Kid Icarus (Or Kiddy Cris as my naďve self used to call it) was the kind of game that could hold me to the screen for hours at a time, without any kind of care as to what was going on around me. The game is short, by today’s standards or even in 1987 when it was released, but that didn’t worry me at all as a six year old. Although the plot in the game differs from the Greek mythology of Icarus, I can relate.

The lore of Icarus says his father, Daedalus made wings out of feathers and wax to escape Crete. He warns Icarus not to fly too close to the sun; however Icarus gets caught up, lost in the moment, and flies closer than he should have. Wax melts, Icarus falls. Although I never fell, (maybe of the sofa once or twice,) this game would get me lost in the moment too. I play it today, and sadly it’s not the same hypnotizing, time stopping, black hole of win, but it is still just as fun, maybe more. Some of you may only know of Pit from Brawl, or the whispers of an Icarus Wii game.

Fun Fact: Kid Icarus uses the same engine as Metroid.

But Pit and I go way back. Sitting in front of the TV on the floor taking down penguins and smashing centurions free from stone, Pit and I were a great team. Rising from the underworld, kicking ass in the overworld, and then taking down Medusa herself. I always thought it was strange that Medusa’s weak point was her eye. The very eye that if you look into, your supposed to turn to stone.
The dungeons were great too. The maze of different rooms, and different creatures, the yellow/orange baths that restore your health and even stores to buy things. Also, still to this very day, I have never EVER tried to eat eggplant and probably never will. I thank Pit for that. I still look at them in the store and cringe.

Kid Icarus was a life changing game for me.
Hence the gesture.



By far the largest of my tattoos, this one took two sittings and clocked up around 3-4 hours if memory serves. Again I found the image on DeviantArt.

Much like the Link tattoo, it was the inside that hurt the most. Pit’s wings wrap around slightly but not all the way through. I had the outline done for months before I had time to get back and get the rest filled in. Anyone who has done this knows that it’s pretty frustrating to walk around with a half finished tattoo. I just never found the time to get back.



Obviously not as child-like, as the original game, slightly older, but still young enough that any fans would recognize him. This one really does mean a lot to me, purely for the love I had for the game when I was young. It’s an amazing platformer, short, but challenging. If Nintendo did HD remakes, like Microsoft get done on retro games, my vote is on “The Kid.”




The inside still has enough room for the other piece I have planned and I may have enough room on the inside of my elbow for a sixth tattoo. Either way you look at it, I’m halfway done or just over that towards the end. I still have not decided on the 6th piece, if it will fit, and welcome your ideas. Maybe a D’toid robot head!



And for those of you following along at home, this is an idea of where its upto:

The Legend of Zelda series has to be my all time favorite Nintendo franchise. The series has had numerous games produced and although each is basically a remix of the last, they all are great games with an excellent main story and great side quests.

As a young NES gamer, The Legend of Zelda was the epitome of epic. I had played RPG’s on Atari, none that I could recall by name, but there was something memorizing about Zelda. Maybe it was the huge scale of the map, or the awesome music, but Zelda was the crown jewel of my Nintendo collection. How could it not be? The cartridge was gold!

It breaks down like this:
There’s a princess.
She’s kidnapped.
Ganon: Bad Man
You have to save her.
Old guy.
Creepy.
Says its dangerous.
Gives you a sword.
On your way.
Let’s not forget the tri-force.



There are other great Nintendo franchises. Mario, for example, was great, don’t get me wrong, but it was pretty “point A to point B”. Zelda is far less linear, more of a journey than a game. Ill admit, I wasn’t great at it. Many deaths, many attempts. That damn beep when your hearts are down… There was lots of asking my older brother for help, looking at the map and I could never EVER remember how to get through the brown forest on the lower left hand side of the map. I enjoyed collecting all the items, the heart containers as well as the heart container pieces. The music was incredible! Even the little things like when you discover a secret, that sound that plays. Or even when you pick up a new item. As a 7 year old, it was so exciting to be on this epic quest to save the princess and the world. At the same time. Two birds, one stone.

On my last update you saw the outline and the shading got started. It is now finished. And I love it. People talk about regrets, but with this and the SF2 tattoo, how could I ever regret this?



You can see that the excellent shading that was done on the boots continues through the rest of the tattoo. I really love it. It’s definitely a tattoo that could have gone wrong, by choosing the wrong place, wrong picture, or wrong tattooist. There were other choices for a Link tattoo, but when I think of Link this is how I picture him, because when I played Zelda all those years ago, I was young, just like Link here. Because I was young, I thought of Link that way. The fact is Zelda was 8-bit. There was no way to tell if he was old or young by looks alone. I could have gone with an older version for this, more of a Twilight Princess look, a “Harder” look, but I still think this is perfect.

So i have a son. He's seven. One thing i get sick sick pleasure out of is watching him absolutely shit himself (not literally) whilst watching me play L4D on 360. Yeah, i mean i may let the zombies run that little bit closer just so they're right in my face, but he's terrified.

To the point that he cant look away.

People say to me, "I cant believe to make him watch that!"

Make him? Oh no. There is no "make". When it gets to, "Hey kid, your getting too scared, go play with your LEGO," and even though he is on the other side of the room, he still tries to watch. That enters the realm of independent choice, so I'm off the hook, he brings it on himself. I ask him, "Why do you keep watching when your so scared, that you physically shake? So scared that sometimes, you get up and hide behind furniture?"
Reply: "I just like watching you play games. Mostly scary games."

Then, why is the witch smiling?



He brought this home from school. Oh there's others, but this one is the best IMO.

According to him:
"The witch isn't smiling, shes screaming!"
"The guy in the left is the brown guy" Oh yeah, he said that.
"Louis isn't scared. Hes angry"

Kids.

When asked why is L4D good: "You get to shoot lots of zombies that are really tough. Some are weak. Thats why." He then turned away and added, "And mostly because its a shooting game."

Point: Isn't that what kids should be able to say about all games?

The job was simple and had two parts:
*Finish the Shading on Chun-Li
*Begin work on the outline of the back of the forearm.

It begins. Now in my opinion, the shading portion of a tattoo hurts a lot more than the outline. However. Many people will disagree and tell you that it’s the other way around. You can argue it, but really, for me, the outline is fine, the shading… mmm, not so much. I’m told Chun-Li will tale around an hour, to an hour and a half. And it does. And it looks amazing. There’s really nothing left to say about it, take a look.



In all honesty, it’s just how I pictured it when I thought of getting it done. I’m very glad I didn’t go with full colour. It would have looked fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but blues and yellows and browns, on my skin… I wear a lot of white. It would have looked funny. Maybe on someone else. SO big ups! The first of the pieces is El Completo!

From left to right:





We took a short break, water was drunk, cigarettes were smoked. There was small talk. Then out came the next sketch. It was like Christmas. The excitement. I didn’t think that the SFII tattoo would last over three sessions, so this next one felt slightly delayed. Like I should have already had it.

Now this one was on the books from the very beginning. When my brain first caught a whisper in its inner canals of a whole arm tattoo dedicated to my number one hobby, THIS was the first guy on the metaphorical “ideas board.” Then came a snag. It is unbelievably difficult to find a suitable picture of this guy. Months I scoured the interwebs. Nothing. Eventually it came time to take the pics I had into the artist. But I had no pic of this guy in there… I couldn’t find one. I had to go with what I had. In the end the spot went to Sakura, that badass school girl. So I charged ahead.

It wasn’t meant to be I thought.
Half naked schoolgirl will make an excellent tattoo I thought.
Not in a sick old man way at all I thought.
We can work with this.

Ryu and Chun-Li begun. Then what do I find a few days later? Mother Fu….. Why didn’t I find this earlier?! Hidden amongst the pages of The Majora’s Mask manga from Japan, the perfect picture to fill the spot that was soon to be taken by Sakura.
Link.
Now when I say perfect, I could mean many things. When I say it though, I mean the right size, the right point of view, the right style. It was like this was meant to be found, and it was meant to be tattooed on the backside of my forearm, behind Ryu and Chun-Li.
45 mins: outline done. Another 30 minutes: Half shading done.



The thing about backs of forearms: They hurt. And not in “hey, that’s kind of sore.” More in a “lets cut your arm open and play around with the stuff inside while your awake” kind of hurt. But then double it. And then again. Especially the shading towards the wrist. Also, very difficult to take photos of, because as you twist your arm, so does the tattoo and begins to looks skewed.

But enough of that. The Legend of Zelda series of games are a long time favourite of mine. Link HAD to be a part of my sleeve design, and I’m very happy to say that he is now. Also, girls think he’s cute, so there are some perks. I really like his boots



Altogether, another 3 hours, bringing the total up to 11 hours.

This is how they fit together at the edges:

Next we finish the shading. It won’t take long and we should have time to start the outline of, and hopefully finish, the outside of the bicep. And this one is going to be awesome. This one comes from a game I was absolutely obsessed with as a child and would/could play for hours and hours. It’s another NES classic. One of my all time favourites. Between this and Gunsmoke, and was raised and became a man. Check back soon!

How about an update yaw'll?

Went in for another session with the tattoo artist and had a 3 hour sit down. For those of you counting at home, that makes 5 hours in total now. You'll see that we got most of the fill done. Ryu is finished so consider that a wrap, however time ran out for the poor little hottness that is Chun Li. Basically we started with all the solid black parts on both, then once that was finished we moved onto the shaded areas. Three hours later, this is the result:



One thing i didn't know about tattoos this size and with this much shading is that they appear much darker straight after they are finished. Then over the span of the healing process, they will lighten up. These pictures I've taken here are about a week after the ink was done, so they will pretty much look like this, but were much darker when i first came home.



Some comments on my last post asked if I'm going to be able to live with this tattoo for the rest of my life, will i regret it. Even the guy in EB Games asked the same thing. Though i don't think he really cared. Dick. So some history on my SF history i guess...

The NES arrived when i was six, and although i played insatiably, my older brother was much better than i was. Even when that "Wizard" movie came out, the one with the "Wonder Years" kid, my brother entered the competitions that were held in the malls around here to mimic the comp in the movie. He won the first round, then the second, maybe the third.... i think. Got some swag. Few of those Game Watches, some games, Power Glove. To sum it up: He was better than me. He had a video game vice though: Street Fighter II.



Its safe to say that he was good at this too. He would challenge other kids at the arcades, or the mall, or anywhere we found a coin-op setup. Maybe i wanted to be as good as him, or just kick his ass, but i played every chance i could get, and watched on every chance i could get when he played. When SFII came home on the SNES, many many sleepless nights followed. Alas, i never did get any better. But all those hours and days spent moving that Ryu or Chun-Li sprite around a three or four frame animated backdrop of a chinese alley or army base engraved something in my DNA. I may be bad at it, some say horribly bad, but SFII is in my blood!

And now in my skin!



There was some comments from some DToid members that these tattoos were inspiring. All i can say to that is Thank You so much!!! It means allot! The internet can be a finicky place, so its a relief that no one was all LOL NUBZ!! SFII IZ GAYZ!!!!1!

Also, if it is inspiring, just go for it. Get some work done, you wont ever regret in my opinion. Choose something that means the world to you, and go talk to the artists in your area.

MrSadistic, your idea sounds especially awesome. I may have to steal it.... no, i kid.

maybe..


Discuss amongst yourselves.
Out.


Next up on Blogging the Sleeve:
A new character approaches!! The backside of the forearm begins... which classic game will lend its likeness the blank canvas that hides behind the Asian duo from SFII.... How Old? Is it classic to enough to even call classic? NES, SNES or Sega Genesis? Or an unlikely other option?!?

It was a long time coming but work has finally begun...

Of the five pieces chosen for my entire arm tattoo dedication to Video Games, i decided to begin with the classic Street Fighter II.



All five main tattoos to make arm the whole arm have been chosen, and the reason i decided to start with this one is, its the easiest to show off! Also, its makes the upper arm tattoos easier to place if the bottom is complete. This one is based off an Udon Crew image i found on DeviantArt.com, and i knew straight away, this is what i wanted. Would have been nice to have Ken in there too, but watevs.

The thought process behind this work is that i wanted to choose games that were epic when i was growing up. (i'm 8-Bit BTW). The kinds of games that when some one says,"Hey, watcha doing?" and you reply with "Playing (in this case SF2)" the only obvious response is: "Of course."

So being 27 now, and my video game career spanning back to the Nes days, when i was roughly 6-ish, there are A LOT of games that fall into the "sucked my life away" category.

Hmmmm, I'm not going to tell you guys the other 4 characters i'm getting, in case some slight changes occur. For example, on the other side of my forearm from this tattoo i was going to get Sakura, but now I've changed that to something WAY WAY more epic

SO next along will be the filling in, which will probably take longer than this. This outline only took 2 hours. Im expecting 3, but more like 4 next.



I'd like to know what you guys think, and even thought I've already decided on the whole arm, what characters do you think would make a good tattoo?





And yes, in case your wondering: Im that hardcore