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went and got my arm filled in today. here are a few pictures. heres my girlfriends back. took timmy about 45 minutes.

Yep he's gonna add some stuff to the empty spaces in the top corners still too he just didn't decide if he wants to add a border or some clouds. He said he's hoping it knock it out in 2 more sessions. As long as she can sit for haha. - - - Updated - - - heres a photo of my whole arm now that it's filled in. going to take a break from getting my other arm tattooed now for a while. forgot to credit all the tattooers who made this what it is... thanks to lowercase j, timmy tatts, justin hyde, max kuhn, tyler densley, kim marks, ryan bailey, brandon montero, and landon lewis.

Latest tattoo. Got this skull morph from Cory Rogers last weekend. He does more than make machines!

Todays session. 3 hours on feet was a stretch but got through it. Tattoo was done by Chris at Wildcard Tattoo, Kalgoorlie Western Australia I am super stoked with the results. I got permission from the artist at Jubly-Umph to use the designs. It's an Australian based artist who sells prints as well as pendants, handbags, wallets, earrings etc. The artist is even international now so keep an eye out. Not sure if my link will work but it's in my gallery

Got this one from Chad Koeplinger when he guested Royal Tattoo a couple of days ago. Such a great experience!

I'd say if you're worried something is too masculine for you, then it's not the right tattoo for *you*. If it's right for *you*, it shouldn't matter if it's...I don't know, what's masculine, a big ole monster truck? If that's what you like, then that's what you get. and if someone says they don't like it, then you say "Yes, well, maybe it's not your taste, and that's fine. I happen to think you're a fucking knob, however I have too much tact to say it." And then you punch them in the throat.

When you get to that point when you realize you can, it's liberating. Think about it this way--do you respect shallow people who judge others based on something that is skin deep rather than what type of person they are? Do you want to make decisions based on what people like that think?

Girls with tough tattoos are my favorite thing.

....troll?

My first of 3 sessions for the raven sleeve with Kim Saigh is today. I stopped by Memoir yesterday to see the sketch and let her retrace my arm and after seeing the drawing I am more excited than before which was already a lot. :D

When you get to the point where you don't rely on other people for your self esteem, it's a very liberating feeling. It took me more years than I'd care to admit.

Got these two pieces at the London convention, Fudo-she-o by Claudia De Sabe (Black Garden Tattoo), Panther-reaper by Bart Bingham (New York Adorned) As you can see I'm very happy with the trip to the convention this year! :D

I just got back from getting my chest piece outline done by Tim Pausinger at The Pearl. Poor guy - I was the worst client of the month. For whatever reason, I just couldn't settle in. I couldn't find my groove at all. That he could still turn out such a high quality tattoo with me flailing away underneath him speaks to the talent, skill, and professionalism of the guy. It was not my best moment, but it's a truly great tattoo. I've posted it on my instagram, and I'll probably post it here as well, but not until I've battered my brain with gin. Lots and lots of gin.

flying in friday morning, Plan on taking the B A R T to see katie sellergren for some lettering then going to see @Stewart Robson Friday night. @Valerie Vargas Saturday afternoon as well, would i be completely crazy to entertain a walk up if it presents itself to me???

I've been going pretty quickly and getting a lot of skin covered. I've loved the entire experience, even the healing. I've also been learning as I go. I found myself at the intersection of having enough time and money and so I rolled with it. As I reach the end of my current contracts, this situation will change, and my pace will have to slow. I'm ok with that too. But at the moment, I'm still thoroughly enjoying researching and finding designs, meeting awesome new tattoo-minded people. I have a couple of large areas left to fill, and I'm in no rush at all to get to them. I want something large on my back, but after 4 years of thinking about it, I'm no closer to deciding what I want. Given the pace of my other tattooing, this is perhaps a little odd. However, I don't want to settle.

Eilin, I am straight up JEALOUS of your collection. Hnnngh

I understand where you're coming from, but you've got to do things (like get tattooed) for yourself and not for other people, or worry about your decision's affect on other people. I used to care about what others thought about me, everyone does, but then I decided to do what felt right to me and now I love myself SO much more with tattoos than without.

abject pluralized singularity

Got this indian girl done by Greg Christian at the London Tattoo Convention. Got tattooed by Seth Ciferri also, I'll post a tattoo from that later cause it's still healing.

Got this a few days ago from Jason Reeder at Little Vinnie's in Finksburg, MD. Going to hopefully get it colored at the end of the month. Not the greatest pic because 1) it's hard to get a picture of your own leg, and 2) it's getting into the peely/scabby stage and not looking its best at the moment. But you get the idea. It wraps onto my shin a little because we both wanted to expand the theme in the future and wanted to leave lots of calf space open. Thinking about turning this into a leg sleeve for nocturnal/crepuscular plants and animals.:p

Don't think it has enough of the "wow" factor to win it this month but here is my entry: By Todd Noble at the 2013 Montreal convention

Tengu on my leg By Chris Garver, London Tattoo Convention last weekend. Freehand and 4 hours

The whole torso seems to be a brutal area. Nice going on getting it done though! I find, and hopefully you do as well Mark, that the shading and colour is always much less unpleasant. My neurologist friend said it likely has to do with the fact that the wider shading needle stimulates multiple nerve endings. The multiple signals are less clearly delivered to the brain thus, less pain. I have no science to back this, but it sounds good to me. Post up, I'd love to see what you got!

I had a weird glitch where if I got close to the starting point for a mission for Michael it would disappear and then reappear once I went far enough away from it. I couldn't switch between characters either. I think what happened was that I quit my previous game too soon after completing a mission, because eventually Michael automatically made some phone calls that I assume he should have made not long after that previous mission, and once he'd done that everything was fine again. @slayer9019 good tip on the online play. I couldn't get it to work anyway because of, I assume, volume on their servers but now I know to wait. I bet the DLC expansions for this will be great too.

We went to this Irezumi art opening in Hollywood Thursday night. https://www.facebook.com/irezumiartshow Saw some great art there from the likes of Stewart Robson, Tim Lehi, Mike Rubendall, etc., etc. Bob Roberts and Oliver Peck were there. Corey Miller's band played and we met him as he was bringing stuff to the stage. Our little 5 yr old excitedly told him that she's going to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. He seemed impressed. Sweet guy.

First, quit doing what you're doing. Throw any remaining needles or ink you have in the trash. Second, get tattooed for years. Third, hope someone give you a chance. Fourth, as much as no one wants to hear it, and no one really listens to it, the best sentiment as to why it's hard to get a chance is something Valerie Vargas said in an interview recently: "Just because you want to tattoo, doesn't mean you should tattoo." You have to prove to someone they can trust you to not waste their time, and your approach does the exact opposite of that.

Spent over an hour sitting in the basement w/the kids tonight while the tornado sirens were going off. Posting updates on FB while listening to the traffic on my husband's department radio. The tornado came 1 mile south of us and then disappeared. After it had tracked on the ground for about 60 miles or so-and it was a mile wide-just poof, it was gone. Craaaazy.

11 hours! I can't even imagine. I'm going to stick to non-realistic tattoos, thank you very much, because sitting that long is for tougher people than me.

I might post my new Rubendall tattoo after I have shown it live to @Iwar, tomorrow. It's our new thing to enhance the "wow-effect".. haha

The only time it really bothers me when people talk shit about tattoos/people's tattoos is the situations when I can't say anything back. This really only happens around coworkers. My favorite being "that poor shmuck will never have a job as good as ours with all that shit drawn on him". I thought to myself, if only they knew... The "never get a job" comments seemed to be the ones that bother me the most, whether directed at me or not. My career is practically my life and to say such things is such a stupid comment that is very ill-informed. This being backed up by the fact that one of the most successful people I know regularly gets tattooed at the same shop as me. I think this misconception will continue as use "closet tattooed folk" never really show any tattoos around coworkers/bosses so the myth will continue.

I'll throw this one of my cats in the ring. Done by Grez at King's Avenue.

And here is my entry for this month, my 'Tamatori-Hime' sleeve (the one with the octopus ) that we finished today (with a bit brutal 5 hour session. This sleeve (and my other sleeve) are made by Bonel from Corazon Santo tattoo studio in Arnhem, The Netherlands.

just post it....everyone here with more than 5 tats felt that, i'm pretty sure of....and tim is awesome so...yeah...show us the goods!!!! :)

Yay for volunteering in a shelter! - - - Updated - - - The storm ended up not being near as bad as it could've been, thankfully! We had one come thru town a few years ago and that was wicked-definitely the scariest weather I've ever been thru.

Want.... To...... Play. I'm not usually a fan of the GTA story lines, but this one just looks to good to pass up.

This can't be real... Can it?

Take it from an old salt: This is an insult on your body. RUN! This is like a boyfriend that tells you you're too fat, thin, breasts are too small, that YOU are not good enough, and that YOU need to conform to his standards. Let's rephrase this: "You're getting kind of fat. Would you stop eating so much if I put on a few?" See the change in language? Reconsider if this guy is a real champ.

The perfume bottle with Lillie's tattooed on it,or around it would probably look cool. Tyler@ Instagram opened his own shop up that way,and does clean work. Brian & Eddie@ Instagram do nice traditional work Dan@ Grace Tattoo Shop and Gallery | Phoenixville, PA Instagram Eight of Swords Tattoo Parlour, Retail Boutique, and Art Gallery in Brooklyn, New York

Thanks much! Will post over there after my next session. You back piece is coming out dope! Saw it on Instagram and now can put a person to the piece. Dana is great artist..frequents up here in NYC often at Northstar. Mike

wow ! may as well just award 1st place now for October ! it's over ! with this work. :) very nice

So around June I was in shit shape and I said I was going to get back into working out. I started running for cardio and free weights for muscles. My diet is mostly meat,fruit, veggies. Not because I really have a strict diet it just works for me and I over do it on sugar and when i eat carbs I over do it but really im trying to find a real balance. So now im at around 3 5k runs a week and weights about 3 times a week. I can do all this at home or around my house. I went from no push ups to 12, no pull-ups to 1 or on a good day 2 and 60sec planks...I fell really good but I want more. Im doing more weight and started doing some low weight squats and deadlifts. I notice that while my cardio is really improved (i went from barely going a block in june to 5k's) but i feel like my weight training is a bit less improved and while ive lost alot of wieght im not seeing much build of definition going on (maybe im expecting too much too soon). I just want to know for someone like me thats really on his first 4 months of really trying to get in shape...whats a good suggested work out plan? What muscle groups do you pair up? What can I do to not hurt myslef but really push and maybe see some more gain/definition. Im open to try anything and really just seeing what people suggest. If I missed a good post in the past on this sorry.

@riddle READ: Last Sparrow Tattoo - Newbie Guidelines Do not start threads asking questions about "breaking into the business" of tattooing. also this Do introduce yourself in the initiation thread so that we can properly welcome you!

How the heck was that a quote of my post? I have no opinion on Myke Chambers as to being one of the greats tattooers, but I will say I like a lot of his work, but I don't know if I want a tattoo from him. - - - Updated - - - This may sound like a double standard, but I think the tattoo rescue show is far worse than Inkmasters. Inkmasters takes average tattooers with inflated egos and brings them back to reality through weeks or ridicule and harsh critiques, in the hopes they may achieve a low level of celebrity. Let the shops fail in Tattoo Rescue, they are the shops that we all bitch about that are ruining tattooing, and making it harder for everyone else. If you need someone to come in and tell you to keep your shop clean and act professional, you don't deserve a shop. But honestly I didn't watch the tattoo rescue show, but once so that is just what I saw on that episode.

<jumps up and down giddy schoolgirl style> Robert Ryan had a cancellation, see you at the convention!! AAAAHHHH I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

I can finally contribute to this thread :) Got tattooed by Bob Roberts today! Picture will follow soon.

Most of my work is pre-85. Short list, tho'. Cliff Raven Dale Grande

okay sorry.. maybe i'll have something new in a couple of months.. - - - Updated - - - Okay here is one of my older tattoos. Not finished.. By Phil Szlosek at Kingsave NYC

I posted this in the latest tattoo thread, but I'll put it here as well. Done by Todd Noble at Right Coast in Fenwick Island.