Latest tattoo lowdown.....

[sourpussoctopus]

Had my 2nd session with Thomas Hooper yesterday. Mostly dot shading and mostly sat okay for it. Much easier than the line work during our first session.

Hey guys, a quick n00b question: how well do you think stippled/dotwork tattoos age? Everyone here seems to agree on the importance of outlines in making a tattoo last, but that mandala doesn't have one. Just curious.

( @losParanoyas Sorry to use you as an example, haha. I'm getting work from Thomas again soon, so it's not like I'm picking on you/your artist. Excellent tattoos, by the way.)

[Graeme]

Hey guys, a quick n00b question: how well do you think stippled/dotwork tattoos age? Everyone here seems to agree on the importance of outlines in making a tattoo last, but that mandala doesn't have one. Just curious.

( @losParanoyas Sorry to use you as an example, haha. I'm getting work from Thomas again soon, so it's not like I'm picking on you/your artist. Excellent tattoos, by the way.)

I have a lot of stippling on my forearm from Thomas and my answer is ask me again in twenty years and I'll let you know. My feeling is that, like all tattoos, how well it's going to age is a combination of how I'm going to age and how well the tattoo was made in the first place. I think that Thomas' tattoos will stand up because he's a really good tattooer and puts a lot of thought and care into his tattoos. Ultimately a tattoo will last as long as it lasts, and while I try to take care of my tattoos and myself, I don't dwell too much on the question and I try to get the tattoos that excite me.

[Cork]

@Graeme, do you put sun screen on your arm? I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I can't recall. I always see these old bikers with near unrecognizable black on their forearms and assume its from the sun beating the ink. Or it could just be quality of work, can't really tell.

[tacitapproval]

It's been a while, but I just recently got back to reading the forum and looking at what other people are posting as far as new work. By way of jumping back in, it seemed like posting what I've been up to since I last participated in this thread is the right way to go.

This might be a bit of a long one. Sorry.

Sometimes you're in New Orleans. Sometimes you end up with a butterfly. Brent at Uptown Tattoo did this one:

Jake Miller from Cathedral Tattoo in Salt Lake did this little ditch guy for me:

I did a bit of a run of appointments at Great Lakes Tattoo. Erik did this one:

Nick did this one:

And Matt did this one on my calf:

Javier Rodriguez at LTW in Barcelona made this crazy tiger head for me:

John Raftery, who is also at Cathedral in Salt Lake now, did this snake while he was still in New York at Fun City:

Ben Haft at Fun City did the tops of both of my thighs with a sinking ship and a rose of no man's land:

And finally, Mike Suarez at Hand of Glory in Brooklyn was able to squeeze me in on Saturday and do this on my shin:

I picked up a few little bits of filler here and there, too.

Next up is getting my left knee done, I think. All of this has really just motivated me to start thinking about back/chestpieces.

Further down the rabbit hole.

[Graeme]

@Graeme, do you put sun screen on your arm? I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I can't recall. I always see these old bikers with near unrecognizable black on their forearms and assume its from the sun beating the ink. Or it could just be quality of work, can't really tell.

I try to if I'm going to be out in short sleeves for any length of time. If I'm going to or from work, taking the dog out for a short walk, running to the store, or anything like that I don't always use sunscreen, but generally I make an effort to. It helps that I'm not much of a sun person and have never been one, which used to bother me because I have that kind of skin that is either pale or burned, never tanned, and turns out to be really nice for tattoos.

[SStu]

Here's a teaser. All the linework on my left leg is complete, and some of the dots/shading - but quite a bit of both remain. I've got another 10-12 hrs booked for April and June - so I'm hoping by end of summer I'll have a completed and healed half squid pant.

- - - Updated - - -

Whoa. Sorry about the huge photo.

[losParanoyas]

Hey guys, a quick n00b question: how well do you think stippled/dotwork tattoos age? Everyone here seems to agree on the importance of outlines in making a tattoo last, but that mandala doesn't have one. Just curious.

( @losParanoyas Sorry to use you as an example, haha. I'm getting work from Thomas again soon, so it's not like I'm picking on you/your artist. Excellent tattoos, by the way.)

Thanks and no worries about using my post as an example. It's a valid concern, just not one that I have. I have thought about it a little, but it wasn't enough to slow me down. My chest rarely sees the sun. When it does, it's when I'm swimming with my kids...and we're super careful with the sunscreen with them, which makes it easy to remember to protect myself.

[iowagirl]

Got the peony on the inside done last night. The color is more like the first picture. That was the last part of the cover up. I have two more appointments to do who knows what. Expand the peony/water theme across the top of my back and around the frog that's back there, and add to the cherry blossoms on the other side, peonies and other flowers and wind bars. Whatever we figure out. He also added a little white around some of the cherry blossoms and outlined the blue peony again in some spots.

[sourpussoctopus]

@Graeme @losParanoyas Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree with you guys that a well-taken tattoo will age differently than one spent years under tropical sun. I myself am quite diligent with applying sunscreen to my tattoos in an effort to preserve them.

[Andy TBS]

My Raijin and Kirin by Dave Cummings at PSC, in Montreal. It's all don except for some background to tie in my rock of ages below it. Stokes.

[Graeme]

@Andy TBS That is so good. Dave crushes it so hard.

[Iwar]

Super cool @Andy TBS

[Gingerninja]

Hey guys, a quick n00b question: how well do you think stippled/dotwork tattoos age? Everyone here seems to agree on the importance of outlines in making a tattoo last, but that mandala doesn't have one. Just curious.

( @losParanoyas Sorry to use you as an example, haha. I'm getting work from Thomas again soon, so it's not like I'm picking on you/your artist. Excellent tattoos, by the way.)

I have a good sized rose done in pointillism. It's about three years old and it's still gorgeous. So, it's not that old but the lines are crisp, clean and it hasn't started to fuzz (is that a word?) at all.

[marley mission]

looks good on you...

by Matt Dunn, Rabbit's Den, Milltown, NJ

about 2 weeks healed - crappy pic

fully healed on the other side...

by the same artist...

also crappy pic - gotta say my pics of my tattoos never do them justice...anyway

[Patrick Bateman]

@marley mission

that is dope man. Kudos on the new piece.

[Isotope]

Nguzunguzu.

I did my PhD dissertation on the paleoclimate and oceanography of the Solomon Islands. They are smack dab in the West Pacific Warm Pool, one of the "heat engines" of the Earth's climate. They also sit under the largest perennial rainfall feature on earth, the South Pacific Convergence Zone. I spent a lot of time out there caving, sampling fossil corals, and hanging out in villages listening to villagers and elders tell amazing stories of the past, and depressing stories of the present; logging and overfishing are becoming epidemic.

In the Western Province, tribal warfare and headhunting raids were often conducted between the small islands, with warriors transporting themselves in large Tomoko war canoes. One of the iconic images of the Western Solomons is the figurehead that adorns the prows of these canoes: the Nguzunguzu. A guardian God carved of ebony wood and painted black, with v or z shaped shell inlay. The eyes are always open, on alert. They are mostly either depicted holding a head or a frigate bird. Frigate birds are merciless, hardy, seagoing predators that will not spend the night at sea. They hold a place of reverence in the West Pacific. When I got my diploma, I got this piece on my chest. The flowers are Dendrobium laevifolium, an orchid species native to the remaining Western Solomons primary rainforests.

The artist was Chelsea Kotzur at True Blue on Red River in Austin.

[tacitapproval]

@marley mission That is an amazing Bill Murray and Rodney's looking rad. Planning on doing an entire Caddyshack torso?

[marley mission]

Lol nope - no immediate plans to add more caddyshack tattoos but...

i def wouldnt rule out another david o'keefe based piece

i got another piece scheduled for april (stomach) and that might be it until the fall

[Patrick Bateman]

Lol nope - no immediate plans to add more caddyshack tattoos but...

i def wouldnt rule out another david o'keefe based piece

i got another piece scheduled for april (stomach) and that might be it until the fall

What do you have planned for your stomach?

Right now I'm just waiting for my income tax check to come in before I can make some moves.

Once I get it, the emails or phone calls will start.

[marley mission]

lets just say its nautical - with a twist ;)

jamie sawyer up @ immortal in clinton

also have started a dialogue with sheila marcello @ electric lotus / electric - will be seeing her next - could be spring / fall - gonna see on funds - but honestly i'm due for a break - had a lot of work done this past year

[xcom]

Just came back from a 6 and 1/2 hr session.

Time to get some proteins in my belly.

Pics coming up soon.

[xcom]

As promised.

This is the second session of 4.

We will finish the pixels, planets, and the galaxies on the next session.

Pixels in the unknown.

[Ducky15568]

Cool piece man, I really dig it.

[jen7]

Awesome color

[el twe]

@marley mission - did somebody step on a duck?

@Isotope - cool tattoo, and awesome story. Congrats on your dissertation!