Hello everyone.

[sourpussoctopus]

My name is Laura, and I've been a part-time lurker for a while, but finally decided to join today. Though I must say I'm still a bit intimidated, I'm starting to feel more comfortable calling myself a collector, and it seemed fitting to formally join the tattoo community (in however small a way).

I'm currently in graduate school and just shy of a couple of years from my PhD in Chemistry. Tattoos have not been a problem, it turns out. On my second year I got pulled aside by a professor who, after seeing my sleeve, went on to show me a couple of Ed Hardy pieces he had done in the 80's. (It was a bit weird, but kinda cool.)

I've been fortunate enough to have been tattooed - in chronological order, 'cause why not - by: Eva Huber, Allyson Bennett, Valerie Vargas, Cris Cleen, Steve Whittenberger, Sarah Carter, and Thomas Hooper. I have many more ideas I'd love to see executed by the many insanely talented people in my wishlist, so I hope I can continue to forsake my non-existent savings account for years to come.

Anyway, just wanted to shoot the shit with some like-minded folks who enjoy and respect tattooing, artists and enthusiasts alike.

So - hey everyone!

[Dan]

Hi Laura,congrats on the soon to be phd and school in general,hats off to you for doing that ! that's huge.

[Graeme]

Welcome Laura! Nice intro. I am sure I'm not the only person here who would love to see pictures of your tattoos.

[OutOfIdeas]

Yea, welcome! Allyson Bennett did my last tattoo, a week ago or so. Awesome list so far, care to share any pictures?

[suburbanxcore]

Welcome! I'd love to see some of those tattoos.

[herewego]

Welcome Laura, I would say you are quite qualified to call yourself a collector. Now let's see em'

[hogg]

Welcome Laura! Nice intro. I am sure I'm not the only person here who would love to see pictures of your tattoos.

[sourpussoctopus]

Hey guys! Thank you for the warm welcome! I'm excited to talk tattoos with you all!

Okay, I'll eventually get the hang of embedding, but for now links to peep's instagrams will have to do. All these are from when the tattoos were still fresh (of the ones I could find) because I actually don't have pictures of my work. But I'll try to get around to taking decent photos of it all healed up and settled. Anyway, let's start:

First session for my sleeve with Thomas (going for my second appointment soon):

Instagram

Instagram

Eva is by far the person I have the most work from. Chronologically:

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

From Sarah Carter. Least painful tattoo ever:

Instagram

My Valerie girls. I love these things:

Instagram

(Side story: You know that gorgeous punk rock Virgin Mary Valerie did a while back? I was supposed to get a punk girl from her that week she was at Kings Avenue, but decided to delay it because I thought these two made a better pair. And then she came out with that Virgin Mary and I've been kicking myself since. I'm actually thinking of going to England to get a second pair of girls on my calves to finally get my punk girl. She will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine.)

I'll try to get pictures of the other ones, since I couldn't find them online.

Disclaimer: My skins swells up like crazy when I get tattooed, so some of these are kinda distorted. Like I said, nice pictures of healed work on their way.

[SStu]

Nice collection, and welcome!

[Hands On]

welcome. definitely a collector with some very nice work, at that!

[tatB]

wow! great collection so far!

[herewego]

Shit, Ok, so you don't have one mediocre tattoo in your collection. Awesome stuff!

[CultExciter]

Eeep. Fantastic.

[sourpussoctopus]

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty happy with all of them. I credit that to waiting until I was 24 to start getting tattooed, which gave me plenty of time to mull over (and avoid) teenage ideas for ~sick tats~. That, and I'm a consummate researcher.

[Breakme]

Awesome tattoos!

[Tornado6]

@sourpussoctopus I got an 'intentionally bad' tattoo at 37. :cool:

Everything is so very nice.

[Graeme]

I am not sure why you said you were intimidated to join here in your first post. You have a lot of excellent tattoos and know how to get them, you want to be part of the community, and you're an intelligent and articulate person. If only we had more people joining like you! I hope you stick around.

[xcom]

Awesome work!

[Upndown]

Welcome! You have some impressive artists in your collection ✌️

- - - Updated - - -

Those girls from Valerie are incredible!! Great choice

[Bonnie Baker]

Welcome Laura! I'm currently a Chemistry major and that is one thing I love about it. I've had blue hair and piercings and I got a job working in a lab my freshman year despite being in a really conservative area. That's why the decision to maybe change my major is really heart breaking, but I'm currently in organic 2 and it's very discouraging :c :c Congratulations on getting so far into school, I'm quite ready to graduate already, haha. What do you plan on doing with a Ph.d?

[hogg]

You have made excellent decisions.

[sourpussoctopus]

@hogg Thank you, kind sir.

@Tornado6 It's never bad if it's done intentionally, in my opinion :)

@Graeme Well, it's hard to articulate it, but tattoo culture is a very niche thing, made up of very opinionated, strong and - yes - intimidating characters. (Which I understand - I, too, feel protective over things I'm passionate about.) I've always appreciated the art so when the time was right, I sought out to get tattooed, but worried being rejected by this tight-knit community. Hence the fear of joining, silly and irrational as it was. However, the warm welcome I've received from everyone here is really reassuring, and I'm really glad I joined. So, thank you!

@Bonnie Baker Hello fellow Chemist! I'm a TA for the Gen Chem course at my school, so I come across many students in your situation. Orgo is hard, I won't lie, and there will be courses that are harder. (In all honesty, I actually failed my Quantum course in the first year of graduate school.) But your affinity for coursework isn't nearly as important as your skills in the lab. I love the laboratory, so I suffer through the courses so I can have the privilege to work in a lab, doing research under a mentor I respect. It's excellent that you have lab experience! In my opinion, if you enjoyed and found yourself at ease in that environment, then please try to push through the coursework. I'll gladly help you out, if you need it!

As for post-graduate school, I'm interested in environmental remediation, so hopefully I'll get to continue my research in that area.

[polliwog]

Hi and welcome. I'm already jealous of your tattoos. (And I know what you mean about being intimidated - I'm pretty sure I wrong-footed a bunch of times after joining, though I was clueless whereas you are not - but as Graeme pointed out, you already have multiple excellent tattoos, so.)

[DeathB4Decaf]

Now that is one hell of a collection of tattoos. Great intro. And congratulations on the soon-to-be PhD.

[Bonnie Baker]

@sourpussoctopus nice! I hate to admit that I don't even like being in lab, so I don't know what to do. I hope to go to med school, but if I were to stay in chemistry something medical related or environment related would definitely be my choice! Looks like you've worked really hard, I hope I can make it as far as you (maybe not in chemistry, we'll see lol). Your tattoos are beautiful! This might sound weird but I know a fellow tatted up chemist that would probably fall in love you, haha.