About

If you’ve found this, you’ve found my diary. It’s where I’m keeping track of going from zero tattoos to a full bodysuit, a Donburi Sōshinbori.

I’ve wanted this for about 25 years. Not a sleeve. Not a back piece. The full thing. At the end of last year I finally decided to go for it, and in March 2026 the first lines went in on my right leg.

Donburi means no split down the chest. The front runs straight across, like the rice bowl it’s named after, decorated everywhere but the rim. So the collar, the wrists and a band above the ankles stay bare.

One entry per session. What got done, how it felt, and whatever was going through my head on the train home. Some entries are just thoughts.

Why write it down? Partly because other people did. I followed Gaijink for years, a bodysuit with Horizakura written up session by session, and the people sharing their own work on r/irezumi. They were a big part of getting me here. Mostly, though, it’s the discipline of it. Writing each session down while it’s fresh means that in twenty years I’ll be able to look back at how this went, and at how I changed along the way.

The photographs are straight off the phone, unedited. And fair warning: this is a diary about a bodysuit, so there is a lot of skin. Not safe for work.