MegaCon 2018 – Autograph Session – Fred Tatasciore

This was my last autograph session for Friday and it was definitely well worth it for this Mass Effect fangirl. So here’s the thing, I’m not much of an Overwatch fan, but if you know anything about me it’s that I love Mass Effect and it just so happens that Fred Tatasciore was the original Mass Effect villain before the real threat of the reapers and that horrible Mass Effect 3 ending. I was just as excited to meet Fred and collect another autograph on my N7 helmet poster as I was to meet Mark Meer, which you can read about here.

The line for Fred was long which was where my trusty VIP badge came into play because everyone was lining up for Soilder 76 while I was lining up for Saren. I enjoyed hearing the people before me talk to Fred and kind of have a new respect for people that play Overwatch because they are so into it and very much into his character. One of these days I might get into Overwatch and give his character a try. Anyway, while I waited, I did have a nice chat with his handler and tried to get information on how to do what he did. He was pretty tight lipped about how he came into the job, and wouldn’t say much, but other than that we actually had a pleasant conversation since this wasn’t the first time I had seen him with voice actors and at MegaCon.

When it was finally time to meet Fred, I unveiled my N7 helmet poster and told him that I thought that he was the best villain in the whole series because he was the one who started it all. He thanked me in his Saren voice before we chatted a little bit about the game and his character. He then asked if he could sign my poster and put a special message from Saren on it. This fangirl was once again over the moon and said yes. After an awesome meet and greet, it was time for Friday to be over because Saturday was going to be one hell of a day.

MegaCon 2018 – Autograph Session – Mark Meer

I wanted to start my Friday at MegaCon off right and have an awesome day like I did Thursday, so I decided to kick off my autograph go around with Mark Meer.

Known mostly for being Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, Mark has also provided a bunch of voices to a bunch of different characters in not only Mass Effect, but also Dragon Age, and most recently a huge role in The Long Dark.

Happy to be the first in line to meet Mark, I handed over my coveted Mass Effect N7 helmet print and asked him to sign it. Like the people who signed it before, we talked about the print and I gently told him that he wasn’t my Shepard, to which he completely understood, but that he left a very lasting impression as one of my favorite Mass Effect characters Niftu Cal. We then talked about the other roles he played in Mass Effect and noticed that my poster was lacking some of those names. He asked if he could add them in and this Mass Effect fangirl was over the moon and said yes. After giving the standard “I should go…” autograph, he then added a Niftu Cal writing in the poster, a Blasto one, a Vorcha one, and then a MaleShep one.

I thanked him endlessly and told him how much I enjoyed The Long Dark and hearing both him and Jennifer Hale in those roles. When it came to selfie time I showed off my Niftu Cal T-Shirt which surprised him since he never seen one before. He took a couple of pictures of the shirt and took a selfie with his phone before it was selfie time with my phone.

We also spoke about my Mass Effect tattoos and he asked where my Niftu Cal Tattoo was, I told him that I didn’t have one yet, but if I got one that he had to sign it. He said he didn’t want to pressure me into getting a Niftu Cal tattoo , but if I did, the next time he was at MegaCon he would sign it. Needless to say, I might be showing off a Niftu Cal tattoo soon.

Meeting Mark was an amazing experience and I really enjoyed the time I had spent with him along with all the autographs and pictures that were taken. It was an awesome way to start off my Friday. If you’re a Mass Effect fan and you have the chance to meet Mark Meer, do not pass it up because he’s just an awesome person.

Video Game Tattoo Chronicles – Part 10 – I Settle for Nothing but the Best

For me tattoo season is in full swing because this is the time when my tattoo artist is the least busiest and I can basically make my appointment whenever. This is great for me and great for him because he gets to fill up his schedule. Anyway, this month was time for the big shoulder piece as my Borderlands / Mass Effect mash up sleeve is about 60% complete.

I have a bunch of favorite Mass Effect characters, there’s of course FemShep which is already on my lower arm, Liara, who made her appearance just above my elbow, and now Miranda that gets the top spot as my huge shoulder piece. There are more Mass Effect characters to come, but this was the one that just had to be the center because it’s a badass picture.

So it was decided that this tattoo would get a Sin City type of treatment in my first full black tattoo making it stand out from the rest of the colors on my sleeve. It brings attention to the tattoo itself and makes it just pop. The session lasted from 12:30 pm to exactly 6 pm and it’s not even fully done.

It looks done, but of course my tattoo artist wants to add some details to it, some white highlights, some background and he would have done it that very day if there weren’t a mother / daughter combo waiting for him to finish up with me. Anyway, the highlights and some background will come with my next appointment which just happens to be next month.

Because my tattoo artist thinks I don’t give him enough love… If you follow this blog, and read about my tattoo stories, please do me a solid and check out my tattoo artist on Instagram. His tag is gentry_draws. Not only is he a really great artist who does a bunch of different tattoo’s ranging from your typical tattoo’s, to his own original work, and to the excellent stuff he does on my sleeve, but he’s also a really great guy. Head over to Instagram and check him out so that he can stop complaining that I don’t actually mention him anywhere.

Now for next month, I have to say that after getting the highlights and some background done on my Miranda tattoo, I seriously have no idea which character will be next. There are a few more musts for my sleeve before we can start on the actual background that will cover in the blank spots. Those must characters include Garrus, Mordin, Moxxi, and Tiny Tina. I’m really at a loss of what to do next, so next month will be a complete surprise. I have to say that I’m kind of leaning towards Moxxi since it’ll be another rather large piece, but so will Garrus. So…yeah, I have no idea. Want to give me a suggestion? Do so in the comments section below and I’ll let you know what was added to my sleeve next month.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Jennifer Hale

This wasn’t my first time meeting Jennifer Hale, I had first met her about four years ago at my very first MegaCon. To be honest, at that time I was thinking about going and then they announced that Jennifer Hale was going to be there and my ticket was bought. I mean I didn’t think I would ever get the chance to meet her once, but since the time I had originally met her, I acquired a new piece of Mass Effect art work and it was sorely missing a signature from her. I think that when you have a certain piece of art work from one of your favorite games what makes it more special is having the people who are in the game sign it. It not only makes it more special, but also more personal. Since she was attending I figured why not and stopped at her super crowded line after meeting Ali Hillis. You can read about my experience meeting Ali Hillis here.

What’s great about meeting Jennifer Hale is that if you bring her something that she hasn’t seen before she’s always super impressed and will take some time to chat with you about it which is pretty cool. Even if you don’t she always takes the time out to chat with her fans and that’s one of the great things about her. What’s even cooler was that because I brought something similar the last time I met her she actually remembered me. Do you know how great that felt? Pretty damn great.

Seeing that Ali Hillis had personalized the same piece of art work, she did the same for me before snapping off a few selfies with me. I got the chance to tell her how much I missed her in Mass Effect and I got a smile before she told me to make sure to let BioWare know.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Ali Hillis

After two back to back photo-ops and wanting to get to the Famke Janseen panel, I knew I had to be quick to meet one of my favorite Mass Effect voice actors. I have to say that Saturday was just a huge day of jumbled nerves because I was meeting some pretty awesome people. As many of you know, Ali Hillis plays Dr. Liara T’Soni who just happens to be my FemShep’s favorite lady. I had three autographs I wanted so it meant I got to spend a lot of time with her.

While getting my autographs, I just had to show off my Liara tattoo, which she then proceeded to take a picture of and even tweet out to the world before I told her that she was my favorite character. She thanked me and told me to lean in close as she gave me a little Liara as she continued to sign. She commented on the pieces that I had brought to her and told me that she personalized one special for me because she never signs like that for anyone else. With one more autograph to go I had to tell her that five out of six of my FemSheps choose Liara each time. That got me a look and I said that I was sorry as one of my FemShep’s just had to choose Samantha Traynor. Looking upset she told me to lean in close again as she gave me a disappointed Liara impression. It made the whole session just that much more amazing, I mean I didn’t think it could be topped, but there was one more moment because I of course needed a selfie.

Everyone by this time knows that I had my dad with me so when it comes to selfies he’s the one that gets stuck taking them for me. I had him take one picture before Ali Hillis took my phone for herself and told me she would take our selfies to make it look like we were best friends and because she knew how to take the best selfies. After snapping off a few shots, we were done. Turns out Ali Hillis really does know how to take the best selfies. Seriously one of the best convention moments of the day.

Video Game Tattoo Chronicles – Part 5 – A New Character

It’s been a while since I wrote one of these blogs, but the last time I went in for a session all that was really done was some background and then some touching up here and there to my current tattoo’s for my sleeve. I really didn’t feel like it was worthy of a blog by itself since it was just some scenery and stuff, but I did get some work done that added to my sleeve. Before we get into what happened this time, take a look at the added galaxy scenery and some more detail to FemShep.

I know that I’ve been keeping it a secret for a while what I was going to do as filler for the rest of my arm now that my two main characters were basically done, but the day has finally come for me to reveal my plans. On the back of my arm, near my elbow, my tattoo artist, who is great by the way, and I had decided to do a dying reaper to go with FemShep. This had been the plan for a while, but when it finally came down to it we decided to scrap this because I just basically thought it would look way to dark. Reapers are basically black and with the already existing galaxy background, I didn’t want something as dark to go in that area making the reaper not be able to stand out on it’s own.

Going in a new direction at the last minute, I wanted something that would blend into the Borderlands / Mass Effect mashup I have going and decided what would be better than a Borderlands psycho popping out over Femshep’s shoulder. My tattoo artist loved this idea and love the design of the Borderlands psycho and just ran with it. After a pretty long three hour session, this was the end result.

I can’t tell you enough how happy I am with the choice of adding this to the existing sleeve. I think it brightens up the sleeve as a whole and just looks pretty damn cool. It also gives the sleeve a more collage type feel to it and is just an awesome addition. As always the thanks goes to my awesome tattoo artist who is always willing to listen to my crazy ideas and then basically runs with them.

The bottom half of my sleeve is coming to an end though as we only have a few more spots to fill in with ink before moving upwards. My next appointment isn’t until December and as always I have it marked on my calendar and looking forward to it. To finish up, the plan is to cover up my crappy tattoo with the earth underneath FemShep completely and underneath Athea. There will be some more galaxy added to the empty spaces on the top and then some highlights along the rest of the tattoo to make it pop a little bit more. I’ll be able to give you a full 360 view of what the sleeve looks like after my last session.

Video Game Tattoo Chronicles – Part 4 – Saying Goodbye to Commander Shepard

It feels like forever since I first started on my FemShep tattoo. My first session for her was in June where my tattoo artist did the outline of her along with the shading that needed to be done. I have been waiting a very long time to go back in and see him in order to get this tattoo done. I’ve been patient though and trying not to go through tattoo withdrawal as I looked forward to what would be done and how the end product would look. In the meantime though, while I’ve been waiting ever so patiently, I have been replaying the whole Mass Effect series. But what does this have to do with completing my FemShep tattoo?

I want to start off by telling you that I in no way planned this to happen the way it did. It just so happened that I was replaying through the Mass Effect series and the day before I finished my tattoo, I had completed all 3 games. What does this have to do with getting the tattoo finished? Nothing really, but for me it was kind of an end of an era. I’ve been playing Mass Effect since 2010 when I first bought Mass Effect 2, I know I was late to the party, but this was the first time that I played all three games in a row. I already knew why I loved the character of FemShep whether she was a paragon or renegade, if I didn’t then I wouldn’t have had her image tattooed on my arm for everyone to see for the rest of my life. What I didn’t realize until now though, was the effect that this character actually had on me as a person.

Through good times and bad, which felt like a hell of a lot more bad times than good, this character was one of the constants in my life. She fought for what she believed in and she fought hard. Never giving up, never wavering, and getting the job done in the very end. Throughout the years of playing this game, I made a lot of huge changes in my life. I won’t detail them here and bore you to death, but I like to think that some part of me did this because of the admiration I have for this character. In a way, the completion of this tattoo is like saying goodbye to Shepard. Not only goodbye, but also a thank you and constant reminder that if you believe in something, it’s worth fighting for.

Now that you’re completely bored, I will tell you that my session took a total of four hours. Yes, four hours to just color in FemShep to perfection. While we were supposed to start on the background as well, after four hours I was in a shit load of pain. Yes, I admit this time I was in a lot of pain. If my tattoo artist is reading this he is probably pumping a fist in victory as I finally admit to being in pain since I usually just brush it off and tell him to keep going. Anyway, below is the final product of my last session.

Since I was really eager to finish up my arm before the year is out, I scheduled my next appointment for next moth where we’ll work on the mysterious background that I talked about last time and I’ll give able to finally give a picture of the full 360 view of my completed forearm sleeve. As always, I look forward to my next session and would like to give a huge thank you to my tattoo artist who always makes the crazy shit that I want done into a reality with a few tweaks here and there to make it look amazing.

Video Game Tattoo Chronicles – Part 3 – Cover Up and A New Direction

The last time we left off, I had just gotten my Athena tattoo completed.  I wasn’t done there though, far from it actually as I continue on with my video game tattoos.  So what was up for this month?  Keep reading to find out.

After a long, long process of decision making, tattoos are permanent people so I don’t make these decisions lightly, I decided to take the advice of my tattoo artist and pick a bunch of different characters and let him creatively intertwine them making one whole sleeve in the process.  So who would be the next character on my left arm?  Why Commander Shepard of course.  But to be exact, it had to be FemShep.

So why FemShep?  Each tattoo holds a story for me and this one does too.  To me FemShep represents an extraordinary human being who is tasked with doing the impossible.  Time after time she overcomes these obstacles and succeeds, never giving up she’s unwavering.  She’s a strong and powerful woman and in many ways I can relate.

Now for the kind of difficult part.  The cover up of my previous paragon tattoo.  It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, but it had to be done.  The tattoo was horrible and for that reason it took away the original meaning it had for me.  Take a look at the tattoo below. It’s kind of embarrassing to think that I actually payed good money for this tattoo just three years ago at MegaCon and then for it to turn out like this. I even blamed myself, thinking that I didn’t take care of it properly when it was healing. It wasn’t until I met my current tattoo artist that I was told that it was just really badly scarred over because the guy who originally did it apparently really didn’t know what he was doing.

I sent my tattoo artist three different images of what I would want out of a FemShep tattoo and below is what we discussed he would do and how it would look on my arm.

Three hours later and we finished my first session.  Now for the next session, which isn’t until August because I’m totally tapped out from MegaCon and this session, my artist will be working on finishing up FemShep by coloring her in and then creating a scene around her.  There is a bit of a catch though, I’m not telling what we’re going to be doing scene wise, but it’s going to be pretty damn awesome.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to my next session as always and I want to give a big thank you to my tattoo artist who is just amazing.  Without him none of this would be possible and I couldn’t have found anyone better. Stay tuned as I finish up my left arm and then possibly continue to move up or give this arm a rest and move onto my right.

This Week in Trophies 05-01-2016 – 05-07-2016

This was one of those weeks where I felt really scatter brained and that meant that I not only started one new game, I started three new games. Which now that I have a clear head I realized was really stupid because Uncharted 4 comes out this upcoming Tuesday and there’s nothing that I want to play more than that. Anyway, I’ll most likely be paying for my mistakes as I end this month not accomplishing anything, but here’s a look at the trophies I was able to get this week.

Mass Effect – 72%

I finished my first replay through this game early last week and was really happy with the outcome. For all the faults that I found with the original game, I have to say that the second time around I enjoyed it a lot better than I did the first. As soon as I can I’ll be importing my recent Shepard into Mass Effect 2 in order to hopefully get the last DLC trophy that I need for the 100% on that game.

Battleborn – 12%

I got this game a whole day early and was able to find out really early that I’m not liking this game at all. It’s a real struggle for me to play it because there are so many things that I think are wrong with it. The first thing is basically that there’s an episode based story which is just stupid. There is no constant playthrough, no actual missions or side mission and you can’t just open your party for random people to join, you have to go into a matchmaking system and then hopefully everyone will agree on which episode to play. If not you’re pretty much screwed and you’ll end up jumping around making the story not even make sense or make you feel like you shouldn’t even be invested in the story to begin with. Instead of this game, I really wished that Gearbox would have worked on Borderlands 3.

Table Top Racing: World Tour – 12%

I got this game free this week thanks to PS+ and I decided to give it a try. I figured what the hell. It looked interesting enough, even though I’m totally not into racing games, and it was different. I gave Rocket League a chance so I wanted to do the same with this. I have to say that I actually enjoyed this game a hell of a lot more than Battleborn and am playing almost every chance I can get. I look forward to one day hopefully getting the platinum trophy for this game.

Tropico 5 – 14%

Who ever said that PS+ doesn’t give you anything good? I’ve been waiting for this game to go on sale since it came out and could never find it at a decent price. Do you know what price is really great? Free. I jumped at the chance to download this game this week and start playing as soon as I possibly could. I did not regret doing that one bit. I find myself playing for hours upon hours when I didn’t intend to in the first place. The campaign is challenging and frustrating, but I’m really enjoying it.

That was it for this week. It was nice that I had a little more time to game but that all changes again this week. This week is busy busy for me which means that I won’t get all that much time to game and I absolutely hate when that happens on a week where a new game comes out that I’ve been waiting for. Anyway, for this week I doubt I’ll even get a chance to start Mass Effect 2, so I’ll probably skip it, I’m definitely going to start Uncharted 4 sometime this week, I’ll probably play Table Top Racing: World Tour and Tropico 5 when I get a chance, and I might try to go back and play some Battleborn if I’m absolutely bored out of my mind. I’ll let you know how things played out for me next week.

This Week in Trophies 04-24-2016 – 04-30-2016

Compared to last week, this week was just seriously lacking one of the things that I love and that’s trophies. It’s mostly my own fault though as I didn’t have a lot of time to game especially since I devoted a full day to finishing up my Athena tattoo. You’ll see the full blog on my experience with that later on this week, but then there was also work, and more work, and when I did game I spent most of my time trying to get that last trophy in Dig Dug which seems to be just impossible. Anyway, here’s a look at what I did get this week.

Mass Effect – 71%

So I made some major progress on this game this week as I got done a lot last Sunday. I really like having this as my Sunday game. The funny thing is that I’m just about done with this game too and since it’s been a while since I last played, I’m eager for the end. Not because I don’t like the game, but just because I played as a renegade this time. I’m not sure how it’s going to affect anything, but I’m curious to find out and then move on to Mass Effect 2.

Arcade Game Series: Dig Dug – 91%

I was able to get one trophy for this game this week and it was frustrating as hell. I have one more trophy to get in order to get the platinum. ONE! This thing is slowly becoming a full on pain in my ass as it seems no matter what I do I cannot get the Rambler trophy. Any chance that I’ve been getting to game, this is what I’ve been doing and it’s becoming a waste of my time.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – 100%

The last episode came out this week and I finished it. At this point, that’s all I’m going to say about that since I have my review coming up within the next few weeks. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait, but the review will be well worth it.

Sadly that was it for this week. I know, it wasn’t a lot but I’m hoping that next week will be better. I do have some plans for next week since my schedule returns to normal and I have my normal gaming times. So for this week I plan on doing my usual Mass Effect binge, I really want that Dig Dug platinum so I’ll be trying for that, I’ll also be trying to get some Dying Light in, and of course I’ll be playing Battleborn this week. If anyone else is playing Battleborn this week let me know in the comments section below and maybe we can set up a gaming session. As always, I’ll let you know how things turned out next time.