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Since its the year of the dragon and dragons are bad ass lets see some dragons. Dragons you own or dragons you like, Post them up. I own these two. Thigh piece is from Shige, Yellow Blaze Japan and the dragon and sword is from Dean Sacred, Sacred Tattoo New Zealand.

Sounds like you'll be stoked on it, regardless! Also, you should be buddies with @jade1955 who also started "late in the game" and is currently going nuts like a kid/ @dcostello in a candy/liquor store, getting consistently tattooed by some great tattooers, and putting the rest of us to shame. Better late than never!

I thought this was a fine example of something that could be "spun" into a great tattoo:

I couldn't stick to the same tattooer or tattooers as I'm a complete tattoo slut.

I was 15 I think; I was coming back from my HS Graduation and asked my folks if I could get a tattoo as a present. They said yes and we stopped at a shop in Savannah, Georgia where I got tattooed by a scary biker chick named Darnell. My mom lied and said I was 16 since that was the minimum age Darnell would tattoo. I had doodled this little sun that ended up looking nothing like what she tattooed on me. I'll look for pictures (it's since been covered up by Josh Hoffman) but man... it was AWFUL. She did it with a single needle, but some of the lines blew out so much that they were easily 1/8" wider than other parts of the tattoo. I was nervous, so she gave me booze to sip. Then tattooed my brother with the same needle setup because "you two are family".

Dan Higgs and Robert Ryan

LOL-I have to slow down til after my wedding next year = ) I was inspired to post based off the ref a day tag on Instagram Doug Hardy and Mary Joy Darymple started. Basically they have a list of different things for each day and people are supposed to post reference pics for that. Some people end up posting pics of their own work (I've been guilty), but the coolest ones are real life photographs, lithographs,statues,etc. that could be turned into great tattoos or art. Thought it could be fun and abit more focused than the random pic thread.

Interesting to re-read this thread. I don't think I have ever given anyone as open-ended a remit as 'Tattoo whatever you would like to', but I haven't given super-detailed instructions either. I guess, as an early response mentions, a factor is that many of us on the forum are probably likely to be going to particular artists having an idea of what sort of work they appear to like doing and be proficient at. That said, I did think hard about how to approach picking a rough idea for my backpiece, because the potential iconography was so wide and there were a few things I knew I definitley didn't want. Which artist I was going to go with tweaked it slightly... I originally thought about subject matter from a Kuniyoshi or Yoshitoshi print... But then when I decided I wanted to get something from Ching (who's Taiwanese) that didn't seem appropriate any more and I was opting for him because I perceived him to be doing something 'different' from the norm anyway. So I gave him a rough shortlist of 'things I thought were cool' ... I think I mentioned water, birds, windbars, flowers, large-scale buddha heads and strong black and grey contrasts. He picked and chose and mailed me back and suggested a big Guan Yin design - and that was basically it. The representation of Guan Yin was down to him, suggesting a parable involving a 'disciple bird'. I think I ended up with something that he was creatively interested in, and which gave him a fair amount of a free hand... But I had at least staked out some rough parameters. Doing the same thing at the moment via E-mail with another artist - working out a rough ballpark of ideas and hopefully they will be interested in tattooing something in there...

Megan Wilson posted this on Instagram recently with the caption "San Quentin/Folsom Prison Body Suit":

I had my knuckles tattooed when I was in reform school. Love and Hate. They were tattooed at night, in between the patrols. Done with a single neeedle and some indian ink. After I came out I had them surgically removed. So I've just got some faint scars. If you want to see some incredible prison tattoos the Russian Criminal Tattoo books are a good read. The film The Mark of Cain is also well worth a watch, if you're into prison tattoos.

One of the better and probably most famous prison tattoos out there:

I think the new year requires another meet up of us bay area folks. Shall we brainstorm ideas? There have been some damn fine ones floating around here recently. H2O GO! Yep. Wine drunk.

I'm really getting into American Whiskey of late. At the moment I've got, at home. Jefferson's Reserve (not much left of this one) Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon 12 Year Old Four Roses Small Batch A couple of my favourites Woodford Reserve Blanton's Special Reserve What are your favourites? Any recommendations from my trans-Atlantic cousins will be much appreciated.

here's some pix of my sleeve from Marcus Kuhn...

Good advice. I don't plan to try to haggle the artist. I want quality over quantity, so I'd prefer a superior smaller tattoo over a larger crappy one.

@Blank I would keep refining what you want and save more money. I think the tattooer and you will be happier, you will get what you want and he wont have to be confined to your smallish budget allowing him to put down a more visually pleasing tattoo.

Shopping on price is a massive mistake IMHO. Tattooing is like anything else you buy and quality comes at a price. My advice for what its worth. Look at the gallery, there's some great tattoos on there. Find an idea or design you like. Find a good artist. Im sure there are some great tattoo shops in San Diego (I'm from the UK so I can't recomend any). Get a quote pay a deposit and set a date. If you need to save some money set a date months away and start saving.

that spider is fuckin tough hahaha.

Agreed. It definitely benefits from 1 ice cube. Agree big time on this as well. The Michters is really good too, but if you can get your hands on Sazerac Rye, I think that might be my tops. I was able to get it a few years ago, but limited distribution means it tends not to be sold to retail stores much.

that is badass. I want to see the process of the spider eating the snake!

blank I have a panther that is very much like your first image. its in this thread and in my gallery if you want to see. cant go wrong with eagle/panther combo

Hey @Blank, eagles and panthers are classic, classic designs. Sounds like you're on the right track since you mentioned getting a USMC tattoo in the other thread. Best advice is to find a shop/tattooer you're into and have a chat with them. Eagle vs panther tattoo? Two separate tattoos maybe? One giant, killer eagle chest piece? Where're you at? I bet some folks on here could point you in the right direction.

"do whatever you want, put your own spin on it, as long as it looks exactly like the jpeg I brought in"

Ardbeg Shop Ardbeg Double Barrel This is the one I mentioned above - it appears I've been missing a few 'zeros' when I read the price in the store (it's in a protective glass cabinet). Or else there's a hell of a deal to be had downstairs.

Thats ok if you like the cheap stuff, I suppose. How about some Dalmore Candela 50 Year Old, from Harrods at £12500.00. I bet that would be lovely with Pepsi.

Early Times and Evan Williams. (but no. not at all)

GAH! I just made plans to get blackout drunk and ride a mechanical bull tomorrow night before i saw this. I guess i'll catch yall next time. Pour a high-five out for me.

Maker's Mark : A good 'go to' bourbon ... Boring, but sadly my favourite at the moment. Woodford Reserve : Doesn't do it for me, actually a little TOO refined. Buffalo Trace : Viscious, satisfying. Four Roses : Grand, but I was a bit underwhelmed the one time I tried it. Must revisit it. Haven't gotten around to Bulleit in many years so that's possibly next on my list. I've seen the Elijah Craig too - looks interesting. It's Tennesse sour mash, AFAIK, as opposed to bourbon, but some of Jack Daniels' more expensive offerings are pretty good - I think the Silver select? Jim Murray picks out the good ones in his guides. This sounds disgusting, but I want to try out some of the cheap Bourbon from Lidl and Aldi. Some of their whiskeys they stock here are actually brewed by really good Irish distillers like Cooley. They're cheap but they're not nasty. I gather that in the US there are regulations governing the distilling of bourbon now which are supposed to mean that even the 'bad' bourbons out there aren't supposed to be that bad, in terms of the distilling process, time spent etc.

Great thread! For my first tattoo I gave a vague idea of what I wanted, and let the tattooer pick the specific imagery. I feel like I was too into the story for this one. For my second and third tattoos I just picked some flash from the Amund Dietzel books and let the tattooer do the rest. For my fourth the tattooer had a stencil already made for someone who decided not to show up to the convention, so I agreed to have him put it on me. Out of the four, I like my snake and rose, the one that I had no hand in deciding on, the most. I think for my next one I am just going to give the tattooer a few pieces of imagery that I like, and let him take it from there.

Really digging these panther tattoos. Here are some of my favorites. I know they are pretty generic, but I like them. Trying to figure out how to incorporate one into a Marine Corps tattoo.

I did forget to mention who I was tattooed by... Paulino origionally from Milan (now Rising Dragon NYC) Regino Gonzalez (multiple) and in a few weeks, our own @Stewart Robson I know I have a very short list now but thanks to LST I have a too many artist to book in the future!

Scrappy doesn't do single needle tattoos. There are lots of newer tattooers carrying on what the aforementioned tattooers started. Pint and chuey q, Placaso, drew flores, Jose l, jun cha, ruger, chente, chuco, andrew farnsley, Tattoo tony, Mexican tattoo family, Steve soto, tattoo Louie, big Gus, el bros Mendoza, Antonio m, kiki platas, Dave Sanchez, even kat von d. Grillo and Hendricks do it good too but they aren't married to it. The thing with these tattoos is it can look good even when it's bad. The tradition is that it's handpoked or done with homemade machines, so even when you see people with rough looking stuff, it still looks great. You don't find a lot of people outside of southern California that do it right, and while it's a style most associated with inner city Los Angeles, the people that do it the best are in orange county, riverside, inland empire, etc. There are some shops that specialize in this stuff, under the gun, tattooland, oc ink house, Por vida, lowrider, rubes, shamrock, the Slauson swap meet ha ha. But these are just tattooers known by the general public or people who know about tats. Every hood in califas has a few local people working out of their house or in small little shops or swap meet spots that get it in.

Here are my two tattoos. Your standard, generic bulldog on my chest. Even though it's nothing real special, I really like it and the artist did a great job on it. The USMC is also right off the shop wall, but I have never seen another like it. I have it on my right shoulder. Sorry for the crap photo quality. Yes, I need to get some sun.

We doin this tomorrow around 9 at my bar? 103 Havemeyer between Grand and Hope (/Metropolitan), have a few drinks and some high-fives? Have a feeling it might just be me, @slayer9019, @LeoKraft, maybe @Jack, but I am sick no longer and ready to hang out.

Haha see you there! :)

@Avery Taylor Deposit paid & booked in for April 6th.

Hi Guys It looks like it's oriented correctly now - probly just took a while for Loch's changes to fully propagate. Let me know if you find otherwise.. Nice backpeice!

I have the Wu-Tang logo, back when I was 15 :P Some kinda needle/s was melted in a piece of plastic and the ink was the ink from a ballpoint pen. I got it in a group home, sitting in my bed while other boy tapped it in. Cant remember how long it took. 1 hour? I just realised its almost all worn out. Cant even see it. Had to look for it. Its "covered" with a bad cover up that didn't even cover it. Hate that fucking tattoo. Funny, the tattoo artist asked me "what the fuck is this? A puzzle piece?" I said yeah, yeah... I was too nervous to explain him that is a Wu-Tang logo, and what the fuck the Wu-Tang even is while Jimi Hendrix was blasting from the speakers :D

This thread made it over a year before getting to off topic, that's pretty rad.

I did get tattooed today, a sailor jerry sparrow.

I didnt read every post but I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned the flash sheet with Jeff Zuck's Hot Stuff ROA. I would show you guys but posting flash is in poor taste imo.

@hogg you certainly have mastered the art of getting tattooed ,sir.

tattooed on my calf by Mike Schweigert on my 18th birthday at Electric Tattoo, Bradley Beach NJ

Just came across this on Reddit Mikey Tubs/ Copper Rose -Taft, CA

I like to give the artist a rough idea of what I want. I can't draw, so I leave that up to them. And I agree that seeing the stencil for the first time is half the fun. When Tim Lehi unfolded the huge drawing for my tigers, I went wide-eyed. I don't believe in dragons, but they sure do make awesome tattoos. Along the same lines, I'd still like a Rock of Ages and maybe a curly-bearded Jesus at some point.

I had a guy come in a few months ago asking for snowflakes on his nose. After about 20 minutes of me asking "are you sure? thats your NOSE man." (the guy only had one other tattoo, a tiger on his forearm) He seemed perfectly sober and willing to commit to his nose tattoo, so I finally said fuck it and got set up. I decided to just draw em on with sharpie, so i drew actual snowflake shapes from the bridge of his nose to his nostrils and he didnt like it, he wanted them smaller so i wound up just doing the traditional stars and dots all over his nose. He took a break about every 3 stars and kept saying "next time i need a drink before this shit! damn!" After about an hour of "add one more here, make this one bigger" I was finally done with this guy, took his money, the end? Nope! The guy comes in WASTED 2 weeks later wanting a touch up, I told him he was too drunk and to come back when he was sober. So he comes back a couple weeks later, seemed a little tipsy but coherent enough. This time he wants his snowflakes covered up, because he was getting funny looks. He wanted me to put brown over it to match his skin color. i told him it wouldnt work but he insisted and had cash, so i get set up again and packed brown into this guys nose. Bridge to nostrils. He must've slammed a 5th of something while i was setting up because he wound up passing out drunk in the chair, we had to throw his ass out of the shop, he winds up passing out while leaning on one of those smokers pole things we have outside the shop, its snowing outside, he's in a t-shirt, puking all over the sidewalk. We're yelling at him to leave. Eventually the cops came and apparently he assaulted the cops and had to be taken away in an ambulance. So now this guy is walking around with snowflakes on his nose thats a shade browner than the rest of his face. That was the most ridiculous walk in I've had so far. Because of that I dont tattoo faces anymore. Unless its another tattooer.

man i hate the tiny ass upside down lettering!!or lettering in white...used to not do it, but oh well if i dont then someone else will..i got a family to feed...best on so far was when a young lady came in for her first one.."faith" upside down in white...told her it wont look good down the road and she probably wouldn't see it since she fake baked...got done with it..she looked at it and said.." ummmm i cant see it"...well girl thats what i told ya..$50 please...thank you ..and good bye...hahaha...

about 7 years ago, when i worked at deluxe, i was doing a kanji on this chick's lower back. she was doing ok, then got a little light-headed. so, we stopped, i let her sit down, got her some water, her friend gave her candy. waited about ten minutes, she was feeling better, chatting, color came back in her face. she seemed totally fine. so, we decide to finish up( there was literally one minute left on the tattoo.) she takes a final swig of her water and takes two steps toward the trash can, to throw out her cup. SHE PASSES OUT STANDING UP. !!!CRACK!!! she hit the floor unconscious, no reflexes, face first. it sounded like a bat hitting a baseball. it was the scariest sound ever, and we were stunned. for a second we all just stood there with our mouths open, then the silence was broken by the chick's eerie moaning. blood was pooling out around her head and she seemed REAL confused and in a lot of pain. she was crying and not getting up. so, i called 911, they show up pretty quick, paramedics come in and i tell them what happened. in the most non-challant way, dude glances at her, then back at me and pulls his sleeve up to show me an old armband..."hey bro, how much would it be to fix this up?". i repeated that she was bleeding and in pain and he says "she'll be ok, probably just broke her jaw." his buddy is behind us looking at flash! so, they finally take her out on a stretcher and off to the hospital. i start cleaning up the blood, and notice her teeth left an indent in our floor. SHE HIT HARD. so, her friend is on her way out and is quietly giggling, and i ask what is so funny? she says "well, in the last week her boyfriend dumped her, her car got stolen and she got fired. she was hoping this tattoo would turn her luck around." it was the kanji for "lucky".