New Chest Tattoo

This past week I sat for my new chest tattoo. It's been in the works for a while. Master and I have been bouncing ideas back and forth for a while after he decided that a chest piece would be my next ink. Evolving the design from some rough ideas in my sketchbook we settled on the idea of geometric/ wireframe style of a bear paw and antlers. After that I passed it on to the tattooist who took the rough idea and re-worked it to make it pop. I love his use of weighting a few lines to be thicker to really help push the 3d effect. I was recommended Jan as an artist for this after asking about for a tattooist who was also part of, or familiar with, the kink community, and his name came up several times and his portfolio really speaks for itself. The night before Master actually used a bit of hypnotic reinforcement to help with pain management. Using a recording of the sound of a tattoo gun, he put the idea in my head that the buzz of the tattoo gun would put me under into a very relaxed state and that the pain of the needle would seem distant. It worked. Well, it worked for the first 3rd of the tattoo. I was fully relaxed with no tension being held in my muscles and I was able to look at the pain in a detached, remote way. Jan shading-in the right antler This wasn't enough for the heart section over the ribcage. That part really was difficult. I had been told ahead of time places like the ribcage, where there is no fat or muscle under the skin are the most painful. That really was a matter of gritting my teeth and drumming my hands to stim through the pain. I got a nice hit of endorphins towards the end of that section though, which helped a lot and meant I was able to distance myself from the pain again and I was even able to daydream and mentally wander. Alas the right antler line work came when the endorphins ran out and I had to mentally raw dog that part. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I probably will try and avoid getting a tattoo this big for my next one if I can, but super glad I got this. It really is true what they say. Tattoos do in an odd way help you feel more like yourself. I can't wait to show this off.