SE-I-CHI-KO Tats

A week ago, I was talking about the idea that sometimes cheap products are okay, but cheap services are often not. Little did I know that I would be going through this exact line of thought just a few days after. I mean, what better way to prove this point than to get a permanent skin tattoo. (I think I'm the first person to show an analogy between cheap car tints and permanent skin art.)

Anyway, I wanted to get a tattoo as early as college, but I just didn't have the right design in mind that would ultimately tell the story or at least an idea of who and what I am. And quite frankly, the thought of going through an hour or two of excruciating pain scared me.

A couple of months ago I decided on getting a tattoo of Seiichi's name on my arm. Thanks to Roy Rebong and Tara Enrile for their help on the Japanese Katakana symbols - I consider them trusted sources because they've been living in Japan for a good part of their life and they can read and write katakana.

I got my tattoo at the comfort of my own home. The tattoo artist, Engel Lucas, was referred by my good friend, Jobo Cataluna. Jobo had his first tattoo from Engel a few weeks back. This is the part where products versus services come in. The artist's service fee was relatively higher that other tattoo artists. I've seen Jobo's tattoo and I liked it. The black Alibata was very vivid and the way it was drawn was very good. I actually had a lot of choices when it came to whom and from what shop I will get my tattoo from. I was even quoted cheaper services by other shops, but since this is a major, major decision in one's life, I really wanted to be worked on by an artist whose work I have seen first hand and one who is recommended very strongly by his clients. It took almost a month of scheduling and rescheduling between me and the artist. And finally, yesterday, Monday October 6, we both had our schedules free up. The deed was to be done at around afternoon in our house at Village East. He arrived with his friend shortly after 1:00 PM. When I met him, I completely understood what Jobo was saying when he meant: "Okey gumawa ng trabaho yan." and "Madali kausap 'yan." He put me at ease right away and he shared stories of people passing out and peeing in their pants while getting a tattoo. I realize that last sentence may be paradoxical but I got the feeling from this person that he "understood it." He understood the feelings and decisions and spirituality involved in giving something as permanent as a tattoo. (I say "giving" because Engel does not have a single tattoo on himself! He says he has not yet fully visualized the tattoo that will describe him fully as a person. As for me, I totally get that - I liken that to the story about the town with only two barbers. One has a bad haircut and one has a nice haircut. Guess who you'll be choosing to get your haircut from? Exactly.) He also

He had a whole lot of stuff he brought with him - his big tattoo case with different colored inks (I think there may have been around 20 to 30 different color bottles), his two coil tattoo machine with a sort of like voltage regulator and a foot pedal connected to the whole contraption (probably to control the stick and poke of the needles), his needles were in clear plastic containers (that was opened in front of me), he had a lot of tissue paper, a lot of cotton balls, a lot of disposable gloves (for changing in between breaks), and a few liquid sprays that I did not get to ask what they were (he sprayed it on tissue paper he used to clean the skin while doing the tattoo). He also brought a few of his tattoo designs which were pretty amazing by the way.

So anyway, I started with me showing the design I wanted. He asked me beforehand if I already had a design or not. He was probably relieved to find out that I already had one and that I was already decided on it. He said that it usually takes 3 to 4 hours for a person to choose the design and even longer if the client needs to research a design. We printed out different sizes of the 4-character Katakana. After choosing the right scale, he stenciled it on what was probably carbon paper. He cleaned part of my arm with Betadine and alcohol, wiped deodorant material on it (for the outlined stencil to stick), asked me to stand up on my natural pose, pressed the paper on my arm, and "parang magic" the outline of my design was on my arm. The artist told me to look at the mirror and check if the position, scale, and everything else is right before the actual tattooing takes place. He said that we can redo the stencil if necessary. Anyway, I looked at it through the mirror for a couple of minutes, I was checking if everything is in the right place, and it was exactly where I wanted it to be.

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