Kismet. Or serendipity. Or..."Don't I know you from somewhere?"

A quick prelude: Yes, I know, we've not written in a couple of weeks. Spent a few days down with head colds, then we snuck out of town for a little holiday last week :)

EK:

I believe that in everyone's life, we sometimes meet someone new -- a friend, or a partner, or a lover, or a buddy you just happen to share a hobby you're nuts about, for example -- and for some reason, that someone new seems a hell of a lot like someone you've crossed paths before. It's like deja vu in the coolest way possible, and at some points, makes you sit back, scratch your head and say "what the...?"

 




Well, even within the confines of US Skin Grafx, while we draw our customs, look and admire the new work of our fellow artists out there, and jawjack about anything at all to the background of rock 'n' roll music, such a thing happens.

My former partner-in-crime, Spitfire Sus, brought Alicia to the shop, as said Alicia wanted ink. Well, the first time they came over, I was smack in the middle of a large piece and couldn't really get up to do a full consult. They were patient, though, and pretty soon, Alicia told me about what she wanted.
She had an original piece, done in Michigan some years back. Then it got covered up with a butterfly -- I believe the coverup was done by plonking the butterfly's body (in black), and then embellished by a tri-color wing which was red, blue and yellow. After a few years, the yellow colour dimmed a little.

The conversation went loosely like this:
"So what're you thinking of?" I asked.
"I'd like an expansion. I want to add to this piece and grow it," she said, "Like into a halfsleeve."
Seeing as we couldn't get gauge the reaction of a half sleeve from her bosses, we eventually decided to play safe and opted for a quarter sleeve first -- we can grow it into a half if she liked later.  Then came the details: What would you like, I asked?

Here was the directive:  "I love color.  I *LOVE* color!!!!" she said. Point taken.
So I suggested a butterfly perched on a branch with leaves... lots of beautiful, elegantly arranged lea-
"Not green, lah," she interjected.
"Huh?" I asked, a little dumbfounded.
"I don't want any green, don't like green," she said, at first, impassively.
Now at this point, I had to put on my powers of persuasion. Fact is, Alicia has some envy-worthy, awesomely gorgeous skin -- gold-tinged alabaster is the best way to put it. I was dying to draw and color on her arm like a kid with her first complete set of Crayolas. And put green in it!

A last look before Ali gets stuck with needles. The old butterfly and the stencil on.

Finally, we managed a compromise -- it was ok to put a tiny bit of lime green here and there, as an accent. But colourful was the catchphrase to go. So we took a measurement of where we were going to go for her tattoo, plus made a few more ideas how to bring the butterfly -- done by one of KL's more well known artists -- to greater prominence: blend the lime into the wings,  so there's a measure of visual congruence between the old tattoo and the new.

The decision, thus, was to design curling branches with cherry blossoms perching on the spindly ends, as well as a few petals floating here and there. And little butterflies dancing throughout.

In her second visit, she brought her husband Andrew, who we also immediately took to (partly because he's an avid diver and you know, all divers are essentially some of the best people in the world), and we made a few very minor tweaks to the design. A date was set, and it was on.

At that point, it was starting to feel, oddly, that both of them were more family than friends, let alone new acquaintances. To me, it felt a bit like kismet (thanks to Farrell Tan for helpfully providing the word).

We stuck the stencil. I always get a little nervous over stencils that wrap around a limb, so Randy helped me out there. And then it was on. First, the outlines in black, and the wispy flourishes that start out purple and slowly blending into blue, then a tiny bit of grey shading here and there before tattooing the colours -- magentas, pinks, lavenders, onto the flowers and teals and deep pinks into the butterflies.

At some point, we started chatting. Bear in mind that at this point, we still didn't know a lot about each other, and the conversation led to "what were you doing before what you do now?"  And she mentioned managing a restaurant -- a Thai one -- in Subang Jaya. Naturally, the next question to ask was its name.

"Khanom Jeen," she said. I was pretty taken aback; enough to lift my foot off the pedal.
"You mean...the one with all the gold leaf art on the walls?" I asked.
"Yes, yes," she said, looking at me a bit curiously.
"And khanom jeen(Thai rice noodles) comes in these little curled up twirls of noodles... so very cute?"
"Yes, that's it!"
"And your artwork comes from an artist who popularised gold leaf...based at Bangkok's Chaktuchak???" I asked, almost disbelieving it.
"Oh my god, you know the place," she said.

Know it, I did! Years ago, when I was working at the Metro section of The People's Paper, I was stomping around in Taipan Subang and that restaurant (then newly opened) caught my eye. I decided to have lunch therer, and was so impressed with the food that I asked them whether they would want to be reviewed. The man who was presumably managing the place took my business card and said "Well, this is a coincidence. I've been wondering how to get a hold of you to review this place for the past few weeks."

Now, naturally, a dinky tinky little junior reporter doesn't get to hear this everyday, and I had to force my swelled head and ego through the door to leave. But review it, I did, and I'm happy to note that Khanom Jeen became one of the respected Thai outlets in the Klang Valley until its owners (Evon Au -- Alicia's sister, and her husband David Knapfel) moved to Canada and closed with much regret from diners. Alicia said that she was there practically every day, which could mean that we might have crossed paths in previous careers before.

An alternate look at the "after". Dunno why this girl doesn't do green a lot...it looks gorgeous on her!

Then we moved on to the next conversation, and for some inexplicable reason, it moved to the topic of Perak -- what the towns are and (naturally), what to eat. Sure, we jawed about the many culinary delights of Ipoh, and then someone mentioned Teluk Intan (then Telok Anson way back in the 1980s), a small town then and a small town now.
"I grew up there, I'm from TA," she said.
My foot went off the pedal again and I stared at her incredulously.  "I spent my childhood there, growing up at my grandparents' house!"

Ok, this is getting weird, right. We compared kindergartens (Taman Sicily for her, and the Assumption near the Raja Muda's digs for me). "Yeah, I remember my neighbour Mrs Muthu -- a sari-garbed Chinese lady married to an Indian -- taking me to school in her yellow car because Mrs Muthu was my neighbour at Kampung Guru," I said.

(Kampung Guru is (was?) a section in a tranquil part of the town, surrounded by fields and green and lots of open space. It was originally allotted for civil servants, especially teachers, when it first opened. An idyllic place for a kid to grow up).

Alicia looked at me in disbelief. "You mean, Kampung Guru with the big field in the middle that boys played football in, right?"
"That one," I said. "I lived at No. 7!"
"Hey, guess what... that's where I grew up too.  I'm at number 30-something (ok, I forgot the actual number) My parents are still there," she said, and broke out into a great big laugh.

It was pretty incredible and slightly freaky to both of us. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I just hoped that being the spoilt little monster I was, I didn't swank too much around the neighbourhood and bully a toddler that could very well have been the gal I was, well, poking with needles right there and then.

Anyway, we finished the tattoo soon after. Andrew brought over lunch, so we chomped that down, and over discussions about diving and food, we became new friends. Or old friends. I can seriously say, this was one truly memorable tattoo, thanks to Alicia and Andrew and of course, thanks to Susan for bringing it all together!