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My elbow, all nice and swollen. :) Tony Nilsson Blue Arms Tattoo Oslo, Norway Photo ripped from Tony's Instagram

Spent a wonderful 8 hours at Memoir tonight w/Spencer Briggs. Getting tattooed is fun! This third picture only shows some of the new additions...

I just got this from Aaron Hodges at Idle Hand SF: Aaron's a really great guy, and I was stoked to get something from him. Two days ago, I realized that a torch would fit really well in that little spot, so I hit him up yesterday and he said he'd have time today. A great experience, and I'm really happy with it.

There's already some seriously stiff competition, but here's my entry for this month. Done yesterday by El Monga.

i kind of just had this experience today. found out Chad Koeplinger was going to be in my city due to un-foreseen travel plan changes on his side. i always knew i wanted to get tattooed by him so i took this opportunity to make it happen, we figured out an appointment time this morning and we got it done this afternoon. to be honest, when i got to the shop, i didnt even know what part of my body i was going to get tattooed. i just want to say getting tattooed by him was such a awesome experience, i'm so happy right now. if im not shy i might just post a pic after it's healed a little.

By coincidence, I have just moved cities to Canberra and realised that I am now living around the corner - literally 2 streets away - from the site where I started collecting my very first proper tattoos in 1996. So I've always travelled to get tattoos. Back in '96 I travelled from Sydney to Canberra (280km) to get tattooed by a dear friend who was apprenticing with a really great artist called Ex de Medici who's now pretty much stopped tattooing and I think is working on her amazing paintings. For the last few years I've been travelling from Aus to Switzerland to get tattooed by Filip Leu & Sabine Gaffron, an incredible experience. Filip is starting my backpiece this year and even though it's super stressful getting all this money together to do it, once I am there and we start working it all feels worth it. The advantage also is that he tattoos faster than lightning, and has a very unique approach to large scale work. I've given him a few key elements I'd like and the coverage and I don't think he'll plan & draw the design until our first outlining session! And that's usually with visiting tattooers watching, asking him questions and hanging off his every word. Don't ask me how he does it but it really is watching genius in action. That said though, the first time I took a regular train and then a little 2 car mountain electric "train" up to the tiny mountain village where the Leu Family studio now is, I was laughing all the way up at where I was travelling to to get a damn tattoo!

After finished my leg with Chris, I kinda had planned on taking a break, but fuck that shit. PABST BLUE RIBBON! In two weeks, Mr. Andrew Conner is starting a flying tiger on my left arm.

I love it when the plainskins say "Well, he must have body image issues." And I'm thinking "Nope, motherfucker, not anymore..."

Im always impressed at the amount of tattoos people on this forum get. I get more tattoos than any of my close friends here in town, but this forum always puts me to shame. That being said I got a small spider above my kneecap yesterday. I was looking through the partially finished sheets in the back and spotted a spider I had never seen. It didn't quite fit so he had to redraw a couple of the legs on me, but turned out pretty cool. Ross Ferrie brought me into the tattoo world and it was nice to sit down and get a tattoo from him, like we used to do. Also right after he finished a friend of his from when he first started tattooing came in and got to relive some stories of Chris Conn, Robert Klem and Mav Mess's early days of tattooing.

I posted this on my introduction thread, but I just got the tattoo last week so why not post it here too.... Got my first tattoo from Nathan Kostechko while he was doing a guest spot at Ink and Dagger. a little snake with pattern on my chest - almost didn't get to put a pattern in because he doesn't travel with his patterns, but there was a book at Ink and Dagger we were able to use. I wanted an asanoha pattern, but I think this worked out nicely.

Not sure if this should be posted in snakes, snakes, snakes - or skulls, skulls, skulls. Oh well, I can remedy that . . . William Yoneyama

Just for the heck of it, I'll throw in my right arm 3/4 sleeve done a couple of years ago by Henning Jorgensen when he was guest tattooing at Kings Avenue Tattoo (both the Manhattan and Long Island shops). This picture was actually compiled by Henning and shared with me. Enjoy!

Like a boss, can't wait to see this. I am a little bummed, I am missing Atlas Tattoo's 15th aniversary party today, they are doing legit tattoos for $15 for 15 hours as a customer appreciation thing (they have no problem staying busy). I hope to at least be able to stop by later, but have a lot to do at home and the little guy has swim class tonight, so got to take care of business.

I'm back in with Alec Benjamin at red hot n blue this Wednesday. We are doing a traditional style butterfly/moth in my left ditch. Then my last appointment with him before he leaves I think we are doing a dear John letter filler and perhaps a sailor jerry style heart with mum on it. We shall see !

My only problem is there are too many good tattoos. I'm going to break my "like" button some day soon!

Haha cheers :) I don't rock just yet...if I can make it through everything I will be pleased with myself though! Valerie says she is trying to get away from what she is most well known for (sad girl heads), and do some very traditional work, she had a load of stuff in a big flash book she had drawn up, so I picked out a traditional dragons head, going on the lower calf, should be sweet!

Just said good-bye to ChrisVK and put him on a boat to denmark. a bunch of days with beers, talking shit and just having a awesome time. good guy that dutch fellow!

I keep popping in and out of this website, but I do love that you guys keep at it! Anyway, here are a couple of photos of my front piece from Filip Leu & Sabine Gaffron, in progress. I'm adding a selfie taken close up while lying on my couch because it cracks me up how I look like a piece of fabric :))

Might as well give this month a shot too then :o From Xam at The Family Business, London.

Just a heads up Providence area-- that Darcy Nutt will be working with us at Providence Tattoo end of this month! You can email her about any appointments! [email protected]

Here's a not very good quality shot-in-a-hotel-mirror with a cameraphone picture of the progress on my sleeve. Thomas Hooper is working on this, and the latest session of shading on my forearm was done at the Rochester convention.

I think tattoos have not only changed my life, but they have swallowed my life whole. It's weird but I don't hold any special meanings for my tattoos, but the more I think about that it suits me to a tee. I am not a sentimental guy, I don't keep pictures, I throw most of my shit away when I move, and only collect two things, one is tattoos and the other is beer which is consumable. I don't think I changed that much with tattoos, i just found a way of getting tattooed that suited me and in turn has given me something to focus on.

You have a terrific attitude! Kudos. - - - Updated - - - I think that tattoos have definitely added to my life and been part of a process of changing my life. When you look at most of society, it seems really lame. People seem pathologically risk averse, in a desperate perpetually skeered mission to eliminate all traces of risk from their lives and to force those same choices on other people, which in my opinion is much worse. It'd be so easy, with the economy being screwy and work perpetually stressed, to stay in a constant state of worry. Aside from a great wife and daughter and a good career in programming, the greatest gift I've been given is that I've always enjoyed activities involving managed risk: target shooting, martial arts, motorcycles, climbing. They've given me some ability to turn of fear and just act, rather than joining the herd and being perpetually paralyzed by fear. I see tattoos as another step in that process. I got my first one after I was 50 and, ironically, got laid off from a job I'd hated for a while about a week later. Aside from being a goofy pun, that No Way tattoo was intended as a statement to myself that I wasn't going to follow courses set by other people anymore. I found a better job in about 3 weeks and I think the tattooed symbol of that inner determination helped me hit the ground running hard instead of moping for a while. So yeah, tattoos have become a later part of the process of choosing my own course in life.

This is the most awesome thing I've been doing: ca$hcats.biz

Joao Bosco

This was the first ever 'Traditional' tattoo I got, late last year, and I think I got a good one! By Frank Carter, Frith Street, London.

and the winner is... @phickey with the killer tiger by Tony Hundahl(post #8) Wow crazy 72 likes!!! Congratulations!! Thanks everyone for your submissions. Keep 'em comin! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address.

I've talked about this some before... A few years ago I found out that I have a neurodegenerative disease that will eventually land me in a wheelchair. I really don't know how fast or slow it will go. There's not any treatment for it, nothing to do for it but treat symptoms and wait for the inevitable. I got super depressed about it for a long time. I absolutely HATED my legs. Despised them for having this disease, for failing me, for "dooming" me to be disabled someday. Sometime last summer I started to have persistent dreams that I was getting my legs tattooed. I ignored them as well as I could for awhile, and then started putting some serious thought into going for it. I started looking around the interwebs to see what was out there... And then I came here :) Since I started getting my legs tattooed my feelings about them have changed completely. I don't hate them at all anymore. In fact, I might even love them!!! I definitely love the tattoos, and to a great degree all those positive feelings have bled over onto the legs themselves. And... I'm finding that my perspective about the disease as a whole is beginning to shift some too... I'm coming around to the idea that I need to view it less as a curse, not "being doomed", and more of just "a change"... I'm definitely not all the way there yet, but it's something that never would have been possible in the state of mind I was in when I hated my legs guts for having this thing in the first place. - - - Updated - - - And I have to add... I want to thank all y'all here at LST for being here, for giving such great input and advice, for showing off such great work all the time!! God forbid, what if I'd gotten crappy leg tattoos?!?! I doubt it would have had the same positive impact that it's had...

MYRA BRODSKY - Tattoo & Illustration. The Blog of Uncle SEVEN DEVILS TATTOO sarahbbolen.com | . Berlin Ink Tattooing - Professionelles Tattoostudio in Berlin-Mitte Electric Circus Classic Tattoo Mannheim - - - Updated - - - http://myrabrodsky.com/. http://onkelallan.blogspot.com/ http://sevendevils.de/ http://sarahbbolen.com/ http://www.berlinink.de/ http://www.electric-circus-tattoo.de/

I've been talking with Chris' assistant about getting a snake done this summer taken from one of his prints. It looks promising.

Ha! We'll have to change the title to "Bloodiest Tattoo Lowdown."

My man! You're the coolest looking piece of fabric I've seen yet. I didn't know you'd finished up with them. Spectacular doesn't really begin to cover it. Thanks! I'll have to post healed pics because the green pops much more now.

Claudia De Sabe now working out of Black Garden Tattoo London .

Not a tattoo but a cool tattoo souvenir. I scored these shoes on eBay 6 months ago, they were designed by Grime for Vans and part of the proceeds went to Shriner’s Hospital Burn Center for Children. I brought them up to SF with me last week to have Grime personalize them for me :D Stoked on them!!!

Got this from Deno earlier in the week whilst he was in Melbourne.

Agreed. Good move @hollyjoybee, I'm sure it wasn't easy but you are free!

For me personally it is a tie between the crease that connects the bumcheek and the thigh, and between the toes. The first was cant-breathe pain, whereas the second was I-dont-want-to-breathe-anymore pain.

Thanks everyone. Can't wait to see what's in store for May

Sorry to those that have already seen it on Instagram, but I'm so stoked that I have to post it here also. Paul Dobleman is one of my favorite tattooers and I wanted to plan a trip out to SF to get tattooed by him; I've even been saving this spot on my arm for him. Saw that he was doing a guest spot here in NYC at Kings Ave, but he got booked up very fast. Luckily, I was able to grab one of his cancellations (thanks to @CABS for the heads up!). So I got my bike running over the weekend and took a rainy ride out to Kings Ave in Long Island on Monday. Rode home with this pretty lady from Paul. A very cool experience; couldn't be happier with this one!

:) My legs might not *do* what I want them to do, but at least they can *look* the way I want them to look!!! - - - Updated - - - That's why I never tell!! My family would be horrified if they knew how much money I've spent on tattoos... not just the tattoos themselves, but I've missed work for them, stayed in hotels, etc. I think, in this case, lying is completely acceptable!!

My first truly spur of the moment tattoo, a late birthday gift from my brother and sister

yea tattoos have changed my life, can't exercise and swim because i'm always healing something and i have less spare cash to spend on drink, drugs and women....!

First sitting on my Tiger with Kore Flatmo yesterday. 4 1/2 hours so far.

I've heard this same sentiment echoed many times, especially by women. I started getting tattooed the minute (ok, a month or so later) after I turned 18.. without getting too sentimental, I think that in a way it did help me figure myself out, even if for the first four or five, I didn't really know what I was getting in to. I've never had to grapple with any body issues but internally.. it seemed to level me out a bit, if that makes sense. Glad your changing skin is literally changing your life!

This is the sleeve I started with Nathan Kostechko a couple weeks ago

Might as well post this here too even though the shit posted so far has been ridiculous.

Might aswell throw this in here, crossing my fingers! This month has stiff competition :)

Does anyone know who the original artist of this tattoo is: I am going for a similar style piece, and trying to find another picture, but can't figure out who did the work.

I refuse to believe that this is a real person.

I really don´t know if mike is suffering a lack of clients in greece, i hear he is busy most of the time. But yes, the tickets and hotel had a nice price, enough to make me stay a couple more days and plan some vacations in santorini. Anyway looking forward to get something from this great artist.