Tag: Stuff We Love

We Love Tattoos! (Part 2: Josh’s journey from simple and impactful to complicated and colorful)

We Love Tattoos! (Part 2: Josh’s journey from simple and impactful to complicated and colorful)

by | People
Pikapika
Not one of Josh’s tattoos, but still pretty funny. Maybe a future plan…

Welcome back to our We Love Tattoos series! Check out the link to see part one, and to see part 3 and 4 in the future (hiiii future!). In this part, if you couldn’t tell from the (sub)title, Josh is going to talk about his tattoos!

Tattoo #1: Hammer (August 2017)

Artist: Michela Dilernia, currently at My Little Needle Tattoos in Plymouth, MI

We both really love impact: showing up, making things better. We tend to get bored if nothing’s happening and there’s nothing for us to do.

In the past, we’ve done what are called “Core Values Exercises” to help people and teams figure out how to describe themselves in a few words that represent their core defining characteristics. “Impact” is one of Josh’s, and the symbol for him for that is a big ol’ hammer, so…that was his first tattoo.

With blurry picture of Josh’s happy kid.

I loved the whole experience, it didn’t hurt too bad, and I loved how it turned out. Big patches of black, straight lines, my artist was great. Some touch-up inside the black was needed after the first session, but I loved it.

Tattoos #2 and #3: Armband and Sans (October 2020)

Artist: Shaun Friday, at Ministry Ink in Lansing, MI

My first plan was to only have black and grey tattoos because I really like the look of old tattoos – black tattoos settle almost immediately into a less intense black, and they look more like an intrinsic part of a person’s body. “Venerable” is also a core value…

I really liked armbands (I blame the hot arms of CS:GO players), and I knew I wanted one. I also very much wanted a tattoo of Sans from the game Undertale. Sans, as it turns out, is a real nice guy – unless you push him too far, and then he surprisingly and skillfully murders you to death.

Taking an armband tattoo break: check out that band (and my shaved arm!)

Here are the completed tattoos: Sans winking, the armband from the inside, which has a geometric slanted opening. Also, us smiling goofily, and Laine with her Harley Quinn hair!

I decided to get both of these tattoos at the same time because I had a backlog of tattoos that I wanted, and since they were both small, Shaun was cool with doing both in one sitting.

Tattoo #5 (yes, we know it skips numbers, more on that in a minute!): V is for Vendetta (January 2021)

Artist: Adam at Psychotic Ink in Clearwater Beach, FL

We went to Florida and found a tattoo shop near the beach, and decided to roll the dice and see how it went. Laine got a beautiful tattoo, and I decided to get a tattoo on one of my favorite ideas (and movies). It might be my most beautiful tattoo, and it was also the most colorful up to that point. Thus completed my swap to “whoa, colorful tattoos are amazing.”

Ideas are Bulletproof

Tattoo #6: Sans – Bad Time (January 2021)

Artist: Shaun Friday again!

Sans on the wrist was really cool, happy, and represented me well – but I really liked the idea of Bad Time Sans, which is the aforementioned “skillfully murdering you to death” Sans (here’s a link to a playthrough in the game after you’ve chosen to play as a super awful person, several times in a row – lots of Undertale spoilers there). Both iterations of Sans really reflect how I see myself, so, I got this Sans tattoo as well. I had to think harder than the previous tattoos about where I wanted it, but ultimately I’m really glad I chose this position (which is on my chest). It shows up when my shirt moves sometimes, and I’m really happy with that.

(This is what a tattoo looks like fresh: pretty inflamed, a little swollen. It heals up nicely later.)

Tattoos: Mechs!

I really really love Battletech. So much. I played as a kid, and I loved so much about it. I now have 3 tattoos of the various mechs from Battletech.

Tattoo #4: Battlemaster (December 2020)

I love the Battlemaster (“venerable” again) the most, and I got this as a half blueprint/half full color:

Artist: Kayla Grosso, also at Ministry Ink in Lansing, MI (this tattoo made it onto Kayla’s Instagram page!)

Tattoo #7: Atlas (February and March 2021)

Then, I wanted an Atlas, and decided (after much debate with the artist) that my ribs was a good place for it, because…lots of free real estate. The ribs are widely considered to be the MOST painful place to get a tattoo, and while we talked about other places, less painful places, I really wanted this to be a tattoo large enough to have the right amount of details. More room for more detail means a better looking tattoo.

Artist: Adam Crane, also at Ministry Ink (and the owner!) in Lansing, MI

This is Atlas, as artwork!

One of the cool things about an artist is they can take original art and turn it into an awesome tattoo, blending elements that you love to make something altogether original. They also fit it to your body, which means moving pieces around, changing orientation, and making sure it wraps the body properly.

This was how Atlas looked at the end of sitting #1.

This was a super painful tattoo. The first session, lines, shading, and some color, and I was really hurting. I have a pretty good pain tolerance, and in fact Adam told me that I might have been his best rib tattoo client ever because I dealt with it so well – but this hurt worse than any physical hurt I remember, including breaking a leg. I love Bactine: the fancy pain-numbing stuff that tattoo artists can put on tattoos, it helps so much, at least temporarily.

The second session was fill-in color, and really illustrated one of the cool things about tattoos: they are a million different pieces of art, continually being added to while the artist works. Line work is great. Greys and shading are great. Color is great. As a human canvas, we get to see it all done.

Well…we get to see it all done assuming you can see the tattoo while it’s being done. We’ve both found that watching the tattoo being done helps with pain tolerance, because it’s fascinating and distracting and easier to mentally prep for it to hurt in a particular place. We learned with Bad Time Sans that not being able to see makes it hurt a lot worse, so for the rib tattoo we tried putting up/holding a mirror – but it hurt so much that Josh actually couldn’t watch for a while.

That day I learned, doing anything to distract yourself, including counting, breathing exercises, and distracting myself with different textures, all measurably help with the pain. More pro tips on that when we do that post!

All done! After the second session.

I do plan to get more added to this tattoo, like a background, but…recovery first.

Soundwave Tattoos - Home | Facebook

Tattoo #8: Headhunter (March 2021)

Artist: Shaun Friday, one more time!

When I was a kid, I had fun making custom mechs in the Battletech game. One of my favorites was a modified Axman with a heavier body (60 tons), carrying a mace with triple strength myomer. It carried some lasers too, for range and to warm up the myomers, but basically it was a close-in melee brawler. I called it the Headhunter and with the right pilot it could smash the top off of a mech a whole weight class above it.

After Laine’s great tattoo of Shaun’s original art (spoiler alert!), I had the idea to have Shawn draw up this mech in his style, and the result is awesome:

Up Next?

I have no idea what my next tattoo will be. I have a good mech theme going, and I’m considering wrapping the Atlas scene around my torso (ow), but for now, my plan is to recover and think deep thoughts about life, what parts of my soul I want to share with the world, and what feelings I may need to process next.

We Love Tattoos! (Part 1! Tattoos are Super Cool!)

We Love Tattoos! (Part 1! Tattoos are Super Cool!)

by and | God, People

It’s time to start a new series, apparently! We both really love tattoos. Laine has been getting them off and on since she was 14, and while Josh only started a few years ago, but regardless of number of tattoos or time spent getting them, it’s one of the best ways to get either or both of us babbling about the things we know and love about them. We plan to write about our favorite of our tattoos, and our recommendations for getting a tattoo (PRO TIPS! NUMBER FIVE WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!!!!!….actually not, just what we’ve learned as we’ve gone along).

So…the series as we have it roughly sketched out right now will go something like this:

1. Tattoos are super cool, here’s what we know about how they work and some of our fav artists (this post!)
2. The stories behind Laine’s tattoos
3. The stories behind Josh’s tattoos
4. Tattoo pro tips

Why Tattoos?

As you know, we love souls and the power they have, and we hate hiding them.

We believe everyone has a unique awesome to them, a shard of some great holy essence, a supernatural Meaning. So…hiding that shit is stupid. But not hiding it is kind of scary, for the reasons that we’ve talked about before and will continue to talk about that basically boil down to being afraid of being alone – well and truly alone – because of not hiding your soul well enough.

Tattoos have an interesting sort of cost/benefit when it comes to souls. They require physical pain, and sometimes emotional pain, to design them and to get them, and then they themselves serve as a monument to that pain. You would think that physical and emotional pain could not possibly be beautiful, and that it wouldn’t be something a person would want a permanent reminder of – but the pain existed regardless of it can be seen, and tattoos are beautiful. As a result, we’ve found that tattoos are a great way to show your soul, and intermingle your soul and what it loves and knows and means with a super talented artist. The mingle results in something beautiful and permanent and uniquely you, that goes where you go and helps tell your story.

How Tattoos Work

Tattoos are permanent body art that comes to be via stabbing someone repeatedly with a motorized cluster of tiny needles with ink coating them.  (Josh: I didn’t know this, I thought the ink flowed from inside the needles. This week I learned.) This article explains it well, although its advice for aftercare is old. Basically, skin has multiple layers and is a lot thicker than it seems, and tattoos deposit ink into the dermis/middle layer. The machine that does the tattooing is shaped a bit like a gun, but most tattoo artists prefer to call it what it is – a “machine.”

The palette of inks available is staggering, and you can get a tattoo in any of those colors that exist or any color that your artist mixes FROM those existing colors. The outline of tattoos is typically done in black, although not always, and the whole tattoo can be black and white and gray, or it can be all of those plus full color. Tattoos last a long time, but because you’re an alive person, and your skin is also alive, tattoos tend to fade and blur over long periods of time. There are a few factors that influence how fast this happens, or even if it happens in a way that’s noticeable. We’ll talk about those later, in the pro tips post!

You can see some interesting slow-mo video of how tattooing works here:

Do Tattoos Hurt?

Ribs: free real estate

…yes. Tattoos hurt. Sometimes they hurt a lot, because…you’re literally being stabbed, thousands of times.  How much they hurt varies depending on the person, and on the location of the tattoo. For us, it’s ranged from feeling like a light scratch to feeling like being cut open. In the later posts where we talk about our tattoos, you’ll learn that Josh has a massive rib tattoo – and I (Josh) can say clearly that ribs are not a fun place to get tattooed. But they are huge real estate, and sometimes that matters because bigger areas to tattoo mean…well, that you can have a bigger tattoo. And bigger tattoos mean that you have more space, or canvas, for beautiful detail and color and shading. Big tattoos can be really pretty, and that might mean getting a tattoo in a painful place.

In our experience, we both have a high pain tolerance (per our favorite tattoo artists, anyway!), so… we aren’t afraid of pain, especially physical pain. It’s worth it, and at times it can even be quite cathartic.

How Much Do Tattoos Cost?

Tattooing is not prohibitively expensive, although the cost can require some planning. Neither of us are what you’d call artists in any drawn medium, which means that we typically need a tattoo artist to do some design work for us on top of the tattoos themselves. Some artists will charge for this design work, and some assume it’s an included cost of doing business. For the tattoo itself, most artists charge somewhere between $100 and $200 an hour, and tipping is both accepted and welcome in our experience.

As a rough example, a well-done tattoo about the size of your hand could take between 90 minutes and 4 hours, which would translate to somewhere between $150 and $800, plus tip. The bigger the tattoo, the more detailed the tattoo, or the more painful the tattoo, the more sessions it might take to complete – which would mean one trip to the tattoo shop, then time to heal plus time for the artist to be available again (artists can be booked months in advance), then another trip to the tattoo shop…repeat as needed.

But…don’t forget, you get to keep the art forever. And it serves as a reminder to yourself, a memento of your history, a thought that brings you joy, or just something beautiful that you have as a permanent decoration on yourself. If you amortize the cost over your lifetime…they become relatively cheap.

We also tend to build relationships with people who do something as intimate as tattooing us, which means that we spend time and money to obtain something important to us, and we also get to hang out with friends. It’s a great way to spend a few hours and a few hundred bucks.

Favorite Local Artists, and How to Find a Good One

We’ve both had a significant amount of work done by the folks at Ministry Ink. Between us, we’ve had 3 tattoos from Adam Crane, who is also the owner of the shop, 3 tattoos from Kayla Grosso, and 4 tattoos from Shaun Friday.

Laine also got 3 tattoos in 2017/2018, all very different styles, from Trish, who owns My Little Needle Tattoos. We also both got a tattoo from (a different) Adam at Psychotic Ink in Clearwater, FL.

…which brings us to the “how to find a good artist” portion of the blog! There are two ways to find a good artist or shop – 1) recommendations from people you trust, usually people who already have tattoos that are not ugly, and 2) looking at artists’ work online and falling in love with their style. Ministry Ink, and Adam and Kayla in particular, were recommended to Laine by tattooed friends, when she was trying to find someone who would do two custom pieces. Instagram is great to see an overview of an artist’s style, which is why we’ve linked to artists’ Instagram accounts where we can.

You can research what makes a good tattoo/what a good tattoo looks like – Josh learned a lot recently by watching Ink Master, while Laine learned a lot 20+ years ago by scouring tattoo magazines. You should also meet with/consult with your artist before getting a tattoo and find out if you’re comfortable with them, if that matters to you. It matters a lot to both of us, because this person will see you at what could be close to your weakest, and…vulnerability + a jerk with a tattoo machine does not make for the best possible experience.

Next Up…

Part 2! The stories behind either Josh or Laine’s tattoos, depending on which one gets done first!

Stuff We Love: Kilts #2 – Winter and Spring Update

Stuff We Love: Kilts #2 – Winter and Spring Update

by and | People

There are a lot of updates to our first kilt post. That post was written mostly on our experience before winter, and with a soft cotton kilt. Since then, I’ve gotten some new kilts, gotten some accessories, and dealt with the cold – but I still love kilts!

Are Kilts a Good Idea?

We get variants of this question a lot:

  • “Isn’t it breezy?”
  • “Aren’t you cold?”
  • “Why don’t you wear pants?”
  • “Heyyy, are you Scottish?”
  • A lot of, “nice kilt bro,” which seems like it pre-answers the question… spoiler alert.

Yes, yes it is – breezy, that is. But I really love not wearing pants. I love the fit, and the roominess.

My answer to if kilts are a good idea, after wearing them longer and going through a winter with them, is still yes – I am really happy with them, pants are stupid, and I don’t want to go back. I did wear some very comfy underpants when it was really cold (or riding my motorcycle), but normal pants and normal underpants, no good.

Also, no – I’m not Scottish, I am more of a blend. A blend who loves being comfy.

Denim Durability

Following the adventures with the softer, lighter weight, cotton kilt, I picked up a couple of these style: Smithy by DNKE.

They are a heavier, more durable fabric, and that means they block wind a bit better than the cotton kilt, which I’ve noticed the most when the wind is really blowing. Fun fact, that’s actually when wearing a kilt is the coldest, when the wind blows, so the heavier fabric is nice.

We talked in the last post about how it’s worth it to spend some additional money and buy a kilt that’s good quality. The cotton kilt has held up nicely, and I think these heavier denim kilts will also last a nice long time due to being heavyweight, very durable material. They’re even slightly heavier than normal jeans.

I especially like all of the attachments and hardware on the kilt – in particular, the key hook attachment is great. I’ve switched to keeping my keys on that key hook with an elastic pullstring. I really like that setup.

Where the denim of jeans can thin or wear through over time, I haven’t noticed any of that kind of abrasion wearing on these kilts. They’re also quite comfortable, as I wear one now to type this.

Now with MORE Pockets!

I really, really like the comfort and the number of pockets. I also got a sporran from DNKE that I’m really pleased with. Now I have tons of pockets for all of the 15 pounds of stuff I carry around.

No. Seriously.

Fifteen pounds.

We weighed everything one time.

Denim kilt! AND sporran! TADA!

The Cold and Wind

It’s cold in Michigan. This cold, in Michigan, is really not a lot of fun. Michigan Cold plus wind is extra no fun. Breezy wind on your parts is maybe the least amount of fun.

I never thought I’d be talking about my parts in public, but…here we are.
– Josh just now

Like I said above, the more heavyweight kilts help with this, quite a bit. High quality underpants help too, if it’s really cold.

But actually…it’s not that bad. I’ve shoveled, walked, and worked outside in a kilt, and was quite comfortable, even at this winter’s coldest. Kilts were made for Scotland. It’s cold there. So…it makes sense that these do a good job of keeping everything pretty warm.

One thing I will say, is that a sporran helps with the wind. I nearly had a few Marilyn Monroe Wind Moments that the sporran helped with.

Behind-the-Scenes of Marilyn Monroe's Iconic Flying Skirt (PHOTOS) - Biography
Josh, in the wind, without a sporran.

Tall Socks

Another winter-time concession with kilts are tall socks – usually wool, unless you happen to be unlucky enough to be allergic, Laine mutters in Itchy. In addition to helping keep your legs warm, they also help when you need to wear boots. I gotta’ say, the tall socks + motorcycle boots look is one that both feels and looks great.

In Conclusion…

Kilts are amazing. They can be cold in the winter, but actually…it mostly works. They do tend to draw more attention to you, and sometimes need to deal with some perplexing or oddly personal questions, but they’re so comfortable, and they spark great conversation and help you meet awesome people.

Stuff We Love: Kilts!

Stuff We Love: Kilts!

by | People

I love kilts. I didn’t used to. I saw Braveheart and Made of Honor and thought huh, that seems…uncomfortably breezy.

But you know what? Pants are stupid. Also pinchy in places that shouldn’t get pinched.

So, after wearing shorts all Summer 2019, and rather enjoying not wearing pants (thanks COVID and my employer’s WFH policy and ban on work-related travel!), I decided to check out kilts.

I did a bit of shopping and landed at Damn Near Kilt ‘Em (DKNE) as my best first option. (L: Bonus – their name is a pun!) Their Sport Utility Kilt looked good – it had the pockets that I wanted, and cinching straps, and was made of cotton. I looked at their heavier-duty options (the Smithy, which is made of denim) and some of the simpler options, but decided that the Sport Utility was just right. 

Josh in a kilt, on his motorcycle! (another “Things We Love” post maybe coming soon?)

Sizing is a bit tricky. To find the right size, you have to measure where you’re going to wear it, so around the waist or at belly button level. It won’t necessarily be the same as your pants size. My first attempt was L/XL size in grey – out of stock – so I went with blue. I got it, wore it on a hot week, and was happy sitting at my desk, lounging on the couch, or mowing the lawn. It was super comfy and cooler than shorts, and overall I was really really happy with it.

Kilt belt buckles are way cool.

I found I needed a belt to help keep the kilt where I wanted to wear it. Kilt belts are a specific width – 2.25″, where the average pants belt width is 1.5″ or 1.75″ – so I didn’t already have one that would work. DNKE has belts, but they didn’t have any in stock in my size. Boo. So I kept shopping, and ordered a belt in the right size. I also got to pick out cool belt buckles, so that was fun.

I decided to order a second kilt, so I got the same style in olive – the lighter-colored stitching looks nice. I got a bigger size for this one – it’s a bit too big, but it can be adjusted to be the right size via the belt. 

Josh in a kilt, with belt!

Wow, these things are comfortable. A few people have asked me why I went with kilts, and I always talk about the comfort when I answer. I also love the huge number of pockets, and how easy it is to get dressed and undressed. Pants are clingy and, as previously mentioned, pinchy, and taking them off or putting them on is very different than “undo belt and let gravity go.”

Some people look at me oddly, and at least one person was hostile about the idea of a man wearing a “skirt.” After processing my initial feelings about that, I landed on it being kind of…funny, actually. The whole experience reminded me that people being weird, or hostile, about the choices I make that don’t affect them tells me more about them than it does about me.

Just like smoking, moshing, or being a Libertarian, wearing a kilt is one of those things that will cause random cool events to happen in your life. Kilts are one of those magical things that take a lot of soul to wear, and they’ve caused several people to walk up to us and say, “Hey, cool kilt! I wear kilts! I love them!” and then we can talk for a bit.

There are all types, makes, and qualities of kilt, and since it’s an important piece of clothing, I suggest not starting out with the cheapest kilt you can get. Spend the money to get one that’s made well. A good quality kilt will last a long time, just like a good pair of jeans, and it will be flexible enough to adjust for fit with a belt or adjustment straps.

I love this thing. Super comfy, the fabric is soft and strong, and it’s pretty easy to care for – machine wash cold, don’t dry it in the dryer or it’ll shrink, so I hang it up to dry.  Pleats are a core part of kilts, and I might have to learn how to iron or something or steam it, I don’t know. So far hanging it up makes the pleats mostly behave. 

There are two ways to wear a kilt – with underpants and “regimental” – and since I haven’t been wearing underpants for a while now, I didn’t see the need to change. It has been a bit of an adventure when wandering around in public places – I’ve had to learn how to adjust how I place the kilt when I sit down for example. (L – which is highly entertaining, and part of why I generally avoid skirts…) But it’s been fun to learn, and very much worth it because of how much I love wearing these things.

Overall, the experience has been great, and cool, and comfy. COVID is actually a good time to try things that perhaps you wouldn’t otherwise. Stay tuned for how it works in colder weather, and seeing how that treats me. Scotland isn’t a warm country, and they figure it out….maybe I need those tall socks, hmmm.

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