I met James Winterroth in The Mint on 19th Street back in August. A friend was in town for my birthday and she was getting a tattoo of a cave salamander on her shoulder at Mad Dog Tattoo. I went across the street to the bar to have a drink while I waited.

At the bar, drinking coffee, was a man missing part of his right arm. At the time, he was involved as a skating coach for the Rollergirls, Bakersfield's attempt at a roller derby team. My partner had photographed the team for Mas magazine, and recognized James. She introduced me to him, and I instinctively reached out my right hand to shake his. After an awkward moment, I stuck out my left hand instead. This must happen to him all the time.

James was very personable, open and friendly. He told me about the accident that took his arm. And then he told me about his plan to get his stump tattooed.

I thought it was a brilliant idea, and I was immediately excited about it. As the multimedia editor at The Californian and for Bakersfield.com, I am always looking for good stories to tell in short-form video for the Web. This sounded perfect!

I asked James if he would mind me following him through the process of getting his tattoo. He said "Sure!" It was the start of a fascinating journey. Through September and October, I attended four sessions at Mad Dog Tattoo. Artist George Quick had a vision and it was awesome to see it come to life.

They worked fast so James could enter a contest at the big tattoo convention at the Rabobank Theater at the end of October. It would be a great ending to my video -- very "Pimp my Ride" to have an unveiling at the end. I thought for 1/2 a second about calling my video "Pimp my Stump." But for obvious reasons, I didn't go for it.

For the Web, I chose the title "Tattooing the Stump" because I don't want viewers to have to guess before clicking on it to watch. But I plan to merge the two-part series into one 10-minute mini-documentary to enter into festivals. I will call it "Half Sleeve."

James, thank you so much for letting me be a part of your journey. I know you and George still have more to do on the tattoo and I hope I can keep tagging along.

Also, thank you Felix Adamo at The Californian, for taking beautiful photos of James and his tattoo for the end of the video. It is very powerful to just be able to gaze at the tattoo and listen to James' final words.

You can watch the videos at www.bakersfield.com/multimedia. I welcome all feedback!