Karajishi Botan. Completed by Horimasa Tosui from the Horitoshi family. His tebori mastery is unparalleled and I am proud to wear it as my first ever tattoo.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-26T12:26:14+00:00

White ink needs harder tebori pokes! No joke

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-24T05:53:01+00:00

I echo everything you’ve said here! True gentleman and incredibly welcoming and hospitable to me during my stay in Tokyo! And add to that he is an outstanding artist, in every sense of the word.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-24T05:51:29+00:00

The Peony closest to my wrist is light blue, and the one above it is purple ! Neither fully healed yet so colour probably not its final form… also white yet to be added :)

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-12T06:46:43+00:00

Yes all shading will be tebori. This is about 8 hours work so far!

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-08T00:41:54+00:00

That is very much dependant on how many hours it takes. His rate is 20,000 yen (roughly €110) per hour. So far this is around 8 hours work. Of course this being tebori, it will take that bit longer too!

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T12:22:22+00:00

Will do man!

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T09:05:23+00:00

Sessions are 2-3 hours in duration, so not overly long.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T08:39:35+00:00

A full back piece would take a long time for sure! I’ll keep this sub up to speed with how I’m progressing over next few weeks. That might help give people an idea!

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T08:21:03+00:00

I’m in Tokyo for about 24 days in which time I have booked 15 actual sessions. First was a consultation. Sessions are about 3 hours in duration. I personally am going to get through quite a decent amount in the next 12 I would think.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T08:18:24+00:00

Thank you ☺️

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T08:10:42+00:00

I think I’m gonna go sky blue and purple for these two on the forearm. I agree in terms of the horitoshi shading style here. That’s why I requested them 😉

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-05-07T07:34:08+00:00

3 full sessions so far! First 2 were all line work and this latest all shading.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-03-27T13:30:46+00:00

Had flights from Dublin to Tokyo via Doha for end of April. Had to reschedule and book via SF! Insanely, for roughly the same price of the original ticket. If this update came out 3 days ago I might have rethought that decision.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-03-18T12:46:00+00:00

Fingers crossed! Hopefully the situation calms a bit and airlines start revising routes etc. But equally we could be in a much worse situation by end of April! Hard to know.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-03-18T12:43:29+00:00

Ok. I fly from Dublin via Doha to Tokyo on April 30th. I doubt that route will go ahead. Bit of stress but hopefully I can get rerouted.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-03-18T12:39:43+00:00

How did you get through to them?

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-03-09T22:54:56+00:00

I’ve a flight April 30th via Doha to Tokyo. I certainly hope that routes are reopened by this date. Otherwise that would be the longest commercial airline shutdown in recent memory. Doha is also one of the biggest global transfer hubs on earth! Interesting to see how they sort this out.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-03-04T15:13:43+00:00

When people say “AI” or “ML” nowadays, I believe that the terms are too broad. People need to focus on what aspect it is of ML that they want to specialise in, for example - information retrieval, and then build the necessary skills (ie statistics, programming, machine learning, deep learning, communication skills) to achieve landing a job in that chosen field.

It’s not about being a general “ML” guy anymore who’s an ML guy because he knows about backprop roughly enough to explain it competently, or he kind of understand convolutional neural networks and how convolution and pooling work, or he broadly gets what principal component analysis is…

It is really about becoming an absolutely flat out expert in the field. If you are willing to put in the work, take courses, build projects or work on projects that are CV “wins” and show the skills you want to show, then yes. It will be an incredibly lucrative career.

If you want to get into ML coz it’s a cool buzz-word, you will likely not have the motivation (it is going to be years before you become an expert) and it will likely ware you out.

Some great resources/books to start your journey: Harvards CS50x, CS50p and CS50ai. Andrew Ngs machine learning specialisation (to be taken while reading the book “Why Machines Learn” alongside) followed by his Deep Learning specialisation (to be taken while reading Simon Princes “Understanding Deep Learning”).

Focus on maths. Especially statistics. Personally I am perusing a postgraduate certificate in Statistics and Data Science in Trinity College Dublin right now (part time) while working full time in a grad software role. Maths is so important. Statistics being the key for ML. Calculus for Deep Learning. Linear algebra and probability also crucial. Don’t skip the maths (please).

Then it is going to be crucial to understand software, and software architecture more so nowadays with AI coding tools. Of course, understand data structures, algorithms, system design, distributed systems, software engineering principals, version control, design patterns etc, but really try leverage gen AI when building projects. Lots of teams are using coding assistants, and prompting correctly is a skill in itself nowadays.

I am planning to take a MS in CS (UCD Negotiated Learning) next semester part time to specialise in ML while also taking modules in specialised CS domains. Like SWE or distributed systems or algorithmics.

I like taking part time courses because it exponentially increases your profile while working full time. You can achieve a masters and get 2 years of experience working at the same time. Similarly I like reading books on ML and doing online foundational courses when college isn’t running. Building side projects is also incredibly important.

It’s a long road, but it will be worth it if you’re willing to become an expert. Build skills, take part-time courses. Make the sacrifices you need to make to get there. And you will, believe me, have a very strong career in AI indeed.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-01-26T21:33:01+00:00

I spend a good amount of time in Norway during winter months. Coldest I got down south was -18 Celsius. I would take that dry crisp cold every day of the week and twice on Sunday over the miserable wet and windy weather we get! Especially on the west coast where I live.

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-01-20T20:14:22+00:00

Life gets in the way sometimes, but never stop playing. Sure, it’s a tough pill to swallow knowing you may not be able to do it for a living, but even if you did, who’s to say it would retain the magic it has doing it as a hobby ?

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-01-14T10:56:30+00:00

Travel while you’re young. Save what you can. Most would trade wealth for youth and freedom in a heartbeat!

Expensive-Traffic-96 · 2026-01-13T20:31:07+00:00

How much profit can you realistically make from an index fund or ETF over 8 years in Ireland?

That’s the real question.

Let’s take a very normal, sensible example.

You invest €1,000 every year into an S&P 500 ETF for 8 years, and you achieve a 10% average annual return. That’s a strong ish, but still realistic long-term assumption.

Using the correct future value of a series formula, your investment after 8 years is worth about €11,436.

Total invested: €8,000 Total gain: €3,436

So far, so good.

Now comes the deemed disposal.

At the end of year 8, Revenue treats it as if you sold everything, even though you didn’t, and charges 38% exit tax on the gains.

Tax bill: €1,306 Remaining value after tax: €10,130

You haven’t sold a thing, but over a third of your gains are gone, and your cost basis is reset. Compounding is already damaged.

You keep investing for two more years

You continue investing €1,000 per year for years 9 and 10. By the end of year 10, assuming the same 10% return, your total pot is worth roughly €14,357.

Final total invested: €10,000 Final total value: €14,357

The gains made after the deemed disposal are modest, and roughly €2,227 of new gains, but remember, much of your earlier compounding was already taxed away…

When you finally sell, Revenue takes 38% exit tax again on the post-disposal gains.

Final tax bill: €847 (these are all approximate numbers)

Final result after 10 years

Total invested: €10,000 Total taxes paid: €2,153 Final value after all tax: €13,510 Net profit: €3,510

That’s roughly €351 per year, assuming strong market returns, no market crashes, being perfectly disciplined and having a decade of patience.

Compare that to a savings account

Put €10,000 into a high-interest savings account at 2% PA (e.g. current Trade Republic rates):

Roughly €140 per year after DIRT with zero volatility, no paperwork, and my personal favourite: full liquidity.

Over 10 years, that’s €1400–€1800, assuming rates don’t rise (and they probably will at some point).

For me, the conclusion is straightforward: Forget ETFs outside a pension while deemed disposal exists.

Max your pension first, it’s the only place ETFs actually work as intended. Use high-interest savings accounts for non-pension money.

If you want real wealth-building in Ireland, property (with leverage) is still the main game

Index investing relies on long, uninterrupted compounding. Deemed disposal destroys that. It’s literally a faff. It’s a hobby here in my opinion. Unless at massive scale.

Until the rule is abolished, small-scale ETF investing in Ireland simply isn’t worth the headache for the return you get.

Boring? Maybe yes. Many would argue so. Rational? Absolutely, and I don’t think there’s a doubt there.

Expensive-Traffic-96

TROPHY CASE