A weekend of adventures

I'm not sure how old I was when I first saw the "Man Attacked by Babies" statue by Gustav Vigeland, but it's been my favorite statue ever since. One of the best things about it is how everyone reads it completely wrong.



Nobody ever looks at this and sees the babies attacking the man. They always think it's the other way around. Tell me, when you assault someone, do you back into them? Didn't think so.

I decided a few years ago I wanted it as a tattoo. Jimmy said Tyler Porter should do it because he's good at realism. First the pandemic happened, and then when we started to get back out there, I could never get into Tyler's books. A perfect example is a year ago when I lost my job, he opened his books just a couple days later. Finally, the stars aligned and I got my spot. The only snag was that he now works in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle instead of my convenient home base shop less than two miles away. That's not enough of a reason not to do it, though. Yesterday was the day.





It's exactly the size I wanted and where I wanted it. Perfect placement and flawless execution. And I used tattoo numbing cream for the first time so it was a nearly painless experience! You'd better believe a lot more of that stuff is on its way to me.

Tyler also agreed to do the big Tron leg sleeve that I want. He'd said on Instagram that he's not very interested in big sleeve projects right now, and I get why. He has a hard time getting all his clients into the rotation when some of them are in the chair too much. Having already done my full back, I know what it's like to do sessions for a big project too often, and said I'd like to just come in every few months or so. He's into it. I ordered a DVD of the movie for him so he can get inspired.

There were two reasons I wanted a shorter walk today. The first was that I had a big new tattoo and didn't want to push myself too much, and the other was that I needed to clean up a lot of stuff now that we don't have any cats. I spent a couple of hours today on that project, and it was very depressing. But it would have been a lot less so if I hadn't just taken Tuvix on his first adventure outside our neighborhood! The park is by the animal shelter so we also dropped off all our cat food and supplies as donations, and it was nice not to be alone for that.

I took Tuvix on a 2-mile walk around the paved south loop, which is twice as far as he normally goes in our neighborhood. He had a great time and I loved showing him off.





You may wonder why we were so quick to get rid of cat supplies when cats are surely in our future. Now's just not a great time! Tuvix may be big, but he's still a puppy, and things were very chaotic for Steve in his final weeks. I feel terrible about that. We waited years to get a dog because we didn't want the last part of Sam's life to be chaotic and stressful, but then it happened with Steve. We really had no idea he'd only make it to 12 years old after Sam died at 20.

It's very weird to live without cats but it's the right thing to do for now. Tuvix will definitely enjoy the attention and the lack of stress now that we no longer have to try to teach him how to behave around a cat. When he's older and more mellow, it'll be a better time to try again.

A weekend of adventures

I'm not sure how old I was when I first saw the "Man Attacked by Babies" statue by Gustav Vigeland, but it's been my favorite statue ever since. One of the best things about it is how everyone reads it completely wrong.



Nobody ever looks at this and sees the babies attacking the man. They always think it's the other way around. Tell me, when you assault someone, do you back into them? Didn't think so.

I decided a few years ago I wanted it as a tattoo. Jimmy said Tyler Porter should do it because he's good at realism. First the pandemic happened, and then when we started to get back out there, I could never get into Tyler's books. A perfect example is a year ago when I lost my job, he opened his books just a couple days later. Finally, the stars aligned and I got my spot. The only snag was that he now works in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle instead of my convenient home base shop less than two miles away. That's not enough of a reason not to do it, though. Yesterday was the day.





It's exactly the size I wanted and where I wanted it. Perfect placement and flawless execution. And I used tattoo numbing cream for the first time so it was a nearly painless experience! You'd better believe a lot more of that stuff is on its way to me.

Tyler also agreed to do the big Tron leg sleeve that I want. He'd said on Instagram that he's not very interested in big sleeve projects right now, and I get why. He has a hard time getting all his clients into the rotation when some of them are in the chair too much. Having already done my full back, I know what it's like to do sessions for a big project too often, and said I'd like to just come in every few months or so. He's into it. I ordered a DVD of the movie for him so he can get inspired.

There were two reasons I wanted a shorter walk today. The first was that I had a big new tattoo and didn't want to push myself too much, and the other was that I needed to clean up a lot of stuff now that we don't have any cats. I spent a couple of hours today on that project, and it was very depressing. But it would have been a lot less so if I hadn't just taken Tuvix on his first adventure outside our neighborhood! The park is by the animal shelter so we also dropped off all our cat food and supplies as donations, and it was nice not to be alone for that.

I took Tuvix on a 2-mile walk around the paved south loop, which is twice as far as he normally goes in our neighborhood. He had a great time and I loved showing him off.





You may wonder why we were so quick to get rid of cat supplies when cats are surely in our future. Now's just not a great time! Tuvix may be big, but he's still a puppy, and things were very chaotic for Steve in his final weeks. I feel terrible about that. We waited years to get a dog because we didn't want the last part of Sam's life to be chaotic and stressful, but then it happened with Steve. We really had no idea he'd only make it to 12 years old after Sam died at 20.

It's very weird to live without cats but it's the right thing to do for now. Tuvix will definitely enjoy the attention and the lack of stress now that we no longer have to try to teach him how to behave around a cat. When he's older and more mellow, it'll be a better time to try again.