Amsterdam Tattoo Session

J and I recently had another weekend in Amsterdam, to have the third session of his half-sleeve tattoo done.
We always go to Rosanna at Dermadonna custom tattoos. This time, J had a session on both Saturday and Sunday - poor guy! It was a total of about 12 hours of needle grinding pain.
It was all more than worth it though because the tattoo is looking fantastic! There is about one more session to go, to put all the detail in the sky and finish highlighting the inside arm, but the rest is basically done. It is full of fabulous fairytale-like fantasy characters and creatures.

A new little one emerges at each turn...

Although I only have a photo of this guy before some of the other detail was filled in.
It is so cool! I just love looking at it, which is lucky, since I will be looking at it for quite some time I imagine :)

The best thing about Amsterdam this visit though, was the festival that was in town. I asked what we were celebrating, but all I got as an answer was 'April'. I guess it was something about feeling good and celebrating the arrival of Spring. On the first night, J and I went to the small square just down from the tattooist. They had live music, outdoor bars and a few old school looking festival rides. The best one was a tiny toy-looking ferris wheel. When you bought your ticket you could order a drink and two people could sqeeze into the little open cabins and take a slow small round while they chatted with each other. It was just lovely. I did not get a good photo, but here is what I managed...
J is not good with rides or heights so he refused to go on this one with me :( So we cacked ourselves watching this one go round and round.
It was a kind of double swing where people could face each other or go back to back in a little wooden caged seat. They spun around and around and if they are not making their own journey adventurous enough, the ride master would toss them about to upset any established patterns. It was total madness! People were crashing into each other all over the place and at the end, the engine actually blew up and spewed masses of smoke. It was very dramatic!

After that night, when J refused to go on either of these awesome rides with me, I decided that I had to go on one on my own. I selected one in the main square the next morning. 60m in the air, with a fantastic view over the city, but spinning a little too fast for you to take it all in completely. It was dizzying in a lovely light hearted kind of way. I was smiling from ear to ear when I hit the ground. This whole visit felt like a whirlwind in a lot of ways, but we both had another a great time and it seems as though Amsterdam is fast becoming one of our favourites for a weekend city break. xxx