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Been 2 sessions since my last update on my back piece. Saturday was my last for 2013 and going to start back up in January. All work being done by Rodrigo Melo at Northstar Tattoo NYC. Mike

This is what I've had done so far. Four sessions; the rose and yet more black went in last Friday. By Grez at Kings Avenue.

Hardy's talk on the black panther tattoo at 2013 Bay Area Tattoo Convention. Kudos to the production team that made this.

Attempt at this one, not sure of the original artist but this was the reference I used. And my effort.

HAHA, you'd have to pay me to do the whole thing, but the discussion around 16:00 about successors is pretty interesting. He says that until three years ago, he had a successor (Horitoshi II) lined up, but that the successor did not abide the rules of the family and was expelled. Then, he had a Horitoshi III lined up, but that this potential successor had no intention of leading the family. So, he has decided that they will elect a Horitoshi III democratically between him and his three oldest "sons." The ideal successor, he says, has to be good at tattooing, but also a man of character. He has to be mild-mannered because he (Horitoshi I/the family) has various domestic and international relations to maintain, and dedicated to the family. In another really interesting bit of the interview, at around 24:00, he says his "family" differs from other families in that his relationship with his "family" members is really one between father and son rather than master and apprentice. The apprentices start as such, but after spending some time apprenticing and being deemed worthy based on character, they become his sons. That is why they call him "Oyaji" (Pops) rather than "sensei." Despite this, in the most unfortunate case, he says, an apprentice/son left the family after six years. Finally, towards the end, Horitoshi expresses his devotion to the preservation of tebori as a Japanese tradition. He says that ultimately, he is teaching his apprentices to maintain tradition. The Horitoshi Family, in Japan, he says, is the family most dedicated to tattooing as a Japanese tradition. Machines could be used for lining, but shading has to be done by hand to preserve tattooing as a Japanese art. He doesn't think tattooing will be accepted in Japan anytime soon, but maybe in fifty years, Japanese people will have a more "casual" attitude toward it.

God bless the internet. That is all. Your Favorite Disney Princesses With Beards

Second best thing ;)

I'm getting zapped by Ron Wells when he's guesting at Tattoomania around the middle of December. I'm getting a ship and I am super stoked because Ron does some of my favorite ships and he's just a straight-up awesome guy.

thank u! and i agree this is so fucking cool and i love it! cant wait to get it done! but the amount of pain.. well u can imagine.. this really hurt. everybody shaves there pubes no? hehe - - - Updated - - - @hogg, @Avery Taylor i have a hairy chest and stomach so its what i´ll get anyway hehe i´ll shave handlebars on her and post some pics when its done hehe..

Latest session. Two more to go!

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

@diabeticwolf This is the 4th thread you've started on this topic, and you're basically asking the same question over and over. Please keep it all in one thread from now on! - - - Updated - - - Also, I would recommend you have the tattoo designed and drawn up by a professional tattooer. Don't go out and get something you find through a google picture search tattooed on you. You mention so many cool subject matters in your first thread. Wolfes, snakes, crocodiles... They all make super cool tattoos! Spend more time finding a tattooer you like and less time searching for images that were never meant to be tattooed in the first place.

Mina Aoki gave me this gorgeous Asian-themed/geisha lady head today at Fun City Tattoo, NYC. This is the second of a projected three lovelies she is doing on my upper right arm (my southwestern/Mexican lady has already been posted here). I feel incredibly lucky to be able to wear her work and I cannot recommend her highly enough. A phenomenal artist and a lovely woman. Looking forward to next time!

have been waiting a year for Martin Lacasse to guest at Congress St Tattoo in Portsmouth, nh. So worth the wait. I love this tattoo and Martin is a super cool dude. An amazing experience!!! Longest session i've ever sat through, clocking in at 4 and 1/2 hrs. Pics are a bit bloody, but i think the detail still shows.

If theres anything I've learned, as I'm sure have many others on this forum, is that skimping on the price of a tattoo will ultimately get you something you regret. I know I'm telling you to suck eggs, but I just can't emphasise it enough. Save for another year if you need to, heck you might be on a waiting list for that long anyway.

Thanks! Actually, what I originally thought I was getting was a full scale fight between the two animals, but the morning of Phil called me up and asked if it was cool if we did a close up because he thought it would be better to capture the details in the expressions on the faces. And while it made me a little nervous to change it up like that, it definitely paid off and I super glad I took his advice. So let that be a lesson: LISTEN TO THE ARTIST!

I think those stencil type images never make good tattoos , why not have Steve wrestling a crocodile in a more traditional style or a just a croc head with CRIKEY MATE written around it.

Well, I didn't expect to see this today.

@ry4n I saw on instagram today that Crystal Morey who does Gomineko Books is planning on doing a seminar in the Los Angeles area during the week of December 9. She published a book on Japanese mythological creatures and has given seminars on that, plus she has a pretty incredible knowledge of Japanese art and tattoos, so definitely check that out if you're around, and follow her on Instagram as well. You'll pick up a lot of ideas from her.

a thank you painting i did for rose whittaker

With all the recent Pharaoh's Horses talk I thought I'd share mine. Done by Grez at the Bay Area Tattoo Convention.

I'll throw my hat in the ring too this month :cool: Bob Roberts, Spotlight Tattoo. That El Monga piece is SICK @9Years

Just remembered that I forgot to post pictures from my visit to LA/SF, but better late than never I guess. My only regret is not taking more. Some spots we visited (Bottom left is @ian (left) and me outside Temple Tattoo) @hogg and I have matching torch and spider fillers... As is that wasn't enough @scottSylvia gave us matching LST ban hammer tattoos a few days later. This is from the first of two sessions I had on my back with Grime. A few souvenirs When I returned to LA Bob Roberts gave me this All in all a great trip, and I cannot wait to visit again next year! I'll try to take more photos then too :)

Holy shit I just came up with a great Halloween costume. If you do have full sleeves, you could just put sheer stockings over them and pretend to have the fake sleeve things on.

First session done! By Stewart Robson @ Frith Street Tattoo

So today was my second session with Henning on my backpiece and it was a tough one. Started bright at early at 9:30am at Kings Avenue Long Island. This was probably the most painful and longest tattoo session I've ever had. We both under-estimated the time it would take for Henning to finish lining some additional feathers and to shade in the rest of the background. The first 5 hours were relatively low key. The last two hours were terrifying. I now know I will probably not entertain a torso piece anytime soon as the pain from the ribs was just brutal. This was the first time I considered tapping out but I was able to bare down and we managed to finish. Here are some pics. Color next year for the phoenix. Next session will be with Rubendall in December to put more color into the dragon. Big thanks to @Killercook76 who dropped by today for moral support and assisted in taking some pics. He showed off his Garver and Hendricks pieces which were AMAZING. Cheers bro! I love this guy but he "royally" kicked my ass today... Added some more feathers and filling in the top Background fully shaded Right side from Tuesday's session Left side from today

/\ that is the biggest complaint my wife has about me getting tattooed. Dead bodies all over my tattoos? Fine. But ink/blood/plasma on those Egyptian cotton sheets? No fuckin' way pal... Doing more research currently on it... One observation though is that everyone who has used it once uses it for all future tattoos, which to me is a pretty big indicator

I want to thank all of you for making me open my eyes and "suck eggs" as Amok put it. Also I just realised that whatever responses I made via the "Tapatalk" app have not seen the day of light.... So as an update, Joe Shit was in dialogue with me and cleverly influenced me without actually saying DONT DO IT. I've been pouring over some of the work from the links he and you guys provided on this thread. Some I relate to, some just look liked great art. But here's the thing... I started noticing certain tattoo's that capture an emotion. What I'm saying is I saw some amazing work and then I saw meaningful work. I posted a pic earlier of this back piece by Evan Griffith it struck a chord. There's something there captured which seems to be what I'm looking for too. I'm not suggesting I want to replicate that... but I need to find someone who can capture the emotion for me. Here's my question to you guys - how many of you sat down told your story and theme and had the artist come back with what you wanted? For me that back piece made me sit up in my chair and go "WTF.... are you kidding me?" True. Truer Thanks. Undecided about keeping it really. In fact thanks to this lot here I'm most likely not getting anything on my back anytime soon...

I like to look at this every time I'm on here( which is everyday) just because it's so badass , especially those eyes

@ironchef thanks brother! Rotary was tickling nice in the love handle region. Got to hand it to you for pulling 7 hour session..real tough. Once January is here or he has a cancellation spot open in December I should be able to finish out background and black work over the next 3 sessions. Koi is going to be all black as well with red in the fins just like my arms. Can't wait for that to happen! Mike

Hi! Welcome to the forum. Feel free to say something about yourself or introduce yourself in regards to your artistic or tattoo interests. Also, the best place to show off your new tattoos is in the "Latest Tattoo Lowdown" thread. It is always nice to keep the forum consolidated, because if everyone posted a thread for each new tattoo they got, we'd probably have like 600 threads about new tattoos. Anyway, enjoy the knowledge and resources! Cheers

@hogg, @Avery Taylor It's all part of the design. What @Rebushido really asked for was a bearded lady ;-)

I'd like to second the sentiment on avoiding skimping on the piece. I've got some tattoos I paid through the nose for, but I'm much happier that I did that than went for a cheapo. Also, keep in mind that you won't be paying that all at once. You'll most likely have to wait to get your first session, then wait again for your second session, then again for your third, etc.

First post from a long time lurker, but I wanted to share this one I got from Chad Koeplinger yesterday. Came across this thread while searching for other examples of this style and though I would contribute. Cheers!

I was told I should see some difference at six weeks which is why my sessions are scheduled six weeks apart. But as I mentioned earlier, the least dense areas, i.e. shading, disappeared right as soon as the laser went over it, before my first full session was over. After six days I'm still heavily swollen, red, and bruised so I'll post pictures at about the fifth or six week before I go in for my second session.

Turned my speedball dip pen trial into this.

Haha I definitely will. I'm very stoked for it.

I am super far from being knowledgeable about this so treat my recommendations with a good amount of skepticism, but I'd recommend Horitaka's Bushido: Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo to begin with. It's really focused on Horiyoshi 3 but I think it gives a pretty good overview of traditional Japanese tattooing, it covers the nomenclature of it, it has a lot of beautiful photos of Horiyoshi 3's tattoos, and it's pretty inexpensive and easy to buy. I'd also pay attention to Crystal Morey and Gomineko Books. She sells a lot of reference books for tattooers and publishes books herself. I am currently waiting to receive a book she published about Horiyoshi 3 and his relationship to Japanese Buddhism that looks pretty amazing. Crystal is also super cool and knowledgeable and travels around to a lot of conventions and is always super helpful. Her instagram is worth following too because she posts a lot of flipthroughs of the books she sells. She'll also sometimes offer sales on the books she publishes...up to 50% off kind of stuff...so they're really good deals.

I got on Grime's list. My appointment's in 3 years. o__O I want a samurai skull hanya but I might change my mind when it's closer to the appointment date. haha. =P

The new one is out and features @Deb Yarian , so check that out!

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

About 4 more hours on my back today with Max. I'm going to try to make another trip down to Richmond before the end of the year. Sorry if it's huge but I'm on my phone right now.

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

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.

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 think every tattoo collector needs to ask themselves this after every new tattoo.

Here's mine, done by Chad Koeplinger at the 2013 Montreal tattoo convention.

A nice one by Peter Lagergren at Malmö Classic Tattooing - Sweden.