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A relatively recent one - from Deno when he was visiting Tattoo Paradise last year. Picture borrowed from his Instagram.

I looked at some other online discussion tattoo forums for a while, and most of them were just filled with negative rude people, online discussion forums are not new to me,I have belonged to computer/home theater/audio video/canine,etc,etc,a couple for 10 years now, so thanks to all here for making this one a friendly,enjoyable,& comfortable place to hangout.

Best advice I got.

bump scorpionfront.com - - - Updated - - - also, there's this

Got this on my arm last week from Joe Ellis: Done at Lab Monkey Tattoo in Stirling, Scotland although Joe now works at Sacred Electric in Leeds.

Agreed! And the level of discourse around here is uncommonly thoughtful, I find, in addition to the general friendliness. Go LSTers ;) Go team!

Heading back to Dana on June 10th for some ass line work. It's bound to be an exquisite experience. I'm tempted to get some painkiller, but I just feel like that would be a cop out. More importantly, you'll all get to see my ass.

last week I had some blood drawn for a routine test (i'm perfectly healthy so don't anyone worry) and when the phlebotomist asked if I preferred one arm over the other I rolled up both sleeves and said "well you can either poke this hannya in the face or you can just poke this empty skin on my right arm." She then remarked that since I have tattoos I must not be worried about a simple blood draw and I agreed I wasn't worried. But in my head I was thinking "How many years experience do you have drawing blood?", "Do you have a portfolio of your previous work I can look through before I choose you as my phlebotomist?" Strange that people have asked me if I'm worried about getting infections, diseases, viruses, etc from tattoo artists that have 15+ years experience but no one is worried about the phlebotomist that might be fresh out of training with only 6 months experience.

I had to add this - This is from a Jenny Clarke flash sheet, and is supposed to be a chest panel/half sleeve design, which the artist clearly didn't understand, and copied it, very small, onto a forearm. I don't think I have ever seen a tattoo miss the point as much as this one.

I agree that there's a pretty significant difference, but for some people just the idea of needles can trigger a panic attack. a woman recently fainted at the shop where i work, not because she was getting tattooed, but because she was watching her friend get tattooed. she's lucky she didn't get a concussion falling and hitting her head on the floor! phobias are irrational, so even if it doesn't make sense to us, it could be terrifying to someone else.

Get more tattoos around it.

Strange that I never posted mine to this thread; I must have thought I already had(?) According to Steve Byrne, I was the first person to ask him for a RoA (in 2011 if you can believe that), so I guess that's my claim to fame:

Mostly Jinx Proof and Tattoo Paradise. Can't say enough good things about either shop. I've gone to the Baltimore Tattoo Museum a couple of times, too.

Couldn't agree more. I'm a type 1 diabetic on an insulin pump (essentially a little robot pancreas...it's pretty rad), so I'm pretty comfortable with needs of both the injecting medication and placing ink varieties. That said, there are new nurses at my endocrinologist's office and they are fucking horrible at drawing blood. The last three times I've been in they've either pressed the syringe right through the vein, or rolled the needle while it was in. I end up with a bruise for a few days at the site and look like I have a different sort of problem all together. I'm actually getting tattooed this Sunday after a doctors appointment on Saturday, so my hope is that they've improved so that I don't have to awkwardly explain to the tattooer that the needle mark and bruise are from an indelicate nurse, not some questionable extracurricular activities. Might be time to ask the nurses for a blood-draw portfolio.

gettig a traditional butterfly on monday

part of my back piece skull action.

Eddy Deutsche finished mine a few weeks ago. Terrible pic of the whole thing and one of the mini ROA in the book at the bottom. Four total in the piece ;)

wear a feather boa.

It is really cool. It was great finding a cool community like this that's so helpful, welcoming. There are some real dorks in other online forums...

Hate to be the guy, but the silence should be deafening.

I have been getting a lot of acupuncture lately, and my acupuncturist always asks about tattoo stuff, and those needles vs. these needles. I told her acupuncture is like, a freaking treat compared to getting tattooed. Interestingly, she was saying that she imagined the places that she finds acupuncture needle insertion hurt the most are also the places where getting tattooed sucks the most, but it doesn't seem to correspond at all. Like she says forearms are generally a rough spot (although I have not found that to be the case, with the exception of my wrists). And like, she sticks needles right into my forehead and stomach and I don't feel a thing. So all that to say: duh, different needles feel different. Also, I have a sick fascination with getting my blood drawn--its kind of cool to watch!--but last week I went for a routine blood test and they took EIGHT VIALS and it kind of freaked me out when the damn process would not end. I have no idea why. I suspect vampire nurses.

i tell people it's more like being cut. because that's what's really happening. not sure if this helps there fear at all.

stole this from sonju's injungram

Got a Garver tattoo at invisible.. will put it in the contest for next month..

Chris Garver at Invisible NYC

My wife picked this out for me last night. Done by Jason at Taylor Street. Good times were had.

Go this sunday from the Awesome and generally super cool Beaux Brady on sunday to go with my other hand he did.

This backpiece by Marius Meyer is on a guy from this forum. Amazing piece!

4th session with Filip :cool:

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Please be nice. I'm just a nerdy nurse who collects.

I'm the same, some areas of my body are just agony, I am starting my back soon, and I think I will need some medication to help me through...I think lower back and upper ass will be awful!

The last time I had blood work done the nurse (after seeing my arm) told me that she found it's the people with tattoos who are always most afraid of the needle.

When I was doing the backpiece on my profile the guy frequently sat two 9 hour days in a row and once did three days (10,8 then 4 hours) without flinching . I wish everyone could sit that well :p

I might have actually seen you get this tattooed. I get tattooed quite often at Invisible.

Admins, could we add a button that will automatically post that OV Dan Higgs video talking about how tattoos go together for whenever there's a thread like this?

Finished this up with Xam earlier, another one that's difficult to get a picture of yourself but you get the idea...

Why does it bother you? I find it kind of endearing, as it usually means that said client gets tattooed by the same person consistently. We don't own our friends or our coworkers or our dentist, but we still say "my friend, my coworker, my dentist." I don't see much of a difference?

So I'm back from my trip to LA visiting Bryan Burk and Chris Conn :o I had the best holiday of my life in just three days! and here are the results! Panther is by Bryan Burk, Dark Horse Tattoo and The cat-lady is of course by Mr. Conn himself! Best tattoo experience I have had and probably will ever have, he is something special this guy :o

@thatgirl as of today, 8 weeks and 1 day after my 3rd session: I'm going to buy some Dr.Numb and get the heavier green and black zapped again - but i'll probably be 2-3 weeks before that happens.

Here's my entry!! Done by Joseph (Jet) Diprojetto at Love Hate Tattoo in Rochester, NY:

Got a dagger and snake from Steve Boltz when I was in Brooklyn recently, but I want to respect their request not to put pics of their work up on the interweb, so no visuals I'm afraid. Steve was a real gentleman- he's all about giving the customer a good tattoo, no fuss no messing around. Recommends a mean coffee shop too. Back in The Family Business week after next to finish my left arm, withMo Coppoletta. They just put a pic up on IG today- it's the double chrysanthemums in autumnal colours (for want of a better description).

Corey Miller did this on my buddy Mike's right thigh today:

What a nosey douchebag! Are you guys both adults? Sounds like a 5 year old tattling on someone in the sandbox. As for me and superstition, I used to be a Muslim and of course when I converted to Islam my tattoos were all sins. The ones I got before I converted could be excused but any future ones were sins. Also there was a stigma about getting living creatures because there are some super traditional hadith verses about it being an insult to God to draw a living creature because only God can live life. Humans can only make imitations and cannot give life. So after I converted I was very guilty about my tattoos (though I still got them) and would not get living things. Also I would pray everyday for forgiveness for my ink. No offense to the religious here but goddamn the organized religions really have a way of making people think they're s*** bags who need forgiveness. I would wake up every morning and ask God to forgive me for being me. Glad I'm past that and can get tattoos with reckless abandon.

I believe that was me @Dan S @Delicious To the extent of my knowledge i am the only woman in my whole extended family apart from one cousin (who has a tiny trible symbol on her chest) that is tattooed... That includes men. I started to get the usual grief when i began getting tattooed.. a few colour realism butterflies, a little script that was all seen as acceptable however when i began getting larger tattoos people began to pipe up with their opinions. are you joining the circus? are you going to be a pirate? you are going to look so butch? what are you going to do when this early midlife crisis is over? you look like a lesbian! you WERE such a girly girl and now... etc etc. There comes a point in life when you have to make the choice between expressing yourself how YOU choose to because frankly other people might not be around for nearly as long as your tattoos will be. I've always had hella low self confidence but now when i look in the mirror and catch a glimpse of my tattoos i smile. They make ME happy on MY body. Other people will get over it. Sorry for digressing from the point of the thread. I have had a length discussion about native american indian tattoos at my local shop today and i've realised i am 'supersticious' enough to feel the need to have my indian girlhead and cheif wearing the correct headdress... that's as far as it goes for me though. Tattoos are things i perceive to be beautiful that i want to wear on my body.. n thats about the size of it :)

I think Tony Nilsson at Blue Arms Tattoo here in Oslo needs to be in this thread

who did the skull hands? looks like Lango from skull and sword stuff. I got this one from uncle allan in 09' at his shop in Copenhagen.