just john

Yes, I have pictures. I decided to wait on posting until after Bill gets here on the 9th.

I went to a place called Kunsten pa Kroppen (Art of the Body). Taking a moment to look at the linguistic connections we get a few kissing cousins between English and German. "Kunst" is German for art and "Korper" is German for "body," but also has roots in our English "corpulent." No idea how to jump from "pa" meaning "of the" to the German dative case "des" but there you go, a dime-store language moment. Their web site is here:  http://www.tattoo.dk/english.htm.

I went because I found them online searching for something entirely (sort of) unrelated. I was looking for Nordic images as a possible paint job and they showed up. I liked what I saw Colin Dale doing and decide to give him a call. Two to three months waiting for an appointment was part of the conversation and I decided this was probably a good thing. I thought another couple of weeks, made an appointment, and booked a ticket. This would be the European souvenir I can't break or lose, though if either happens, I have other pressing issues. On my second day I took a morning walk around the city and then found the shop. No external advertising whatsoever. It was the second floor of a commercial building in town. Completely anonymous from the outside and still booked solid for two months or more out; never a sign of bad things. The shop itself was almost intimate. Just a work space for two people, aggregated artwork from all disciplines and periods, eclectic music, and Colin. His work partner was not there that day.

Colin was unassuming and soft spoken. We had a talk about what I wanted which was basically a theme, please put it approximately here, and you have artistic license. Then he started sketching free-hand on my shoulder for a while, with several corrections, erasures, and complete re-starts. When he was satisfied, I looked it over in a mirror and said ok. He took a tracing and then went back to a separate area to clean up his sketch and add final details while I looked through photos of his work and discovered that he does have a bit of an affinity for dragons. When he was done, he brought out an amazing design that was exactly what I wanted even though I really wasn't sure what I was asking for in the first place. After about five attempts to get the position right, he was ready to start the painful part. All together, it was about five hours of sitting still while Colin transferred his artwork directly onto me starting out with the familiar electric needle, and later switching over to some manual hand-work which I had never seen in person before. Looking at it now, I can see a distinct difference and I think I will recognize it on other people from now on.

The pain was worse than I had remembered, sometimes a sharp stab, alternating to a constant, stinging throb. I dozed a little at one point but it was probably more from fatigue that getting used to the needle. It never occurred to me to quit, though I did wonder about it out loud. After all, who'd be willing to stop with a half-finished smiley face? There were a few times when I was ready to be done, but I'd look down and see Colin had finished a section, started shading, or had switched techniques. That broke up the agony enough for me to tell myself it would be done when the artist was satisfied.

We had only a few people drop in during the day, one guy getting disappointed that he couldn't get something "today"  but did manage to get squeezed into a spot in March (the alternative being June), and a couple more onlookers. When we were done, Colin took a picture for his catalog and took a picture with my camera so I'd have an immediately after shot for my blog.

At the end of the afternoon, I was rather drained but I felt like I had spent my time with a real artist who was immersed in his work and that was the entire point from the beginning. I'd like to put up a picture now, but as I said earlier, I'm waiting for Bill to see it plus it will be healed by then. I guess if I can wait three months, another week won't kill you guys.

I wonder if my mother still reads this?