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Got this From Phil Hatchet Yau at Tahiti Felix's Master Tattoo while visiting San Diego this weekend. One-shot, 4 hours. Very happy with it. Super cool tattoo shop, with tons of original flash from the 50's and some from even earlier. Phil is super nice and seems like a great dude.

My girlfriend and I got 'honeymoon phase' tattoos from Nic Lynds in Austin while we were on vacation. This one is hers. Mine is the same just harder to shoot.

I guess this is probably a bad month to enter given how great the tattoos posted so far are. But I see that as a good thing, it just means more people are out getting great tattoos. Anyways, I've already posted this in he latest tattoo lowdown, but here it is: Phil Hatchet Yau at Tahiti Felix's Master Tattoo, 4 hours, one-shot:

Got this from Bailey on Saturday.

2nd session w/Scott Sylvia...done...

Here you go, on my left thigh, koi, water and cherry blossoms done in Japanese style by Henning Jorgensen. Not completed yet and also now connected to my back piece project. Will eventually get a piece on my right thigh to balance things out. Maybe a tiger or dragon or both.

In progress by jess yen. Thx for looking.

Always grateful for an opportunity to show my Stell baku. For the OP, it took about 5 hours, pain wasn't too bad. I'd much rather do another thigh tattoo than another session on my back.

I have posted these before, why not post them again. Greg Christian, left outer thigh Stevie Edge, right outer thigh

I am not patient enough to wait until my tattoo is done or even healed to post so here are some progress shots. Went for about 6 hours yesterday shading in the raven with Kim Saigh. It was fun, as always. Kim is so humble about her own work, always talking about the tattooers she admires. Well, I think she's right up there with them. The cat wanted to be in 2 of these pics and the daughter wanted to be in the other. :D

Aw, @Cork, I totally ogled your baku while waiting for mine. :) Re: spasming, yes, I find the involuntary twitching tough with thigh tattoos. It helps to be in a position where you can "brace yourself" better. Re: healing, my thighs have randomly been TERRIBLE to heal. None of them have healed perfectly (I have six one shot tattoos on my thighs at this point, I think?). They have generally taken me at least a full week before the swelling goes down enough that I don't grunt from sitting down or standing up. Mostly the imperfections from my shitty heals are minor, but two of them, very sadly, healed super super badly, and it bums me out. I don't know why I have such a hard time with my thighs, as generally I think I heal things ok. After all that complaining, I will say that I have found my thighs to be pretty painless, although I have yet to have the back of my thighs done. The only shitty parts for me so far have been at the edges - near the knee ditch and near the crotch, but even then it's such a small spot that you move on quickly. My usual thigh schpiel is that I LOVE getting tattooed on them, HATE healing them.

Is this kind of comment really necessary? LST should be a welcoming place for everybody who is genuinely interested in getting good tattoos, and I don't see any purpose in being a complete dickhead to somebody who comes here asking for a little bit of advice.

I know your pain,when I was getting my sternum done I had to stop my tattooer and told him I had to go to the toilet... I just stood there looking in the bathroom mirror asking myself "what the f**k am I doing to myself" hahah such a goose.

Thanks! I actually have three koi from Henning, the two on my thigh and one on my left arm. I'm a big fan of his koi and they bring back fond memories of when my late grandmother used to buy goldfish for my brother and I when we were kids. Now I know goldfish are more kingyo than koi, but they fit the same style for me.

My wife's Phoenix backpiece was finished today at a convention, she (and I) are real happy with it (well, after it's healed ;-) ) Backpiece was made by Bonel of Corazon Santo here in The Netherlands, which did my two sleeves, and is probably starting my own backpiece in februari :cool:

Another by Jess Yen! Still needs one more small session(finishing toad detail), but we are mostly there! Done at the London Tattoo Convention over a couple of sessions.

I can totally see that. My college has a koi pond and everytime I walk by I always love to stare at them. I will admit to making them fight over a chocolate chip cookie once, not my proudest moment. Koi are very beautiful.

My weak spots seem to be thighs, the fleshy parts:-)

Hello Lilly and welcome to LST. I'm curious about your idea of starting with something, as you put it, "generic" as your first tattoo because it sounds like you have grander tattoo plans. If you want something bigger and bolder, start by getting something like that. As for the ideas you have, I don't think they would make for good tattoos. White ink tends to age poorly, and if you're concerned about keeping your tattoos concealed--and I think this is a totally legitimate concern, especially because you're young and you don't know what your life is going to bring you--there's a lot of space that is easy to keep covered by clothing on your torso and upper thighs. The Peter Pan one could be done well, but you'd have to go a lot larger than the side of your foot. You could do a nice thigh piece of that. If you let us know where the middle of nowhere in Canada is, I'm sure we can recommend good artists near you.

So many killer tattoos so far, and I don't want to win, but just to make things fun, I'll throw this one in the ring: Done by Chad Koeplinger at the Montreal convention in September. Also because of this forum I have this impression that Scandinavia is full of super nice people with jaw-dropping tattoos.

I guess I will throw my in progress piece done by shige this monday at diamond club tattoo into the mix

Yes, very jealous of her baku.

There's a long story about the 'why' of us getting that particular design... To condense it- when we started dating a mutual friend told us that our being happy was 'just the honeymoon phase. don't worry, it will pass' and we were blown away by how snarky and shitty a comment it was. So we started joking about getting a tattoo that was ambiguously a nod to Honey Moon Phase as a bigolfuckyou joke. I've never gotten a tattoo with a partner before and when we were discussing it we decided not to add initials or date or anything to 'play it safe' but ultimately it was a really great experience.

This totally reminds me of @Pugilist's thigh tattoo. Both awesome

I had some of those twitchy moments too. Hahaha not exactly sure why? My other side I didn't have anything like that happen... As far as healing goes I did develop a decent size scab. I did fall out in about 2 weeks so no big deal. My recent session is healing a lot better! This time is used Tegaderm . For me Tegaderm heals your tattoo smoother and softer. The flaking and peeling isn't so dry and comes of in bigger pieces.

I had to reschedule my last session on my back with Grez due to trouble with my flights, so I'm heading back to New York for that Friday, if the gods of airline travel smile upon me this time. I also have a couple of awkward spaces on my left leg now, which is setting off my tattoo OCD, but those are going to have to stay awkward for a while.

yay!!*high 5* me either!!! I was starting to think I was the only one in the world :) - - - Updated - - - this reminds me also of people who wear band shirts but have yet to hear the music. or can only name 3 of their hit titles that any window licker could point out - ...

@diabeticwolf Welcome to LST, how did you find out about the site? This is a great place for reference materials and a whole bunch of people that love tattoos. If it's knowledge you seek, you will find it here!!

I'm good on the fleshy parts, but where those little ridges of bone shoot out from the pelvic bone... Christ, that hurts.

Yesterday morning at 7 AM my girlfriend, my cousin, and myself drove down to Richmond to get tattooed by Max Kuhn. It was my 3rd session on my back and we got about 4 more hours in on it. My girlfriend got her stomach finished My cousin came along and got his 3rd tattoo. I just took him to get his first back in June or July from Shrewsbury, then he got tattooed by Lowercase J last month.

Apologies for the janky-ass picture, I had to take it myself. It's on the back of my arm so it took a lot longer than it should've to actually get the fucking thing in the shot. :p

Here are some photos from my session on Thursday with Henning Jorgensen at Kings Avenue Long Island. Brutal 6.5 hour session. Filled with involuntary leg twitches/spasms, especially when Henning worked on the area above the tiger's ear/shoulder. Henning was a true professional and always told me I was doing great even when I thought I was sitting terribly. And @ironchef sent a few encouraging texts that helped me get through it. A full day session is no joke, the last hour was a huge challenge and I eventually had to tap out. A humbling experience. The plan is to finish it next fall with 1 session in Montreal and 1 session in NY. Also I plan on getting a hotel for all future sessions because 8 hours of round trip driving and 6.5 hours of tattooing is too much for one day. I felt like I had very serious hangover the following day.

Madrid - El Bara , Robert Hernandez Barca - Victor Chil (amaaazing) , Jondix What a great place to go for a wedding. Try and get to a football game while you are there !!

showing progress on my back done by jess yen. i lost count but i think we are about 25hrs or so in.

Okey, this is my last try for a while. Done by Mike Rubendall in the end of September.

I will give this month a shot with my healed Fudo Myoo-girl done by Claudia De Sabe, at this years London tattoo convention! Yet another girl head in my collection and it's definately not the last! :eek:

Um sorry for not replying earlier, i don't get on much, anyway this is a photo from 2months ago. The rest of the blackwork is just about done. The artist is Kian Forreal his website: Home | Authentink Studio - Traditional Japanese Tattooing by Sydney Tattoo Artist - HORISUMI - Kian Forreal & Crew Sydney Tattoo Shops & Sydney Tattoo Studios AustraliaAuthentink Studio – Traditional Japanese Tattooing by Sydney Tattoo Artist & Here is the picture i dont have a current one so this will have to do, i will probably take one once the the blackwork is finished..

Not ours

Doug Hardy was here the other day and told us about being in a bar talking to a guy who struck up a conversation with him about his tattoos. At one point the guy said, completely seriously. "Y'know I always wanted to get a tattoo, but I never knew anyone that died." Thanks TV.

@Gregor, I can hold 'em!

In my experience it's best to just let it dry out completely and give it time. When I've moisturised scabs they've sometimes fallen off and left a kind of "cloudy" appearance underneath instead of solid tattoo. Worst case scenario, you get it touched up. If you're going to get a lot of tattoos, having some tattoos heal up kind of shitty is part of it.

Actually it was me who was recently given that quote/price from Garver. Whether that's what he would actually charge or not I don't know since I decided not to pursue the project. I won't restart the conversation but I didn't want to leave @MoistTowelette hanging.

My first impression of you was as follows: "Man. JSB looks just like Kevin Smith"

I think your being a little sensitive and thinking into the process too much, your in a tattoo shop and the fact that everyone came to you when you were talking about your tattoo shows genuine interest. That being said if your not feeling the vibe and already have doubts go elsewhere.

The article says "Rihanna opted for an Egyptian-inspired ribcage tattoo as one of the many that she and Bang Bang have collaborated on." BUT, that tattoo was done by Valerie Vargas: Frith Street Tattoo | Rihanna Tattooed by Valerie at Frith Street If isn't just sloppy so-called journalism and that this punk is taking credit for other people's work...

I thought Valerie Vargas did the egyptian tattoo on rihanna??? Frith Street Tattoo | Rihanna Tattooed by Valerie at Frith Street

Society lacks the esoteric connections with totems. Its out of a nacissitic desire to feel like they are some how expressing real thoughts or ideas by putting it on their body. Seldom have I done lettering of large quantity on someone who was say..a person who was really into books and felt a connection to the dialog of a novel or the linguistic appeal of ones writing style. Its usually just a clever quote they saw on social media or a song lyric that they want to mean something but have never even purchased an album by the person/band. Looking for logic in mainstream culture is an exercise in futility. It is however easier to recognize those who know what's cool and those who are just riding the current trend.

If he specializes in the style, then he will probably have great reference. As a tattooer, I tell people to bring in any reference they want if it is going to help me see what they are after, but not worry about having to assemble the tattoo for me, just show me things they like. But if he's known for japanese, he probably has a good library on the subject so bringing in a googled koi or dragon might be a little redundant, unless you are showing them a specific element. Even if you are looking to show the artist specific elements that you'd like incorporate, the best place to start (especially if they are known for a specific style) would be their own portfolio. Of course, you're not trying to have them duplicate things they've already done, but with japanese tattooing for example, you can always show them that you like the way the subject matter interacts with the background on a particular tattoo, or a color combo that catches your eye, or a common element like water or flames or something.

I thought this is a forum for good tattoos. Why is this even a question?

Tattooing The Invisible Man. Pierced Hearts and True Love: a Century of Drawings for Tatoos. Sailor Jerry Collins : American Tattoo Master. New York City Tattoo: The Oral History of an Urban Art. The Mingins Photo Collection: 1288 Pictures of Early Western Tattooing from the Henk Schiffmacher Collection.