Sun Wukong and Me
I'll start this entry off with part of an email my mom recently sent me:
i remember a wonderful drawing in the book, not unlike what you are having tattooed on you. and, i remember that he could cause great mischief in order to teach people things. that is the memory i have of it. i think you did like it a lot.
My memories of my childhood are sketchy at best, so I'll have to trust mom on this. I do know that I've been interested in Sun Wukong since I started traveling to China. I've also had a need to cover-up a tattoo from a previous life. So, when I saw a bust of Sun Wukong done in incredible detail on someone's calve in the gym, I knew it was time to get this done.
Tattooing here seems to be different than in the States. I didn't just walk off the street into a store. It was more cloak-and-dagger. Although the store was advertised online, my friend and I met the tattoo artist on a street corner ("just look for a Chinese person and a foreigner," he said to her in Chinese when describing us). She then guided us to a small clothing shop, through to a rear door, and into her parlor. (Yes, the needles were new.)
The first session lasted three hours. I've now got a truly breathtaking image of Sun Wukong in the midst of strike sketched-out over my left pec and running up over my trap, with just a hint of the work visible when I wear a crew-neck t-shirt . All in all, the tattoo is about eight inches by six inches. I'll be going back in about eight days to have the fill done. It's supposed to take at least another three hours to complete... I'm looking forward to it.
Here's a (reduced) scan of the stencil used to blue-line my tattoo.
This looks really cool! Did it hurt?
Posted by alfred on October 06, 2008 at 03:51 PM HKT #
At times, yep. More around my collarbone than anywhere.
Posted by Robs on October 06, 2008 at 03:58 PM HKT #
Cool! Next time when I meet you, I'd like to have a look.
Posted by Jun-Chao Forrest Wu on October 09, 2008 at 01:10 AM HKT #
heeeey, im searchin all over the internet for a good design of sun wukong. and i happened to stumble upon your story. do you think you have any other designs of him? and also, can u post the final image of what your tattoo looked like? im going to hong kong this summer, and im planning to get it there :P
Posted by Carson on December 07, 2008 at 03:24 PM HKT #
Carson, I don't have any other designs of him. I did a lot of searching through google images, didn't like what they had, and didn't save any of the images I found there.
I'll try to get a completed picture and post it as well.
Posted by Robert Sohigian on January 08, 2009 at 06:26 PM HKT #
Wow! This is so incredibly awesome. I have been online for hours now looking for exactly this image. This is a tattoo I've been thinking about getting for several years now. This is a fantastic replica of a Sun Wu Kong statue I bought in NY Chinatown years ago.
I took the statue into a tattoo parlor tonight, but they were iffy about being able to pull it off. I hope you don't mind, but I plan on taking your design in for them to better understand exactly what I want. THANK YOU!!!
Posted by Ryan Somma on February 19, 2009 at 09:09 AM HKT #
That'd be way cool.
This design was used by at least one person before me (the guy I saw in the gym actually had this exact tattoo on his leg). I think it looks much better as a chest-piece though... looses something when it wraps around a leg.
I'd really appreciate it if you could post a picture to the statue. A shot of the tattoo one you get it done would be cool as well. I'm gonna take a new picture sometime in the next couple of days.
Posted by Robert Sohigian on February 19, 2009 at 09:26 AM HKT #
Just to tie things together, here's a new picture of the tattoo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robesoh/3300016826/
Posted by Robert Sohigian on February 23, 2009 at 03:47 AM HKT #