is, except above the crack of the ass, over the sit-bone. This he admits to being horrible. I didn't go quite that low this trip, but holy hell that area sucks. The ass too.
The next session we do the other cheek, where the dragon's tail continues.
