Kdn

My chest + full sleeve tattoo is now “done” (read bruised and swollen). The third and final session for now had focus on the chest and shoulder part. To quote myself..

They say that one image describe a thousand words, but not even 10 images is able to present this amazing awesome excellent extraordinary [put in the best word you can come up with] piece of art.

Brad Bako is just an amazing artist and if you ever are around Newcastle drop by his shop. If you don´t want a tattoo, at least drop by to get one of his paintings, skateboard design etc. If you want a tattoo he has a 2-3 months waiting list so give Fat Ink a call and they will set you up.

Back to the piece I got done… The chest part was the most painful so far, specially around the nipple.. hehe. But it all came together in the end and now I have one of Brads unique art parts on my body forever, and the thought of that is amazing. Brad felt really good about the piece himself when he was done, so it is all good

We started talking a little bit about the “next piece” tho… The next big thing I want on my body is a big and bright orange Koi fish. The Koi fish represent love and friendship in Japan and that is something I want to be represented on the left side of my back. It would ofc. have to be more of a biomech style but with a pretty traditional Koi fish in the front. I want a huge blue dragon as well on the right side of my back.. but yea… we will just have to see.. First I have to take it easy for a couple of days so the one I have now get the proper healing..

To all of you who have mailed and talked to me about pictures… they will get online after family and friends get the “on skin” impression. So I guess I will upload images in 2 weeks or so.

Just two pictures…
  
Brad Bako from Fat Ink Tattoo with his weapon of choice.

Going to write / publish a little bit more info from the whole thing tomorrow.

I started my seccond session with Brad Bako today at Fat Ink Tattoo. The plan was to finish up the shading on the bottom half of the sleeve.

I don´t think I did a proper post last time so I´m going to turn the calender back 3 months for a quick overview of the first session in the following sentences. Mr. Bako started off with 3 stencils with designs that he transferred on to me. After that there was some free hand drawing involved to fit the parts together, pen to skin style. Then he tattooed all the lines with a thin needle. Then he went over some of the lines with a thicker needle. Since this is a black/gray/skin colored tattoo the next bit was to start the shading. After a “couple” 3 hours of shading or so the top half of the sleeve was more or less shaded. This was about 8 hours or so into the feeling of a constant needle in your body I had to say stop. I guess this is nothing comparable to you war veterans or the children that die from hunger in Africa every few minutes, but this was enough pain for me.

Fast forward to todays session, session number two.

Fist Mr. Bako had to to draw the “missing” design on the inside of the arm. He, ofc. drew that with a pencil right on to the body. Then he outlined that design with a thin needle before he started the shading. About 6 hours later the shading on the bottom half of the sleeve was done. Then he went over some of the old shading and perfect-ionized some of that.

Now the the second session is done I can say that what Bako does down at Fat Ink Tattoo is beyond tattooing, he is creating exceptional art. Im not going to describe how amazing the tattoo looks so far, I´m not even going to upload images of it. They say that one image describe a thousand words, but not even 10 images is able to present this amazing awesome excellent extraordinary [put in the best word you can come up with] piece of art.

The third and final session for now is tomorrow. Then Mr. Bako is going to do all the shading for the chest piece and finish up the link between the sleeve and chest part over the shoulder.

November 14th and 15th:

There was a Reef festival up in Whitsundays this days.. nothing special… jsut some fireworks and a lady singing terrible tunes from a scene.

I walked a Coral Walk – 1km or so out to a very remote beach on friday.. that was more or less the most exciting thing.
Continue reading about November 14th to 19th…

I promised a update before Wednesday and here you have it. I took the train in to Sydney this morning for a “warm” vissit aswell.

I like the city a lot more this time around, but it can’t be compaied to the city in my hart – Brisbane.

Il be back tomorrow night – aussie time – with a full report on what I have done since my last update – spam the refresh button, it is a good update.

[picture removed - I looked like a retard on it]

November 8th – 12th:
Sleeping, eating(mostly fruit), getting a tan (read sun burned!), eating(mostly low fat stuff!), drinking a couple of beers(why am I still fat?), sleeping. This was some very exciting days…
I squised out a few saconds during this exciting days to captured this images…

November 13th:
Little bit down by all the red skin I decided to take it easy this morning, just stay inn, run the pictures you see in this post through photoshop, etc.
This was the first day of the Whitsunday Reef festival and the plan of the day was to join the tour through the Conway Ranges a little bit to the south east of Airlie Beach.
Here is a couple of pictures from that walk:

btw. anyone want to give me a tele lens? There are so many cool birds here, but I cant get any decant pictures with my standard Nikon 18-55mm lens.
After an amazing peep into my life and my travels I can guarantee some more action on this site early next week (no it is not Monday at 12:01 AM, but before wednesday)!

November 4th:

It started out “perfectly” when the plane from Brisbane to Mackay was delayed, apparently it was something wrong with the braking system. Eager to get going I forgot to ask if the problem was fixed when the boarding started 1 hour after the scheduled take off.

I brought 2 books on this trip, The Hobbit bye Tolkien and Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. I am reading Choke at this moment since I want to read the book before I watch the movie at the cinema. I am 1/3 into it now and it is really good… Chuck knows how to entertain the reader.

Since it was “cold” in Brissy when I left I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, that is something I was regretting when arriving in Mackay. It was 34 degrees and not even a little breeze.

Mackay is a shithole… if you are a tourist depending on public transport or short distance to the different facilities. The biggest thing about the town was a trip 1-2 hours with car to the west too see the platypus. It was clear to me that I had to get away from that spot as soon as possible so I reserved a buss ticket to Airlie beach that departed the following night. I spent the day and evening in a park by the river in Mackay.

While waiting for the buss I started on my next writing project currently called Mark. It is about a disturbed young guy who lives with his parents. More on that later when I played a little bit more with what his every day life looks like. I more or less only have the idea of a guy and what made him into what he is today.

November 5th:

I arrived around sunrise in Airlie Beach, it was a 1,5 hour drive north of Mackay.

As you can see on the last picture, there might be hazardous jellyfish in the water… but there is warning signs with saltwater crocodile, so swimming in the ocean is banned anyway..

So far I have fixed accommodation until Sunday, but I am pretty sure that I will stay here or take a boat trip to Whitsunday islands until the next major bit on my journey.

November 6th:

Other than updating my blog and typing up the story about Mark I am able to totally unplug and just relax. The place itself is a tourist spot build around the great barrier reef and the Whitsunday islands tuirisme. It has everything you need, Coles for groceries, Mc Donalds, Hungry Jacks (Burger King), KFC and Subway ++ if you want fast food.

In addition to that there is just a short walking distance to get to your totally remote little spot where you can turn off your modern life and “just be”. I will try and find some of this spots during the next couple of days.

I spent most of this day tanning and drinking water. It is really strange to see how dependent humans are of water. Im probably drinking 4-5 liters a day.. I eat some kind of pastry with cheese a couple of apples and then I sinned in the afternoon with a Big Mac meal from Maccas.

November 7th:

I am going to stay here until the next . I added another week to the accommodation and ordered a bus ticket back to Mackay airport on November 16th.

The place I stay at is called Beaches Backpacker. It is a dorm room style accommodation with 6 bedroom units. I live with 2 Swedish girls, one guy from france, one guy from England and one German. The units have air condition too keep you cool of you want to relax a little bit from all the tanning.

Today was the first “photo day”, I have been walking around taking the pictures in this post and some pretty cool panoramas I will upload later when I am on a better connection. Today I have consumed more of those pastries with cheese, green apples and I am currently deciding what I will eat for dinner.

Brisbane domestic airport.