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Given the tattoos that I see 21 year olds getting, I'm going to say 35.

In an ironic twist of fate I'm 99% sure I'm going to get laid off tomorrow. I ain't canceling my appointment 'cause fuck the world.

I got my first tattoo on my 21st birthday -- late-January 1972 -- while on leave after finishing USArmy AIT, before reporting to my first duty station: Fort Richardson, AK. I didn't get any more ink until I'd finished my military service and drifted back to the Ft. Benning, GA area, where I met Louie Lombi, who'd recently opened a branch of his mentor's shop -- "Big Joe" Kaplan, from Mount Vernon, NY. Louie began sleeving me between July 1976 and December 1979; then I emigrated to Israel (!) and fell out of contact with him. We got back in touch in 2001, when I was in South Florida for a computer course (sent from Israel), and found that Louie had relocated to Greenacres/Lake Worth, FL, where my mother lived, and opened a shop of his own: Louie Lombi's Tattoo Paradise. Small world. I finally left Israel summer of 2004, and returned to South Florida. Louie finished my sleeves, and another artist in his employ, "Painless Jimmy" Hankins. Jimmy eventually did my chest, shoulders and "sleeved" my lower legs, ankles-to-knees. I need a new photo -- this one's missing the bluebirds (PS: the women's heads were done in Columbus, GA by the late Jack Armstrong, in 1977... sponge-in-a-jar) My shins and calves (missing the wrap-around sides) (Statue of Liberty outline done on July 4th, 2006, and all work on both legs was finished in late 2008) And feet... (summer of 2009)

I love the logic where you're like...well, I don't really need a tattoo, but it would be irresponsible for me to not get one given this opportunity. I'm jealous, I'd love to get tattooed by El Monga. One day, I hope.

Bent back girl from James Clements, on the road. Done last night. Had a good time, as always.

This Friday will be my third session with Ian Flower on my dragon sleeve ( now full sleeve ) , I'm having so much fun when it's going to stop nobody knows .

@Graeme Ha! I totally agree.... I think 18 is fine. I don't see the need or benefit to restricting things further. Unless it's something totally insane like a vagina on your face, a tattoo that you come to regard as "bad" later on down the line isn't really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. On a personal level, I'm reeeallly glad I only got a few smallish tattoos when I was younger (Skull N Bones with my roommates when I was 19, kinda crappy GG Bridge when I moved to SF etc). They've got character, I can file them under "learning experiences" and they still make me smile. But, thinking today about the things I would've got tattooed if I wasn't a broke-ass kid at the time makes me throw up in my mouth a bit...I simply had no respect for, or understanding of, tattoos. No policy will ever account for bad-taste. Regardless of age.

Wow, this totally trumps my idea of a kangaroo with a full pouch and a banner that says "pocket full of stones."

@jpm06 Wild man Clements...killin it! I should also mention that @cltattooing has become one of my favorite young tattooers. Damn homey, you're bringing it.

Great to see the NYC crew finally pulled it off! I tuned up the picture for you a little bit. ;)

fun one from a couple of days ago

I always wanted a scrotum full of coins. The Horrifying Necropants Of Iceland - disinformation

The problem with the idea of tattoos needing to have meaning is that it usually seems like the design of the tattoo is overlooked in favour of its meaning, which more often than not leads to bad tattoos. I literally have no idea what "A Beautiful Chaos on my front shoulder with almost water color looking glass" would look like, or even what it is. Maybe there is a tattoo artist somewhere who could take that idea and do something great with it, but then again, maybe not. I'm going to suggest that based on what you've written here about the tattoo you have that you had a profound experience last weekend. There is something about tattooing, something about willingly putting a permanent mark on your body, that had a deep effect on you in ways that you might not be able to articulate. It brought you out of your regular routine into an unfamiliar and exciting world, it made you feel strong and beautiful, it made you feel like regardless of what other things are going on in your life and around you that you have some measure of control. Or maybe other things, or maybe none of them. I'm also going to suggest that you would have had this experience regardless of what you had tattooed on you. You would have felt similar things if it was a rose, or a swallow, or a dragon. That's where the meaning of tattoos is. Obviously you still need to choose imagery that appeals to you, but if you want to convey a sense of beauty there is no shortage of tattooable imagery that works for that...you can absolutely never go wrong with birds and flowers, for example. You'll end up with a far better tattoo that way.

I don't have anything booked until I start my back next summer so it's tempting. Not having any tattoos coming up before that is starting to bother me.

Why not get the Egyptian god Set The Lord of chaos tattooed in a beautiful way ? Or the golden apple of discorda , or even a beautiful Tibetan demon ? (Shit giving all my own ideas away now ! ) - - - Updated - - - If all else fails , cthulu , cthulu everywhere

getting tattooed by robert hernandez on saturday, jeff gogue on sunday, and shige on monday at diamond club!!!! gonna the best week of getting tattoos for me!

SNNAAAAKESSS! This Saturday. Bay Area Convention. I am very excited. And I am *not* getting sick.

ahh the old sportswear/jock hardcore font! had toooo many t-shirts with shitty bands with that style of lettering...still use my judge shirt tough!

I have a reaper on my calf. This past summer a little dude saw it, looked up at me in awe, and went "Woah." It totally blew his little mind. That was the best.

So I fell off the face of the world for a while and JUST MISSED THE FIRST ACTUAL MEETUP IN NY. Serves me right, I spose. I'll try to be a better dude and do this stuff and not disappear for months in the future...

Yes, I can imagine that... in fact, I have this very one! I found the original design (of course, doh!) on the Internet. Turns-out that the person running the website had apprenticed with Tattoo Ted Nelson (who gave me my first tattoo on my 21st birthday, back in late-January 1972, in Fairfield, IA), and Ted had apprenticed with Bert Grimm. Small world. Anyway, this piece was inked on me by "Painless Jimmy" Hankins (yet another "old timer"), at Louie Lombi's Tattoo Paradise, in 2005/6. I'm pleased with it. Jimmy's still slingin' ink here in South Florida, but Louie Lombi retired and gave the shop to his long-time apprentice and worker, Clark O'Dell... it's now called Tattoo Paradise of West Palm Beach.

I just posted my new thigh tattoo in my gallery. The artist wanted to wait another time and do something different with the other thigh, but I'm very happy with it.

Well, El Monga's coming back to Philly next month, and despite the fact that I got tattooed by him last month, and again back in May, I booked a spot with him. What am I going to do, NOT get tattooed by him? Not sure exactly what I'm going to get, but I threw a bunch of ideas at him in an email. We'll see what sticks.

Now that the dust has settled and things are getting back to normalcy in mine and my family's life and the lives of the crew at Great Lakes Tattoo I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support of not only myself but the crew and ultimately Great Lakes Tattoo itself. It has been an amazing last few months and the support and acknowledgment of the shop has been overwhelming and very humbling. The shop is something that is a part of all of us who walk through its door everyday. It's shows the dedication of not only myself and crew but the behind the scenes dedication of my wife and family. We invite everyone to come through the shop either to get tattooed or just to see it. We are very proud of it. Thank you. Nick Colella Great Lakes Tattoo

I definitely tried to get tattooed when I was fourteen--I was living in the middle of nowhere Maine that summer working in a barn, and I rode my horse to this biker bar where I'd heard someone tattooed. The bikers called my parents. Got the same tattoo four years later and let's just say the four extra years of thinkin about it didn't help much. I kinda wish I had gotten it then, just to make the story that much better. There isn't a legal age in Ohio and I'm actually okay with it--I don't know many tattooers around here that would agree to tattoo a minor anyway, and I'm generally cool with letting people exercise their goddamn common sense without unnecessary legal meddling.

Finished this guy today. Added a vajra bell and a key to finish it off before background. Probably going to get prints made, when I can find a suitable printer.

I had said to myself that I wouldn't do any more tattoos at least until the scottish convention, perhaps not even until my planned trip to New York in the spring.. BUT then I got a text yesterday from a swedish tattooer that I respect a lot, asking if I wanted to get a discount tattoo from him so he could work overtime on friday instead of waiting around for a concert. Aaaaand that's how good I keep my promises to myself! So Friday evening now spells "tattoo of Joakims left foot". We're going to do a rendition of one of my own drawings that he likes a lot, he even wanted to get it tattooed on himself. I am slightly scared, I hear it's a horrible spot.

I'm not about to click on @Graeme's link, but I do want to strongly encourage you to get this tattoo. #sweetjones

A guy I know, right after complimenting my tattoos and saying how good they look. "I was looking at some of the old style American tattoos a few weeks ago, I don't really like those, they look like cartoons."

I'm a little late, but it was great meeting you all and now I can put faces to usernames (which I think we all agreed sound so bizarre in real life). Hopefully we can do this again sometime. I'm just a river hop away!

She is a bad ass babe, man. I have gotten two of her flash designs and love them both. The last one, the girl, was just so amazing. Personality and art wise, I really love my tattoo experiences with Carolyn.

I'm a big fan of the ol' "I don't really like tattoos, but yours are so____" (insert your choice of favorable adjective) People are funny.

I just got my first palm tattoo, an homage to the incredible motion picture Dark City. Yes, it's supposed to look wobbly, lop-sided and uneven. edit - sorry for how ginormous the image is. I'm less competent than anticipated.

A properly handsome group there :)

Always getting the best stuff. Don't you guys have a Jack Rudy tattoo hiding out somewhere over there? I am sure that I am not the only one on here that would love to see it. That is if you guys don't mind posting it.

todays/yesterdays sheet NSFW i guess?

You asked for it! Here are a few, I don't have good pictures of the rest, at the moment. My first tattoo...so proud I went large! Or, what I consider large at least :) These ones HURT like a fucking bitch! My most recent one. Can't wait to get it colored in! :)

A font is a family of weights/sizes of a certain typeface that is utilized with desktop publishing software, in either a Windows, Macintosh, or Linux environment (previously this was all set by hand in a letterpress environment). Calligraphy, and more correctly applied to your situation, is defined as the art of writing. My day job is graphic design, and I don't want any of that in my tattoo world. DROPPIN' KNOWLEDGE LIKE MADBALL sSSSonnnn!

This journey is finally complete...just a little bloody. By Chris O'Donnell

Got this dagger from Lal Hardy at New Wave Tattoo in Muswell Hill, London. Lal has been tattooing for over 30 years and is as absolute diamond. Had such a great morning there as well. The dagger goes through a tattoo from Alex Binnie, which is his version of the first tattoo I had done over 40 years ago.

Just got a cover-up from Trevor Taylor at Liberty in Seattle. I had one laser removal session done at Fade Fast in Dallas and, though I've got nothing but good things to say about Fade Fast, decided I wasn't patient enough to see it though. Trevor was great and I'm very pleased with the result. It won't be my last from him. The photo was borrowed from Trevor's Instragram.

The next time someone wants to get a belly or collar rocker I'm gonna suggest that they put it upside down so they can read it.

hey everybody, I'm alex from brooklyn. I have two pieces so far, one on my forearm and one on the underside of my arm. I'm planning on getting a chubby pin up from Ashley Love soon as well as a wolf head. This forum's wealth of tattoo history is amazing and I'm very glad I found this place. here's what I have, sorry that these photos are fresh and not healed, the red in the first one has calmed down a bit but it still does look like her ass has been freshly slapped by eli quinters at smith street tattoo and by jeremy whitely at thicker than water cheers

Hi, I'm new. I found this forum the other day and I've enjoyed reading it so far, my butt is actually sore from sitting in front of the computer for so long. I have been fascinated with tattoos since I was a kid but have never pursued any knowledge about it until I was about 20 when I started dating a guy who had half sleeves and an ankle tattoo. I'm glad I found LST because I'm learning a lot and getting lots of perspectives while I'm researching art. I promised myself no tattoos until I pay off my college debt, so I'm working my ass off so I can get ink in the next year. If you like pho, snowboarding, diesel engines and genghis tron, then I'm your girl.

agreed. thinking about that appointment scheduled in 2-3 months can be a great psychological boost during those crappy days at work. the appointments booked a year or more in advance almost don't feel real yet.

Welcome to LST and to getting tattooed! In my opinion, that image isn't tattooable because there are far too many small details in it. Lines will spread over time and so you'll eventually lose all the individual elements and just end up with a black silhouette of a phone.

@BrianH, I had spots like that on my ditch that lasted a few weeks. I had scabs behind my knee last month that lasted 3 weeks and looked a lot like that. Resist the urge to pick it (easier said than done) and hope for the best. All my aforementioned spots healed fine.

Started this guy in my free time between appointments and walk-ins the last few days. Drawn for a client, although I decided to paint it out since he still insisted on having tribal flames as a framing element. Blown up to 12"x16", not sure how I'll finish out the remaining space just yet.

More funny stories, please.

I'm an office guy, so I have no plans for hands or neck. I'm starting to run out of spots, but I have some decent-sized ones left. They're all gonna suck (SEE "BACK OF KNEE" AS AN EXAMPLE), but at least they're still open. I do think about hands sometimes, though. And by "sometimes" I mean "often." My wife has lots of room, and there's always prints. :)