Hello from Florida's Panhandle!

[ohheyjaria]

God I suck at intros, haha.

For as long as I can remember, tattoos have appealed to me. I'm talking as far back as elementary school I can remember oggling anyone with visible ink for long enough they probably thought I was some rude little twerp. Now I am four months away from my 21st birthday with five tattoos, only two of which took over an hour.

My first tattoo was a quote I wrote back in like my freshmen year of high school that I got inked onto my ribs at 18. "What is a rain cloud if a silver lining shines?" Yeah. Kinda lame. But my dad had just died and it reminded me to try to keep a PMA so whatever, I still have love for it. The quality is solid so I have no complaints. Tyson O'Bryan at Time Piece Tattoo in Panama City, FL did this and my second.

My second tattoo is on my left wrist, my Dad's handwriting from a letter, "Kisses & Hugs I'm so proud of you, Love Dad". It's nothing spectacular, but it holds a special place in my heart.

After getting two little bangers and drooling over "real" ink, I started doing my research to find good artists in my area. I hated the idea of talking the talk but not walking the walk, so to speak. I thought (and still think) about ink constantly but really had nothing to show for it. But at 19 I did not want to proceed to quickly, either. Also, I live in the redneck riviera and conservative is an understatement. I am learning daily if you want to be tattooed, you need thick skin around here.

Aaaaanyway, my third is five hours worth of work on my right thigh, a rendition of a book cover. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. The cover was always appealing to me, and the book held a lot of themes that I found tattoo worthy. I couldn't be happier with it and the quality my artist, Corey Popp (formerly of Time Piece), gave me. I follow all of his work and absolutely adore it. He's a killer new-school and realism artist and that's definitely the style I shy toward. Not knocking old school, by any means!

My fourth tattoo came to me out of sheer luck. A local shop runs a like and share contest here and there for fifty bucks and I won on a Friday afternoon. Not too much can be done for $50 but I was stoked nonetheless. I ride motorcycles and just purchased an r6 so I had a motorcycle sprocket in the shape of a heart thrown behind my ear and slid the dude a tip. For as intricate as the design is, and how tiny the tattoo is, I'm very pleased. It could have easily blown out but Bruce at Electroluxe Tattoo Company in Panama City Beach nailed it.

My fifth tattoo is sternumish area and is a quill pen add on to my first quote. Corey does some awesome dot work and I really wanted something dotty by him on me, and I was dying for something else of substantial size. I also wanted color so he gave me the feathers in color, threw in some dots, and added an all dot work drop-shadow to top it off. He killed it, of course. And JEEEEEZZZZ did I feel like I earned that one, sternum area is definitely no walk in the park compared to getting my thigh done (DUH, Jaria).

So here I sit. Five tattoos in. Not knowing shit about the tattoo world, or at least I don't think I do, so I joined this forum hoping to learn. I know I can distinguish between good tattoos and bad, and I know I am partial to a new-school style, but that's about as far as I can get. I'm hoping to refine my taste even more.

Oh yeah, and did I mention I won $1,000 worth of tattoo work from an artist yesterday? Yeah. I have no idea how I'm getting so lucky here but I nearly fainted because other than Corey, Jerry Pipkins of IV Horsemen Tattoo Parlor is the only guy that really blows my mind in this area. To be tattooed by him is going to be a real honor. His realism work always makes my jaw drop, but my exposure to many, many artists is non-existent. Is it tacky to ask for the forums opinion on my tattoos by Corey and on Jerry's work? I want to have good tattoo and forum etiquette so correct me if you need, PLEEEEEEASE.

The holidays have me running crazy so I plan on having a consultation with Jerry after Christmas to discuss my half sleeve. YIKES. I'm nervous. But I'm also beyond excited after thinking to myself several times "Man I really would like for this guy to work on my arm". I know I want more tattoos, but I am sort of struggling with the stigma that comes with being tattooed. I know, I need to put two middle fingers up and just get over it, sorrrryyyyy.

I so look forward to hearing from everyone and learning all that I can. I've attached pictures of my tattoos for reference (with the exception of my first, I can't find a picture and I can't get a clear one by myself)

. If I get the go-ahead from forum members about whether or not its okay to post Jerry's work for opinions, I'll do so.

Other than tattoos I ride my r6, attend college, and different rock concerts. Wildly interesting, I am.

[Graeme]

Your intro definitely does not suck, welcome to LST!

[ohheyjaria]

Your intro definitely does not suck, welcome to LST!

Thanks! :)

[bongsau]

welcome! we are all here to learn, share and respectfully flame each other (jokes) about the crazy world of tattoo :)

[SStu]

welcome, and nice start!