Well, I knew that getting my new tattoo was going to hurt more than my last one – this one is on my chest, the last was on my arm. Even knowing that, though, I wasn’t prepared for quite how much more it was going to hurt, or the interesting varying sensations of pain in different places, which was probably worse than the intensity – just as I’d got used to one sort of pain, we’d move one to stabbing a whole new bit of me repeatedly with needles, and I was in a whole new place of ouch that I wasn’t quite steeling myself for.

Those of my friends with backpieces/work that goes across the spine – how did you manage it? Because right now, I’m revising my plans to get a backpiece done, since it turns out that I am a big girlyman.

Also, I feel really wierd with one side of my chest shaved.