Yeah, this one was quite a bit more painful than my others. Now, it wasn’t enough to make me break out in a sweat, pass out, or make any moaning noises or anything, but it definitely hurt like heck. This design wraps around the front and back of my arm and I’m telling you, when she started getting into the tender inside arm skin…. oooooooh boy.

The worst part is that she’s not even half done. My next appointment is late July and I have three hours booked. Hopefully she will be able to finish up in that sitting. For now my arm feels like I have a really bad sunburn, and honestly, with half a design filled in and the other half outlined, it looks retarded. But the part she did finish looks cool and I’m pretty stoked about her work. Her name is Christy by the way, and It was kind of a coincidence that she is suffering from tendinitis as well, so we had a little to talk about while she tortured me.

I might post pictures later…. but chances are you’re going to have to wait until it’s done.

So after my appointment I had to take Deanna to dinner at this Spanish restaurant called La Paella. It’s for extra credit in her Spanish class. I told Deanna it would be much more efficient to just bribe the teacher directly rather than go spend money at a restaurant, but she was hungry so we went.

La Paella is kind of a small place over on Champlain and Perrin, in the fancy schmancy part of Fresno. The atmosphere is warm and comfortable and they have outdoor seating if you want the whole Euro Cafe / Long’s parking lot dining type of feel. At least they’re trying. The service is sloooooow, so be prepared to eat like real Europeans and take your time. If you are alone, or with a boring date, this is not the place to go. Oh, and for you white people; this is a SPANISH restaurant, which is different from Mexican. So don’t expect chips and salsa ‘bokay?

The food was pretty good although it was really heavy. I ordered a Tapas sampler and I expected more veggies and breads, maybe like the Italians eat, but there was more fried items, eggs, and sausages. And the sauce was really heavy too, kind of like a heavy mayonnaise-y thing. At the end of our meal the guy who runs the place (who’s a super nice guy) brought us a Spanish rice dish with linquica and bell peppers in it, and that was dynamite. Next time I think I’ll just order that alone. So the food was good, but a little on the heavy side for me. In fact, I skipped breakfast this morning because I just felt kind of weighed down.

On certain nights they have a guitar player providing mood music and this Thursday they are having an art hop and wine tasting night. So if you’re in the mood to rub elbows with Fresno’s upper echelon and pretend you know anything at all about wine or art, this is the place.

I’ll probably be under the needle for at least 3 hours. So if anyone is in the neighborhood and wants to drop in and watch me writhe in pain, or bring me some Advil and hold my hand, feel free to do so.

Well, our bible study group has been reading “The Heart of the Artist” and so I did a quick search on the net for bible quotes with regards to artists. The first page that popped up had a partial verse that really kind of struck me in a cool way. It’s actually the first half of the very first line of the bible. “In the beginning God created…”. God is an artist! How cool is that?

So I went looking for images that show off God’s artistic side. After looking at thousands of paintings, tattoos, and taking into account the specialty of my tattoo artist (asian designs), I came up with the following sketch. I have two weeks to nail this design down, or postpone my appointment, but I’m feeling pretty good about it. Check it out.

Oh and since I’m feeling artistic today, I posted some of my more recent designs on my Flickr page.