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I'm a little self conscious about posting this here bc I am super naked and super swollen - but to be fair, she DID buy me dinner before taking these pics...I'm nothing if not consistent ;). I will post better pics after the healing is done. Taken from Junii's instagram. Blue peony is on the front of thigh next to the karajishi, everything else is down the leg. Next session is at the end of April to finish connecting the waterfall and adding color to the kingyo. I was expecting only to do my thigh, adding some more rocks and peonies, and had come specifically dressed so that I would not have to reveal my lazily hairy legs (TMI? Sorry folks.) but ended up, as usual, prancing around the back of the shop naked from the waist down. Oy vey. I'll get it right one of these days ;). http://instagram.com/p/lfLoCUBbQM/ Edit: BAH, how do I get the picture inline????

The recent activity in the "awesome things we've been doing" thread has been pretty canine based, so I figured it might be nice to a have a separate thread where we could go dog crazy... then I figured that folks probably have more diverse pets than just dogs, so I went the unbiased route and opened it up to all animals. I'll start things off with my corgi/shiba inu mix. he's almost 4. we adopted him in Nov 2012. his name's Huckleberry. this is him after a good day at the 40 acre dog park in Redmond, WA...

I'm taking this over here now because I feel like it. And I'm not talking about anyone in particular so if you think I am don't get defensive or flatter yourself. This isn't about you. A "troll" is commonly defined as someone who posts sh*t on the internet to get a reaction -- even if it's something they don't believe themselves, e.g. OBAMA = HITLER. It's very hard not to fall into their little traps and, as annoying as they are, I must admit I have a weird respect for them as pranksters and anarchists. They can be pretty entertaining sometimes (though not often) but it's best to ignore them and hope they go away. Then there's another type of person who makes some kind of inflammatory or potentially offensive statement that they actually do believe. Those people are also trying to stir the pot and get attention – even if it's negative attention, kind of like our six-year-old at times. Those traps are harder to avoid. I think the thing to remember is that some people don't care about having a meaningful discussion or debate – only being "right." And they will never stop arguing until they get the last word. They will never see your point or try to understand your point of view because they don't care. They won't admit they're wrong – ever. (BTW I've also seen a few "success stories" on here of people who stop being bullheaded and stubborn and actually listen to what other people have to say – other people who know a lot more about the subject than they do. Some people just go away which is fine by me, but LST has also "saved" one or two from getting bad or mediocre tattoos by steering them in the right direction, suggesting artists, etc. Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing a thread just about those success stories, but maybe later.) I myself have said plenty of dumb sh*t on here and been schooled a couple of times. I've agreed to disagree on a few occasions and always apologized if I offended someone – or at least tried clarify myself if I felt I was being misunderstood. But really we're all here for the same reason, which is to talk about tattoos, share and look at kickass tattoos, and occasionally debate the finer points of tattoos and tattooing. Preferably in a respectful way without name-calling or singling anyone out. One reason why this board is so great and different from a lot of others is that we've been able to maintain this kind of intelligent, respectful discourse. In part that's because we're able to "police" ourselves and call out the trolls and the haters when they do rear their ugly heads. There's been some talk recently about this board going negative and scaring some people away. I hope that doesn't happen but that's also part of the process of weeding out. Some people need "tough love" instead of telling them what they want to hear. If you've read this far, thank you for letting me get on my soapbox for a bit. I've been really proud of the people who've been standing up for themselves and others – some women in particular – and not letting the haters and the trolls get away with their bullsh*t. But at the end of the day, you can try to slap some sense into some people and all you get is a sore hand.

My pup and I are too cute and bc I don't really do Facebook or Instagram, this is my outlet! Selfie of dog and...self. Staring adoringly at each other :p.

Here's part of a Troll sleeve Trond Kjørkleiv is working on. Norwegian mythology, folklore and fairytales are crammed with trolls, so they're kind of a big deal over here.

First picture is my dog Luna, the black one, and her best friend Grace, my sister's dog. Luna was originally my other sister's dog, whom she got at a backyard breeder about 6 years ago. Grace is a rescue from a local shelter. They're two of the best dogs I've ever met. Second picture is Luna and Violet, my sister's other dog.

Great thread, here are some pictures of the animals I share a home with: This is Daisy, she's a five year old retired greyhound who we adopted just over three years ago. She rules. The grey cat is Susan and the orange one is Willa. We've had them for around five years. They were from the same litter and have been coddled literally from birth. Their mom was a stray who was taken in by friends of friends and they read somewhere that you can best socialise cats if you cuddle them for at least five minutes a day, so they've never known a day without affection which makes them the most affectionate cats I've ever met, but they also have no survival instincts. I love them.

I have a little d20 tattooed on me if that will help derail the thread. This is a terrible picture of it though because it is damned hard to take a picture of your own arm.

Birthday gift to myself. Tattoo by Matt Howse at Seventh Son SF CA. Photo pulled from his instagram. Stoked.

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the one @irezumi, I came home yesterday to quite a pleasant surprise in my mailbox: I immediately found a dowel in the basement, cut it to size, and quickly stitched it into the top of the tenugui: I love it so much. But the real treat--the one thing that makes me feel better about missing the opening--is the catalog. I strongly urge everyone to pick up a copy. It's filled with incredible photos and--huge bonus--what I assume are the lectures that Jill, Junii, and Chris Brand gave at the seminar. I'm still getting over a cough, so I was up reading it on the couch at 3am. Thanks again, @irezumi!

I think I came here just after SirBlazeAlot left. Was definitely here for the Bubbleberry saga. Hey look! Lady Troll!

This is my homey after his first ever kill...not sure why I find this awesome. I'm a vegetarian.

We have two cats - an 8 year old orange cat named Calvin, and a 2.5 year old orange cat named Darwin. It was hard not to post all 5784 pics of the boys, so I held myself to just three. Darwin is the one perched on top of the screen door.

Just adopted a 1 year old small black lab mixed with who knows what. We got it from a local rescue that drives to the South (he's a Kentucky dog) and brings them back to the twin cities. So far, much like myself, he's enjoying the change and the snow! He's really mellow and doesn't appear to have been too traumatized. Dogs really are great.

Always trollin...

Dungeons & Dragons thread to the rescue.

I can't resist. Here's another. And now we go to the park! #sunnyinseattle

Thanks much! I agree! PS I popped over into your gallery, your tattoo is coming along so VERY nicely. Gorgeous work! Almost there with this part, but we have sooo much more to go!! Next up is the Shad x Junii snake and hannya collab....I knew it was gonna be a big snake...and it keeps getting bigger. Ankle to shoulder last I heard!!!!!! I'm excited to get the rest of the back started :p

Its time to go in to shops and start to check out them out. You might find more photos and possibly examples of folks work that is exactly what you're looking for...not everything end up on the internet. I've said it before but use it as a tool to narrow stuff down which you have. Now see which person you go talk to can accomplish your goal. There's plenty of capable folks in the areas you've mentioned. If its meaningful, it'll be worth all the effort involved.

That's an apples to oranges comparison. But I still will say yes. You want a tattoo that looks incredible and makes you feel incredible, therefore you need to go to someone capable. An ugly tattoo will not help any situation. All of this is in reference to the advice myself and others have been trying to give you. When we mention certain artists that you might need to travel for, you set limitations, and therefore that sets limitations on the quality of the tattoo you could receive. That said, I think there are capable people where you are located. Myself, and others, are only interested in you getting a great tattoo.

$29.99, genius price point. Places us at the premium end of the market, 'you get what you pay for' etc. Can we call it Tat-wrap™?

Seems many posts end with "Just sayin" So thought I would make a thread What are you just sayin? I am sayin Tattoos don't really need a big complex story or meaning, if you can relate to it sweet. Just sayin

Ok, so clearly LST needs some kind of tattoo-taxi service associated with us. Volunteers to drive people to get tattooed - good shops only! - in exchange for gas money, lunch, and being allowed to hang out in the shop all day. For a two hour drive you should get just get a noon appointment. With a 3-4 hour tattoo you can be home by 6pm. Maybe it's just being me being older, male, or Canadian, but I don't start thinking something requires an overnight stay until it's at least a 3.5hr drive away.

I've been watching some of the more troll-y threads (and one in particular) - I also applaud and admire the women who are standing up to said trolls. For me, I don't see the point of engaging when all it does is add fuel to the fire and give the troll more stuff to work with. Lately, I am preferring "planned ignore" when it has become obvious that a person isn't going to listen, it takes too much energy to engage.

Our next dog will be a giant, lazy, drooly mastiff. I can't wait :) @Graeme. I have owned whippets and greyhounds growing up (along with a dozen other breeds). I crack up when you post vids of yours. I actually had a whippet/greyhound cross that was the lone survivor of a litter that was born on my water-bed while I was away at school (around 10 years old) When I got home I found my water bed in tatters, water everywhere, and my mom holding a lone puppy. All of the puppies had fallen to the edges, and as anyone fluent in water-bed physics knows; water beds are black holes for anything unlucky enough to get caught on the sides. The mother had clawed the thick plastic to pieces in an effort to save them. Sadly, all but one had suffocated and or drowned. The last was a beautiful brindle dog named Ninja that grew up to be my best friend for a decade :). His favorite things to do were fly around our 17 acre farm and lick the place where his balls used to be. /pour some out for the homies.

This is mine from Fergus Simms. Legit one of the best people to get a tattoo from.

!!!! My dog (passed away a few years ago) and forever the love of my life was named Calvin. We think he was a border collie-hound mix. He ran like a greyhound and would "herd" us as kids when we played outside. Here he is in a photo I took of him at our house in Vermont (my dad used to own a construction company, hence the bucket). Can't wait until we adopt in a few months! Now I have a place to spam hahaha This is a photo of my dad's dog he adopted about 2 years ago. She was born during and survived Hurricane Irene, which hit lower Vermont really bad a few years ago. She's one sharp and spunky pup! Her name is Harley for Harley Davidson (obv) She is a beagle/australian shepherd mix, so adorable!

This is our sweet and funny friend, Aurora. I love her so much. A friend of a friend took in her mom--a stray pregnant cat, and raised the kittens for 12 weeks. Our daughter, who was 3 at the time, wanted to name her Sleeping Beauty so we went with Sleeping Beauty's given name, Aurora.

Brian Bruno is in Richmond at Absolute Art.......and I heard someone mention Studio Evolve in Va Beach! Also Scott Sterling is at Ancient Art Tattoo in Va Beach! Honestly what I briefly read sounds like you want someone at Studio Evolve Gabriel Cece might be the right person to check into..... I know Tanane Whitfield does solid work as well although does have an animated overtone to most of the work you will see in his port....but that doesn't mean he can't do what you want! You might have seen Jesse Smith from Loose Screw Tattoo on one of those TV shows! While I HATE those shows....Jesse still does good solid work and he could pull off what you are looking for as well! Not sure what your budget is and I didn't really read the whole thread all the way through BUT you do want to save up what you can and get the best tattoo you can afford! If you have to save a little longer it might be worth taking the extra time....and if you have to wait for the artists I have mentioned or another great one then remember that it is worth the wait for that too doll! There are many good solid artists in the areas you mentioned and I am sure you will find the right one to do your tattoo! Also....I saw something about you getting this tattoo for a specific reason! Please don't take anyone here wrong......most people never really got "meaningful" tattoos.....ones with long drawn out stories behind them why they had to have specific things in them to represent meanings to them......until these TV shows sensationalized it all to give the impression that every tattoo has to have some sacred meaning to it's owner! The people here are more concerned with the actual tattoo.....the fact that you are 18 years old means that when you are 48 years old this will be a 30 year old tattoo! Have you seen a 30 year old tattoo? If so then you know that tattoos age with us and don't look the same as time goes on and while when we are young we say we won't care about it then......well the truth is we will! Great tattoos age well.....good ones not so well....and bad ones age really fast! You seem like a smart young lady...you came here so you did the right thing....just continue to be smart and you will have a tattoo you will love for a lifetime! :)

Funny you mention Tat-Tape, @hogg knows a guy... We should focus on getting product to market though, people don't know what they aren't missing out on. I feel like we could really see some penetration this quarter. (This was actually said in a meeting I was in once, all I could do...)

Sounds like we should start selling Last Sparrow branded cling film at conventions. $29.99 for a 100sqft roll?

To re-iterate what you already know: this is great. Go if you have the chance. The wife and I loved it all...the exhibit, the discussions, the people willing to show their stellar tattoos to total strangers, the catalogue etc etc etc x 1000000. It was...moving.

None! Not being macho, but the only stuff I took days off work for were my back and front, when I had lining done and didn't want my shirt and pants sticking to me (horrible feeling). I agree lower leg tattoos bring swolleness and pain, but sitting at home with them would be overkill, IMO. Save those sick days for when you want to go surfing on the sly, or drinking beer.

Tony Hundahl said it at the end of Gypsy Gentleman II: Austin

For me personally, I was mostly pain free by about day 5. For the first 2 or 3 days, every time you go to stand up, it feels like your leg has the worst bruise imaginable and someone is squeezing it as tight as they possibly can. My artist warned me this would happen when we did my first lower leg one, but I didn't really know what he meant. So I kind of hopped out of bed the next morning and was instantly crippled by the pain and had to sit down again. For those first couple days, it takes me a good few minutes to stand up and get moving and then I'm limping everywhere. It seems to be the longer your leg stays elevated, the worse it gets when you do stand up...but if you don't elevate your leg, it swells up like a balloon. Kind of a lose-lose outcome. I usually only give myself about a day to recover and head back to work when I'm still in the hobbling stages. Luckily my job is mostly sitting, so I can tough it out. I wouldn't dream of going back to work so soon on a job that's primarily standing...

I'm totally glad that I am not the only one who was hoping for a thread about the mythical (or real?) trolls. On a side note... was @SirBlazeAlot the original LST troll? @hogg @gougetheeyes ? Or maybe he was just retarded.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here, I don't have a problem with this blog. I sometimes enjoy seeing model-types with tattoos, even if there is too much focus on the model's body and not enough on the tattoo. I think tattoos need to be seen on the body in order to be fully appreciated, and it's nice to see good quality photographs that actually put the tattoo in it's context. I see too many photos on the internet of great tattoos photographed super close up with and illuminated by the flash of a cell phone camera. I'm not interested in tattoos for the purpose of looking sexy either but I'm not going to judge other people's motivations for getting a tattoo or liking one. If they think it's just a decoration for their thigh, that's fine, as long as the tattoo itself doesn't look horrible. I've been an overweight female my whole life and I'm not a stranger to insecurity, but at this point in my life I can look at skinny photoshopped people without thinking I'm supposed to look exactly like them.

soo its one of the first nice spring days so me and some friends wentt to a park. One of those bastards brought a bottle of rum and soem cola so i've been sippin all day in the sunshine. It wasn't till i stood up that i noticed how fucked i am. Love you all!

My first real post and another reaper for the page: Got this today from Kapten Hanna at Idle Hand in San Francisco. Took this from her IG.

Got this namakubi from Koji Ichimaru today at State of Grace. That's one off the bucket list! Stole this from his Instagram.

Sorry, there's a little wrap around. He's actual pointing at my chola! Miguel "Uzi" Montgomery guest spotting at Tattoo 13 in Oakland, CA. If he were local, I'd get tattooed by him all the time. Anyone within driving distance to Long Beach needs to get tattooed by Uzi. Such a nice dude. - - - Updated - - - @dooktruck that Rassier tattoo is so good. He's on my short list of local tattooers I still need to get tattooed by (Jeff Rassier, Scott Sylvia, Jason Phillips, etc.)

got this from jeff rassier the other day in sf super stoked. super nice guy. go get tattooed by him. oh yeah thanks to hogg and others for telling me to call the shop back coz would not have gotten it if i didn't

Some progress on my Marius Meyer backpiece last week. He did all the green/scales ..

yes! that is a beautiful tattoo.

Bubbleberry was such a character. Nice troll.

Fine, I'll postpone the knee ditches and get my elbow done. Wait, fuck! I'll get my other knee done. Wait, aww fuck. Pretty much only shitty spots are left on the limbs.

That sounds like a solid day. I am having a few buds right now then taking the lady out to dinner. Hello scotch scotch scotch drunk.

Thanks for the lecture write up @irezumi! Chris Brand's lecture, woah! Your words ring absolutely true and I don't need to repeat you. I can't wait to re-watch that when they post the video. You are also indeed correct with regards to Junii. She was very nervous and as you said at times struggled, but the emotion that came through was definitely felt by the audience. She absolutely deserved the standing ovation she received. I have much respect for this stand out Lady. Speaking of another nervous speaker, I spoke with Jill after her lecture. We had a good laugh that she was so incredibly nervous, she absolutely could not bring herself to look up from her notes when speaking. At all! She had single minded focus looking down at her 8 1/2" x11" sheets. "There was a crowd in the lecture hall, what?" Ha ha. But her lecture was a good one as well. And an interesting one that worked well as a follow up to Chris Brand's 108 heroes of Los Angeles. Hers was about a Client who's bodysuit looked traditionally Japanese, but upon closer inspection actually held historical Mexican stories and legends. His back piece was a translation of the Mexican flag telling the story of the founding of what would be Mexico City, but rather than depicting an eagle it held a falcon which is a common motif in Japanese tattooing where an eagle was not. Then she translated two Aztec gods as dragons for each sleeve. Quetzalcoatl, a winged serpent, was depicted as a winged dragon and the other was depicted as a floppy eared dog-like dragon (can't remember the god's name) but she used these not to dis-similarly to the pairing of Fujin and Raijin. The whole of it balanced out not too unlike the idea in some Asian cultures for the 4 directions. What's best of all is all of the lecture subjects are also in the catalogue and soon to be online for everyone, I believe. Oh, and the 50 bodysuits on stage were amazing. No picture I've seen online do them the justice deserved. When will you ever see that again I mean? Jill had initially asked me to participate in it but modesty got the best if me and I declined. In hindsight had I asked about the format I could have totally rocked a fundoshi. Strength in numbers ;-) On a last note, one of the best experiences I had at this show was engaging in a conversation with a gentleman who was looking at 3 of Shige's clients back pieces. He had no tattoos and was dumbfounded by Shige's work. He asked me how such a thing could be done. He was so amazed by the quality that when I mentioned Shige works by machine and not by traditional hand tools, he thought Shige input the design into a computer and a machine tattooed the image onto the Client. With all these threads on here about negative experiences from people without tattoos, this is a fantastic show for people with no tattoos to experience and learn about a culture and educate themselves and a great way for people with tattoos to engage them in a friendly dialogue.

I should know better than to reply to a thread started and then fuelled by a couple of clown-ass trolls, but you all rule and have brought a lot of great discussion to this thread. All I have to add to the discussion is that I think LST's slogan of GET GOOD TATTOOS is a great one and part of taking that seriously means using this forum to empower people, regardless of their body or body image, to seek out and get good tattoos that excite them and make them happy. There's no room here for body-shaming and making people feel that they somehow don't deserve a nice tattoo unless their body fits a pre-established mode of beauty. Go fuck yourself if you disagree.