Tatoo
This week I'm starting a full sleeve on my arm (tattoo) and part of my chest. Even though that means I will be off the mat for at least two to three weeks I'm quite excited. Actually, I've been meaning to get a tattoo ever since I got promoted to purple belt as sort of a celebration, but the mere thought of having to miss BJJ has kept me from going through with it.
I'm getting a traditional Japanese tattoo called Irezumi. Part of my tattoo will have a picture of Kintaro wrestling a giant koy fish. Kintaro is a Japanese mythological figure. Legends say that as a child Kintaro had super human strength. He would uproot trees and smash rocks with his bare hands. He grew up in the forest, raised by an old mountain hag.
There were no other children around in the forest when he was growing up, so as a child his only friends were the animals of the forest (I'm also an animal lover). He walked around butt naked wearing only a bib with the word "gold" (金) on it, and his only toy was a hatchet. He would also Sumo wrestle bears!
The guy who is doing my tattoo specializes in Irezumi. Horitatsu studied in Osaka and has been tattooing for twenty seven years. His work is beautiful, and I'm so excited.
Training
Training for the past couple weeks has been going pretty well, but I sprained my thumb severely. It was weird too, because my thumb actually bent forward not backward. I heard a small popping sound and then I couldn't move it.
I had to take several days off from training, and it still hurts like hell. I've just been taping the crap out of it, so that it doesn't bend when I'm rolling. I was more than a little peeved at the guy who bent my figure. I didn't get mad because I got hurt (I've hurt people on accident, too), I got angry because it sort of a pattern with this guy. We were just doing pass/sweep sparring, but some people just can't keep themselves from spazzing. Anyway, these things happen.
My MCL has been bothering me too, but I'm just thankful that I can train. I can't imagine not being able to do BJJ. I love it so much.
I also feel really thankful that I have great instructors. I've learned so much from Chae In-muk, and the guy is my idol. I admire and respect him so much.
I've also been learning a lot from Young-ahm my other instructor. I've been training with him for about six months now, and I think my game has already improved thanks to him, except that I still get S-M-A-S-H-E-D every time I roll with him. Actually, I get smashed by both of them, but Chae let's me work a little more. I want to show them that I've improved, but when I spar with them it's like a grown up toying with a little baby. It's so frustrating, but in a good way.
Chae and Noh have a very similar style in many regards (Noh is Chae's student), and I've been trying to formulate and emulate a style based on both of them.
Black Mamba & Contest (one year anniversary)
In other news, this Monday, my new banner will be ready. My teammate's sister is an artist and runs a clothing company here in Korea called Black Mamba. I'll be tweaking the look of the blog a bit (mostly just the color scheme), and running a contest for the one year anniversary of my blog!
I will announce the details this week. I'll probably be giving away some RVDDW and Isami stuff.
King of Grappling
The next King of Grappling competition will be held in Seoul on August 4. I strongly recommend anyone training here in Korea to support this event. It's an extremely well run competition, and they give away some pretty neat stuff to the winners. It's pretty cool of them to be putting on super fights as well as I've never seen anyone else do this in Korea (besides the time Leo Vieira came to Seoul).
The super fights at the events pit MMA fighters against grapplers. My instructor Noh Young-ahm will be in one of the super fights and one of my other teammates may be as well. King of Grappling just posted this poster (that's me second row from the top third from left):
Team MAD shorts
Finally, I got some awesome new grappling shorts this week. Pretty sweet:
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