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Fiyah! Dana's Instagram.

To complete the cycle. It has been almost a month now and everything is a-ok! Anyone on medication with tat-urge can read this and find some good news! Hasta, Arne

you forgot to add that you ignored me in blackheart. BTW, solid story from last friday: While waiting for Scott to finish getting ready, a really awkward stereotypical tech industry/googleish type dude comes in looking for Jeff regarding something he was drawing. Jeff comes out with some phoenix/bird looking thing (pretty sweet from what I saw). The dude spends a solid 5 minutes with it right in front of his eye... like deeply analyzing the work. Finally, he says "I think it looks really good, but the wing feathers look too... hold on im trying to find the best word to describe this... organic. Yeah, they look too organic." I think the highlight was Scott making random "Hmmmmmmmmm" sounds while the dude was balls deep in the drawing. Fuckin love that shop.

Put a deposit down for a few hours with Juan Puente. I have no idea what I'm going to get.

Little Medusa Spider action on my very upper thigh, not a fun spot to get tattooed! He's going to add some webs behind her another time, the last thing I wanted after shading this thing was some thin liner work... - - - Updated - - - YES YES YES!!!

@dcostello are you the shop dude there? - - - Updated - - - these are all cell phone pictures, sorry if they're a bit sloppy - - - Updated - - - if someone would be so kind as to post, I can put the rest of them up

Sorry I didn't get to meet anyone. Carolyn texted me saying the line was crazy ridiculous, so me and my friends went and got food instead. But I went back on Saturday to an empty room. I actually got to see every single piece thoroughly and read all the little liner notes attached. Great show! I almost bought a print for 20, then I realized that I probably wouldn't get it framed or hang it up. So I put that 20 towards a deposit at Blackheart instead.

welcome! "tatspiration" is a cringe worthy username...

Booking my dad in for a neck tattoo with Freddy Negrete in San Angelo, hopefully. All of his Charlie Cartwright work is from about 30 years ago, so it'll be a good continuation of that. He also doesn't know that we're getting him booked yet, although I think he suspects I'm up to something.

Heading down to the Bay Area a at the end of the month for some continued work on my back piece! Only actually we're working on my leg this time :p. I think another peony and some rocks to go with the karajishi on my thigh. I have two days booked, so we should get some solid work done :p. Junii is collaborating with 'Horitsukikage' (Shad) on the snake and hannya that will be going on my back, but as he is based in Belgium we prob won't start that til June or later.

This year's Montreal convention is still a long way off, but they just released the poster for the convention: Mike Rubendall did the poster and it's a truly great one. If past years are any indication, it'll be a while yet before we see what artists will be attending, but Val and Pierre from Tattoomania always do a tremendous job with the convention and get some of the finest tattooers from around the world to attend, it's held in a beautiful space, and it's a really fun time in a great city. We also had a little LST meetup last year and it was a real pleasure to meet some of you in person. This year, the convention is going to start off at the Yves Laroche Gallery with a showing of new paintings from Phil Holt, Timothy Hoyer, Lango Oliveira, and Edu Cerro and if you've been following those guys on instagram you know that the show is going to have some pretty spectacular pieces in it. Anyway, here are links to the convention: website instagram facebook Who is planning on going?

If an image is too condensed(and that is lossely up to the individual tattooer) as the pigment ages in your skin, it is will tend to blure lines and such. Your tattooer is going to be in the absolute best position to make this call, but to answer your question, yes, as a tattoo ages it will spread slightly.

I wish I was the shop dude.

more seth wood I actually got to watch some of that tattoo happen, that thing is no joke this is a great kitsune from the book Mythical Beasts of Japan Hokusai Kuniyoshi more Kuniyoshi

Less than a month away! Who's planning on going? 2 more videos btw. Some really nice work from Brand, Shige, and Miyazo can be seen. Kip Fulbeck: Chris Brand:

Had my oni coloured yesterday.. Took about 4 hours and some work still needs to be done as you can see..

I was just thinking about fox tattoos when this resurfaced (due to listening to the Julian Cope song about Reynard the Fox) Wendy Pham Kiku

$30 of Tegaderm later, my ass and fire spots are mostly covered. Hopefully they hold well while under flexion.

I think this might help: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-after-care/3501-help-theres-tattoo-my-pimple.html

going up to see Grime in mid April, by then it'll have been around 6 months since the last session :(

I also posted this in the backpiece thread, but i'm soo stoked i just had to put it in here too :-) Well, Since today I am an official member of the Back piece squad :) We had a (pretty brutal) 5+ hour start of my backpiece, we managed to finish all the lining (except for the big flower that need to go on my upper legs). Next session will be for lining the flowers and the rest of the leg part, and to start shading... I can't wait ;-)

Marius Meyer

Really love these by Rico at Daruma Goya in Japan

Thank you harry878 :) I think so too :) Feeling quite lucky that he was free x

haha that is weird! I see one girl in that photo, but there were tons and they all basically looked the same, which was funny

Don't forget my favorite Kuniyoshi : Kadzusa no Suke Hirotsune battling with the nine-tailed fox on Nasu Moor (which is going on my back ;-) )

Ordered a few 4x10s to try it out, will report back with results

Man, I'm really loving the whimsy of Wendy Pham's work. They look like a lot of fun.

Gotta hand out an A+ for the beard... Rob

Bumping this to share some kitsune art I've found, hoping others will post more. This is a great subject for a tattoo, and not one I see often.

I'm a glutton for punishment so I have back to back appointments March 3rd then the 10th.

If you don't have a cream or treatment for them... then maybe just take super good care of your skin and avoid greasy foods? I had acne in the past and I don't use any products anymore. Instead, I keep my skin clean, drink lots of water and stay out of the sun. I know it's embarrassing, but you could always ask your artist...

blast over the little fuckers >:]

Sooooo my husband and I've been talking about it..I'm going to look into going back to school this summer and getting my teaching degree. Scary, it's been a loooooong time since I've been in school.

HILLSTOMP https://soundcloud.com/hillstomp AA Bondy is aight, but I really like this song. Carolina Chocolate Drops!

Well, Since today I am an official member of the Back piece squad :) We had a (pretty brutal) 5+ hour start of my backpiece, we managed to finish all the lining (except for the big flowers that need to go on my upper legs). Next session will be for lining the flowers and the rest of the leg part, and to start shading... I can't wait ;-)

I´ve already posted this in the back piece-thread, but I throw it out here too with a better photo. Next session in March:

Dave Regan:

Jen Lee, Tattoo City bad month to enter because of that ridiculous vargas back piece….fuck it

Final session on my back with Rubendall today. It's bittersweet. So happy to have this portion of my back finished but will miss the fun times with Rubendall. Great gentleman, incredible artist and shrewd businessman. The complete ball of wax and then some. I still have some appointments booked and I'm thinking about starting something new with him. Henning will top things off end of this year when he'll be visiting and doing his usual guest spot at Kings Ave! Enjoy the pics! Eyes, spine, and the orb/pearl Filled in some more flame work as well Rubendall said when after the orb/pearl is full healed, it'll lighten up to a bit of an iridescent affect. Full moon close-up :o

Be wary of pictures like that. It looks great like that, but how is it going to look healed? How will it look 20 years from now? I think if I was in that guy's position that I'd rather get laser and have far more options. But seriously, talk to an artist and get a professional opinion because all we can do here is speculate on what will work.

A lot of judgements on appearances in this thread. Thank goodness nobody ever judges us on how WE look.

This brings to mind a question for tattooers: If an aspiring apprentice has said $15k, would they be better off A. Following the above advice and finding someone who will apprentice them for cash. Or, B. Using $3000 to get a bunch of tattoos from great artists and using the balance to get 'unbusy', then work on drawing and painting all day everyday? I'm interested just because we're on the topic, not at all for myself as I have no interest in being a tattooer. I would choose option C - use all $15,000 to get awesome tattoos! I also think it would be likely that the shops most willing to take cash for apprentices are the ones prospective apprentices should be most wary of (with exceptions I'm sure).

I don't know, Richard Stell is so badass, he might live forever.

I cosign all of the above. One of the best things about getting my back done by Jill Bonny is that I got to hang out at State of Grace on a regular basis. Over time, Taki and I got to know each other, and in addition to everything Stewart said, I can add that he's a great guy, loyal to a fault, and with as much integrity as anyone I've ever met. I'm sure that this project will be nothing short of mindblowing.

Thanks for the kind words, here's an updated pic, finished it off yesterday. It was an absolute pleasure to be tattooed by Claudia, and Jolie Rouge is a great shop full of the most awesome people. Hope to return for some more work from her at some point in the future. Photo by claudiadesabe • Instagram

I think I remember reading that Valerie Vargas has one of these on her back done by Alex Reinke. I maybe completely wrong about this since I can't find where I read it.