Meta-Ken

As you can see, Kintaro is almost completely filled in. There are still a few areas which are scabbed-over, but otherwise it's healing well. A particularly rough spot was Kintaro's foot on my right side - it's underneath where I wear my belt, so over the first week or so it was constantly agitated.

Just got back from a tattoo session and the red shading in Kintaro is complete. I'll post a pic in a few days. Now that we're nearing completion of my back, I'm trying to pick up the pace of my appointments - which should put quite a strain on my wallet. It doesn't help that I bought 3 ukiyo-e prints and 1 Persian miniature painting in the past few weeks. My art addiction is getting bad :).

Oh, and I noticed that the area with red ink took a bit longer to heal than normal. I hear this is common with red pigments. This may be because red dyes often contain mercury, cadmium or other rather nasty metals. I found a great article on the possible medical complications associated with tattoos and various inks here. I guess modern tattoo dyes tend to be less toxic than tattoo dyes of old, but it still makes me wonder how much artists at your local tattoo shop pay attention to that sort of thing...

Picked up "King of the Delta Blues Singers" today, a collection of Robert Johnson songs recorded in '36 and '37. I would have never thought some noisy old recordings of one man and his guitar could be so powerful. A couple of songs into this album and I was transported to another place and time. It's a muggy night and I'm on a porch in Mississippi, glass of iced tea in my hand. It's no wonder Johnson is regarded as a deity among musicians, influencing such artists as Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Keith Richards, and Eric Clapton, covered by everybody from Led Zeppelin to Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's even said Johnson sold his soul to the devil in return for his skills on the guitar. Listening to these songs recorded in a San Antonio hotel room, one thinks it just might be true.

Happy New Year!

I just put up a small gallery of my expanding collection of woodblock prints, available here