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Here's the next day, Marcus tattooing the same piece...

Hey Guys!!! I've been missing y'all!!!! I left my contract in Central Texas and am back home on the farm in Oklahoma for a little bit. The internet there is spotty and best, I've barely been able to check the activity stream and posting is pretty much out of the question. I'm in St Louis for the weekend at a conference so will do my best to get caught up on what's been happening around here. Really and truly missed you guys :D

. those shots were not so much about the tattoos,but was about the process of being tattooed :) . here are some shots from about 6 weeks ago shortly after some work on the ankle bands & iron cross so they are still healing & not touched up yet,these shots don't include the additional clouds work I got this week, as you can see,except for the niner piece,it's all "island/Polynesian" themed. . . . . . . . I know they are not "world class by world class artists" but they're mine & I like 'em.

This is so funny to me!! :D I guess it's just taken for granted that if you're *here* that you'll be getting a lot more tattoos!!

About 7 weeks ago, I got my first tattoo, which was the words "Love will tear us apart again" written down the centre of my forearm. Almost four weeks ago I got my second tattoo, the reading of the first discovered pulsar, also the cover of Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures," completing the piece. A little background on the piece: when I was 16, quite a few serious events unfolded in my life. I was a foster child at the time, and I had some mental health issues that resulted in me being volleyed about from hospital to hospital as psychiatrists picked apart my brain and my behavioural problems. At some point I ended up at a hospital in up-state New York, where I saw the movie "Donnie Darko" for the first time. To cut the story down to size, I identified with the movie. One song in it particularly caught me: Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I listened to it daily. Fast forward a year, give or take, and while living in a group home, one of the boys I lived with gave me the "Unknown Pleasures" CD for Secret Santa. He never got the help he needed, or the family he needed, and wasn't as fortunate as I was. So while this piece is also a tribute to one of my favourite bands, it is mainly a reminder of a time in my life, and of how lucky I am. I've already had several kids in big glasses and flannel come up to me in New York and complain that "Love Will Tear Us Apart" isn't on "Unknown Pleasures." Having to deal with them is probably my only regret about this tattoo. EDIT: Sorry about the huge pictures. Is there any way to resize them so they don't punch everyone in the face with how big they are?

LOVE both ideas. I agree with telling her both and letting her run with whatever. When I have a pretty vague idea, I am also a fan of just giving some helpful adjectives like you've done above - like you want her to feel tough and strong - without necessarily worrying about the details since I don't have them in my head clearly, because maybe she'll come up with something that captures what you want that you would never have thought of!

My back. Finished with Chris O'Donnell. Couldn't be more stoked on it.

I was booked for a huge rib piece that I unfortunately had to put off because I didn't have the finances to do it and my sleeve simultaneously but the artist recommended taking a muscle relaxant before sessions I think not so much for pain management, but more to counter the body's natural impulse to tense up. And yeah, if that's going to help me to sit and will allow the tattooer to do a better job and result in a better tattoo, then I'm all for it.

in about 10 days my girlfriend and I will hitchike up north to visit @Johannes again in Gothenburg. So im pretty stoked for that! We also made plans for later in the summer to hitchhike from Budapest in Hungary through Czech, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania to the northern part of Estonia and back to Germany from there. What's also pretty sweet is that I found a way to embed a paypal donate button on my hitchiker facebook page so I hope that will generate a little bit of extra income for on the road. All and all im really excited for the next few months!

He is SO NICE!! You're going to have a great time!!! I can't wait to see what you get :D

Damn! I saw people posting to this thread again so my first reaction was that it was released. I was extremely excited for a brief moment. Thanks a lot ;-) Well, here's hoping it is released sometime next week. That would be an awesome bookend to my back piece experiences. My last session is also next week on the 21st.

was at barnes and noble last week, a whole group of old ladies ( 60 and up) were giving me the eagle eye, because my tattoos were showing. They move into a different aisle and start talking. I expect them to talk crap, but then they start talking about the tattoos that they want, (it was butterflies and ladybugs for them all), and that they liked mine. I thought it was pretty cool.

This. That way you'll get a tattoo with the most psyche included in it.

Shouldn't we all just admit our addiction and stop thinking that each tattoo will be our "last" one? :) Welcome...cool ideas, I really like the clockwork/steampunk idea.

I'm awaiting the email that will serve as the final confirmation, but I'm pretty sure I just booked a spot with Steve Byrne next month. Holy shit.

Hello to everyone. I'm a 21-year-old freelance writer from Connecticut. I was previously a guitar teacher, and before that, a lesson-planner for a guitar-oriented web site. I live for music, anything from post-punk to technical death metal, and good books. I got my first tattoo, a half sleeve, about a month ago. I joined mostly to admire others' body art, but also to learn more about tattoos, especially the healing process, which triggered my anxiety pretty badly.

I have hitched a bit through Eastern Europe and I HIGHLY recommend hitting the former Yugo too! Slovenia was seriously the easiest and most pleasant place I have ever done it. Every second car will stop for you and they'll all be amazing people that you'll like, end up going to dinner with.

I've only used painkillers to get tattooed on one occasion, and pretty much what I noticed is that they don't take the pain away, but rather, make you not care that it hurts. Like the painful sensation is still there and feels the same, minus that it sucks. I'm probably going to use them for my back if I can't handle it straight. I must say, I do romanticize the idea of hurting for your tattoos.

Gotta get down on those ass cheeks Marcus!

Anxiety about healing tattoos is totally normal but as you get more tattoos and begin to better understand how your body deals with them and heals them it will get less stressful. Healing will still be as annoying as shit though. Welcome to LST.

Healing anxiety is the worst. I still have nightmares about healing fresh tattoos. My first few attempts at healing were really rough but I finally figured out a method that worked for me thanks to some recommendations on this site. These threads are worth reading through: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-after-care/32-best-post-tattoo-care.html http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-after-care/2406-re-wrapping-tattoos.html

Rose Hardy is in NYC often enough isn't she, like once a year or so? Get one now and get the other on her next trip over. That way you don't really have to decide between two equally great ideas.

- - - Updated - - - Thanks for the compliment! The forum is great! Cool interviews!- - - Updated - - - Right on! Thanks for diggin!

I had a client of mine in newport beach (cab driver) get tattooed on his left arm it was summer time and he wasnt the brightest color in the crayon box but a great guy, anyways i did a Shawn Warcot frankenstien flash piece on his left forearm he drove around all day with plastic wrap on his fresh tattoo all day in 100 degree he came in the next day with his tattoo about 2 inches raised off his arm and green puss spewing out of all of Frankenstein s features. i washed it and wiped off the Quarter inch thick layer of slimy foul sun backed skin and told him to come in every other day so i could see how it was healing up. it took 3 weeks and one touch up to be good but lesson learned i never let a client leave without specific instructions on no sun exposure!!!! BTW: that was in my second year as an tattoo artist

As requested here are a couple of photos of my Chris Garver tiger.

Marcus Kuhn is in town guesting and he lat me snap a pic of a back piece that he's starting tomorrow. He granted me permission to post...

I didn't see myself getting heavily tattooed either... um, then I started hanging around THIS FORUM! Anyway, you might find this thread helpful: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-advice/3278-there-anywhere-worth-getting-tattooed-boston.html

The big day is July 7. I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm going in today at 4 to get a sailor/mermaid piece put on me thats pretty sweet. He's got his arms around her waist and looking up at her while she's pushing off of him trying to get away. Hopefully we can knock it out in 1 sitting.

@Johannes, it was either that or a Hatchet Man

@CultExciter Next level shit, man. Super stoked for you. I got my foot did by Antonio Roque this evening. Picture's from his IG.

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.

I'm really just posting this to get my post count up haha. Apologies. I know most of you are into traditional here, but this was the first proper back I've done and I was fairly happy with it.

The only people i recognize is Matt Howse, Ms Mikki, The tattoo emporium, A couple shops from around Seattle,and Black Shamrock Tattoo from California. Nobody I couldn't go get tattooed by on any other week, or at the Portland show besides Jack Rudy and Matt and I think Matt is going to tattoo me after the convention in Portland (hopefully).

Snuck down to see Stefan Johnsson yesterday, guys a certified genius, robbed this from his Instagram, cannot recommend him highly enough. [/url]

As much as getting tattooed hurts, I feel like it's the easy part. I am more worried about my knee being 3 times the size and trying to work or chase around my toddler. Oh well #lstproblems

For me, it isn't the tattoo, it's the begging for comments and attention. Sure, it's really nice to get flattering comments or a whole bunch of "likes" on instagram or whatever, but that shouldn't be what it's about.

It's only outlined but I'm proud to say that I entered the Backpiece family.....:rolleyes:

dude, get what you want, don't get what you think others will approve of. All this tattoo elitist bullshit popping up around here is not cool. Just because you've collected cool tattoos by good artists doesn't make you any better than the next guy.

long time lurker, first time poster. My latest from Andrew Slater, All for One Tattoo in Richmond, VA.

Picture stolen from @Stewart Robson and the "On the Shoulders of Giants" blog. Done by Valerie, Stefano, Valerie again, and Stewart at Frith St.

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

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

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

Got a little walk in action today, at The OkeyDoke Tattoo by Alex Snelgrove [

Fella named "Squirrelly" out of Hubbard, Ohio inked this Sailor Jerry-style Wyvern on my calf at the Old School Tattoo Expo in Knoxville Tenn. about 20 years ago. Does it qualify as "old"?

I would like to see a Eastern Europe/Russia episode. I think it's high time some of those guys doing mind blowing work out there get a little love.

As promised a couple more from Rachi Brains BLACK THRONE TATTOO Should maybe also take this moment to mention the also amazingly talented Ms. Alison Manners who is also tattooing out of Black Throne these days. Also check Manners Tattoo.com