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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.

Whaaaat, I didn't know that. That's so cool - learn something new everyday.

Please read the forum FAQ, especially the part about how this forum is NOT for asking questions about how to become a tattooer.

Yeah, that really is quite a red flag there.

Fuckin amen to that !

^ It's always reassuring to hear opinions that are the opposite from what I've heard my whole life.

Not nearly as good as the stuff you guys put out, but here are two small paintings I did last week.

@cltattooing That reaper is fantastic! I'm pretty sure you could sell most of the regulars on this site two prints of it each. Also, a sheet of repaints from the Lost Art From Tattooing's Past book from the last few days. Threw some lower than usual prices on them, although I don't expect anyone to get them, even with that. Maybe some of my friends would be interested, but we'll see.

What a convention! It was amazing just being there and seeing all these artists that I have known the work of for a long time, read interviews with and seen in clips. I spent about 5 hours at tobacco dock each of the days and took the night bus to Amsterdam with 4 new tattoos. Apart from my appointments with El Carlo, Deno and Jaclyn Rehe I also managed to wedge myself into getting a custom palmsized baboon head from Matty D'Arienzo who was officially only doing flash pieces. (Alex Binnie talked him into doing the tattoo anyway) As for getting 4 tattoos in 2 days while also being on the road I suggest being as careful with the hygiene and aftercare as you possibly can, sleep well, drink a lot (no alcohol!), eat healthy and do get some prescription painkillers like paracetamol to ward of sneaky infections and reduce the swelling. Now in Amsterdam: wanted to see the tattoomuseum but it is closed. Went to the pop up-shop/studio that they have instead to look at books and spontaneously booked myself in with Henk Schiffmacher himself to get a small tattoo. That's happening in a few hours :)

Hey guys! Relatively new here but a small update to my chest panels. All work being done by Rodrigo Melo at Northstar Tattoo NYC. Mike

OCTOBER!! Convention month is here!! Preparing for my appt. with Jondix and Freddy Corbin, getting some background/filler/patterns/whatever Jondix decides to design. Can't wait!

Finished this last week, already posted it on instagram, but you can't really see the whole thing. Lots of fun. I do love reapers.

Got this off Chad K at the London convention yeasterday, back of forearm, swollen and sore :D

Didn't notice it until you pointed it out...now it's ALL I CAN SEE!

Hogg "My wife has lots of room," Vicarious tattoo action! Is that where we're all headed;)

That's me! Pre-Flatmo sleeve last summer!

I hope there are no haters .. but I'm going to post this tattoo again this month!! Haha Done by Tim Hendricks at Gold Rush in Costa Mesa , CA

Yeah, this reminded me of a time I had a conversation with a friend's friend. I think she asked me about my tattoos initially and it somehow segued to Hardy. At that point she spewed some trash about Ed Hardy thinking of the clothing. I responded by trying to inform her that he's actually a great artist, a legend in the tattoo world, and a great influence on people despite what feelings there are towards the clothing design. Also that it was Audigier who she should probably be disgusted with. In her elitist arrogance, her look at me turned to disgust and saw me as a huge douche for even trying to say anything positive about the name "Ed Hardy". That pretty much ended the conversation and we happily went our separate ways. I might not necessarily be a fan of the stereotypes wearing the clothes but I'm far less interested in the people too elitist to have an open mind and who trash others they know nothing about.