Full body suit people?

[WeRnDoG]

I personally like the cohesive body suit but I have always wanted to be tattooed by many so have done so. I told a work mate 8 years ago that I was only doing half sleeves and that was it. Now I have two spots left on my body for size able tattoos. I have planned the rest of my pink skin and am eyeing up a couple artists I would like to finish my body of work. I think when I am done I will start some laser on my left sleeve, I guess im just a sucker for pain.

[Intomyskin]

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 I think about that guy from time to time, because it's insane to me to think that someone went 30+ years without a drop of ink, then made the huge decision to get fully suited. I just can't get my head around it.

My wife and I got small matching tattoos in the early 1970s (and we are still together!  ), and I added to mine few years later, but it was still tiny. I wanted more, but wasn't quite ready, so got nothing. Eventually I discovered Japanese style tattooing, and although I knew that getting a body suit was out of the question, I still wanted a Japanese style piece. But still I didn't get anything. I finally realized that what I really wanted was a body suit. It took me until I was in my early sixties to make the decision, and I'm soon starting on a back piece, butt/upper thighs, partial sleeves, chest panels.

Related question, sort of trivial I suppose. When does a large tattoo big enough to be called a body suit? When I describe my plans, I use the awkward "back piece, butt/upper thighs, partial sleeves, chest panels" description. It would be easier to just say "I'm getting a body suit" or "partial body suit." But my forearms, legs, and most of my chest (except for pectoral areas) won't be covered. I respect the people who have gone for full neck to ankles coverage - true body suits, and I don't want to falsely represent my self compared to these awesome people.

[bongsau]

i think this is a fair question and I suppose you can call it whatever you want ! full backpiece describes your goals. if you are extending from the chest down the front torso/sides than i think claiming bodysuit is fair. 

but...my $0.02 you see it a lot on instagram now a days - like fresh sleeves and an empty torso claiming #bodysuit or bodysuit-in-progress. it's pretty lame. it's just a tattoo (and an unfinished one at that). it either is or it isn't. those that feel the need to go around and tell everyone and #describe how tatted up they are...probably aren't.

the whole thing and magnitude became very real to me when I went to a tattoo convention and stripped down in public next to checkerboard man to get a photo. the reality set in on where i was at with my years of steady progress. before that moment it was just A LOT of tattoo. and it still is ! that a bodysuit isn't a trivial thing - many people have many tattoo, but there are very few who have and will succeed going the full distance. it is not an undertaking to be taken lightly. and there is no finish line to my tattoo suit, it is and will be ever evolving and will be finished the day I die.

it requires a lot of time, money, patience and dedication to complete any larger tattoo, not just a bodysuit.

good luck with your plans

Edited June 28, 2016 by bongsau

[mtlsam]

Great thread bump. I'm slowly chipping away at the blank spots, but they still greatly outnumber the inked ones. 

I consider my torso and one arm to be "finished". Mainly working upper legs now. I'll say that once I've gone all the way around as well as doing my back, I'd be willing to start throwing around the term suit in progress.

I think that you have to have some pretty serious coverage before you get to that point though. Maybe we can adopt some wet-suit style names to best describe our progress. Long John for everything but sleeves... I'm working towards a Springsuit with long sleeves myself.

http://www.surfing-waves.com/equipment/wetsuit-types.htm

[RoryQ]

To me a bodysuit means whole body or near as, whether planned as one big tattoo (Richard Pinch's Leu suit etc) or accumulated smaller pieces.

If the lower legs, torso or some other sizeable area are bare then I don't see that the term body suit or even partial suit would apply really?

Sent from my G7-L01 using Tapatalk

[Intomyskin]

@bongsau said:

Quote

but...my $0.02 you see it a lot on instagram now a days - like fresh sleeves and an empty torso claiming #bodysuit or bodysuit-in-progress. it's pretty lame.

I feel the same way about the term "sleeve." I see on Instagram where people post a pic and say "My new sleeve" and you see a big tattoo on the inside of their forearm. It doesn't even wrap around. Yes, it's big, and it's a beautiful tattoo, but to me, its not a sleeve. I feel that a sleeve has to wrap. I think some people just want to be able to say that they have a sleeve. That's my $0.02!

[slightreturn]

Never hear of that but it sounds like an interesting idea

[mtlsam]

4 hours ago, slightreturn said:

Never hear of that but it sounds like an interesting idea

Getting those mandatory posts out of the way I see...

[Fala]

Digging the wetsuit names for where people are at @mtlsam.  I am going for a short john, so I'll stop posting here.

[Intomyskin]

I understand that there was a problem with LST and they had to restore forums from a backup, so some posts from yesterday were lost.  Sooooo....I'm going to repost something that I thought would be useful to people here....

I found this diagram while looking for methods for estimating % of tattoo coverage. It is used by medical people for estimating burn percentages.

What I found interesting was that if you are totally covered except for head, neck, hands, feet, and genitals (as in a traditional Japanese body suit) you are "only" 75 percent covered. People will say things like "Oh, I'm about 95% covered." But that would mean (for example) that everything was tattooed except their face, which is pretty unlikely.

I guess that when we estimate coverage we tend to exclude the head and palms and bottom of feet from the estimate.

@mtlsam commented on my original post that probably percentage is generally based on "tattooable area" and that the folks with traditional Japanese full suits are entitled to say they are totally covered.

I agree with the concept of "tattooable area." If my plans for a Japanese back piece (including butt cheeks and upper thighs + partial sleeves and upper chest) reaches fruition, I would be at about 35% using the whole body as a basis for calculation, or about 45% based on the % of "tattooable area" approach.

[bongsau]

ah the ol' Rule of Nines !

thx for bumping this thread

On 6/28/2016 at 2:23 PM, bongsau said:

the whole thing and magnitude became very real to me when I went to a tattoo convention and stripped down in public next to checkerboard man to get a photo. the reality set in on where i was at with my years of steady progress.

...i estimate I'm at least 80% ... checkboard man claims 95% ... i dunno you tell me

on a side note...i started my 2nd layer yesterday !

so to answer the original thread question, nah I'm not bummed at all the closer i come to "completion", it isn't bittersweet at all. In fact very much the opposite. Now there is another dimension and this stage in my tattoo project and that is new layers and density.

The more I get tattooed the more I realize that my tattoo project/journey is not at all about the finish line but about the moments/events/tattoos along the way - just like life...yes, birth and death but life is about living - the events and moments in between.

[bongsau]

asdf asdf 

Edited November 3, 2016 by bongsau
Auto Double Post??

[DJDeepFried]

It depends. I'd call a full back piece – shoulders to knees – short sleeves and chest panels a body suit even if the torso and front of the legs were bare. I know there are terms for the various kinds of Japanese body suits but I don't have a link handy.

I lied. This is a wealth of information that you may or may not already know. It's towards the bottom:

http://www.clarknorthart.com/japanese-tattoo--origins.html

Edited November 4, 2016 by DJDeepFried

[GlaryMilberg]

On 6/28/2016 at 10:36 PM, RoryQ said:

To me a bodysuit means whole body or near as, whether planned as one big tattoo (Richard Pinch's Leu suit etc) or accumulated smaller pieces.

If the lower legs, torso or some other sizeable area are bare then I don't see that the term body suit or even partial suit would apply really?

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Is Richard Pinch from Scotland? I believe that I met him at the bay convention. The work on him from Filip was incredible to see in person.