Just starting my tattoo journey

[Rich]

Hello Everyone,

Been poking around these forums for a while and figured I'd register and talk about my experiences. I'll give a little back story and show you what I've had done.

I always wanted to get a tattoo but kept putting it off because I was nervous about the pain and how my body would react to it all. In September of 2014 my friend Jason suggested going to a convention in San Francisco and I thought that would be a great time for it. Before the trip Jason and I ended up going to a shop and I got something small.

I was pretty relaxed walking into the shop but once the machine turned on I got nervous again. I had this one placed on the upper portion of my calf. I thought it was a nice concealable spot and it was meaty so it wouldn't be that bad. I felt the area twitching for most of time but it came out fine.

So October rolled around pretty quick and we flew out to San Francisco for the convention. At the time I didn't know what style I wanted but I did know that I wanted to get an owl. So my friends and I were walking around looking at all the different booths and Jason suggested Katja Ramirez from Rock of Ages. So thats what I did!

From this point I decided I wanted to go for my entire right arm. A few weeks after the convention when I got home I added a little more.

Done by Andrew Stortz (he did my first tattoo) @ Hobo's/Congress St. Portsmouth, NH

Here's more progress on the arm:

Done by Andrew Stortz @ Hobo's/Congress St. Portsmouth, NH

Done by Jebb Riley @ Hobo's/Congress St. Portsmouth, NH

Kind of an interesting scenario with the next two... Hobo's and Congress St. are a 5 minute walk from each other and my friend and I both had the same time appointment but at different shops. Chad Koeplinger was guesting and Jason got on the list really early on. So as I'm getting the my work done Jason shows up and says Chad wasn't ready yet and he'd get a call when to come back. So he waited while I got the one below done.

Done by Andrew Stortz @ Hobo's/Congress St. Portsmouth, NH

Jason was getting a mandala and to kill some time I got this...

Done by Spencer Scott @ Hobo's/Congress St. Portsmouth, NH

Last week I had this done, forgot to get a picture when it was fresh. I didn't explicitly ask for it done upside down, it was a weird space and I thought I'd work. I ran it by the artist and he said it'd be fine.

Done by Spencer Scott @ Hobo's/Congress St. Portsmouth, NH

My future plans are to complete my left arm with either color traditional or Japanese, still in the decision making phase.

Thanks for reading,

-Rich

[Graeme]

Welcome! I haven't been to Hobo's but Congress Street is such a great shop. I think you'll fit in well here.

[knucklehead211]

Nice black and grey man! If I wasn't addicted to color I'd be right there with ya haha.

[exume]

Welcome! You're off to a great start, lots of rad tattoos. I also have an upside down rose because of the way it would fill the spot

[21stNow]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that came out of the gate at full speed ahead! I got seven in my first four months, so it's good to have some company.

[bongsau]

very awesome, nice seeing Andrew Stortz' tattoos, I like his stuff.

[llprg]

cool tattoos! especially the girl with a skull)

[sighthound]

Awesome tattoos! Nice to see some love for hobo's/congress st. Never been to them myself, but have been tattooed by the owner, Jason Scott, and he is super cool. It's good to see some of his son's work, too. It looks really good.

Also, welcome.

[Rich]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I'm glad that I came across this forum and was fortunate enough to have people in real life that started me off in the right direction.

[TattooUnityEu]

Looks promising. Good luck finding your style that would make you awesome!