Stewed, Screwed & Tattooed

On Monday, D and I took a short break from work to enjoy an overnight stay in Hong Kong. Part of the fun was getting "inked" at Star Crossed Tattoo. The artist in residence is named Julia, a well-known and well-respected local artist and, we suspect, soon to be known on the international scene if she isn't already. We were pretty jazzed that she could book us in for appointments before we left for home since her schedule fills up fast.

The studio is a comfortable place. It has a room where Julia works and also has a separate waiting area with a comfy couch, a coffee table, and lots of tattoo books and mags to look at while you wait. The waiting area even has a plasma t.v. on the wall. D got to watch several episodes of Night Rider while he waited for Julia to finish my piece (which was a real treat after the craptacular stuff we are subjected to on mainland t.v.).

All of the staff at Star Crossed Tattoo were professional and super nice. In addition to Julia, there are two other staff members: Ross (the studio's piercer) and Rob (Julia's apprentice). When we visited the studio was hosting a guest tattoo artist, Kevin Poon from Scorpion Studios in Houston, Texas. They were an all-around cool bunch -- friendly, professional, and willing to chat to make the time pass.

The work that Julia did on us was fabulous. We both brought her challenging designs, and she executed them really well. Note, for example, the super clean lines on D's tattoo.

Mine, a patriotic piece inspired by my year as an expat (location: upper left arm) --

D's work is a political statement of a different kind, which he describes as an informal social experiment that will hopefully cause people to think about gender and maybe engage in conversations about it (location: left forearm) --