tacky chinatown is tacky but love.

We made the trip to go get my Doctor Who tattoo but before then we would have to cross through Chinatown and Little Italy before getting to the shop. Chinatown is ridic with red, gold, flags, knockoffs, greasy food and Bill Clinton love.

Woke up at an ungodly 6am just to get ready and pick everyone up for the train ride, where it took almost 2 hours. I could have swore the train was only an hour and 20 minutes last time, but I guess I am mistaken. We went to the train station, got on the train and where I was able to fully read Ryu Murakami's Audition where the ending with the Dog always KILLS ME. ;_; It's funny, screw the male lead who almost gets the same faith but it's the dog that always gets me.

After that the bus was packed with Standford kids who were doing some sort of Scavenger Hunt in San Francisco. Thankfully we all got seats but it was packed. After we get off the cal train we walk the few miles to the mall where we meet up with Carlos who took us to Chinatown for "authentic" eats. Where we ended up with greasy chinese food, where thankfully I only got Jiaozi and the skin was so thick, it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD. The cabbage could have been fresher but I liked it, sadly my watermelon juice was not cool. Lukewarm, bleh. After that next door was the saving grace of Chinatown this bakery that had sugar cookies, chocolate dipped anything, rolls, and the biggest-sweetest-soft-chococalate-chip-cookie that I have never had. It was SO good, I told the crew to come back and grab more for me later in the day. Clinton must have been a big fan of the place because baby-Clinton, fat-Clinton, prime-Clinton, stud-Clinton, he must have came by often because there is 4657458 photos of him in the shop, chomping on the same damn cookie I got. AMAZING.

Now I need to realize, I need to start taking photos of our haunts because all the photos were taken by my sister and she took no Clinton pics. WTF. After that I got sidetracked by key-chains in this random gaudy store where I bought a tote bag that had art from the Ed Emberley books that I grew up with as a kid. I sadly got overpriced now that I am looking at my receipt. They charged my almost double for that was on the pricetag. So if you go to Chinatown, pay attention!

After hill after hill and menus thrown at us we walked to Little Italy of town where people find it hip and fab to sit outside and eat as people walk by and can easily spit in your food. I couldn't do that, but they did have niffy dog bowls outside for dogs who are thirsty. CUTE. We walk pass all these DELISH pizza places where we finally find Tattoo Boogaloo but we were too early for my appointment so half of us ate pizza and the other half waited where me and dearly_beloved saw a George Harrison PICSPAM WALL. OMG FLOORED. MY MAN IN THIS PIZZA SHOP IN ALL HIS GLORY. Very cool.

After that we went to the only park in North Beach where we saw a Italian festival/outdoor market and people in their bathing suits sitting in the sun. Inappropriate pics where taken and we all split up and I went to my appointment.

Great environment, great people and just good vibes. I wouldn't recommend any other place. Not that I know what's what in the tattoo world but I will tell you these people, especially Mez take great pride in their work, always make you feel comfortable and are always willing to explain everything. We played around with size and placement before we got started. It almost three hours and we talked about everything from tattoo conventions, hateful tattoos, weight gain/lost, piercings, pain and everything else. I saw a 60+ year old come in and get her ears pierced for the first time and the piercer DeAnna was SUPER sweet and courteous to her. It was cute. We took three breaks, clos_vf came to pick me up and we thankfully took the bus where we passed by REAL DEAL CHINATOWN WHERE ALL THE LOCALS SHOP. Next time I want to come back and search the place, I love to see all the fresh fruit, crazy eats and the ducks hanging from the ceiling.

It seems every time we go to SF, I always have something going down that prevents me from really searching the city. After that we met up with setsuna16 and co and had delicious ramen and gyoza at this new place that opened up. THE BROTH WAS RICH AND TASTY. Will go back and gorge myself, but by then after that heavy soup, I was getting cranky and my arm felt so sore, I wanted to go home, so we took the muni back to the caltrain and got split up but I had setsuna16's fables trade to read so all was good in the world.

A photo of the tattoo soon, but right now I am bruised in two spots and my arm seems a bit swollen. So it'd have to wait. Will post as soon as I can.

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