Fresh Ink

To commemorate my achievement of black belt in both TKD (about 1 1/2 years
ago) & HKD (recently) I've decided to get another tattoo.

Yes, I have one already.

Sure, I know there's the "it'll turn into a smudge" crowd & of course the
group that thinks every guy with a tattoo says, "Hey baby, wanna see my
tattoo?". Well, my first one (12 years ago) hasn't & I'm not the kind of
guy who would get a tattoo to show it off & remotely think I could "score
chicks"...which is not to say I wouldn't if it would help! ;-) No, like my
first one - which is a perfect reflection of me, if you know me - the
second has a perfectly good reason behind it.

With that in mind, I had to find a good place to get this done. Since I'm
not in Spain like I was for the first I asked a friend in TKD who has a
number (that number would be A LOT!) of tattoos where he'd recommend. He
came right back with Skin Kitchen based in Des Moines,IA. I e-mailed them
the design ideas I've been mulling over for a few months (Hey! This has to
be thought through.) & I think we have it nailed down pretty well. I'm
going there this week to put pen to paper - as it were...

One side note: I think if you're going to do something like this, THINK.
IT. THROUGH. Getting something placed on your body just because it looks
cool at the time doesn't make sense. That "Hello Kitty" logo on your butt
might look cute when you do it spur-of-the-moment but I guarantee you'll
have a time explaining that one to the grandkids. There's nothing
(necessarily) wrong with getting He-Man painted on your chest but there had
better be a good reason for doing it before it's stuck on there like a
kid's crayon on a dining room wall.

So, my design is pretty decent.I'm not skilled as an artist...but photoshop
is my buddy in this case! It'll be interesting to see what the artist
actually managed to draw based on what I sent him. It'll be about a
three-hour session - which includes refining the design - so there will
probably be two hours or so in the chair.