heavy black work sleeve/japanese traditional sleeve

[YOMONEY]

how about this contrast? a full sleeve heavy blacked out.. the other (i will have a year or so to plan, save, and research artist) japanese sleeve?

murdering out my sleeve feels uplifting and empowering to me on one hand.. but on the other is the fear like, oh what if i get hella bummed off having a black arm (im not a racist).. its also kind of dope to me because you dont see it too often.. it also seems like some shit you could grow old with (my tattoos now- no) and be cool with..

and to not feel like such a derelict; some really sick japanese traditional on the other arm.. to balance things out..

i think itd be a cool contrast.. everyone i talk to doesnt care, they just like the black sleeve idea..

also, how do you know whos right to do the heavy black work? you can contact reputable shops and theyll recommend somebody, saying theyve done this before a few times or whatever.. im worried about scarring and dont want to be lead astray..

lastly, and this may seem dumb.. i also have a lot of time to consider this.. but how the hell do you go about getting a japanese sleeve? sorry if this seems newjack-ish, but i know the elements that go into one.. but whenever i see a really cool one i think that it must be all the artists concept.. like my sleeve now has windbars, koi,. waves, flowers, etc.. but on all out traditional sleeve.. this is probably something you work half and half on with an artist? know that may sound obvious.. again, its also not something im going to jump right into.. im having removal on some medium-ish shit on the arm and will have a year or so to research, appreciate, and think about this..

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also, on the heavy black,, on my shoulder there is already some cool windbar shit that caps it off.. i want to leave that.. and maybe connect some of it somehow into a chest peice.. or even a half chest peice.. just trying to get some ideas bouncing around and creative juices flowing here..

[Graeme]

For what it's worth, when I see blacked-in arms, which I do somewhat often in these parts, they're usually on 20-something punk kids, so I just assume that they're covering old straight edge tattoos.

[YOMONEY]

ahhhh! haha.. thats why i want that contrast..

[slayer9019]

I do have to ask are you blacking out to cover up tattoos? I know most of the time this is the case.

Also in my opinion if you feel like you might regret it wait for a bit

[Scott R]

i would say no to the black sleeve, if you dont like whatevers there just let it fade and or laser and blast over that with some new tattoos

[Napalm Pancakes]

Ian Flower posted this on his instagram and is what I picture with your description.

Personally I believe laser is always the best bet.

[hogg]

Laser it. Sounds like you'd regret a blacked out sleeve.

[Jyester]

Whats going on with that sleeve above??.. I understand covering up your Tazmanian devil holding the Scotland flag you had done when you were 16. Getting a full Japanese sleeve done and then deciding to black it all out does seem a little strange though?!

[gougetheeyes]

lastly, and this may seem dumb.. i also have a lot of time to consider this.. but how the hell do you go about getting a japanese sleeve? ...... like my sleeve now has windbars, koi,. waves, flowers, etc.. but on all out traditional sleeve..

You've got a blacked out "sleeve" going, you want a Japanese sleeve, and you currently have a "sleeve" with Japanese elements that is also a traditional....sleeve? How many sleeves are you working on, currently? And where are you putting all of them?

[YOMONEY]

sorry for the confusion.. i have a sleeve that isnt japanese but has some of the elements in it.. my other arm doesnt have much- where i want a full out japanese sleeve, but in the future..

thanks for the replies, its cool to have a community like this to bounce crap off of people.. thats all i was tryin to do, a blacked out sleeve is a major step, not something id go do on a whim..

napalm, thanks for posting that picture.. cool concept, i guess (did they go over the black sleeve with white ink?), but just doesnt look that great to me.. i dont like how it gets that silver look i often see.. also blacked out elbows would probably bum me out for some reason.. other than that i could hang, is why i left it open as an option..

i just figured id bring this here to you guys, since i have friends who are all about the idea.. one was even going to do this on a blank arm.. but since i can only kind of picture it in my mind, i was more curious about the concept of black sleeve/japanese sleeve.. but i can see from the picture above, it doesnt look nearly as cool as i pictured it.. at the end of the day youre probably right about the laser.. itd be something id have to save a lot of $$$$$$$ for, since id eventually zap everything on my lower arm..

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damn, napalm.. that was almost spot on with what i was thinking.. but since my chest is open i was going to have a much cleaner transition into the chest peice.. this is something im still going to do, but black out from a couple inches above the top point of my elbow.. not the whole arm..

[SStu]

Full black is pretty radical, and an artistic statement that quite a minority will appreciate. Can you post up pictures of what you have now so that other alternatives could be reviewed?

[irezumi]

how about this contrast? a full sleeve heavy blacked out.. the other (i will have a year or so to plan, save, and research artist) japanese sleeve?

doesnt sound much like contrast actually; just 2 different tattoos on the same person. when i think contrast, i think of 2 things that compliment each other to bring it together as a whole.

this just sounds like and will look like a huge cover-up on one arm, and a nice sleeve on the other arm. the only contrast will be interesting sleeve/boring sleeve.

[lving4today]

Meh. Not into it. This is just my opinion, but I'd never walk up to someone and be like oh sweet black arm who did it? Nothing to get excited about to me

[slayer9019]

Yea like someone stated earlier blacked out limbs look like either first a cover-up, or second some I know have done it as a straight out tattoo. While I definitely like some super-heavy blackwork stuff, straight out entire limb blackout it s a bit intense. Coming from someone who is freaking out on trying to jam a ton of awesome artists onto my very bare skin right now, I could never think about a big black arm/leg/etc. Bare skin is too precious to myself. That being said you might like it. Other than the sake of this thread, I might spin up a designs thread on heavy blackwork (not really blacked out limbs) and see what turns up, as I've seen some interesting stuff. Judging by the types of tattoos on LST, I dont think there will be much chatter related to it.

Here are some examples of close-to-blackout and complete blackout work to show you what you'd be looking at.

all in all I stand by my opinion that if this is for a coverup, you might be better off just waiting to laser and just work on other tattoos.

[David Flores]

I have never seen solid black out work that looks good. I think all the wrinkles and imperfections in your skin stand out more with a solid black sleeve and even if it's solid it never really looks solid black it's kindy of patchy. There are so many cool things you can get tattooed on you, and so many people like myself that would kill for some blank space on our arms to tattoo.

[Dennis]

I'd say it's a great idea, but I love huge blackwork pieces and japanese. I personally don't have any blackwork, but I really appreciate it when it's well done!

I don't know your current tattoo collection on your arm, but even doing blackwork with some negative space patterns in it would be awesome too. Marc at Little Swastika does that kind of thing really well

[mattmcclaintattoo]

instead of blacking out your arm just get rubendall to do some dope jap work on it! itll cost about the same, thats aloooootttt of black packing.

[reverend1]

instead of blacking out your arm just get rubendall to do some dope jap work on it! itll cost about the same' date=' thats aloooootttt of black packing.[/quote']

Very much this

[Brock Varty]

Very much this

Seconded.

[chrisnoluck]

I'd say it's a great idea, but I love huge blackwork pieces and japanese. I personally don't have any blackwork, but I really appreciate it when it's well done!

I don't know your current tattoo collection on your arm, but even doing blackwork with some negative space patterns in it would be awesome too. Marc at Little Swastika does that kind of thing really well

This looks awful in my opinion. He has a god damn Jeff Dunham tattoo on his bicep! Whatever people are into, I guess.

[Dennis]

Hahah, I didn't even notice the Dunham thing. I was too focussed on the large area that is blacked out! Either way, I really enjoy that style of tattooing, but I wouldn't get it myself. Same goes for biomech/colour realism. I love looking at it, would never get it!

[irezumi]

This looks like some sort of bizarre superhero costume

[gougetheeyes]

This looks like some sort of bizarre superhero costume

..for a nervous and bizarre dude.

[Tight-Lines]

Those nipps look painful.

[CultExciter]

my nips are none more black.