The ladies thread

[Pugilist]

I have gotten tattooed by some fucking awesome female tattooers: Stephanie Tamez, Marie Sena, Maud Dardeau, Cat Bijou, Rebecca Guinard, Eilo Martin. While I do not specifically seek out female tattooers, I do think that as a women who cares about women a lot, I notice the work of female tattooers more than folks with less gender consciousness might. Does that make sense? There are so many women doing great work that deserve more attention than they get. I'd love to get work from: Virginia Elwood, Wendy Pham, Juni, Jill Bonny, Sheila Marcello, Claudia de Sabe, India Amara and LST's own amazing @cltattooing .

[Lance]

@Pugilist, I have to give extra support to a Jill Bonny shoutout. I'm biased of course. And absolutely, the other artists you listed are also amazing. The couple I'm unfamiliar with will definitely get a web search from me tonight.

[Rawok]

Thanks! So many cool artist, got myself a few new favorites @CShaw König is amazing! I'm not even that far away, might have to make a trip south next summer :) @Pugilist It does make sense, I think one views almost everything differently when one becomes aware of...well, how the world is at the moment and maybe how one would like to see it changed. And Virginia Elwoods art is insane, thanks for informing about her.

[omeletta]

I kinda noticed that I seem to predominantly like female artists, although I'm not actually looking for it as such.

High on my list at the moment are Claudia de Sabe, Wendy Pham and especially Emily Rose Murray.

The first two are within reach for me, but Australia is sooo far away, damn it...

[MrsGougeTheEyes]

I've gotten tattooed by Virginia Elwood and Tamara Santibanez (both at Saved). As well as Ashley Love (now at Adorned) and I would highly recommend all of them. Virginia especially is the nicest to sit with and chat. She really has that bed side manner thing down :)

I don't know why but I've gotten more and more drawn to women tattooers as I've gotten older. I think it's just because I'm pretty much drawn to badasses in general. I'd love to get something from Rose Hardy at Three Kings soon.

[Kekewy]

I'm planning to get a couple tattoos in the future and I'm got a couple questions. One of them is going to be on my chest, like right above my boob. I'm not sure what to wear for the tattoo and while it's healing. The spot I want to get it is right where my bra strap lies and also, any type of tank top or shirt I own will touch it as well. I've only had one other tattoo and that's on my ankle, so keeping clothing off of it was easy. This one... not so much. I'm also primarily a stomach/side sleeper, any suggestions on how to handle that without killing myself or the tattoo?

[purplelace]

Would be interested to hear how you get on with this, as I've one planned in same area but for the future. Though I'm hoping to get top of boobs tattooed, can be seen when in a dress. I was going to wear a dress, they're all pretty much low cut on me, big boobs and all. And just pull bra straps and dress straps down. Then when tattoo done, just pull dress straps up. They're ribbon straps so should be no problem. Hadn't thought beyond that. I mostly sleep on side, sometimes on back. Was thinking of putting dressing on it, at night to stop scratching in sleep.

Let me know how you get on and what you find works.

[SeeSea]

I was in a favorite blues club this week while away on business, and later in the evening, this dude comes up to me at the bar and points to the blue edges of my tattoo sticking out from the left arm of my sleeveless shirt. "So I see you have a tattoo there, so what's is about? Can I take a peek?" as he's leaning in to me.

Sigh.

So I turned around and showed him the edge of the tattoo sticking out from the right side and said, "It's the other side of this tattoo." The bartender (with visible tattoos) just laughed and told me she loved my response. It was completely spontaneous but I'm saving this one too for future cretins.

[SnowyPlover]

SeeSea, great response!

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but when I got my first tattoo (in 1991), I remember the tattooer telling me afterwards that he thought women shouldn't get their arms tattooed. Times have changed.

[angelinamixedmartialartis]

@purplelace Haha, never been close to falling asleep, I'm super alert and aware during a session :)

I read a new members intro thread where this someone said that they preferred a female artist because they worked in a male dominated field and wanted to support fellow females.

I can kind of relate, I work in an extremely male dominated line of work (computer networks) and I was now wondering who everybody favorite female artist were. Give me some lists :)

Wendy Pham & Valerie Vargas is kind of a given. I also really like this woman in Sweden, Kajsa, who works at Red Rose Tattoo in Gothenburg, instagram.

I've been thinking the same thing about supporting female artists--I'm trying to find someone for my first one now and have pretty much only been looking at women artists' portfolios. I just prefer for something that's on my body permanently to be done by a woman. But I'm slightly worried I'm going to miss the perfect artist that way.

[SeeSea]

I've been thinking the same thing about supporting female artists--I'm trying to find someone for my first one now and have pretty much only been looking at women artists' portfolios. I just prefer for something that's on my body permanently to be done by a woman. But I'm slightly worried I'm going to miss the perfect artist that way.

There is no one perfect artist. If you want to limit your search to women, then do that. There are tons. If finding what you define as "the perfect artist" is more important, then look at work without regard to the sex of the artist. Not much to think about there!

[Fala]

Right on @SeeSea! There are no perfect tattoos either, just as there are no perfect people...

Hoping that my next tattoo is with Virginia Elwood, that would be awesome. I've only been tattooed by men thus far, and my husband's first tattoo is scheduled to be with a woman. Interesting dichotomy!

[SeeSea]

Right on @SeeSea! There are no perfect tattoos either, just as there are no perfect people...

Wait, I thought I was perfect...?

[CShaw]

Car's dead, and I don't know when it will be/how much it'll cost to fix, so I had to cancel my appointment on Tuesday. Grrrr. Now it's going to be January before I can make it up to NYC again.

~whine~

[Fala]

Bummer @CShaw!!! Hope the car doesn't cost too much or take too long to fix!

[CShaw]

Thanks, @Fala. I guess the good thing is I won't be sitting on a sore rump for hours on end when we travel to see the in-laws for the Holidays. :D

[Fala]

I think that's a fair trade!

[dari]

I'm thinking about sweet eagle tats, and possibly having one, or three, on me. Are there any ladies out there with some good strong eagles on them? I do think of eagles as more of a masculine back piece/ chest piece, and I'm no tougher than a geriatric miniature poodle. To be clear, I'm not asking for opinions of what to do with my body. I'm wanting to get feedback/pics regarding eagles on chicks, from chicks with eagles, or dudes that love chicks with sweet eagle tats. I'm also not opposed to finding out whose eagles are so good that they make you mad.

[Graeme]

I'm thinking about sweet eagle tats, and possibly having one, or three, on me. Are there any ladies out there with some good strong eagles on them? I do think of eagles as more of a masculine back piece/ chest piece, and I'm no tougher than a geriatric miniature poodle. To be clear, I'm not asking for opinions of what to do with my body. I'm wanting to get feedback/pics regarding eagles on chicks, from chicks with eagles, or dudes that love chicks with sweet eagle tats. I'm also not opposed to finding out whose eagles are so good that they make you mad.

I know that @MrsGougeTheEyes has one on her forearm that I believe she got from Cody Miller and I'll vouch for it being super rad. Also @polliwog won a Tattoo of the a Month contest with a big rad fuck off Chad eagle. I think Chad's eagles are the best, they're so powerful. I don't know how much my opinion counts for here, but I'm going to say that eagles on women (or on men) are pretty fucking badass.

[El Dolmago]

@Rawok Toronto has some amazing female tattoo artists, Pearl Harbor has Glennie Whittal (who I've been tattoed by a couple of times now, Lissa Vino, Jennifer Lawes (who I need to be tattoed by) and the incredible Alex Snelgrove at The Okey Doke - Vancouver also had a terrific shop called Liquid Amber who had some great female artists.

[polliwog]

Yup, I love my Chad eagle, and if anything I wish I'd gone bigger with it. And I want another one. I'm also totally un-badass - though to my mind yoga instructors are pretty tough, since yoga kicks my butt every time I try it. I feel like eagles combine power and grace with toughness in a way that still feels natural and not try-hard on a pretty nerdy person like me. I couldn't get away with a dagger on my forearm or something.

[beez]

I want ALL the eagles! I say go for it, and also I wanna see pics of existing eagles. Let's see 'em!

[SeeSea]

@beez - here's some fun if you haven't been over here: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-designs-books-flash/711-eagle-tattoo-designs.html

[Diana90]

The ladies thread...love it. Great place for us ladies.

[SnowyPlover]

I have a hawk, but no eagle. Yes to women with eagles!