The Native Iowan

Sunday.

Damn! 12th month of the year!

Christmas just a stone-throw away.

I went down to visit my dear friends n family, Tu and Ify, yesterday. Of course Tu is the dude who inks me. Ify is his lovely lady, who has also inked me.

Check out… https://artselemental.com/artists/

If you ever wanted to get inked, or even if you have inked, you’ll appreciate their art form. Hell, even if you do not even like ink, their art form is killer.

It was in 2010 that I decided to start an ink programme… I decided to find an ink master and chase a career in wearable art. I had a  bit of ink then. My first ink session was a PCV obligatory “gupo” in June 1981. Years later I dressed the gupo up with a couple of sessions under the gun of a Kiwi guy whose influence was Polynesian.

I figured I stay with the Polynesian theme and started looking around. I was discussing this with Tu yesterday… I recall that I eventually got in contact with a guy out of Brisbane named “Marty” who had been recommended to me.  By the time I found him Marty had moved back to NZ. He gave me an email address for Arts Elemental. “A new guy on the Coast”, according to Marty.

Look what I just found… 

So it was in 2011 when I first sat under Tu’s gun.

And the itch for ink has not diminished… 

As time goes on I don’t sit the long sessions like before. I guess part of the gig in the “old days” was the travel. Was moving a lot and needed to fly in, get inked then head home. Now days I drive down, we sit n chat n catch up for a couple of hours, then do a bit of ink. Tu and I discussed it as, perhaps, just perhaps being at a stage where I have a fair amount of ink and, tho keen for more, in no hurry, anymore.

Also, I don’t take the pain as well as when I was “younger”. I think of sitting for 3-4 hours straight then a break, then another couple of hours when my back got done. I remember going into a Pain-Accepting dream. Zoning out. Going to that “space”.

Not any more. I’m good for an hour or so at a punch. Ink a bit, have a cup of tea, ink a bit more… Like I said, no longer in  a hurry.

Today I am wrangling babies… Grace went off to church and I cast a sleep-spell. I have UFC on the tube so they sleep and I watch blood sports…

GG has woke up. Dawnie is fidgeting.

Rd 1 of a killer punch fest. Alaveria v Meneria… a killer first round.

And life is good.