During my last session, we started to shade some of the water on my left side. It's a nice change of pace, the light shading heals a little faster. I'd forgotten how the area just around my nipple can be so sensitive... 
I stopped by the New York Tattoo Convention yesterday. Usually conventions aren't my thing, but I figured, "what the heck." Actually, I was bored as hell and there was nothing better to do yesterday afternoon. I've attached a picture of some of the business cards I picked up as I made the rounds. Lots of great artists there, I really enjoyed looking at the portfolios. Funny, a friend of mine made the following observation: "strange that you see so many great portfolios at these events but you rarely see really good tattoos on the folks at the convention." Very true! I am always surprised that attentive tattoo artists can always pick up on the fact that my tattoos were done by hand instead of machine. Only a little bit of my sleeves were sticking out from my t-shirt, but time and time again people were calling me over to their booths to ask questions and have a look. Some of them immediately recognized it as work by Horizakura, others just knew that it was tebori and were curious to see more. By around 5PM the place was packed and they were gearing up for the competitions of the day (Best Chest / Back, Best Black & White, etc.) But the crowds were starting to get to me so I left for the day before anyone took the stage.Edit: I almost forgot, the folks at the Starlight booth were nice enough to give me a copy of Mario Barth's "Under the Skin" documentary which features Horitoshi. I'll post a review once I get a chance to check it out.
