Oh. My. God. The. Pain.
It's many years since I was last tattoo'd and I'd completely forgotton how painful the procedure was. Yikes. Like being burned with the tip of a hot cigarette for three hours. The outlines took two hours and in the final hour the colouring was started. How can those little blue itty bitty dots be the most painful part of the day? This design needs another three hours colouring work and then we start on the other arm. My mid-life crisis seems to be progressing quite smoothly at the moment but it's costing me a fortune (for the cost of this custom design by the wonderful Saira at Family Business I could have bought a holiday home in Goa). Still, it's best not to be mean when it comes to stuff that will be with you for the rest of your life. This is forever you know.

That final pic below is the great Italian stallion Mo Coppoletta working on a Trent Reznor looky-likey in the chair next to me (yes, those are tears of pain he's shedding).