I got this tattoo while attending the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop on the MSU campus in Michigan in East Lansing. The Brits were celebrating Bastille Day, carousing and drinking in the lounge when Chris and I got back. They were properly shocked. It was my third tattoo, exactly five months to the day after the second, which was exactly five months to the day after the first. Somewhere in the Clarion Archives are pics of this, and one was in one of the old newsletters. I think my folks have the hardcopy of that one.

Vinnie was a real character, and so was Chris for that matter. The shop was part t-shirt emporium, part video rental store, part head shop, and then there was the room that Vinnie tattooed out of in the back. We drove past a lot of closed factories and rundown shack houses to get there. Memorable day, no doubt.

This was Chris's first tattoo. He picked up a few more over the next few years, which you can see here.