Finally we were ready to start work on Andy at around 8.30pm, the 10-15 mins it took us to set up was all he got for some dinner. Must stress that if you’re in the film industry and you’re looking for an extremely talented and passionate actor with the patience of a saint… then Andy’s your man, What a guy! He did mention 19hour make-up sessions (I’m thinking King Kong and LOTR) and he managed yet again to balance in some realy precarious positions, without smudging any artwork, whilst still working on his script for the next day. Simon & I had a great night, we brought loads more tattoo flash with us this time, as we knew more about the character, so Andy was able to choose all sorts of amazing tattoos for his character.

We went at it flat out until around midnight where we moved on to the fineline tattoos, and Simon managed to persuade us to stop at around 12.30 So that we could get most of the dried up Jagua Gel off before 2.30am… We managed to pack down, clean up and peel most of Andy’s tattoos off by around 1.30. And we left him once again, cold and tired in the early hours, this time he still had to peel off a few tattoos himself just before collapsing into bed for a few hours (by now he’s quite adept at the art of Peeling Jagua.) All in all it has been a great film to work on with Jagua, lots and lots of tattoos! Most of the tattoos will be seen in the openning sequence of the film (being shot somewhere in London today) and some of the tattoos will be visible throughout the film. But given the lack of sleep and the travelling I have to say that this was the best film that I’ve worked on. Its been great fun and really inspiring to work with someone who is commited to the point of delirious sleep deprivation and prepared to really suffer for his character (to say peeling jagua off hairy areas hurts is an understatement!).

And also, needless to say, as an avid Tolkein fan, and a huge fan of Peter Jackson’s films it was also really cool to meet Andy (Gollum/Smeagol in LOTR films) I managed to resist the urge to ask him to say “My Precious” (If you’re reading this Andy… sorry, I had to get it out of my system somewhere! LOL ;-) )

Anyway, feeling human again, we are working late tonight, we were just geting ready to go home. I was actually emailing back and forth with Riffat when my mobile rang… it was Mary Anne (make-up artist from the film) …Were we busy tomorrow? Could we come back for more tattoos? Well, as much as we were really tired, and the thought of another jaunt to London was tiring in itself, we decided that if Andy could do it, we would go for it aswell. Surely if there was anyone more tired than us at this point, it had to be Andy ;-) So we’ve arranged cover for work, and we’re heading home to get some sleep, before we do it all again tomorrow.

It was a really great afternoon… em evening… and night, well suffice it to say we arrived at 3.30pm on Mondy 4th Sept and we left at 12.30 am this morning. Andy is a really great guy, and has a huge amount of patience! Hats off to him seriously, he was a willing and patient canvas, he really thought about every tattoo that his character was having, down to its placement, style and the era it was tattooed in. We got a great insight into the film and by the time we left we also had quite a detailed knowledge of some of Andy’s lines LOL ;-). Not only was Andy being Jagua Tattooed by the two of us, trying to stay very still and getting pretty cold accordingly – he was also reading his script for the next morning. What a guy, just back off his holidays, straight into full body tattoos and having to rehearse his lines at the same time!

When we left Andy he had less than 6 hours before he was due on set, I really hope he’s getting some sleep right now. We had also hoped to be home and tucked up in bed by now… But as luck (bad luck that is) would have it, we are instead sat drinking yet more coffee in Watfor Gap service station, waiting for the next RAC man! Yep, we broke down at Northampton Services on the M1 at around 2am, thankfully we had just pulled in for take out coffees, so we had nice hot drinks while sat at the side of the M1 for nearly an hour! If you’re goinmg to breakdown, do it in style ;-). We were then towed upto the next services, where we’ve been since arond 3.15…. Its now about 4.15 and I’ve ran out of things to say… here we are drinking coffee and waiting for the RAC. You’ve got to laugh really, we are, sat here grinning insanely jittering from excessive coffee drinking, blogging on the Si’s laptop. Only a few hours and Andy’ll be on set, I hope his tattoos look as good as I think they should!

I forgot to ask when this film is due out, needless to say, until it comes out I can’t describe or post any photos of the tattoos that we did. But I will of course post some pictures from the film as soon as I can. I’ll find out when its coming out and post here again. All that remains to say is a big thanks to Andy and his Good Lady for putting up with us and feeding and watering us amongst the chaos of their first day home! I’m off now to play beannie with Si – never go anywhere without a deck of cards either ;-)

We were incredibly prepared, I had emailed font sizes back and forth with ‘The Hobbit’ (a.k.a. Keith the team manager) well in advance of the booking to make sure that we made transfers exactly the right size, to make the numbers spot on and even etc… So you can imagine our surprise when the Team Coach pointed out that the size we had was too small!!! That the size I had suggested would have been fine….HMMM GRRRR!!! So the fact that the error wasn’t our fault didn’t really do us any favours…. Michelle and I decided there was nothing to do except put our Henna Artists heads on and work like we all did in the OLDEN DAYS of contract artwork & freehand the numbers on. You could say there was a bit of pressure as we had to do the same numbers on both arms of each team member had to make sure they looked even and were a specific font & size.

Of course all’s well that ends well, and by 1.30 we had finished the team – we had a few smudges to take care of… but then again what can you expect with 14 grown men? ;-) The team were a great bunch and in high spirits, working on their team buliding visualising their medals!! So far they have won all their matches, so fingers crossed for the GB Mens team, I hope the Jagua Tattoos last the tournament, if not I guess the marker pens will be out again LOL

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