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Many of you know this already from Instagram, but on Saturday, @DJDeepFried and I (and our little one) drove 7 hours up to San Rafael so I could get my Psychedelic Stories tattoo from Paul Dobleman (Paul Dobleman: Psychedelic Stories Contest 2013 | TAM Blog). You guys did not lie, Spider Murphy's is one of the greatest places on earth. I got to meet a few of the other guys and they were all really cool. Paul was fun to talk to...just a great experience overall. I love the way the tattoo came out. I have now traveled for a tattoo! These were the choices: And this is what I got:

Hannya by Horimasa Tosui / Harpy by Chris Garver Pretty much healed up...

Good morning LST!!! Got back from my Japan trip a week ago but have worked at least 12hrs every day since and have had some family dramas. Did get a promotion though which has been more of a curse than anything lol. But here are 2 little mementos I got while over there and I will post my back in the backpiece thread. I am spewing I didn't make it to Tokyo so hopefully @CaptCanada will still be keen to catch up next time round. I'll do a travel thread when I finally get a day off which will hopefully be Friday! Anyways, lets look at some tattoos ;) First one is what I got from Hiro (Formerly at The CatClaw Tattoo-Z) at his new shop "Swallows Nest Design Work". I was his first international customer lol. Special little Daruma with an inside joke in Japanese :cool: (who'll be the first to figure it out?) Got this on my last night from Horinao at The Catclaw. He had no other customers and I thought why not... well, that and they accepted credit cards which I'd never noticed until then. Quick little Hyottoko - - - Updated - - - Holy large photos Batman! Sorry guys!!

This is on my friend Nate. Taken from Brian Bruno's instagram.

Done by Horinao at The CatClaw Tattoo-Z Kyoto. Believe it or not this was just under 10 hours of tattooing in 2 days (6 first,4 second). So many damn lines!! Its based on one of Kuniyoshi's Suikoden prints - Tameijiro Dan Shogu Some parts didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as I thought then others killed. Granted it was just the outline though ;) - - - Updated - - - And my tattoo has a tattoo, fuck yes.

Got tattooed by Chad Koeplinger today. There's a photo up on his Instagram. I'll try and get photo up on here when I take the bandage off tomorrow. Awesome dude to hang with and hands down the fastest tattooer I've been tattooed by. It's mind blowing how quick he is. Really stoked to have a piece from him now.

Finally have a new finished piece to enter the contest! Not expecting to win, but it's a good way to show off my finished tattoo by Kore Flatmo! The pictures were taken in May by Kore when we finished up. Yay! :D

Let's see em! Us LSTers love to see pics of the new guys/girls tattoos!

Sh*t!!!! Well if it does, that's just another ass I'll be staring at. @Duffa, are you going to make me stare at yet another man ass?!?! This is starting to become quite disconcerting. All jokes aside that is looking amazing. And as been said it's just the outline too. So all the questions asked previously and I'll raise you a, "will there be background?" And,"black & grey or color?". - - - Updated - - - Man, just have to say all these back pieces being posted in the last few weeks are outstanding! Thank you everyone for sharing.

Booked with Myke Chambers at Paradise Tattoo Gathering, gotta love having a convention 15 minutes away from my house.

Josh Stephens, Hold It Down Finally making progress on my arm, really just the rest of the forearm left. Also, this is my first tattoo on this arm not done by Mario Desa or Nick Colella. Super happy with how it came out, if you're in RVA area, I definitely suggest checking out Hold It Down, super solid line up and a cool little shop.

So today's Father's Day and my dad is celebrating the only way he knows best...by spending the day at the mah-jong parlor. My lady is working so that leaves me with a free day to my own devices to which I decided to mount and hang up the Horitomo cat prints I have accumulated. I love the entire series and the various ones that are not in print but posted on Horitomo's Instagram. Patiently waiting for more prints to come out and the much rumored book that collects all of the various tattoo cat incarnations. Hopefully one day I make it out to the west coast to get a tattoo cat from him...would be an awesome experience.

I thought I had it won... Thanks for the complement!! Nice Rock of Ages btw!!

The June Tattoo of the Month contest winner is: @Shaun1105 ..with a very very nice Rock of Ages from Joe Ellis (post #3) Congratulations, you have won a free LST skull shirt! Please PM me the with your shirt size along with your address and I'll send it out right away. Thanks for everybody's participation in the June contest!

@Cork oh I was meaning more the ass than anything haha - - - Updated - - - Just realised the guys had put up a photo hat shows the whole thing. Stolen from The CatClaw Blog

omg @ironchef, I just saw you won those Tattoo Culture Magazine prints on Instagram! They announced the winner, and I clicked on the person and immediately saw your photo of the cat prints and knew it was you. Congrats.

Sure, ha, I posted a link to it in the upcoming tattoos thread a while back but here it is...a cautionary tale: Paul Dobleman: Psychedelic Stories February’s WINNER! | TAM Blog

Saw this this morning and thought it was cool. Justin Hartman at urban art Tattoo in Mesa, AZ I believe:

I was thinking something like that but I'm planning to go to Spider Murphy's. So my tattoo funds are taken. Great idea thou.

Graeme is right. In time the tattoo might not being something you even think about or see anymore when you look in the mirror. It's brand new so it's fresh on your mind, so give yourself a chance to stop dwelling on it and you'll hopefully at least stop being upset about it even if you decide that you aren't going to get any more. As for me, I just finished a chest panel on my right side so now both sides are done. I had a brief moment of "Have I gone overboard?" which was immediately followed by "It only seems like you went overboard on the chest because you need your sleeves extended to 3/4 and your back done to balance things out." So the blues don't last long for me. I love catching site of my tattoos, knowing that they're there when they're covered up, and that my 21 month old daughter says "Kitty!" every time she sees the lucky cat on my inner arm.

I can say I understand a bit from time to time about the kinda shock about being tattooed. This only really happened recently when I looked down at my legs at realized "holy shit that is mostly tattoos...and I got appointments booked out till 2014". Then came me visiting my extended family over the weekend and not wearing long sleeves and jeans. Let's just say I got some really shitty responses and left early. (That by the way was the first negitive reaction I have ever received at least to my face). I really like what I got and have been looking forward to getting this stuff done since I was 12 and marker-ing in tattoos on myself. The only thing I know I will regret will be when I run out of space and when a great artist comes up and I don't have room for whatever it is I want. This especially effects me because I like HUGE tattoos (it seems I do limbs or most of a limb at a time). I've talked to a bunch of people older and wiser than me. 99% of the time the biggest regrets was NOT doing something.

Belly Rocker by Chris Conn, Panther by Higgs, looks tough as fuck.

Hi, I've been a tattoo enthusiast for a few years now and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching the artist interviews on this site so thought I'd finally sign up to the forum. I'm a big fan of Japanese tattooing and have 2 three quarter sleeves done by Diego Azaldegui in Leeds UK. I'm currently deciding on what I want for my back piece and hoping to get started on that soon.

Thanks @Iwar I'm pleased that some people are looking forward to this. I hope I can edit something interesting for those who care about such things. i hope I can get it finished by the end of the year. There might not be many new interview posts coming up over the next few months because I'm just starting to get stuck into the editing proper and there's already a lot of faces to squeeze in to the film. I still need to reply to a few emails and I'm honoured that people offered their time to help - I really do appreciate it. Danny is a member here at LST but I'll let him make himself known if he wants to.

Looks like we're off to a good start, once again... Great tattoos @Dennis & @Killercook76 Keep em coming!

Portrait of Edgar Allen Poe by Vinny Romanelli at Red Rocket NYC (a Poe-rtrait?), done this afternoon.

Done by Corey Miller in NJ.

..oof.

Thanks guys! I'm pretty fucking happy with it to say the least. And I know I'm in very good hands so I can't wait until its finished. Now to answering some questions... Yeah I was cheering that he had a back piece and so was Horinao when I first mentioned it lol. It doesn't continue down there yet but it will. I'm getting "Kami No Koh" or in English "Turtle Back" so it'll be half way down my thighs. Not looking forward to that Honestly, there is no schedule other than getting it done ASAP! I want to go back at the end of the year or Horinao may be coming back to Australia and staying with me while in Brisbane so some real progress may happen if that's the case (fingers crossed like you wouldn't believe lol) Sorry @Lance but yeah, I will be making you stare at another man ass lol. No homo, not that there's anything wrong with that! And to answer your questions - hells yeah its going to be full colour and a nice solid Kyoto style background ;) And as Lance has previously said, thanks for everyone who has been or still is sharing there back piece progression! And @WeRnDoG your back is beyond ridiculously good. Congrats man

@TrixieFaux soooooooo do we get to hear the story? lol

A couple of years old now. My little turtle family :) They were fresh at the time. I eventually want to get that calf filled in with something fun, but that's a ways down the road.

That's fantastic. I would be standing in front of a mirror looking over my shoulder constantly.

@Duffa that is awesome. What kind of schedule do you think you'll be sticking to to get it done?

Not to minimise what you're going through, but you've only had the tattoo for a couple of weeks so give it some time. When it comes down to it, by getting tattooed you're doing a pretty heavy thing by permanently altering the appearance of your body, your perception of yourself, people's perception of you, you're maybe coming up against taboos...it's a lot to take on, and I don't think you can really prepare yourself for it beforehand. I think it's okay to have complicated feelings towards your tattoos. But really, give it some time, and if you decide that you really can't stand being tattooed, there's a lot of really great stuff here about tattoo removal.

I lived in Athens in 2008 and have fond memories of getting thrown out of the crumbling original Parthenon by about 50 security guards blowing whistles. It'll be fun to see the fake one without all the scaffolding/angry people! I'm really hoping I get to go inside so I can see the really really ugly statue of Athena:

They are and it has 52 cat prints in it. I can't wait to get a copy.

putting this here because there were all those "parent-child" tattoo days posts recently and I don't know where else this would fit. My daughter's 18th birthday is coming up - we were having lunch the other day and I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she hemmed and hawed a little bit but eventually says "well, since you're all into tattoos, I was kinda hoping you'd pay for a tattoo for me". Awww! Kinda sweet right? Honestly though, I'm a little bit on the fence about it. What she really needs is money. She's not working right now... she's flat broke and living on ramen noodles and canned green beans... (when I asked her what she wanted I was sure "money" would be her answer) Hmmm... I'm thinking on it... Not sure yet what I'll do.

Well this isn't something awesome I've done, but I was definitely a part of it. My fiancé recently recorded his first studio album of his own compositions. Some of the songs have been in development for 10 years, so it has been really exciting going through this journey with him. If any one is into jazz fusion (with some rock and Latin influences) you can check out his album on iTunes (it's also on Spotify). He plays drums n the album. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tarantula-dance/id660104984 (Sorry for the promotion, but its just so awesome and exciting!)

Looks like it's official. Starting a black metal band with a good friend. Finally!

so,I don't know if this is "awesome" or not,but every year on my & my wife's wedding anniversary,I get a gift for her from the "traditional" wedding gift list,and this year,this is our 6th and it's "iron",so I searched for a while and found a "meteorite" pendant which is 93% iron,to give to my hot wife on the 23rd of june. it's a small chunk of an actual meteorite with a soldered on ring to wear for a necklace.

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.

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

I don't have anything else from Chris. He started the show, and spent less and less time in Los Angeles. We had plans to do a dragon on the other arm, but I was traveling a lot at the time, and between his travels and mine it was impossible to start such a big piece. Chris's cobras and skulls are some of my favourites. You can't go wrong with that combination from him.

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

This summer will be a great one for me. After this Saturday I'll be quitting my job after 7 years. Finally going to be awake during the daytime. Then next week Duffa has plans to come up to Tokyo for the first LST Japan meet up. Then in July I'll be in sunny California/Arizona for vacation. Will be starting a new area of my bodysuit as well. Probably my right leg but could be arms.

Les Skuse eagle

I know this is the Bad Tattoo sub-forum, but let's all take a moment to remember how fucking cool Freddy Corbin's face tattoos are.

This is from a newly digitalised 16th century book of costumes - medieval tattooed folk