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I know how awkward it is for some artists to ask a client to undress, so I avoid that awkwardness by undressing completely before all tattoos, regardless of placement. Common courtesy, really.

"Having said that..."

i can't decide if i want this to be real or fake...

Wellllll. Since you said to be honest I will. Like the other I agree it looks stupid to have hand tattoos and not have the rest of your arms and actually the rest of your body done. It makes me wonder why you chose to get your hand tattooed before doing the rest. As far as the actual tattoo, it's by far not the worst I've seen. It's not something I would ever get and I wouldn't go to the artists. The reason is not the quality of the actual tattooing, it's the drawing. I'm not into new school or whatever people would call that style. Just isn't my thing. Having said all that, if you like the drawing then there's no problem at all as it's your tattoo. If I was you I'd wait until I you have a lot more tattoos on your arm and then see how you feel about it. I have a couple tattoos that are actually really fucking awful, like I mean horrible. It used to bother me soooo much, I wouldn't wear short sleeves because I was so embarrassed by them. Then I started getting good tattoos and lots of them and now the bad ones aren't so embarrassing. It all just kind of blends in. A good friend of mine who is also a great tattooer once told me that he likes it when someone has a couple bad ones in there with the good ones because it shows that you love tattoos and wanted them before you knew about 'cool rockstar hipster shit' like a lot of the kids today who are just getting tattooed because it's the cool trendy thing to do.

This excellent post is by irezumi from another thread: It got me thinking: beyond traditional Japanese sleeves, when did sleeves start appearing in the West? I've seen lots of old tattoos pics, but rarely have I seen full sleeves outside of sideshow performers. Lots of stacked pork chops down the arm, but usually 3 to 5 at a time. But since I know a lot less about this stuff than many of you, I thought I'd pose the topic for LST to discuss. Side note: to irezumi's earlier point, I recently saw a documentary on Vince Lombardi. Turns out that his dad had WORK and PLAY on his knuckles.

Hero Tattoo I can't remember where I came across this guy's work, but I keep coming back to it. My favourite tattooers aren't generally specialists. They are the ones that can work in any style, and still make it look like their own. I think that Jeff fits into this category.

Or known as the Cliff Raven method to tattooing.

"inkzilla"....would be a good tattoo...a godzilla shaved like a poodle with tattoos on him/her. Mr. Porter.......a drawing pls?

as an observation to slang and/or jargon, it used to be a way of communication that allowed you to identify "like minded" individuals and had a relevance to creating something outside of the mainstream. now as mass culture becomes a giant homogenized cluster of what people think is cool and rebellious is just the newest marketing trend. everyone has t-shirts with swirly designs and crosses that are purposely mis-printed and faded to imply that its somehow unique and different. i swear i've seen dudes who are old enough to have grand kids wearing these things. too many people are trying to invent cool new phrases to try and push out beyond this influx of mass coolness. its just a matter of time before people start adding "zilla" or "shiz" to things and saying phrases like "that dude is an inkzilla" or mashing together other overused catchy sounding words. so just remember, all the cool folks are the ones that aren't trying to be anything other than themselves.

Actually I've seen this all too often. I am on the exact same page as about 99% of everybody here when we say hand before sleeve is NAGL. I didn't do that, and tell any client the same. However.... That having been said, I do need to point out that up until a certain point (maybe 25-30 yrs ago? you know, the 'great old time era') a hand tattoo before a sleeve was not uncommon. If anything, a sleeve was what was uncommon. Just for quick example, look at the Marlboro ad Clay posted in the Old Tattoo Photo thread(yeah he has a jacket on but there are a few other Marlboro ads where you can see the rest of the arm). As well as half the pics i've seen of sailors getting tattooed. Tattoo on a hand was much more common that a sleeve. Yes, this is 50 - 60 years later; But as we can all see, almost half the people in our craft seem to think it's still 1940 haha. Not trying to completely derail this thread. Just an observation.

Very few can pull this off.

getting tattooed is a journey , enjoy the ride.

I consider myself a respectful and well-behaved client. I tip generously and I've been known to bring baked goods and Virgin Mary statuettes to artists as "thank you"s. But I admit I have used an iPod and iPhone (Words With Friends, checking email, texting my husband, never any phone calls) during recent appointments. I never thought of this as rude behavior. I figured as long as my devices were silenced and I wasn't squirming to use them, it was perfectly acceptable client behavior, especially since it helps distract me from the pain. I also assumed most tattoo artists prefer not to chat it up with customers, so I thought if I entertained myself they'd be happier. I do talk with an artist if they engage me, but I try my best to allow them to focus. The original member who suggested this was bad behavior, I think, admitted he wasn't an artist. So I'm curious what the artists on the board think about this. In related news, I will from now on ask an artist for permission to use listen to an iPod or to text.

Hello, I found this interesting blog about Japanese Manhole cover art that I thought people here might be interested in: An example: Here is the blog link: Drainspotting: 61 Amazing Manhole Covers from Japan | gwarlingo They made me think about cross walk lights I saw in Germany while backpacking a long time ago: Pretty cool and charming to me. *Going to recommend/ask about being able to post up on a wall or something, feels kinda spam-my putting up a new thread for this, but alas....

I wish I could get the russian stars for time served in the Mafia. Cool design, but dont want to be frontin something.

I think something semi-geometric in that area. I like the idea of capping off my travel leg with a compass rose like this (maybe less detailed, a few colors) The other knee, maybe a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign. These are super basic, but they can get really detailed:

Looks fine to me, now its time to fill up the rest of your arms.