Last week me and Marianne were in Strängnäs, just checking out the place. Later the first day we met up with Jens and Linda, who had taken their boat there the same day.

Good times!

Last weekend I was at my parents place, and on saturday we went to a big second-hand house. On this particular day, they had 50% off on everything, so I made a few bargains.

I like optics, I have a big photography and movie interest and I love old technological stuff. This was perfect.

First off, I found a west german camera from 1970: A Praktica LTL with a really fat lens (Panagor Auto Tele 200mm). The lens seem to have taken som minor hits, but the camera housing was in surprisingly good condition. Auto timer and everything seems to work fine. Cost: 60SEK.

Second, I found two old Super8 cameras, still functioning.
The first one was an Elmo Super 306 from 1976. Fantastic optics! This one still has film in it, although I’m not sure how to get it out. I didn’t have any fresh batteries, and when I inserted some with about 30% left, a red E was shown in the viewfinder. Cost including carrying case: 20SEK.

The second Super8 camera I found was a Chinon 753 from 1979. This one doesn’t have quite as good optics, but it works better on the bad batteries – Both the film spinning drive and the motorized zoom works as a charm! Plus, it is really easy to handle since it only has very few buttons and knobs to worry about. Cost including carrying case: 25SEK.

When I was basically done in the store, I found on the top shelf  a dirty case that looked “antique and German”. And I was right. Having some problems getting it down, I fell in love as soon as I managed to get the case open. Inside was an old Leitz diapositive projector.

I am having trouble locating the model number as I have not seen it printed anywhere, but it might be a version of the  Leitz Prado from the late 1950′s or early 1960′s.
It is in near-mint condition and works like a charm. I have now placed it on the shelf next to my other projector, 45-50 years newer. And I only paid 30SEK for it!

Now, what to do with all this stuff?

Today I once again went to Nille at Salvation Tattoo to get some ink done.

I have always been fascinated by mechanics, robotics and mechatronics, and for the last few years I have been thinking about how to incorporate that into a tattoo. Early sketches covered basically the whole back, incorporating the biohazard sign I already have on my back into the design. Though I like biomechanical tattoos to a certain degree I now think an entire backpiece would be too much for this type of design (ask me again in five years though). The particular idea with a cogwheel using a heart as the hub first crossed my mind about a year ago, and shortly after I did the first design.

I have doodled on this design and changed quite a bit during the last year. The main problem lately has been that I have done too much details and thin lines. Since human skin is a living material it is extremely hard to make small details by pushing down ink between the skin layers (which is basically what you do). Even if you do, chances are that the details will be lost. Ink is a liquid, and liquids float and spreads out, making everything a bit fuzzy at close range. This is considerably more noticable on older tattoos, where it can be hard (or even impossible) to make out text that was clearly readable when the tattoo was first made. I have still kept a certain degree of details, mostly for thin light lines and shadows. We’ll see how they look like a few weeks from now. Also, it is quite a bit darker now (especially the lines) than it will be when healed.

I put in some symbolism in it as well, but will not go into details (let’s just say I’ve been hurt enough times). Also, can you find the Douglas Adams reference?

Tattooing your chest is a strange thing. It really hurts, but you don’t always feel the pain where you should. When Nille first started on the top right side, I felt it in the shoulder. Moving down, all of the sudden it felt like someone put a soldering iron to my nipple. This was not quite as bad as doing the elbow, but not far from it. Good thing I had my phone with me; Playing Solitaire and FreeCell partly took my mind from the pain – It helps to concentrate on something else.

So, what do you think?

Mariannes birthday is coming up, and instead of having a party at home we decided to go out to Östgötakällaren, one of our favorite bars in Stockholm.

Joining us were Carina, Fredde, Pirate-Johan and Caisa-Stina. Around ten o’ clock we decided to move on and ended up at Söderkällaren where we were joined by Simon & Erika.

Good times!

I got another tattoo yesterday by Nille at Salvation Tattoo, a serotonin molecule.

Serotonin is both a classical neurotransmitter and a signaling molecule. To simplify things, it is a brain chemical that also can be found throughout the body (primarily in the digestive system). Its functions are among other things to help control happiness, sleep, aggression, impulsiveness, appetite, sexual lust, body temperature and metabolism. Due to a condition of mine, I have lower serotonin levels than most people. To fix that, I decided to add some of my own.

I have stylized the molecule by replacing the letters HO, HN and NH2 with rings. Aside from that, I have thickened the lines and changed the angles on the inner parts slightly. If this should be entirely correct, I should replace the corners with rings as well, as they in this case represent carbon. But I chose style over substance, everything is still explainable and it looks much better this way. Big thanks to Micke Lind for the input on the molecule design!

Tattooing the elbow is probably the most painful ink i’ve done so far. The hearts on my inner upper arms did hurt a lot (and longer), but there were more twitching involved when doing the elbow.