I've been working in ceramics for twelve years. I understand slow transformation — how fire changes clay into something permanent. When I committed to a full bodysuit, I knew it would be the same kind of process. Patient. Irreversible. Beautiful because of the time it takes, not in spite of it. This is my diary from bare skin to soushinbori.
The first consultation
Met Hiro at his studio in Collingwood. Tiny room, immaculate. He studied my body for twenty minutes before saying anything. Then: "Your shoulders are slightly asymmetric — the dragon needs to account for that." He drew on me with a marker for an hour. We talked about flow, about how water motifs should follow muscle insertion points. I left with marker all over my legs and a deposit paid. No turning back now.
Mood: Terrified. Exhilarated.
Session 1 — left calf outline
First tebori session. Five hours. The sound is nothing like a machine — it's rhythmic, almost meditative. Tik-tik-tik-tik. The pain on the calf was manageable, like a sustained cat scratch. Hiro outlined the koi — two of them ascending through rapids. The lines are so clean they look printed. I cried in the car afterwards, not from pain but from the realisation that this is actually happening.
Pain: 4/10 — calf is relatively forgiving. The Achilles area was sharp.
Healing: Wrapped in cling film for 4 hours, then switched to Bepanthen. Tender for 3 days.
Mood: Overwhelmed with gratitude.
Sessions 4–7 — both legs outlined
The legs are taking shape. Right thigh has the phoenix tail feathers wrapping from outer quad to inner knee. The back of the left thigh — that was brutal. Hiro says the backs of the legs are where most people consider quitting. I nearly did. Session 6, three hours in, I asked him to stop early. He said nothing, just packed up his tools. I felt like I'd failed something. Next session I lasted the full five hours. Didn't flinch.
Pain: 7/10 — back of thigh and inner knee are vicious.
Healing: Starting to learn my body's patterns. Left side heals faster than right. Taking zinc supplements now.
Mood: Stubborn.
Session 14 — legs complete (outline)
Both legs fully outlined. Standing in front of the mirror is surreal — from the waist down I look like an ukiyo-e print came to life. Koi ascending left leg, phoenix tail descending right. Rapids, cherry blossoms, wind bars connecting everything. Hiro is pleased. He says the outline is the skeleton — everything else is flesh. I have two months off before we start the back. My legs need to fully heal and I need to mentally prepare.
Healing: Full outline healed in about 5 weeks. The lines are crisp and settled.
Mood: Proud. Ready for more.
Session 15 — the back begins
First session on the back. Dragon outline. Hiro works from the centre outward — spine first, then radiating. The spine is a different kind of pain. Not sharp like the legs — deeper, more resonant. Feels like it's vibrating my whole skeleton. The dragon's head sits between my shoulder blades, mouth open, descending toward my lower back. Three hours of outline work. I can feel the dragon when I move. When I twist, it twists.
Pain: 6/10 — spine is deep but tolerable. Shoulder blades are bony and sharp.
Mood: Connected to something ancient.
Session 22 — back outline complete
Eight months on the back. The outline is done — dragon through clouds, with full wind bars and lightning. Hiro added a detail I didn't expect: a small temple bell hidden in the cloud forms near my right shoulder blade. He says every bodysuit should have secrets — things only the wearer knows about. I love it. Nobody will ever see it unless I show them.
Mood: Intimate. This is between me and the work now.
Sessions 23–26 — back shading (gakubori)
Background shading — gakubori. This is what transforms an outline into a traditional bodysuit. Hiro fills the negative space around the dragon with graduated grey, getting darker toward the edges. The dragon now POPS against the background. It looks three-dimensional. Each session is gruelling — the shading requires going over areas that were already traumatised by the outline. My skin is taking longer to heal now. I've started taking a week between sessions instead of two weeks.
Pain: 8/10 — re-working already-outlined areas is significantly worse.
Healing: Extending rest periods. Using unscented moisturiser obsessively. Sleeping on my stomach is impossible.
Mood: Enduring.
Session 38 — back complete, arms begin
The back is finished. I turned around in front of Hiro's floor-length mirror and didn't recognise myself. It's massive. The dragon descends from shoulder blades to tailbone, surrounded by dense cloud-and-lightning gakubori. Every detail resolved. Hiro opened a beer and we sat outside his studio not saying much. Then he pulled out the arm stencils. Left arm: waves and water, carrying the koi theme up from my leg through my torso and out to my wrist. "Same river," he said. "Different altitude."
Mood: A milestone. The back is the heart of everything.
Sessions 42–48 — sleeves taking shape
Both arms progressing simultaneously. Alternating — left one session, right the next. The inner bicep is ungodly painful. I actually yelped during session 44 and Hiro laughed quietly, which is the closest he gets to teasing. The waves are magnificent though. He's achieving this texture with tebori that no machine could replicate — the water looks like it's moving. I've started wearing long sleeves everywhere. Not to hide it. I just want to control the reveal. I want it finished before the world sees it.
Pain: 9/10 — inner bicep and elbow ditch. Absolutely savage.
Healing: Arms heal faster than back but the swelling is worse. Ice packs every night.
Mood: Protective of the work. Almost possessive.
Session 64 — arms complete, front begins
Arms are done. Nagasode — wrist to shoulder, full coverage. The connection at the shoulders is seamless. Hiro spent an entire session just on the transition zones where arm meets back. You cannot tell where one stops and the other starts. Now the front. I'm nervous about this in a way I wasn't about anything else. The chest feels... vulnerable. Personal. The ribs are going to be hell and I know it. Cherry blossoms on the right side. Maple leaves on the left. A fox hidden among the branches — another secret.
Pain: Anticipatory dread for the ribs.
Mood: Vulnerable but ready.
Sessions 72–78 — ribs and stomach
The ribs. I have to write about the ribs. Session 73 I actually considered quitting. Not the bodysuit — just this area. Maybe leave it unfinished, who would know? But the asymmetry would haunt me. Hiro doesn't do numbing cream, says it changes how ink sits. So I breathed through it. Long exhales. Counting ceiling tiles. The stomach was better — more flesh, more cushioning. But the lower stomach near the hip bones? Almost as bad as ribs. I'm sleeping 10 hours a night now. My body is exhausted from healing.
Pain: 10/10 — ribs are the worst pain I've ever experienced. Nothing prepares you.
Healing: Taking full two-week breaks between sessions. Eating extra protein. My body needs more time now.
Mood: Grim determination. No beauty without suffering.
Session 84 — front complete
The hikae panels frame my collarbones. Cherry blossoms cascade down the right side of my torso. Maple leaves drift across the left, meeting the fox hidden in a branch below my left breast. From the front, the bodysuit looks like a vest — dense imagery from collarbone to hip, flowing seamlessly into the arm sleeves. Hiro stepped back, looked at me for a long time, and said "Three more sessions. Touch-ups only." It's almost done. Four years of my life. I don't know who I'll be when it's finished.
Mood: Anticipation. Grief, almost. The process has been my companion for so long.
Session 86 — complete
Done. The last session was barely an hour — tiny touch-ups where ink had fallen out during healing. Hiro took photographs. Clinical, methodical, every angle. Then he bowed. In four and a half years, he's never bowed to me. I bowed back. Neither of us spoke. I walked outside into Melbourne summer heat and felt the sun on exactly zero bare skin below my neck. The soushinbori is complete. I am complete. I took a cold shower when I got home and stood in front of the bathroom mirror, turning slowly, watching the water run over dragons and koi and cherry blossoms and wind. This body is my life's work now. Not just Hiro's — mine too. Every session I showed up. Every heal I waited through. Every moment of doubt I pushed past. It's finished.
Mood: Peace.
“I used to hide my body. Now it tells a story louder than any words I could speak.”
Looking back
People ask if I regret it. I don't know how to answer that question. You might as well ask if I regret being alive for the last four and a half years. The bodysuit isn't something I have — it's something I did. An act of patience repeated eighty-six times. What I know now that I didn't know at the start: the pain fades but the pride doesn't. The money is gone but the work remains. And every morning when I catch my reflection, I see someone who committed to something enormous and followed through. That's worth more than bare skin ever was.
Summary
Total sessions
86
Total hours in chair
~430
Duration
4 years 7 months
Coverage
~92%
Technique
Tebori (hand-poke)
Most painful area
Ribs — 10/10
Longest session
6 hours (back)
Healing time (total)
~18 months cumulative
