aracelicerulean

So aside from sitting in a chair and getting stabbed with ink, something else happened this weekend as well.

On the 5th I posted a message to my LJ that contained some rather cryptic things near the end. I admit that this was on purpose, because some things were not finalized yet and I wanted to get my ducks in a row before blabbing my mouth off only to have it turn out to be all for not.

So I really have started to hate this job, and it shows. People at work can see it, and so can many others, so as I said at the end of the last message, I have decided to change some things up a bit.

Step one of this was done nearly a year ago now by getting myself completely out of debt. That was $30k worth of monkey off my back and I felt freer then I have ever before.

Step two was to get off my ass, finish some things and buy a car. That was done by April of this year when I bought myself my Lincoln Navigator. Even for all its headaches and costs, I am still totally happy with this purchase and love my truck.

We now begin step 3 of this revamping by doing probably one of the most difficult of all. On the 7th of this month I signed up and paid for the first 4 month long session of learning how to weld. At the college here in town they have courses in the trades, many different ones to choose from and I decided to sign up for WELD 99 861 Welding Technology.

This Introductory course covers basic Oxy-acetylene Welding (O.A.W.), Shielded Metal Arc Weld (S.M.A.W.), Tungsten Inert Gas Weld (T.I.G.), and Metal Inert Gas Weld (M.I.G.). It is every Tuesday starting January 19th and running till April 27th. I will learn all the basics of welding different materials, and this course allows me to take the advanced arc welding course also offered by the school which will give me enough training to get certified in welding by the Canadian Welding Board. I will have to wait till after I have finished the first course to take the second one, but I really can't wait.

I have always loved to do work with my hands. My dad is a carpenter by trade, and my grandfather was a plumber pipefitter and steamfitter back in the day as well. Some of my fondest memories in life was spending hours with dad or by myself in the shop working on various projects and learning how to do things. I really want to feel that again, like I used to feel when I was first starting out with computers.

Maybe some day I will work this into a full fledged metal fabrication job, but for now, I just want to be able to create something, or work on my vehicle without having to pay someone an arm and a leg for work that I could do myself.

So the bear is going back to school, to learn how to properly fuse metal together with fire.

Wish me luck, I am going to need it.

prplhaze

So today was another tattoo sitting with my artist. It has been a while, but we got started on the next stage of my sleeve and I am so stoked for the next sitting in about a week when we will do a bit of shading on the rocks that the tiger is standing on.

( Images behind cut. )

This was a 5 hour sitting to get the work done, and that makes it the longest sitting I have done yet for the tattoo. As I said the rocks that the tiger is standing on will be wash shaded with some darker areas as well to give it some depth. Next month I will go in for colour on the tiger, and we will then start on the largest of the pieces which will probably be an 8 hour or longer sitting.

Hope you all enjoy!

prplhaze

x-posted to furrytattoos