#also dude if anyone want to talk about needle felting feel free bc it’s so fun and yeah 👍

[typicalhippiegirl]

Let's talk about something.

First off, I'm not putting this messed up, peely, gross looking tattoo up for anyone to judge (I'm not happy with it either). I'm putting this out there to help others learn from my mistakes & hopefully prevent them from going thru what I've been dealing with.

There's a tattoo expo coming to town with featured artists from out of town. I find one thru IG whose work looks clean & I like her style so I DM her about setting an appt. Shes got time this weekend yay! no waiting for the expo. -Do you see the mistakes I made already? It's so obvious to me now😓

Saturday's here, I head to the shop (for the first time) for the appointment & the moment I walk in it's like Uh, wtf? Half the shop is taped off & in the middle of a remodel (no dust or active working, just shit all moved around). I brush it off, theyre getting things ready for an expo right? They need people tattooing there, not playing pool so ya, no wonder it's a bit messy.

Next she shows me the stencil and its fuckin huge. Like I specifically said between 6-8 inches max bc it's going on my forearm & i'm not Stretch Armstrong. Shes like Oh I kept it between 8 & 10. Well ya didn't fuckin listen bc what woman has arms that long? So it's resized & idk what we were casually talking about but she def rolled her eyes at me. Look man, I'm a pretty easy going person and depending on the situation I may take a slight without saying shit. Also like low self confidence helps with that right? So anyway, at the point I should have been like Alright dude, we're not really clickin & I'm not feelin this anymore & walked TF out. I didnt. Like an idiot. I'm not gonna lie, part of it was losing put on the deposit the other part was just me telling myself it would be fine despite in my heart of hearts I knew it wasn't.

So we start. Yo, she's a Fuckin. Bitch. I wanted a theme right, this chick is supposed to be a Texas pinup, I wanted certain colors in her clothes. I asked "What colors are we thinking for her?" She actually scoffed and says "These ones" while motioning at her cups. Wow. Ok, well, fuck I don't want to ask her anything anymore so I shutup & go with it.

This shit HURTS. I'm not a pussy when it comes to pain. I have several tattoos, including fingers, toes and a whale that was particularly painful because it goes directly over my very bony shin. I've been cut, I've had a baby without drugs. Mags remind me of getting a razor cut and I find pleasure in the feeling. I can tolerate some pain and this shit sucked. Yo, at the end she switched down to a single needle and that was KILLER. I felt like I was being carved into (which, if you'd ever seen my back you'd know, I know the feeling).

Alright so finally we're finished & I roll into the next day. I'm a bit worried about the appearance and not just bc she looks like she broke her leg. It looks wet. I continue my aftercare as normal: antibac soap & aquaphor. Day 2 I'm researching infections bc it's super painful, red but mostly it's wet. I'm afraid of infection also bc this chick had the trash can right next to the station. I mean Right. Fuckin. Next to it. To the point that the trashcan lid fell onto the pad where my arm is. I want to ask her to move it but she's in such a bad mood I think it'll just make things worse & she'll be even rougher. By day 3 I've tried antibac goo & it seems to make my skin bubble where its been applied so I quickly quit using that. My arm hurts so badly at this point I cant put it down without getting shooting pains up my arm. I let it dry out so things are crusty but at least I don't find them medically disturbing. Regardless, I spend a lot of this day crying. Day 4 I'm still researching infection and come across overworked tattoos, scars & "hamburgering" My heart pretty much drops bc this is it, this is what's going on. What's even more fucked up is that I find this on forums for people learning to tattoo. Like apprentice's first few tattoos having this problem. Rookie shit, ya hear?😑

The pictures are from day 5. You can see splitting along the black lines, there's holes in the sun & near her belt. Oh and that's a thing. The hole is the sun is bc somehow a drop of green got in there so she went over it and over it and over it again with more red. Can you imagine my frustration at that point?

So look, I got this done Saturday, here it is Friday. My skin is very shiny and puckery where the peeling has come off. The scabs are thick af, I've only been moisturizing the places safe to so as of today almost everything but the cactus. Did I mention my arm still really hurts? I can't straighten it, there's pains that shoot out from the center, and why why why is my bicep sore?! I'm really worried about how the cactus is going to turn out. My skin looks bumpy between the cracks of scab. I think she used a crappy cheap green. I'm really left wondering about her experience as a tattoo artist. I'm just saying: My first tattoo was done by a scratcher in a dirty apartment bedroom. He did such a shitty job that I took the machine from him & finished it myself. Might I mention I was 16 and completely coked out of my mind? Also, I didn't hamburger myself and there was no scarring over that disaster of a tattoo (which thankfully no longer exists thanks to the aforementioned painful whale)

This whole thing has fuckin sucked. I don't want anybody else dealing with this. Let me outline some things I should have done differently so if you find yourself in the same situation you can make better decisions than I did.

1. If you're looking on IG for an artist make sure they also post healed pics not just fresh ones.

2. If you're not vibing with your artist it's ok so call it off. Look, a 60$ deposit aint shit to lose in the grand scheme of things, can you get a cover up for 60$? How about bad work or a bad experience lasered off? You can't get those deals, oh who knew? Sometimes losing money is saving it.

3. Don't get shit from travelling artists. Maybe they woke up a 3am & drove 8 hours & now they don't give a shit about anything but going home.

4. If the shop doesn't look great, walk out. Again, whats 60$ compared to your health and happiness?

This is a long post & it's not something I usually post about (lol who am I kidding? Personal tragedies are kinda my thing). It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed how she came out, I'm embarrassed I didn't speak up, I'm embarrassed I didn't just go to the person I knew could give me a good tattoo. It wasn't even about money, I didn't get a deal on this pinup mess. All I can do is move on. Thank goodness this wasn't my first piece or I may have been totally turned off from getting anymore ink. Now all I can do is continue my aftercare, hope for the best and when the time comes I'll go visit Vinny at American Tradition and get something else on the backside of my arm to distract from this mess.

Much love my inked up friends❤

Hey and if this speaks to you like you've been in this situation or are currently in it, feel free to DM me.

[savvyherb]

Seth Rogen Is Actually Doing Something About the War on Drugs

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

Anyone who is even tangentially familiar with Seth Rogen knows he loves weed.

As a fellow Vancouver native, I’ve come to think of him as an unofficial ambassador for both my hometown and cannabis—the two of which are very much intertwined. So I wasn’t surprised in the least when Rogen and his childhood friend/collaborator Evan Goldberg launched their weed line Houseplant, a Canopy Growth brand, earlier this year.

By that point, the trajectory of celebrities jumping into legal weed had become a cliche—even Martha fucking Stewart is in on it.

Houseplant’s first press release noted that the company is “aware of the racial injustices that exist” and will work closely to help those unjustly incarcerated. It’s a solid sentiment, but I was waiting for follow through.

So it was refreshing to catch up with Rogen and Goldberg as they were promoting National Expungement Week, which Houseplant and Canopy are sponsoring from September 21-28.

The initiative, spearheaded by an organization called Cage-Free Cannabis, takes place in cities across the U.S., featuring events that range from public information sessions to legal clinics where people with cannabis convictions can get their records cleared or sealed.

“There’s just millions and millions of people in America who can’t vote, who can’t get a job, who can’t do things that many, many people take for granted because they have been arrested for something that isn’t illegal anymore,” Rogen told VICE. “To us, that is just unacceptable. Weed should have never been illegal in the first place, that’s the premise that we operate under.”

Goldberg added that he and Rogen were lucky to grow up in Vancouver, where cannabis consumption was embraced long before legalization.

“We just were born in a place where weed was more accepted and some people were not and their lives have been fucked up because of it,” he said.

We also talked about the hypocrisy of the legal weed industry, the worst reefer madness myths, greening out, and why British Columbia sucks so badly at selling legal weed. (I've got to admit, I was impressed by the depth of their weed knowledge—I’m talking boring, provincial regulation-level stuff).

VICE: People of color account for a disproportionate number of cannabis arrests but the legal industry is largely made up of white dudes. What do you make of that and what responsibility does the industry have to change that? Seth Rogen: We can only talk for ourselves personally but we felt as though we had to acknowledge reality and it was not a tough pill to swallow in doing that. We are very aware that cannabis has been used to target marginalized groups of people and people who are not marginalized have not been targeted by it. In fact, many of them have been rewarded by being some of the first to flock to the industry and profit off it. We think it’s wildly important to understand the roots of the industry that you are trying to be a part of and to us there would be no way that we would even consider entering this space without really actively trying to rectify the issues that go along with being in the space, and one of the major ones is exactly what you’re saying. Weed should have never been illegal in the first place. If you go back, a large part of the reason it is illegal is literally racist and it’s very important to us to acknowledge that and not hide from that and try to help fix that in any way we can.

In places like LA they are giving out equity licenses to people harmed by the war on drugs so they can have a chance to get into the legal market. Canada has no such legislation, and no such initiatives are taking place. Do you think we should be looking into that? Rogen: Yes. In fact some provinces have gone so far as to disqualify you if you were involved in the gray market from now being in the industry, which is completely ridiculous and counterproductive. It’s rewarding people who have nothing to do with cannabis and have not dedicated their lives to trying to bring it to people in a safe, responsible way. It’s in fact punishing those people and rewarding people who literally entered a lottery to try to make some money, which to us is not the way we would have gone about it if we were in charge.

Evan Goldberg: Yeah, but now that they’re there they have a responsibility—lottery winners and every single person involved in this industry to just acknowledge that reality and work toward making it better.

Do you guys think that cops should be allowed to be in the legal weed game? So many former cops jumped into it right away. Rogen: [Laughs] I don’t know if they should or shouldn’t.

Goldberg: That’s a double-edged sword.

Rogen: I’d say as long as we’re in a climate where people's lives are being very negatively affected by convictions related to cannabis, it seems ridiculous that those who convicted them should be allowed to benefit.

Goldberg: But I guess it’s kind of a case-by-case basis. If those people are doing what they should be and helping people who were wronged and using their knowledge to better it, then perhaps.

Rogen: Then perhaps.

One of the stories I’ve been looking at is what’s happening at the border. Canadians who’ve admitted that they’ve smoked weed ever in their lives can be banned from the U.S. for life. Same goes if you’re living in the States but you’re not a U.S. citizen, you can potentially be deported. What do you guys make of that? Rogen: Again it is absolutely ridiculous and shows the odd climate you’re creating when something is federally illegal but legal on a state-to-state basis. And it’s one of the reasons that we’re so supportive of trying to set these laws back on the right path and why expungement to us specifically is very important.

Goldberg: People can get into trouble at the border still but the people who need expungement have gotten into issues and it is fucking up their lives and they need help.

Speaking of acceptance, growing up in Vancouver weed is just everywhere. What do you guys think is the biggest reefer madness myth that persists today? Rogen: That weed makes you lazy and unproductive and unmotivated or emotionally detached. I smoke weed all day everyday and I’m not lazy, I’m wildly productive. I have many deep emotional relationships with many people.

Goldberg: I am one of those people. We share our thoughts and emotions constantly and I can confirm he has deep emotions.

Rogen: To me it is no different from drinking coffee or wearing glasses or wearing shoes. We are physically not 100 percent cut out for the world we live in and as humans we’ve adopted many things to make that world more livable for us and to me and many, many, many millions of other people cannabis is one of those things that helps make day-to-day life more livable.

Would you guys say that cannabis is part of your creative process? Goldberg: Absolutely, yeah. But it helps in every facet of our lives, really.

Rogen: I would say my baseline level of functionality is intrinsically tied into cannabis.

Do you guys have hope for things changing in America at the federal level? Rogen: We do. Few things move the needle in America as much as money. And I think slowly now that it’s started the federal government will see how much money they’re missing out on by not legalizing it. I don’t think there’s any moral motivation for many things that happen on a government level in America, but there are many financial motivations so that to me is the hope I have. Is that someone will just realize that they’ll make more money if they make weed federally legal.

I’m going ask a hyper local B.C. question. Legal weed sales in BC are among the worst in the country; Alberta is kicking our ass. Does that surprise you given how much British Columbians love weed? Rogen: I actually think the reason is that just they’ve been much slower to roll out the number of dispensaries or they’ve been much slower to change over the grey market dispensaries than they predicted they would. I think we’ve seen it play out in America as well, when each province and each state get their own interpretation of the rules and their own way to enact the rules certain provinces like Alberta I believe made it much easier for people to open dispensaries. And therefore there’s more dispensaries and much more weed is getting sold. B.C. has made it much harder for people to open federally legal dispensaries and therefore there’s less of them and less weed is getting sold as a result of it.

We’re about to sell edibles in Canada and there’s a lot of hysteria about greening out. Have you guys ever greened out? Rogen: Edibles, it’s funny. Houseplant has a beverage we’ve been working on and a large part of our motivation was to create something that you didn’t have to wait 45 minutes to see how it was making you feel and instead maybe you felt it more as you were consuming it. That was very important to us and I think that’s some of the reason that we have negative experiences with edibles, is it’s hard to portion them because it takes so long for them to kick in and I think a lot of people have had that experience.

Have you guys greened out though? You must have. Rogen: In life? Yeah. In California when they first started selling edibles they were wildly unregulated and far too strong [laughs].

Goldberg: It was almost like how strong it could be was part of the game—that no one wanted to play.

*Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

More information on National Expungement Week is available here.

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source https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kz43b9/seth-rogen-is-actually-doing-something-about-the-war-on-drugs

The post Seth Rogen Is Actually Doing Something About the War on Drugs appeared first on Savvy Herb Mobile Cannabis Platform.

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