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Had my first Saturday off in months. Was able to catch a walk-in with Brad Stevens at NY Adorned - very fortunate. Got this pretty lady to cap my left shoulder. here's a photo of it from his instagram.

So I made my first post the other day as @BrandonGermain and posted a picture of my elbow done by Steve Byrne. For whatever reason after posting I decided I didn't want to use my full name on a message board, so I made this account and will be using this one from here on out. I apologize to the moderators if I broke any rules, and I'm sorry to whoever just read that shitty and irrelevant bit of information. With that being said...Today I got tattooed by Chris Conn. Chris was so cool and really does go above and beyond for his clients. Everything about getting tattooed today was rad. Not to mention his studio is less than five minutes from my house. Couldn't have been a better situation. I will post better pics once it is healed.

Oookay- here's a peek:

I had a hell of a weekend at the convention. Pictures stolen from their respective instagrammers. First, got this reaper from Richard Smith of Thicker Than Water on Friday. No pictures really do this thing justice. And yesterday I got this ghostly wolf head from Ron Henry Wells. Words can't even express how excited I am about this tattoo.

Here is a pic of my wife's chest (shhh don't tell her I posted it ;) ). Her right side by Trevor McStay and her left side by Jason Kundell. They are my favorites!

hope this helps.

Random check proved fruitful... Marcus Kuhn's - The Gypsy Gentlemen - Home Paris is up! I just finished and it's another great episode. There's a pleasant surprise (to say the LEAST) at the end, "On the next episode"... cannot wait!!!

That looks like a tattoo of the month contender!

here's two my lady got at the philly convention on friday.. tyler james densley mario desa

Had my second session on my thigh panel with Scott Ellis and finished the jaguar. Next up will be the background color. Sorry, but you'll have to wait until next month to see the finished tattoo:p

I'm personally grateful for the built-in filter that my tattoos provide; I have enough now that the guys who don't like 'em mostly don't bother to approach me. Narrowing the dating pool a little isn't necessarily a bad thing--a whole category of "not good for me" I don't have to worry about! My current boyfriend has no tattoos but has seen me through about half of my collection, and has been pretty supportive of it.

Delicious you're still very young, don't worry about it. The point is not to mold yourself into the perfect woman that men will like. Be who you are and you will eventually find someone who loves you for exactly that. Trying to mold yourself into what you think a man wants is crazy. First off, every man has a different idea of the perfect woman. Second, what will the point be in 10 years when you have a man, but don't have yourself? Besides, peoples opinions change. If you asked my husband 10 years ago, he didn't like tattoos on anyone. But we met, had tons in common, he looked past the tattoos, and now he loves them on me and admires them as an art form. People change and have the capacity to look past things they may not love, and even change their minds. So don't stress it, get the tattoos you want, and give it time. You'll find someone who loves you for you. - - - Updated - - - Also will add..just b/c a guy says they don't like tattoos on women..doesn't mean they wouldn't date you if they liked you. I find tattooed men more attractive than non tattooed, but that would never stop me from dating a non tattooed guy. We all have a list if preferences, we don't need to have every one fulfilled.

I have an appointment with Grez in July. I'm hoping to get tattooed by Koeplinger or Xam while they are in California for Ink N Iron in June. I just don't think I can wait that long to get tattooed again! I need to make some plans to get something sooner.

So beautiful! I wouldn't mi mind waking up to that every day ?

myke chambers in progress Tattooer Myke Chambers

OMG this. At the last Montreal convention, we were pretty sure we spotted @eisen777's wife as we recognized her chest piece that he had posted on here, and then we felt like the BIGGEST CREEPS EVER.

I always think it's funny to imagine the LST cocktail party where everyone has to make sure their most recognizable tattoo is showing or else no one will know who they are.

So when you getting your first panther tattoo?

Woah, wait, how did I not see this before? That's fantastic!

Busy week

Hey guys, I just joined the forum and figured I'd kick things off by posting my in progress back piece. Jason Kundell is doing the work, though things have slowed a bit since he moved from SF to Portland. Hope to wrap things up in the next year and then it's time to get back into shape!

I believe the dude on the left is Jason Ochoa. I worked that Sunday night at the bar and a dude was there with a Elm St. tattoo patch and we got talking and he said his name was Jason and he was doing a little spot over at Greenpoint Tattoo, which got us talking about the DeVita event -- and that he and Thom shared the same dragon back piece. Incredible! And a nice dude.

I love the look of these thick black lines. Rachi Park, Black Throne Tattoo. I stole this off Reddit so I don't know if that is true for sure.

fuck..... oh my god. i just dont know what to say

The panther is, by far, my favorite tattooed image. Hard to beat a good panther and Mike Wilson is my gold standard. I also, really enjoy Mr. Jason Donahue's panthers.

^^^Yeah, that's fantastic! Nice traditional spin on Lady Liberty.

Promo video for Born Weird NSFW "

Frank does churn out great work and I was hoping to get something form him but, no dice. I can't complain however, I managed to get work from Mike Schweigert, Tony Polito, and Bowery Stan.

@Johannes I have watched the interviews and love them. @TrixieFaux Thank you! I love the tattoo. I hear great things about Memoir. I almost got tattooed there when Seth Wood was in town and working out of the shop.

I don't remember it because I wasn't here yet, but thanks to "Advanced Search" I went and looked it up. I gotta say, I'm surprised you stuck around! Glad you did, too.

No, I've got a collection of random stuff from the '70s and '80s that's taking up prime real estate on about a quarter of my back. Definately some lightening 6-8 weeks after the 1st session. Anxious to see how it'll look 8 weeks after the 2nd session. I'm hoping my 5th session in Sept-Oct will have gotten it all light enough for new cover work.

I was also going to suggest Frank William, he does nice stuff for sure and worked at Tim's shop before he moved to Chicago Tattoo Company full time.

I pretty much have my body planned except for my arms and chest..... those spots are going to be the last that I get tattooed, and once I get there I'm just going to tell my tattoo to do what ever he wants.... most likely it will be 3 more years in the future when I get there so he will know me and have a very good idea what will fit.... plus my arms will be what most people see so I figure giving him freedom to tattoo what he wants will get some pretty interesting results.

I carry a little notebook around with me to help me remember things I think of. A couple pages are dedicated to tattoos I want and where. I just was looking back through it for the first time in a few months and I realized that I've changed my mind about almost every single one of the prospective tattoos. I blame LST for this.

I'm super interested in this stuff too. @Dhopper, when you say ratios, do you mean: "one third black, one third color, one third skin" -- cos that's something I've heard, but I guess it doesn't just apply to Japanese. I love Shige's work, but his tattoos are so dense, there's barely any skin showing -- so does that make his style less "traditional?" I'm not a tattoo artist, just trying to soak up knowledge wherever I can find it.

I think I make a fast judgment when I think about Nunez. Most of his work that I know is a little older. I need to see some of his newer work to make a better opinion. Also, in the discussion between Japanese Japanese and American Japanese...I prefer Japanes work to be very traditional Japanese. I absolutely love the more American stuff, but I feel that the magic of Japanese tattooing is based in the rich culture, history, and guidelines involved. When stuff gets more american, to me it loses touch with the part of Japanese tattoos I love. There are plenty of people who do visually fantastic Japanese of all flavors...the stuff I like the best is the stuff that I know the time and energy has been put in to make it as true to tradition as possible.

There is a lot and I mean a lot more than what you said GSJoe. You can love art but you are not going to try and be Caravaggio! Where are you at GSJoe? Before you even started tattooing fruit you need to draw! When you are tired of drawing, draw some more! Draw and draw. Then go in to a tattoo shop and show those drawings. Go home and draw some more. You see where I am going here GSJoe? After all that drawing, you may, going back into that shop and show them your new drawings. If they like them than you will be taught how to draw! " You have to past the first grade before you can go to the second grade!" Peck

Might as well. Greg Christian @ Handcrafted Miami More pix in the latest tattoo lowdown. It's hard to shoot photos of your arm yourself, haha.

I don't think I posted this new one I picked up from Greg Christian at Chris Nuñez's new shop, Handcrafted Miami just after New Years: Super excited for South Florida to have this new shop, which is beautiful. They're bringing in a lot of big name guys, which we don't often get here. Chad Koeplinger visited a few weeks after I got the moth and I was kicking myself for not having the budget to get something. But, I did book in with Heath Nock for June. (Holy shit that is a long ways away!) Getting a gator head with a Florida banner.

Digging this little ditty from Gakkin Harizanmai

Ok Ill play .... mine is fairly interesting. My wife (of 10 years) has absolutely no tattoos, but she is the reason I have any idea what a nice tattoo looks like! As I said in another thread, I come from a small town. The only tattooers within 100 miles were shitty scratchers, so that was all I knew. I was always attracted to the idea of tattoos, and as a kid I would draw on my arms and stuff, but man, when I saw these shitty tattoos on my friends I just couldnt hang. When I moved to Austin, I met a couple of tattooers but they did black and grey stuff that I wasnt into, so I got a little kanji thing on my back and that was it for a while. Then I met my wife. She was good friends (grew up) with the Deep Ellum crowd in Dallas including some of the guys in punk bands and a couple of the dudes from Elm Street. Man, Holy Shit! These guys (and girls) were getting the most badass traditional tattoos ... totally covered. I couldnt believe how awesome this stuff looked. I mean, I had seen the flash sheets but no one in my hometown ever picked the cool stuff. And if they did, it was rendered very poorly. So, I asked those guys who I should see in Austin, and of course I have plenty of options. And then I started forming my own opinions and getting tattooed, slowly. So yeah. My completely untattooed wife, in a round about way, taught me about good tattoos!

Anyway, most of you have probably already seen this, but for those who haven't, here's the picture from Thomas Hooper's instagram of my raven shaded. I'll probably hold off on posting pictures of the tattoo until it's finished but this gives you a taste of it. To give you an idea of size, the raven's head is around my upper bicep to shoulder and the bottom of its tailfeathers are about half way down my forearm. It is a bit of a mental adjustment getting used to seeing that much black on my arm, but I love it and find it to be so beautiful and powerful.

From a couple weeks ago... Sorry for building up my appt with this maniac and not delivering a follow up. I agree with Grime in that it would suck big time to have someone bite the tattoo before he can complete it so for that reason I won't be posting any progress pictures. Sorry. If I see you in person, by all means, ask and ye shall receive! If you're in Socal and plan on going to Musink maybe you can see it there :D You guys don't know how hard it is to keep this thing under wraps!! I'm headed back up for a 1 day session on Feb 21st. can't wait!

got a higgs druid from ryan shaffer yesterday

Awesome . The goat of Mendez, the devil himself !!

@DJDeepFried Everybody enjoys aspects of 'exotic' cultures. One man's mundane is another's exotic, and vice-versa. 'Traditional' Japanese tattooing has regional and time-specific styles too. Yokohama style isn't necessarily the same as Hiroshima style. 1930's style isn't the same as 1990's style etc. I haven't heard of a 'rule' that states you can't get a koi on your arm, unless of course if you have a koi with waves on your upper arm and an eagle with clouds on your forearm. Positions of figure's legs (especially in relation to lotus flowers) often tell us things about their spiritual state in Buddhist art too. Jesus spells out his (latin) name, gang-style, in many paintings from the middle-ages onward.

that tiger I stole from Bob, who got it from Ed but thanks!

true he's pretty hard to top. i have one from him. dont think he was sweating when he did it..