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Got something from Scott Sylvia yesterday. I'll post a picture in a few.

In progress by Tomo at Yellow Blaze. Painful to say the least, but it's taking shape after 4 sessions. Home tomorrow! From his Instagram.

picked this up yesterday from Danielle Rose, so happy with it

Caught Dani Queipo while he was doing a guest spot at 3 Kings. That gap on my arm really bothered the shit out of me. Way stoked on this one. Skulls and butterflies are now tied at 3 (I think I have enough butterflies).

Here's an older awkward of matching swallow tattoos me and @Pugilist got almost three years ago: I got mine from Bert who then tattooed at Tattoomania, she got hers from Rebecca Guinard at Pol Tattoo. Next year is our fifth wedding anniversary and we have tattoo plans for that, but you all will have to wait and see about those.

If your artist doesn't know who Higgs is or doesn't have any of his/her own reference for it, and it's probably not the right artist to get the piece of Higgs flash from. The right vibe just won't be there.

got matching tudor roses with my special lady friend. she decided she likes purple better than red when we were there. these days though, if we decide to get tattoos together we just get whatever we want. no need to match.

Had a ton of fun at the Lowbrow Tattoo Convention in Killeen this weekend. Met a lot of great people and got some cool tattoos. Devil Head from James Clements Panthgle from James Yocum Tex Avery Whistlin' Wolf from Paco Cendon (Won tattoo of the day on Sat!) I'm happy but I can barely walk today.

Bad filtered photo but my wife and I got matching Smashing Pumpkins hearts a couple years ago right around the time of our birthdays (we're ten days apart). There will definitely be more to come..

The general public......and the tattoo community are two separate concepts. I don't try and push people around with what they should and shouldn't get, I'm not a social worker...... But I do try to present them with options when I can. I still give em the haircut they ask for....... I just try and comb it real nice for em.

Awesome stuff, everyone (as usual). El Monga added this to my leg today! Picture stolen from his Instagram. I'm now realizing that I never posted a picture of the last one he did on me, because it wraps and I can't seem to get a good picture of it. I'll try to do that soon.

Operation Double Dobleman Thighs is now complete: Between this and my Pharaoh's Horses, I couldn't be happier. (No jokes about what's actually between this and the horses, please.)

bob wicks has a real good one I believe

Damn, pugilist should shave her legs. Must be like going to bed with a yeti.

I'd like to see every tattooer that has ever worked in a street shop pay Evil Don and Crowe $.25 for each one of their flash they've done.

I think...and I hesitate as I form my thoughts, that internet images are fine for "jumping off " points, and sure people tattoo that shit everyday, but if we are promoting quality tattooing, then we need to discuss what should be ideal. Bring in something off the internet, fine, but also let your tattoo artist guide you in the right direction, to where the image is sourced from, to other ideas that aren't so simply printed from a 20 second Google search. If your tattooer doesn't know his/her history or has no interest in it, and is simply ok with just replicating what you bring in on a piece of 30# ink jet paper, then maybe that is a bigger issue. Quality begets quality. The opposite also applies.

I am pretty sure it is on the back cover of this book: New York City Tattoo – New Edition - Hardy Marks Publications and Don Ed Hardy Archive

A little pineapple my wife and I each got after our honeymoon to Costa Rica.

was wondering if shawn would make this thread bro tats

Put this up the other day in the full back piece thread and forgot to put it over here. Last session in for 2013 and starting back up in January. All work being done by Rodrigo Melo at Northstar Tattoo NYC. Mike

For years I always advised people away from getting tattoos for anyone other than your parents, siblings or children, for obvious reasons. As I've gotten older and more heavily tattooed and the designs I wear progressively weirder however, I've found it really fun to get little bro tats and the like, to sort of put a timestamp on really important life events. A matching Mr. Burns head with Mike and my brother, my best friend's initials (she has my portrait in the same spot) and a fun little 'honey moon phase' tattoo with my girlfriend, the Party's Over tattoo with Ron... The kind of stuff that I'd warn other people about and here I am, getting them all over the place. So. I thought I'd start a group thread for Bro-tats, His/Hers (or His/His, Hers/Hers, Theirs/Theirs) etc so we can all revel in the bad ideas! Honeymoon Phase by Nik Lynds. - - - Updated - - - Matching Skull in a party hat with Ron Garza. Tattoo- Nakota Garza. BT/SP- Bethany and Shawn tattoo. Tattoo- David Bruehl.

@hogg @TrixieFaux @jpm06 @dirbab @RoryQ @LastOrders @MadeIndelible Mindblowing stuff!

Just also realized this was on your torso and not your back. DAMN DUDE!

I spent 10 minutes looking for it too. I'm pretty sure you are talking about the image that Richard Stell's son has on his stomach? If I remember that correctly. This is the best I could find. Instagram

Holy shit that looks incredible so far! The expressiveness in the hannya is unreal!

I'd like to chip in from the point of view of East Asian art. The way this art has been and is handled has a certain importance here, since a big part of tattooing is strongly influenced by it. Someone noted that many copies come from China and/or Korea. That is correct. It would be however very ignorant to immediately dismiss this as lack of creativity or thievery. Traditionally, copying of masterpieces in East Asian art is not just flattery. It's the most important exercise for a student. There is a massive amount of EA art for which it is impossible to determine the author with absolute certainty, just because of how furiously students would immediately start reproducing it, over and over, often creating nigh-perfect copies of the original masterpiece. Every line, every dot, every detail. The original creators' glory would not only remain intact, but be exalted by this. This form of copy is done openly and honestly. Only after many years of copying, slowly, a practitioner of art would come to develop his own style. Ed Hardy and a Chinese guy who is doing my sleeve discussed exactly this in an interview in the last TCM. I think this applies, to a certain degree, to all art forms, Eastern or Western, just not to the same degree. For me the question would be: Is Shige in any way harmed, if a tattoo is copied and people know it's Shige's? Who is, actually, in any way harmed, if a great tattoo is copied? Someone's individuality or personality? Should we give tattoos that kind of importance? Should we give any thing that kind of importance? The ability to say "I am the only one who has this", is not just determined by positioning of pigments, but by the moment in time and the persons involved and the words said and the hours spent on it. That makes a tattoo unique, for me. If I see someone with my exact same tattoo because he saw it on a website, I personally wouldn't care. I might even be flattered, hell, I'm not above pride. On one condition: honesty. I might get tattooed by a Chinese guy who does amazing copies of Shige, and I have absolutely no problem with that, for the simple fact that the second he shows you that tattoo, he say's "This is a Shige design". Yes, it's from Shige, but now it's also his, through his hand and his eye, and it's also the first person's who got that kind of tattoo. And then it's also mine. Art just does that and I like to see it as a continuous, conscious and honest line of interpretations of subjects. I don't care if it's a painting on silk or a tattoo on skin that is copied, there's no difference. It's a tribute to a masterpiece and the acknowledgement of beauty. As long as there's honesty. If you acknowledge your master, you're a student, if you don't...well, I guess then, and only then, you are a thief.

dude your tattoos have been on the swallows and daggers blog

Oh, I'm still super green with tattoos - have one on the right side of my body by Yoni Zilber, and another still in progress on my left leg from Horizakura. I plan to merge them in the coming years, somehow! No pictures on here, but I suppose I should get on that!

I think that $68 is an awful lot of money to pay for moisturiser and sunscreen.

I believe he works out of Brooklyn NY appears to be well respected locally. My opinion is that he does decent work based on his gallery and Instagram which in full disclosure I do follow. If you are set on tebori work and you're out on the west coast, I would give heavy consideration to making a trip out to San Jose to see Horitomo or Yokohama Horiken

me and my wife have matching higgs diamonds off the flash set that everyone gets tattoos from now

I have two matching tattoos. My sister and I both have my grandmother's name, but mine is in a traditional style cursive script while hers is more like a black and grey fancy script. Then a good friend and I, we both have matching gatsby flappers. I tried to post pics but it didnt work

my kinda thread. me and my best friend have 6 matching tattoos and counting. he started getting tattooed a couple of years after i did, and one of his first tattoos (he got two in the same day his first time) was a matching all seeing eye from bradley tompkins about 3 or so years ago now we then got a lil friday 13th tattoo from some matty d'arienzo flash (also in the other picture) next up was a pair of rokurokubis from ash davies (mines the one with the pipe) we got two during our visit to NYC. first we got some bert krak flash. mine from eli and my friends from steve and a fun NYC memento from tron last ones we got were this summer. another fun one, some grimm reefers from rose whittaker i look forward to all the ones we get in the future together. they're all definitely my most sentimental tattoos as they're reminders of fun times blah blah blah

I don't think many of us die mid-tattoo. That said, strangely not so helpful an idea when someone is drilling your ribs.

It's real smart guy logic. Why do a painful spot when you can do another painful spot that is way larger? It's all getting done sooner or later anyways. I wish I had more than two arms.

It's all good but this one I love the most for whatever reason. - - - Updated - - - And Holy Moly! That's awesome.

my wife and I got a set of eagle tattoos on our honeymoon. the idea was originally to get lil hummingbirds but instead fate (Chris David) gave her a feminine shoulder eagle and me a screamin' neck eagle. eagles mate for life (how cute)

My first one, with my brother and our friend Mike.. I think we did that one in 2000 or 2001. Mike went on to become a meth addict who ruined the lives of a bunch of friends of ours, but that one night, when we were all so glad to see each other after I have moved away to PA from central Florida... and the years that we were friends before that.. every time I see that little Mr. Burns head, it reminds me of so many amazing times that what happened after doesn't even play into it.

@KBeee hey thanks i took up on your advice and ordered a couple books through UCSB's Interlibrary loan program! fuuuuuuuuuckyaaaaaaaaaa lets see how that goes. books should be gettng in within the week anyone familiar with takashi matsuba? hes coming around SF in May and im tempted to make an appointment with him to get something from him. any thoughts on his work?

Actually simple tattoos are often best.

There's this new one on the market called keeping it out of the sun. - - - Updated - - - Sorry, that was snarky. But seriously, the best way to keep your tattoos looking good and bright is to keep them out of the sun as much as possible. Probably the best way to do that is to cover it with clothing, otherwise wear sunblock when you're out in the sun. - - - Updated - - - Sorry, that was snarky. But seriously, the best way to keep your tattoos looking good and bright is to keep them out of the sun as much as possible. The best way to do that is to cover it with clothing, otherwise wear sunblock when you're out in the sun.

@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.

@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.

For me this is as good as tattooing gets. Can't wait to see it finished. The only downside is that you have to shave your pubes for the rest of your life.

That's what I mean by education. It's obvious to you and I but a lot of people don't understand that. They see something they like on the internet, decided it's perfect and the idea of letting someone change it is scary since they haven't seen the finished product. Enter lazy/freedom tattooer, and there's another rip off on instagram. And William, it's the art being questioned not the tattooing itself. 9 times out of ten the ripped tattoo is poorly applied or even scratcher bad which is part of the reason I'm past caring ha.

I found that you really have to take care of this spot. I think it is because it scabs easy combined with all that bending and friction on pant material. I found you gotta load that sucker up lotion to keep it moist. Also using a super heated washcloth on it helps relieve the issues Its brutal for sure

I often get a bit apprehensive in giving a large rib piece to a person not that experienced in getting tattooed. I have had a few nightmares in my years of people just not able to sit still and go with it. I recently got a full side panel from a co worker and amazing artists and although i did sit well for 2, 3 hour sessions, not moving or whining, It was the most challenging tattoo to sit through and im pretty covered. full back, sleeves, chest panel ext. The outline which normally for me is the most uncomfortable wasn't to bad but the shading session really took my breath away and was hard to surrender and go with it. The nightmare first timers rib clients ive had make me inquire more about the person during the consultation now. Having somebody quit halfway through an outline truly sucks and depending on the design can be next to impossible to align the stencil to the half done outline and free handing isn't always an option for truly detailed and symmetric designs. IMO 5 hours is a long time to sit on the ribs but isn't un common. you just need to know yourself and how you deal with pain and difficulties. My advice is DONT try to grin and bear it, don't clinch up thinking youll just squeeze the ever living shit out of a friends hand. this will only make the suffering worse and drain your energy. You will never make it 5 hours unless you learn to just surender to the experince and go to a comforting place in your mind. Focus on your breathing and total surrender to what is. most of the suffering from a tattoo comes from not be able to just accept it. Good luck but i agree get the tattoo where you want but if you feel oits going to be too much re consider placement. IMO ribs are quite easy to work on as an artist so im not sure where you got that info from concerning the quality being compromised there. Stomachs can be a bitch but a good artist and client working together for a big stretch to me is a easy day at the office.

Man, I really miss getting my arms tattooed. I'm right there with you!

At the moment I am booked for five sessions on my ribs in the new year, and I've been thinking that I want to do my back instead and I'm going to talk to my artist about that when we have our second consult in December, but this thread makes me never want to do my ribs ever. Thanks for scaring the shit out of me, guys.