So I got my tattoo started last sunday, and I'm going back this sunday to get some shading started.
Last sunday we did the outlines... now we're filling in the lines and creating the feathers. I'm very excited. I love my tattoo artist and he's doing an amazing job.
I'm also very happy with the tattoo itself... it's been so long that I've been wanting this, and finally going through with it has been an absolutely beautiful feeling. I feel good about it, about myself, and the situation. I was afraid that I might get pangs of regret, or worried about the future issues that having a tattoo might bring. But none of that happened.
It also helped that every time I take the El I see 4 out of 10 or more professionals with tattoos peeking out of their sleeves or shirt collars.

I've also started my fiddle lessons and so far it's going well. I have a LOT of work to do, but at least my pitch is pretty accurate, and I remember how to read music. My bow hand is still my worst problem, and my fingering hand is still pretty bad as well, mostly with my muscles wanting to bunch up instead of just letting my fingers do their work... hard to explain, but it's the best way to explain it.
But my teacher seems confident that I'll pick all this up fairly quickly and she taught me the entirety of an irish jig last class and I was able to play along through it all.
She is very brisk and while she gives me the time to correct my mistakes the fact that she just pushes me to continue every single time without over focusing on a single note for example is actually a world of help as odd as that might sound. I'm getting too stressed out basically, and moving on and coming back to it later on allows me to relax, and get it on the first time the second time. I don't like the feeling of stress, but it's just so frustrating to remember being able to do all of this so easily just a few years back... well few... 17 years ago lol. But still...
It's going to be ok and go well though, I'm excited. I just need to remember to play at least once a day at this point.