It’s Thursday, April 20, and tonight we head to NYC. Tomorrow and Saturday will see the wrap-up of an eight-month tattoo project with Yomico Moreno in Brooklyn and Sandry Riffard in France: the first time either of them has ever done a remote collaboration. The work is a full-front deep-sea scene, one that has evolved from a serene mix of odd-looking creatures into a nightmarish battle-royale.
Stuck on the runway in El Paso, waiting for bad weather to clear in Dallas. Lots of time to think back on the entire project: seven trips, almost 50,000 miles flown, 14 days of inking at eight hours per day. Seven Kenalog shots in my leg (a bit much for the time frame), 196 doxycycline capsules, God only knows how many yards of Saniderm dressing. And two nipples vanished into thin air (or thick ink).
It all boils down to a roughly millimeter thick patch of inks—around 8mg per square cm, distributed over roughly 1,500 cm2. (An average body has about 17,500 cm2 of skin in total.) So around 12g of ink from just above my collarbone to the start of my groin. Some studies suggest that the majority of the ink disappears—spit out by the skin during healing, transported to lymph nodes, or degraded by enzymes or UV light. Nobody knows how fast or to what extent this elimination happens; but let’s guess around 6g of ink remains. Doesn’t seem like much. But that 6g is infinitely more than the weight of all the pixels in the text you’re now reading. So there.
After a brief night in Dallas we stagger onto the 5am flight to LaGuardia, then head straight to Yomico's studio on Meserole Street in Brooklyn. Once again, we stay in the lovely little AirBnB we've dubbed 'The Pussy Palace,' what with its, shall we say, 'eclectic' assortment of female, anatomically-correct art.. Jaime and Scott get a kick out of it, too, and it's only two blocks from the studio.
Last two days at Yomico’s. I wasn’t looking forward to needling my left armpit, but between the (totally legal) analgesics and some type of anaesthetic wash it ain’t bad. One last day of the breakfast of champions, New York style:
Not that I’m hoping to eliminate pain: discomfort is a real part of the effort that goes into getting a big piece. Were it possible to get a full tattoo stamped into my skin via a machine, all at once and pain-free, I’d not find the end result anywhere near as meaningful--and likely the piece wouldn't be as good, too. The time, expense, pain, back-and-forth debating about the design, and wound care—these aren’t to be avoided. You need great and imaginative artists to see a unique project through; dozens of changes, many at the last minute, could end up a mess. But in the right hands the whole is greater than than both the original plan and the sum of the final parts. My front piece has evolved organically from the original design into something none of those involved—including me—could have predicted. But as the outcome nears it‘s clear the result is very satisfying to all involved.
The two, main jobs of the final sessions are to unite the front and back with ripped-skin on the left flank, and to color in the tendrils of a jellyfish started earlier.
Yomico liked what Sandry had done with uniting the front piece with the back--instead of my goofy idea of a 'bamboo pole' with hooks, extending the ripped look anteriorly. Really creates a good amount of unity and conveys an interesting visual idea about our bodies being living water-bags...
One last, late-addition is "Little Boy," a wide-eyed deep-ocean critter playing a nice, little visual pun in my left axilla. Yomico finished the ripped skin flank on Friday, then the 'Little Boy' peekaboo and jellyfish tendrils on Saturday.
It's done! A shot or two of Guyanese rum and it's a (Saniderm) wrap.... Hard to believe, after eight months of back-and-forth. Yomico did a live Instagram session of the finishing touches; guess that's my ten minutes of fame. And he was so kind as to give me a signed, limited-edition of a terrific tome that combines Ray Bradbury's 'Illustrated Man' stories with bios and work from close to twenty of the world's best tattooists (including him).
The occlusive dressing is one day from removal. Stretching over mobile surfaces (armpit, flank, shoulder) was tough at first, but as healing has progressed it's been fine. Just a little hot in a lab coat running around the office. Old patients are in their underwear, sitting around waiting for me in exam rooms, so I don't want to to turn down the temp on them.
Friday night is here! Still a little sore on the inside, especially flank and jellyfish areas. Removal was slow and pretty tender, but two coats of Mad Rabbit Repair and all feels good. Almost no scabby areas to be found. It’s done! On to the next project…