Thursday, 2022-08-18
The birthday present – 3 sittings with a total of more than 20 hours of pain.
End of January 2020, I had to travel to Canada for a family emergency. I spent my birthday there, and my daughter gave me a very special birthday present. A big piece of tattoo covering my right arm, and that'd be my 4th piece and the biggest.
Let me introduce you to my daughter, the artist: Zadia Tirto. She currently lives in Toronto, Canada. You can find her here.
My daughter estimated she'd need 4 sittings of 7-8 hours per sitting to complete the piece with 1-week of rest to heal between sittings. As I had planned to stay in Canada until March 24th, we thought we'd have plenty of time to finish the piece.
The design: Barong (left), Vishnu riding Garuda (right).
My daughter specializes in black and white surrealism tattoos. She picked the design of Vishnu, one of the many Hindu Gods riding a Garuda combined with a Barong, a panther-like creature and character in Balinese mythology.
Sitting #1: Completing the Barong on the outer right arm.
The 1st sitting started on Tuesday, February 11th, and she managed to finish the Barong head design in 1 sitting which took around 7.5 hours.
Sitting #2: Outlining and shading the lower part of the inner right arm.
Work (pain) in progress...
The 2nd sitting was on Tuesday, February 25th, 2 weeks later as the previous week she had been fully booked by clients, thus we couldn't proceed as planned. She completed the outline and dark shading of the lower part of the Garuda, and it took us about 7 hours.
It was almost the end of February, and by this time the scary news about the increasing number of deaths caused by Covid-19, and hospital bed shortages around the world was getting more and more frequent and frightening. Rumors of the closure of all businesses and the imposition of a lockdown were becoming more and more certain. The studio where my daughter worked had also announced the closing of their business starting in March until further notice.
The result after 3 sittings (unfinished).
Knowing that the studio would close for business at the beginning of March, we returned for the 3rd session on the following Friday, February 28th. This time she completed the outlining on the upper part and did as much shading as possible in 8 hours.
The covid-19 situation was getting dire by the day. I still need 1 more sitting to finish the piece but I decided to cut my stay short. I rescheduled my flight home from March 24th to March 17th and I was glad I did that. Had I stayed for 1 additional week, I would have been unable to leave Canada?
So, that was a short story behind my special (unfinished) birthday present in 2020. I expect to be able to visit Canada in 2023 when (hopefully) everything has returned to normal – the pandemic, the Ukraine war, the staff shortages at airports, etc.
If you are in the Greater Toronto Area and interested in some of my daughter's arts, here's her website and portfolio.
Stay safe, and happy Hiving!
Thank you for reading and for your support.
All images and/or videos in this post are created by me, otherwise, they will be specified. You can also support me by clicking this link or the image on the right. 🙂
ABOUT ME
A baby boomer who is trying to embrace and adapt to the new digital world. After spending more than 30 years in the IT world before retiring, now running an online vegetable delivery and hydroponics equipment supplies business with his wife based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Enjoy traveling, cooking, writing, and all IT-related stuff. You're always welcome to leave a comment or feedback, and an upvote or reblog is also greatly appreciated.