Those of you interested in Japanese woodblock prints or ukiyo-e should check out my latest acquisition: a series of 29 prints depicting the story of the 47 Ronin. If anyone happens to have more info on this series, please contact me. I purchased it from a vendor at an antiques market who did not know much about it.

A company called Somark Innovations has successfully tested an RFID "tattoo" on cows, mice and rats. An array of needles is used to inject a passive RFID ink which can be read at a distance of 4 feet. Looks like this will be used for branding cattle and...military personnel. More info at The Register and Engadget. Now if this isn't the "mark of the beast", I don't know what is. ;)

I wonder what other applications they'll think of? They already use RFID to process credit card transactions ("Paypass") and are pilot testing the same payment system for use in the subways here in NYC. Now if you can get a tattoo of your baby momma's name on your neck and pay for your beer/cigarettes/lotto tickets by banging your head on the cash register..that would be something.

The outline on my left side is done! Just a few details to be added here and there, but the bulk of the work is finished. Now Horizakura can start filling in the background again. The plan is to start on my arm and work his way up. Eventually the background creeping up my leg and the background creeping up by arm will meet around my sternum somewhere. The pace of tattoo work has been steady lately, and I don't have enough time to adjust to my new body between sessions. I find myself looking in the mirror and wondering - "Who is this person in front of me? What am I becoming?" Sometimes this sensation is interesting, even pleasant. Other times it's not. I joke that the tattoo has a mind of its own but some days it doesn't feel like that's far from the truth.

Last weekend a few of my coworkers saw the portion of my tattoo which covers my forearm. We all went out for drinks after work, and after a few beers I thought "Fuck it". It was a group of people I'm fairly comfortable with, and no senior management was around. It's just exhausting for me to try to repress every part of my personality that doesn't fit into the narrow slice of humanity we call "corporate culture". I've spent my whole life living on the edges of acceptable and polite society, which basically means I've never felt free to talk about most anything in my past or that happens outside business hours with people at work. I'll be damned if I can't even unwind and enjoy a beer in my off hours.

Anyway, I better stop before I launch into a full-on rant. ;) Next update will be in a few weeks.

Happy New Year! Sorry for the delay in posting updates. I was far too busy eating, drinking, being with friends and family, and all those other holiday-type things. As you can see, the incredible man-eating tattoo has started to engulf my right arm. I decided on the seven-tenths length sleeve ("shichibu"). It's primarily composed of more crashing waves and rocks, punctuated with a solitary maple leaf. There is also a small plant growing out of the rock near my elbow. The scale of the tattoo doesn't allow for a whole lot of different elements on my puny arms. The tribal-style tattoo on my upper arm will be completely covered (It won't be missed. Oh, to be 18 again..). This is the first time any of my tattoo work has extended into an area that is usually uncovered (that's outside of my office, of course - at work it's long sleeves everyday). I'm sure it will spark a few interesting conversations since many people, even people I've known for ages, don't know about my tattoo work. These conversations tend to make me a little uncomfortable. Tattooing is a personal thing, and I'm not really much of an exhibitionist (I know, I know..the existence of this blog suggests otherwise ;). People always have such funny notions of what type of person gets a tattoo. Upon seeing the tattoo some people have said "oh, I never would have guessed you were that type of person". For some, the presence of ink in my skin apparently is enough to undo all of our past interactions. Wouldn't it make more sense for these people to reexamine their preconceived notions of "people with tattoos" now that they have some evidence which suggests these theories are bunkum? The next update will be in about 3 weeks. I believe in the next session we are going to complete the outline on the right side of my body.