Jack, tattooed. (Patreon)

Before my most recent tattoo appointment, I grabbed a bottle of HUSH tattoo anesthetic gel and a roll of cling wrap, and proceeded to numb my leg into oblivion, guaranteeing that I'd feel as little as humanly possible when Philadelphia's Dave Fox worked on my upper/inner thigh. 

I've been getting tattooed now for 31 years, and I'm pleased as punch to be able to have workable solutions to tattoo pain management. 

My mentor Jack was right there with me when it came to not enjoying the process of getting tattooed. Back in the 1990s, Jack had experimented with numbing the skin before tattooing, mixing xylocaine in with the pigment/green soap- anything to dull it out a little. Pretty much everything he tried was unsuccessful, with pigment loss and overworked skin as a result. 

That has nothing to do with this photo, taken in Maryland in the 1980s and featuring a tattooer I don't recognize, but Patreon tells me that folks love longer posts, so what can you do?