So what's this all about?

I turn forty at the end of the year. Before I get there I want to have another amateur MMA fight. This blog is a record of how, and if, I manage to achieve this.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Ink!





Not really about training this one, but with some regularity I get asked about my tattoos when I'm at the gym and I'm always pleased to give a little promotion to the artist who has now been tattooing me for almost ten years.
Like many people, I suspect, I had a number of small, 'off-the-wall' tattoos done in my teens and early twentiesApproaching thirty I really wanted to do something to mark the occasion and after consulting with my younger brother decided to embark on some full-on japanese influenced sleeves.  My brother had recently had some freehand tattooing done and I was very impressed so paid the artist, Neil, a visit.  I was impressed with the time he took to consult on what I wanted, proffer an opinion and to draw it on during an initial consultation so that I could see what it would look like.




The initial work that I had was japanese 'wind and waves', in black and grey, from the shoulder to elbow on both arms, work that lasted twelve hours over three sessions.  As the years have progressed I've returned to get further work at least once a year (with only one year off!), usually around Christmas.  I've added koi (representing my wife, children and me), a chrysanthemum, a female noh mask, an Oni mask and a dragon.
Recently Neil left the studio that he was working out of and I didn't know where he was..... until my brother, wanting to add to his own work, tracked him down.  My dragon still needs a few hours of work to complete it and I'll be visiting Neil to book some time when I can take a break from training.

If you're in or around the East Midlands and looking for some quality tattoo work you could do a lot worse than to check this guy out.  Catch him here, and check out some of his other work.