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Got this one a couple of weeks ago from El Monga @ Aloha Tattoos, Barcelona. Left shin, right below the knee, which the ears kinda wrap around a bit. The rest was pretty bearable, but those bits hurt like hell.

:D Sorry. But that could be a good sig...

Called and I'm booked with Mike Wilson on August 9th for a gorilla head with dagger. I'm excited.

First off, I want to welcome you to LST and I hope that you find yourself a happy contributing member of the community. This place has become home to many for some really great reasons. Secondly, I'm sorry that I'm going to end up being THAT asshole, as I don't mean to offend you but maybe provide some clarity into your situation. Everything that I'm about to say is going to be hard to hear, but when we take this sort of advice gracefully, we always grow. I think that your attitude about tattooing is horribly entitled. Nothing about tattooing is easy. Not drawing tattooable designs or script, not the clients, not your boss, not how your machines work, not getting into a good shop, nothing. Being good at these things takes years of really hard work!!! Now I'm willing to bet that your neighbor tattooed you out of his garage, so I'd imagine that it does look pretty easy to make a garage turd(I assume garage because you said neighbor, not neighbor who tattoos). I am also an artist who works with a wide variety of media, and the first thing that hit home for me when I did my first tattoo was "holy shit, this completely different from anything I have ever attempted in my life and it is HARD." I have noticed that the hard work ethic aspect of tattooing gets lost on a lot of people who have not served an apprenticeship. I also live in an area that is hypersaturated with great tattoo shops, and let me tell you something. *F*T*W* Tattoo - Oakland - CA doesn't even own a computer. George Campise of War Horse Tattoo is an accomplished illustrator and graphic designer who drafts everything he does by hand including t-shirt designs and skateboard decks. Of course using illustrator and Photoshop saves time, but it also cuts corners and ultimately limits your skillset as an artist. Nobody is going to hold your hand through this, if you want it, you have to truly want it and put in the proportionate work on your own. Again, I say this to help you out, and I do mean it gently. I would start by studying traditional tattooing and immerse your mind in traditional tattoo designs and history. I wholly believe that if anyone is to be a half decent tattooer, they need to be able to lay down a solid traditional tattoo. The design theory and application principles of traditional work apply to every other style of tattooing across the board. And also what @BrianH said, watch the interviews, do some reading, and commit yourself to learning about what it is that you do.

Bahahaha. Oh man. Only those with the most legit hatchet man tattoos need apply.

I'm booked with Mike Wilson on August 9th for a gorilla head with dagger. I'm excited.

I just had almost five hours done on my back today and I am SPENT. So tired. One session left. In the meantime, I am just waiting around for @Graeme to finish with Thomas. They are on hour six, I believe. Poor guy. I asked him how he was doing before I left and he said he was managing but that he was definitely in that "why the fuck do I do this to myself?" part of the session. A feeling I know well.

Fuckin A. The anxiety is going to kill me way more than any needle point pain. I've decided to nut up for the first glute/ham session and not take any painkillers. I watched that Horiyoshi 3 video where he said that men get full body suits to prove that they are men and they can take the pain. This is the mindset I'm going in with. We'll see if it changes, haha.

I have a friend who got "No Regets" or some variation on it, though I've only seen the pictures on Facebook. She got the intentional misspelling because it was supposed to be clever, because she's a writer, though I think she actually works in a coffee shop.

Looks like you have control issues. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) I second what others have said: let it heal completely and see how it looks. It can take a month, sometimes even longer, for a tattoo to heal completely. It varies based on any number of factors. Good luck!

I told you that you should call ;) You just never know...

Wow! That's the attitude that every great tattooer had when they started. I've never worked in a tattoo shop with Photoshop. I've never showed a customer digital mock-ups or proofs. I can show a customer a sketch and have them in the chair before I could even open the file in Photoshop. That's not 'cos I'm old and slow (I was a graphic designer for a decade before I was a tattooer) I use a copy machine % +/- every day. but sometimes it's much quicker, ant the end result fits better if I draw it on the skin with pens or markers. Nobody was born great at lettering but you can bet your paint-bucket tool that they didn't get good by tracing fonts or typefaces.

Ribcage really and truly, honest-to-Wotan, hurts. Don't do it.

Greetings! I lack the ability to draw a straight line, nor could I tell you what differentiates decent art from garbage half the time. In the past I could have given a damn less, as the repercussions of this just resulted in tacky art on the walls and getting my ass beat in pictionary. When it comes to tattoos and looking for good artists though, this lack of education can perhaps result in some poor choices. To remedy this, I have been going through the threads here (http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/2396-what-makes-good-tattoo.html ), and making baby attempts at drawing (seriously, it's like a t-rex trying to type or do pushups). I have come upon a couple of youtube sites and books that have been helpful. I'm sure this will be baby stuff for the real artists in here, but hopefully for the layman who has time on their hands it will help identify the good from the bad, give them something productive to do, and also appreciate the work that goes into the process. Proko - YouTube 5-Pencil Method and for books The Big Book of Drawing: András Szunyoghy: 9783848002498: Amazon.com: Books If anyone has any other suggestions on books, videos, etc for the uber green horn, I would love to see them!

I might have missed it but I didn't see Rose Hardy mentioned yet. Spider eyed lady is on my ankle ^_^

Hi Lynne and welcome to LST. A week after a tattoo is too soon to tell how it's going to look once it's fully healed so give it some time to settle into the skin and see how it looks then.

Must be Valkyrie day on Istagram; Dusty Neal: and London Reese:

Finally got all the springs changed on my old Beetle. It's 3.5 inches lower in the front now. I had help from a neighbor in exchange for a few cold beers and me whipping up a couple of pizzas on my grill.

Ooh I am going to have to go look it up! Cool! We are headed down to Brooklyn again tomorrow. Looking forward to it! It has become such a ritual.

Never posted this here, Kevin Leary Family Tattoo, Chicago.

I was waiting to post this until it was healed up and haired over. Chris O'Donnell. Completed at Saved Tattoo, Kings Avenue, and Chris' private studio.

I'm tattooed damn near all over, and I can safely say that the ribs were far and away the worst for me. Way worse than the ass, spine, kneecaps, and feet. Listen to what Killercook76 says in the post above this one. All of it. But hey, you're 16, and as such, probably don't give a shit what a bunch of old strangers on the internet have to say. Signed, An Old Stranger on the Internet

Heavy hitters already this month... Done by Stefan Johnsson @ California Electric

Chris Garver Invisible NYC - - - Updated - - - not sure how to add a lager pic..

Got this Rock of Ages from Joe Ellis while he was guesting at Lab Monkey Tattoo:

gonna go through the thread and add a bunch of people! mine's @cltattooing, could you have guessed? ;P

"Indian red" sounds a little too un-politically correct for elementary school...

Nice, My sister got sent back a year cause she was color blind and couldn't tell the difference of Indian red and brown. Let's just say her 1st grade teacher was a bitch.

Dennis at @ProvidenceTattoo again.

Wow I didn't realize painkillers were an option. I've always thought if you can't get through it on your own you don't deserve to have it. But I'm old school like that - - - Updated - - - Wow I didn't realize painkillers were an option. I've always thought if you can't get through it on your own you don't deserve to have it. But I'm old school like that

Yeah! im very happy i got booked in! it wasn't any trouble at all got the exact time and day i was hoping for! may try pick up his book and maybe a shirt at the same time. will be a great way to end my vacation! was pretty funny hearing the guy who picked up the phones reaction when he realised i was british!

Here's another video that was made a few weeks ago of a client who has a larger, unfinished piece on the inside of his calf. This is in real-time, and he's a champ for sitting still through the whole thing and not needing a break. The white frosting is the water in the skin vaporizing, it does disappear after 5-10 minutes. Also, the reason you see me jumping around to different parts of the tattoo is to help distribute the heat, let heat disperse from the body.

i would either go color or all black n grey.. For a phoenix definitely all color..

The question of pain in relation to getting tattoo comes up quite often. In my experience how much something hurts is really subjective. I think it really comes down to a baseline to what you have experienced. By the time I got my first tattoo I have experienced a ton more pain than any tattooer could dish out. Cracked half my front teeth out, multiple concussions, broken fingers, cracked collarbone, broken feet, etc. At that point a tattoo needle just really isn't that bad. That being said, people know generally have a similar idea which areas hurt worse but nobody can tell you how much it will hurt.

I went back and put the link in my original post (#1170) so you or anyone interested don't have to look it up. Have a blast in Brooklyn! Wish we were in Brooklyn today...we have a bunch of friends & family there. Post pics...

Too much joking on here about this, somebody needs to pony up and soon.

I keep having the same debate with myself, and am often asked by people whether I would extend my two half sleeves. I have two half sleeves at the moment and can't decide whether to extend them into three quarter or full sleeves if at all. Then on top of that question there is always the problem of final choice of subject matter as well as whether I really have the money.

I got to do my first dragon yesterday!!! So much fun, I really can't wait to do the color. I'm pretty sure we're gonna turn it into a half sleeve, so that's exciting as well. There are no words to quantify how difficult traditional Japanese tattoos are, hahaha.

if you're that worried about the pain,then don't get a tattoo,and whoever told you the tattoo pain is like a sunburn was way wrong IMO.Not that I ever get sunburned,but that's just not true. besides more importantly like was mentioned,you should not be getting tattoos at 16. wait a few years,think it over for a while longer,see how you feel in 3 or 4 years.

You really shouldn't be getting tattooed at 16.

I'll give this a shot. Done this past April. Jamie Macpherson Unity Tattoo in Vancouver.

I had a hellva weekend, sad it is over. Date on Friday, Saturday was BBQing/drinking all day, then followed by a late night session at Invisible to finish the background on my leg and get a session set up with Matt to get my knee done, Sunday was wake up to black metal and black coffee followed by oh so much more BBQing and drinking. Finishing off today with heavy doses of metal and a smooth single-malt scotch.

That's like trying to figure out if you want mustard or mayonnaise on your shit sandwich.

I know I joke about a lot of stuff (especially my skinny naked man-ass!!!) but really, getting the back piece has been like therapy for me this past year. Starting March 19th 2012 I started having some really bad back and pelvis issues. Through misdiagnoses and what not it has been a real struggle to get it corrected. A LOT of really low points in my life over the past year with some very bad chronic pain. I was beginning to get to the point that if pain was all that was left for me the rest of my days, I'd just pull a Hunter S. Thompson and not live like that anymore. Chronic pain over a long period of time can fundamentally change your personality. But, anyway I went ahead and I got the back piece started on June 30th, 2012, and about once a month thereafter I'd go in for another 3 hour session. For those 3 hours I'd know getting tattooed was going to hurt worse than my back and pelvis was that day, when it was gonna start hurting, about how much it was going to hurt, and then, when I'd had enough, I could say "Stop, I've had enough." Long story short, I got the back all finished, touch-ups and all around January 20th 2013. Ironically (hipsterism!!!) I was reading Tamblog shortly thereafter and saw one of the health posts and discovered Piriformis Syndrome (look it up on wikipedia folks, it ain't fun), turns out that's what I have. It can be fixed with exercise and physical therapy, and I'm now on the road to recovery. I ain't out of the woods completely yet, but I'm getting there. I feel much better now and I've buried Hunter completely.

action shot (NSFW) :D

I've gotta admit, I never noticed the lack of black women in flash/tattoos before. I feel kinda stupid now. Done by Dusty Neal (more info at THE STATIC AGE, I started thinking one day how I )

Mines is basement_graveyard I post nothing but douchie, shirtless, duck-faced selfies ;-p

I already follow a bunch of ya'll! My username's ivarro

Have you guys seen this? It's hilarious: Look at this Instagram (Nickelback Parody) - CollegeHumor Video