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Jason Ochoa - GreenPoint Tattoo, Brooklyn. Straight off the wall, great guy!

I've seen them in person in Cincinnati and where I also met Mike. He's a great guy and the pictures on his site don't do the artwork justice after seeing them in person. I've been a huge fan ever since, and I'm constantly impressed with the speed at which he posts new work. I've recently scored a print of one of his pieces and thought I would start a thread to bring attention to his work for those who haven't seen it yet. Paintings

Booked an appt with Chad Koeplinger next month at Congress St in NH. Snake and roses on my leg. Thinking pretty decent size... ankle to knee. @eisen777 area you getting your back piece worked on this visit?

It's not unusual for a professional to charge for advice and opinions. Especially if that advice can save you money or make your life more pleasant in the long run. Quotes for various jobs are often free when they lead to more, higher paying work. Many professions are purely advice based too. Leave it alone. An extra-thick black arm to the star does not make it look better. If you're planning on getting more tattoos near it, if they are of a high quality, eventually you won't notice the wonky star.

That's like deciding "what should i have for breakfast today - bacon or more bacon"?

feels like i've got chicken pox...last session I had, OllieXXX stipled the rest of my torso gaps, added filler on the eel on the side of my knee, touched up a leg tattoo he did 3 years ago and added a smart ass hot stuff. healing four parts of the body at the moment and i've got another session coming up next week. jesus christ. then i think i will be good for this season, going to start my backpiece after getting my sunburn on this summer. so what to get next week? i had booked an appointment with one of my favourite local tattooers Shawn O'Connor (The Timber Tattoo Company Blog) since he is moving away from Edmonton to Nelson (which rules because I love road trips to Hippy Country, Canada). Thinking about getting a bad ass panther...is there really anything to think about there?!? My wife is away this week which means I don't have my rational partner to talk me out of doing something ridiculous, like adding blue balls onto a muscle sex panther tattoo. It's going on my inner thigh, seems only appropriate to add some innuendo.

Black in your arm. Nobody here really gives much of a shit about the tattoos you get.

I already knew about good tattooing by the time I had met and actually held conversations with Mike. Between him and Kore Flatmo, those two taught me that tattooing doesn't have to be so serious. Have fun with what you do, don't give a fuck, and make bitchin paintings and tattoos. Mike is honestly the most talented painter I know of. The way he captures the essence and emotion of the woodblock style is flawless. You would almost think he learn under one of the great ukiyo-e masters.

Speaking of, I will be up your way next weekend. Kings Ave all day on Saturday watching Chris tattoo, if anyone wants to say hey hey.

This might not be the place for you... Last Sparrow Tattoo: Get tattoos that make you feel warm in the pants

Yes! booked in and excited. He added a wolf head and a black bear head on my ass last time and background clouds as well. Im sure your going to get a great big tattoo. Im looking forward to this trip a lot. I got another saturday which means I dont need to take time from work and I can spend some time.

Way ahead of you guys!

It sounds like the young fellow just didn't like the answers he was hearing, which is a bit of a difference. I think we did good.

As for awesome things, @DJDeepFried and I saw the Dalai Lama speak yesterday at the Forum in LA. It was great. He's a pretty charming human. (Sorry, old news if you are on our Instagram.)

Man, this is one of the raddest threads I've stumbled across on here, so much inspiration! I'm re-enrolled in college and I'm totally nervous. I have been interviewing a few local tattoo artists for some research I am doing for a children's book, which has been really fun and interesting. I am also recently stepping back in to the dating world... totally like riding a bike, including the falling down and getting back up again. What else? I quit drinking 4 months ago to see how my life would change, so far it's been pretty good. Definitely more productive! It can also be a little challenging to find new ways to be social. I am excited to make new friendships and explore my beloved city outside of a bar... haha. Suggestions??

From Kim Saigh's instagram, progress from Saturday...maybe one more session to go:

This is my latest from Nick Colella at the motor city tattoo expo. Pretty fricking sweet.

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

It's not the end of the world. There has been lots of solid advice offered to you here. The most practical solution is just leave it the fuck alone and let the experience breathe. You're trying to make something work that's been through two iterations already. Get some other tattoos in the meantime and have fun. Maybe one day this star will be left in the dust of an epic sleeve coverup? Just remember...at the end of the day, *it's just a tattoo* and a small one at that, not the end of the world man. Don't sweat it.

Im the proud owner of the lady head on valeries instagram!!

@Matthew Thomas, I think everyone here is giving fairly solid advice. I understand that some if it isn't what you want to hear, but sometimes there is only so many options. I tell people the news they don't want to hear all the time and it's not to crush their dreams but to be realistic about what can be done. My objective is to make it look like it's not a coverup at all. I didn't read the entire thread so I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already or how in depth your own knowledge of blasting over is; the new tattoo to cover the old one will almost definitely be substantially larger than the original one in order for it not look like a murky blob in the middle of an otherwise well done tattoo(most of the time that is, obviously everything is case by case). Only black ink can cover black ink. In order for there to still have contrast of light vs dark (we don't want just a solid black splat with a little color or light shading around it) the new one needs to have more room to hide the old one. Good example: we can't adequately hide a stamp with a matchbook. There simply isn't enough room. Hiding a stamp in a flash card, well that is certainly opening up the options of what can be done to make it look like it was never there. With how much black is in your star (and red in this case) it's gonna be a pretty big tattoo. Which is awesome. My only point here in my post is to bring this up and if it's been mentioned already then it's my fault for not reading every post and spending so much time typing in a damn screen. Lately Siri has been making me sound drunk or uneducated.

I was imagining something a little more subtle. Classy even. The type of dick you wouldn't mind showing your mother.

I just wanted to call attention to the funny part.

I want to be told that I am pretty and smart and that people like me... Oh... tattoo stuff! Well you covered most of what I wanted to be told, I was just wondering what people would fix first, and how they would fix it.

Mike Dorsey has been consistently incredible for the last 20 years, and people always seem to forget about him. Discovering him was one of the things that led me down the path to discovering good tattooing.

I always have those, my doctor says it's almost like a permanent allergic reaction to existing.

Most obvious thread ever. Mike Dorsey is god. Boom.

You just had David Flores and Stewart Robson (tattooers) and several folks who have varying amounts of coverage and tattoo-getting (that's a word, right?) experience give you great advice. I get your frustration, I'm a perfectionist too, but such is life - nothing is perfect, we can take the experience we've had, learn from it and move on with the lessons learned such that the same mistakes do not happen again. Go get another tattoo, take your mind/focus off of this one for a bit.

@TrixieFaux beautiful work :)

I would ignore this tattoo it for now. Maybe see if you can get any of your unused "deposit" back then save up some money and seek out some higher quality artists. It may take a couple months before your have the time and money but you will be much happier with the results. It would be insane to keep returning to an artist after you lost confidence in their ability to design and apply a quality tattoo.

Put a big black panther over it. Panthers cover everything, and everybody needs a panther. Your artist is really the only one who can decide if it can be fixed or covered... another tattooer could weigh in on here, but it's really up to your artist's vision and abilities. Someone already touched on this I think, but often when people get hung up on mistakes in tattoos they have... we suggest to just get more, and better, tattoos. You know, go out and get a kick-ass new tattoo and the other one won't bother you as much (and yes, that star is a little wonky, but it's not hugely obvious or some scratcher garbage either). Have you thought about branching out and checking out other tattooers? You're not too far from Philly, which has plenty of good shops, and in the opposite direction there's Tattoo Mark's in State College, which has some great tattooers.

I believe that the correct nomenclature here is "nip zips". I didn't think my collarbones were too bad. There were unpleasant moments for sure (hello vibrations through my entire skeleton!) but it wasn't awful.

That or just cut it off.

That same tattooed lady was advertising Thai food on public transportation here a year or so ago: Oh, stock photography.

I just want to put in a word for Bill Canales - I've seen quite a few of his tattoos in person and they are incredible! Plus, he is a super humble, professional guy. You could always check out the shop, it's in South Park and look at his book too. And if you're curious, Bill is in Marcus Kuhn's Gypsy Gentleman, Episode 4.

Yes I am a tattooer, as is David and Stewart. In all honesty I think they gave the best advice here in regards to putting better tattoos around it and it will eventually just be part of a big collection. Salvageable meaning to try to rework it? I would avoid doing that. For just one reason of several I'd have to point out that the red/black ratio in the part you are talking about will no longer be 50/50 in that spot ( consistent with the other shapes) to more like 70/30 black/red and that's gonna look worse in my opinion.

Isn't that the theory behind the derm products ? Let your body do the healing by keeping out dirt, water, germs, letting air circulate, leaving the derm on for 4-6 days straight ?

Debating whether to put a deposit down at Skull & Sword or go to Blackheart on Walk-In Sundays... Tough life.

his instagram is @indiangiver :)

@scubaron: Peter Walrus Madsen, a Danish fellow who apparently does resident guest stuff with Sacred Tattoo. The subject matter isn't his usual fare, but the style works really well with what I've got in my head. And the world gets smaller, because China Mieville is my author mega-crush, for reasons professional and otherwise. :( I actually went to see him read from Embassytown when I was living in Cambridge (MA). (Kraken was better. :) Predictably, The Scar is probably my other favorite...if I had to choose.)

the worst part of my front by FAR was the sides of my stomach under my ribs. So happy i never have to hit that ever again

100% agree. I think I'm more burnt out from traveling time than actual tattoo time. I have driven at least 50 hours to get a total of about 30 hours of work from O'Donnell (3/4 sleeve plus 1/4 add on) and Henning (1st session of a thigh piece). Sometimes its nice to day dream about getting most of my future work from a shop only an hour away.

I thought it was because we both like cats.

Whatever happened to washing the thing a couple times a day and moisturizing with a thin layer of scent free lotion?

The final result of my chest piece. Done by Robert Aalbers of Clean Solid Tattoos in Waalwijk, The Netherlands.

This is where I'm up to with my back piece so far. Got a few more months to wait before I can get some more done.

The money argument is so overused.

Only minutes into the competition and there is already tough competition, Nice tattoos guys. Im entering my chest piece, it took 12 hours and was done by Luke Kehoe in Kalispell, Mt at The Temple Decor.