I’ll have to check out this movie as well. I find the Japanese and Polynesian tattoo some of the most beautiful. They have been doing it forever. I have a friend actually who studied abroad in Samoa and when he was there he got a big tattoo on his back in the traditional method. They bang the ink into your skin with a sculpted bone with ink on it. he said it was the most painful thing he had ever endured, but worth it. As far as mine go, I still only have one, but will soon have another. Just have to figure out where to put it and where to get it.

Good point. You know, there must be out there somewhere a tattoo literature reading group.

I do not know that novel. But I will definitely have to check it out now. There is something romantic about tattoo artists, isn’t there. That they are changing peoples’ bodies forever makes it such an interesting line of work to go into.

When I got my tattoo I kind of just felt it was the right thing to do. I might have been wrapped up in the momentum of everyone else around me getting them, but I am still happy with the decision. The tattoo is a Tibetan mantra Oh mani padme hum, written in Tibetan. It is a phrasing that is connected to Chenrezig, the Buddhist God of compassion and wisdom. It’s a protective phrase as well. On the bottom the writing are waves and above are flames.

So Nick are you going to stop at one or are you going for more work. I started out just to get one, and now have about 17, depending on how you count.