Hurt...

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything - Nine Inch Nails

On the way to the tattoists I was approached by a girl called Erica and some of her friends, apparently doing a survey type thingy for homework. She asked a few questions about what I was doing in Hong Kong and then if i'd mind having my photo taken with her and her friends. They all seemed pretty cool so I said yes.

I then realised I was still pretty early for my tattoo (over an hour in fact - just a little keen!!) so I headed to Starbucks for a coffee and a finger roll (nothing adventurous as didn't want to take a chance before I had to sit still for 2 hours!). There were no seats so approached a chilled looking westerner to sit with. We started talking about jobs and life - turns out he's an IT Headhunter called Jeff of American origin, but who has spent a lot of time living in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. Conversation moved on and we ended up discussing economic ideals, philosophy (he's aware of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but had similar Christian upbringing to me), books, psychology and relationships and we share a lot of the same ideals. It was a thought provoking conversation, looking at issues such as Globalisation from a fellow technologists perspective. We exchanged details and said we'd meet up for a beer or a coffee before I leave HK. Its always good to meet someone who shares a lot of your ideas and can add different angles to some of your arguments. I got so caught up in the chat we were having I was nearly late for my appointment.

I arrived at Cubist Tattoo and was introduced to Jason Choi - he spoke no English, but was careful to explain his best about what was going on and to put me at ease. I showed him my other tattoos so he knew that I was quite aware but he remained sure that I saw his assistant clean the studio (all surfaces stainless steel or smooth kitchen surfaces with a tiled floor), and that I saw him open the vacuum packed needles with gloves, etc and removed freshly autoclaved machines. His assistant spoke a little english and was able to ask for the money in advance just before we started and I explained to him that it was Angus that referred me. Various references were made by Jason about Angus being a stoner, and we were able to have a laugh - good start to an introduction to someone who's going to be inflicting pain on you for the next couple of hours in my opinion!

Jason kept checking on me to ensure I was ok at various points throughout the tattoo. Really the only problem there was occurred due to my leg cramping up as a result of it being in such a crazy position so Jason could tattoo the back of my leg. A quick stretch of my leg every 30-45 minutes sorted that out and we were back on track. I have to say he's a fast worker as well, despite digging pretty deep in places. Afterwards he checked I was happy and was more than happy to have his photo taken with me, and i'm really impressed with the aftercare card and ointment that he gave me - a stock is kept in both English and Cantonese.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Julian, Emma and the twins for lunch, so an early night for me tonight. Think i'll skype a couple of people, watch a film (got a couple of Hong Kong Cinema DVD's), then bed.