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Just got these two from Dusto at Tower Classic in St. Louis as a Christmas present to myself

Done

Got this yesterday.

Got this from Kirk Jones yesterday, birds wing look distorted but it is just the photo. Awesome guy, it is a shame I don't have another shoulder to get tattooed, easiest spot so far.

wow great pics everyone. @Graeme "squidmitts"! Hah! I don't generally seek out dotwork so those Jondix, Weisbeck, and Hooper hands are completely blowing my mind right now. Amazing! Unfortunately if I am ever able to get my hands done, it won't be for several decades. But in the meantime, here's a couple more on other people. Rich Hardy Grez

Indeed! Thank you all for the hospitality, and may everyone have a happy holiday! Cheers!

totally, Merry Christmas guys!

Very nice and I couldn't agree more. Best of the season to everyone here!

Some of my favorites are the Nue, Yurei, Kappa, and the Tsuchigumo spider. I also love the story of Watanabe no Tsuna, a japanese samurai who fought the demon oni Ibaraki and cut off his arm.

My 3 year old niece wants to grow up to be a badass. Tattoos by Pixar, I believe.

This is a great place to discuss tattoos. In addition to that it's been a great place to meet different people from all over the globe. So too everyone on LST and those of you that are my IG buddies, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!! Have a safe and healthy holiday season!!!!

My first is from my buddy who is an apprentice. Second is from Craig Brown at Historic Tattoo in Portland. And I just got this from Beau Brady at State of Grace in San Jose. That's the only photo I have uploaded at the moment. Jill Bonny at State of Grace. I'm counting down the days!

I really like this one,it was done by Seth Leibowitz on one of the regular artists that does work on me,Jennifer Leonardi

Happy Christmas and a big HAIL SATAN ! To one and all !

Merry Christmas!

Woah!!! That ROA! How did he fit that and make it look so good? True talent.

Make no mistake, I did the whole new to tattoos and I wanna control as much as I can.. But by #3 I was already giving my tattooer total artistic liberty.. That's easier to do once you get to a comfort/confidence level with your tattooer(all mine by the same artist). I'm already planning to go a couple hours for a lady head and am confident in the artists ability based on what I've seen and recommendations. Hopefully after the 1st if the year I can put something in motion. Seeing better how things work here on LST should give you confidence in choosing the right artist for a particular piece, and move from 'getting tattoos' to 'collecting tattoos' confidently.. If I'm off base here folks, someone please chime in :)

also your guy Nico has got that traditional japanese on point.

awesome @TaeTae thanks.

dan trocchio hands down! 3 kings

Happy Christmas, as you lot say: By Matt Staydohar, Anvil Brand Tattoo, Marysville, CA.

As mentioned by lance. Ukiyo-e print of Akugenta Yoshihira Uesugi Kenshin vs. Takeda Shingen by Horimatsu You mentioned Tamatorihime with the water dragon This painting was done Nico, the guy that does all my work. And the piece by Rubendall is worth seeing again Gundari Myoo Baku as already mentioned, is quite and underused image. This cool piece was done by Johan Svahn

Welcome to the forum. There's nothing at all wrong with getting tattooed from flash, though from what you're describing here, I would suggest checking out John Sultana at Saved Tattoo in Williamsburg.

anything that makes you feel powerful and happy to wear the tattoo. a tattoo can mean whatever you want it to mean and because it is art it doesn't have to be so literal. For example you can get a rose and a skull to remind yourself how much of a bad ass mother fucker you are for overcoming obstacles to meet your goals. Or a warrior battling a dragon could mean the same. @Graeme had a well worded post about tattoo meanings but i forget what thread it is posted in.

I'm visiting my parents right now and my mom found a sketchbook I had as a little kid. I must have been six or seven when I was drawing in it, and I was totally stoked to find that even as a little boy I was drawing skeletons, demons, and upside down crosses. I have no idea where this stuff comes from, but at least I come by it honestly.

some from last week

Very touchy subject I have actually been to court for. It use to really bother me when others would not only copy my work. But they would use my actual work for their advertising. Its even trickier with tattoo work as many assume it is all fair game. These are reasons/excuses I have heard. Isnt tattoo flash all about copying other Artists work? (My answer: Yes but I purchased that flash and have permission to use) Anything on the net is fair game! I suppose if you water mark the work then it is an implied copyright of sorts.However some judges will even laugh that out of court. There was a case with Andy Warhol copying a Campbell's soup label. A famous court hearing that apparently changed everything for artists after that. Like when a cover band plays your song. "Its considered a tribute or Artists rendition" Andy Warhol won that case even though his painting was an exact copy of the Soup can. It was considered a tribute/ Artist interpretation. Even under copyright laws it had enough differences to not infringe. Andys Painting was on canvas and not a can, his painting was done with oils and not ink, his was hand painted, his was larger. Thus enough differences that it did not infringe on any copyrights. A copied tattoo may look exact however a good attorney could find the 7 differences. may be 7 lines that are slightly different sized. maybe a different needle or ink brand was used, maybe it was a different size person, with different skin type. "NOT worth fighting as they will find differences". Something even more disgusting is that if the person copying your work posts to a time stamp website or uses in advertising before you. Its considered thier work. "Ive actually been sued for using my own work in my advertising" So be sure to get proof you are the first by posting your work on a site that keeps track of the date posted. There are free copyright sites just for this, also water marks are free as well. Or I believe photobucket, Youtube and other big sites automatically keep track of the dates you post a picture of your work. Sorry to babble so much but I thought maybe this could save an Artist from the hell Ive have to go through.. One last thought is that tattoo customers will many times bring a photo of a tattoo they want. In these cases I do understand how tempting it can be to copy. Especially if your rent is due and the customer wont let you change it. What I tell customers is that I dont copy other Artists work out of respect. But I can design something similar with my Artistic style. (Still copying the premis is unethical in many ways but one can not copyright premis " The concept" ) Thats why when someone created the first feather to bird tattoo a million others had their versions of it. Or the lace face dead women tattoos. Most dont give credit to the originator nor do we usually even know who the first was.) Its all a fine line and letting it eat us up is a waste of time. I try and take it as a compliment and move on

Wow @peterpoose did den do yours too ? did the dude on the right pick this from dens portfolio or something ? you would have thought he would have more integrity and change it up slightly , poor show

At least 4, maybe 5 of mine, when I walked in the door for my appointment I had no idea what I was getting. The rest I had an idea ("how about a dragon?") but I've never seen sketches or anything ahead of time. I like it like that, I like surprises! :)

Some recent stuff: this was my end of the trade with Olivia. We decided to use her birthmark as a nipple. :cool: And then this was a medical illustration of a humerus bone. This is actually on a dude who is from the same town that I apprenticed in. It was pretty nuts actually, he told me that he had gotten work done at the shop I was at, and turns out he had a tattoo that I had drawn for my mentor to use. Small world..

I am happy that you think this crowd is in any way normal!

I felt kinda like a crazy risk taker before, but it's good to know I'm a bit more normal.

I've done it and I think one of the super fun things about tattooing is walking into a shop not really knowing what you want and getting something that feels right at the moment. I'm thinking of trying to get a walk-in somewhere next week when I'm visiting my parents. Spontaneous tattoos rule.

All-time favorite is on a friend of mine, mostly because of how silly it is. What do gorillas think about? Bananas, duh. By Drew Rash. Additionally, here are three I've seen on Instagram recently that I've loved. Another Tim Hendricks. Squeezing a readable ROA on there blows my mind. Grez. Does it get better than classic roses on a hand? Grime. And to totally tweak out the classic rose, a rose skull morph.

Viaiting my father in law agaun now in germany. Im forced to sdrink alot of beer and vodka. Good timnea. Also fuck iphone keuboards Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk

Great post! I haven't moved around as much as you have, but I've certainly had countless jobs and lots of varied interests. Hell, I've studied nine languages. Do you really expect me to have one cohesive tattoo?

The answer to this question is, of course, "it depends on your skin tone" which leads to "talk to an artist". "Talk to an artist" is usually a good suggestion. But to add some more interesting content, here are a few of mine to see how some color works on my skin: I'm on the lighter side, though, so again, exact skin tone will be key.

Like @Graeme said, I rarely get this one anymore because we live in a neighborhood where it's more common to be tattooed than not. I also keep my tattoos covered up a lot of the time. Usually when people do ask, it's because they are friends or acquaintances who know I've recently gotten tattooed and want to see and are curious. I would say that most of my tattoos do have meaning to me, but not in the literal, very specific way that they're represented on TV. For example, when I recently got a dragon on my thigh, it was because I'd been feeling really drawn to dragon imagery for how it depicts both luck and strength, and I'd been feeling like I needed a bit of both on me. I think of my dragon tattoo as my little good luck charm. Also I just really loved the design and couldn't get it out of my head! It was the right thing at the right time. I think when serious tattoo folks talk about tattoos having meaning, it's often in that way--some really beautiful imagery that just speaks to you and feels right on your body, like just what you need. Even my less obviously meaning-laden tattoos are still meaningful because they serve as reminders of the time/place I was in when I got them, and who I was at that time. These meanings are often pretty ethereal or abstract. When we make fun of the LA Ink style meaning thing, it's often because people go so literal, rather than letting the power of tattoo imagery speak for itself. All that to say that when folks ask me about what my tattoos mean, I am happy to get into it if it's close friends, but it is pretty annoying if it's people I don't know very well. Because there's no good answer. If I say it doesn't mean anything, then that's alarming to the tattoo noob (I think they mix up meaning or lack thereof with how seriously you took the decision to get tattooed, as though if it isn't obviously meaningful, then you must not take tattoos very seriously. So misguided.). But if the tattoo is super meaningful to me, then why on earth would I want to share such super personal stuff with someone I don't know very well? Part of the tattoo TV problem is that it assumes that even if we are getting tattoos that are profoundly meaningful, that we're also all super confessional exhibitionists who like, want to announce all this shit to any stranger we meet. Nope.

definitely about the exact skin tone... the former vocalist from Killswitch Engage has a bunch of color tattoos, but i've also seen a tattooer put a tiger on a guy that was invisible, until he came back and threw in some white highlights. the contrast afforded popped it right out. for clarification, the tattoo was invisible, not the gentleman being tattooed. that'd be a completely different story.