Slab Of Ribs

My trip to Montreal was centered around getting tattooed by Yann Black. You can check out his site here.

He does very cool stuff unlike anything else I've seen.

I was going to give him my entire right side, from waist to shoulder to work on. He advised we try to do it all in one long sitting since the ribs are the worst area to get tattooed. Which is what I had always heard.

He had blocked out tue-thu for me initially. Tuesday I went in and told him I wanted a bike, a devil and a moon. He immediately started to sketch on my side. It was very cool to see someone work that spontaneous.

He finished the drawing and said he thought it would take between 7-10 hours. And that we would fit it all in on wednesday. We were going to start at 9am.

I arrived at the shop. HE reworked a bit of the drawing, and then we were ready to start.

I took a pain pill, and he started a thin line trace to preserve the drawing. It hurt, but not too bad. It took about an hour. Then he started to go over a few areas with the thin line needle. It hurt.

After that part was done, he then moved up to start the thick lines. It was not fun. It was even less fun after 3 hours when the pain pill wore off. After the outline was completely done, I truly considered stopping the session there.

I took another pain pill, but it only lasted about an hour and a half. We had barely begun coloring in a few parts.

I needed a break from the coloring. He said he knew it hurt, but it would be better to finish the area he was working on. I agreed. Near the end of it I felt like I want to vomit and stop getting tattooed.

After a short break, we were on the home stretch of coloring. It hurt like hell but since I could see the light at the end of the tunnel I knew I could make it. The black was done. I wanted to again quit. But all he needed to do was the eye in red.

That last bit was not horrible.

Then we were done.

8 hours. Ouch.

Everyone at the shop was very nice and cool. I hung out and had some beers afterward.

I love the final piece. It truly was worth all the pain. But I would never think about getting my other side done.