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Big night for me last night, having Chad Koeplinger start my back piece. I am so insanely in love with it and so grateful to Chad for tattooing this on me. I'm sure some of you saw his instagram with the pics below. If you can believe it, he did this in 2 hrs, with about 30 minutes of breaks for me scattered throughout the session. So, he did this in an hour and a half. No joke. He still has some more lines to add in the hair, and some more tiger stripes, but this, to me, was one hell of a start!!! Also, it was great to meet @BrianH. He was the appt before me, and got an AMAZING tattoo from Chad. AND to add to this wonderful evening, Jason Scott handed me a gift that Martin Lacasse sent for me. He gave me the ORIGINAL sketch, that was sent to the publisher, of MY dragon from the 365 Book!!!! OMG ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!? I AM SO INSANELY PSYCHED!!! That was so super nice I can't even believe it. WOW! Oh, and in closing, This was EXCRUCIATING. The lines are so insanely thick, and it wraps some onto my ribs, up on my traps, and flirts like hell with the top of my ass. There was no easy part of this tattoo, just varying levels of hell. Explains why i needed 30 minutes of breaks in a 2 hr session. Got back to my hotel at 2:30 in the morning, and with all the adrenaline, and the fact that I thought I should sleep on my stomach (just can't seem to do it), i didn't sleep a wink. Hopefully tonight i'll get a good night's sleep. Anyway- I can't seem to get these pics to display correctly and I forget how to fix them. rob

So, on Friday we were sitting down having breakfast, talking about tattoos, and my girlfriend just comes out and says she wants to get a new tattoo today! We got in the car, drove down to Denver and stopped in Dedication tattoo, she talked to Andy about getting a dragon and some mums, he said that was a little too involved for a walk-in, would you like mums anywhere else? Looked at everyone's schedules, Sam had some time, traced the area and drew something up. I was happy to just hang out in the shop all day, usually I just run in, get a tattoo and drive home, so it was nice to be on the other side of it and check out all the cool paintings and flash they have. Andy got a nice healed photo of the wolf he made for me a few weeks ago. All in all it was a really good day. Sam Yamini, Dedication Tattoo, Denver She sat for over 5 hours! (she's way tougher than I am)

There's no rule that you have to show off your tattoos -- however, I bet if you got a chest or backpiece you were proud of, you'd have that shirt off in seconds!

I've been overweight most of my life. It's one of the reasons I've avoided getting tattoos until now. For years I was self conscious about anything that could draw eyes to me. I'm less insecure about that now. Although I'm still going to avoid getting tattoos on the larger areas until I lose weight. If I wasn't planning to lose weight I wouldn't worry about it, but I don't want skin shrinking to wreck things. Despite being American, there aren't a lot of fat people around where I live. There aren't a lot of people with visible tattoos either. I went to Disney World for the first time in my life recently, and it made me feel less weird. I saw plenty of overweight people with tattoos, and some of them were actually good. In line for a bus I saw a couple composed of a fat girl and a skinny guy. Both of them had tattoos, and the skinny guy had overweight pin up girls tattooed on his legs. I haven't had a tattoo for very long but I think I'm experiencing the same thing I've seen others describe in this thread, I care more about my health now that I have one. It's weird, it's like by putting something I value on my leg, my leg matters more. I never really understood why I wanted a tattoo until I actually got one, now I think I know why. When you put something in your skin forever, it's not only something that looks cool, it's a part of yourself. Do you know what I think the internet needs more of? Pictures of large people with tattoos. Here is a picture I took of myself to see what my tattoo looks like from a distance. It's not a good photo and the tattoo isn't healed yet, but I think it proves the world isn't going to fall apart if a large leg has a large tattoo on it. And here is me actually getting the tattoo, picture was taken by Fala.

Chipping away at my front.

8 hour appointment with Olivia Chell for the second session on my flying unicorn sleeve. Maybe sat for 6.5 hours with breaks. Colour next! :) ... Trying again with the picture, Not sure what I did wrong... If it still doesn't show, it's here

Yesterday my colleagues client didn't show up on the Rotterdam holland convention. So he wanted to tattoo me instead. I always wanted an Jim Carrey tattoo. 7.5 hours on the upper leg is no joke but I like it. Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk

I was bored on my lunch break, so my buddy Chris Porter at Alley Cat Tattoo cured what ailed me. Super small and right next to the knee ditch. Sorry for the leftover stencil residue. I like bright shower curtains.

Lil' guy I worked on off an on at night last week. Finished it on Friday. Not too sure about the banners on the reaper, but... eh.

Thank you for this! My entire day may be wasted watching these! Bump for the newbies.

HI Michael and welcome to LST, Unfortunately I have to agree with @MadeIndelible on this one and I don't think you should continue getting tattooed there, I did however do a pretty extensive search on tattooers and shops in the Sydney area and here are some good ones i found/know of. Hunter and Fox Tattoo - W.T. Norbert hunter and fox is one of the best shops in Sydney in my opinion and I would probably start here. Artists another nice shop I like Caleb's stuff the most. Japanese | Traditional Japanese Tattooing by Sydney Tattoo Artist – HORISUMI – Kian Forreal | Sydney Tattoo Shops & Sydney Tattoo Studios Australia kian forreal(horisumi) has been tattooing for 20 years and does real nice japanese stuff. M DAVID MEZOGHLIAN this ones a more traditional style tattoo shop with all good tattooers. The tattooers below all work at Lighthouse tattoo in Botany, their website is currently down so I've linked the personal websites instead. Alex Rusty Tattoos - Tattoo Galleries benogradytattoo ryanusshertattoo Mark Nara, theMarkofNara I just want to say please don't be scared off because I'm telling you to go somewhere else to get tattooed ,this forum is here to help people get good tattoos and thats what I and I'm sure most others here want for you.

yes i am, my name is slugggg, although it's private at the moment so i upload a lot of other crap onto it too, so if you dont want to see all that stuff then i also have a tumblr for just my drawings slugstuff.tumblr.com but it is the instagram that gets the most frequent updates/more progress shots some more from the last few days, along with a year or so over due thank you painting for ash davies ive been at my parents house the past few days so i dont have any of my colours, which is kinda annoying as i actually feel like using them for once..

Got these crammed in Thursday by Josh Damnit at Classic Tattoo Upland, CA and finished my right leg :D

And here we are again :) Today/tonight was the 4th session, this time 3 hours, I could have gone longer but my artist needed to pick up a guest artist from the airport. Anyway we still made good progress, my other side is now completely shaded as is my right left. Next session we are going to do the rest of the shading on my left leg, and on my ass (ouch! : ) ) and put some black in the clothing, and then we're done with the black and its onto color!

Finished my leg by Marius Meyer yesterday, we managed to finish it in only three sessions and I'm very happy with the result!!:o Cat lady on the front is by Chris Conn

I just like getting tattooed.

I'm sure you guys have probably already seen this, but I thought it was pretty cool. Tattoo Parlor Offers 'My Little Pony' Designs Benefiting Bullied 11-Year-Old Boy

HA HA HA HA! Seriously though, careful what you wish for!

?? swing away mods... And for the record @Victor, questioning the source of any information to assess it's credibility is a standard part of academic study. This is not Tattoo U but I'm happy for a standard to be maintained. Go internet.

I think websites like this are literally written by robots. They probably have some computer program that finds popular search terms and constructs paragraphs about them along with some random images. Kind of sad but also hilarious.

LST: Come for the tattoos, stay for the drama. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Also, why do you know what piss tastes like?...

I'm almost done with mine! Can't beleive it, haha

Here's the result of my appointment with Scott Sylvia. Btw, Great Lakes Tattoo is a very nice shop.

@10PieceNuggets as @Tesseracts mentioned, most traditional Japanese style tattoo artists who do tebori generally line with a machine, then shade and color with tebori. I have seen some currently that line with tebori but generally its a very large piece and the lines are fairly thick.

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

that was an amazing experience! to see tattoos and actual live tattooing represented at a museum was incredible, along with watching so many body suits displayed at one time. my favorite part was getting the epic catalog signed by the artists, and shige doing a full page autograph! i might be wrong, but i believe my buddies and i were the only ones to get the full pager!! i wish i was able to get a vid but my phone died...

Ahhh, Perseverance, what can I say? It was awesome! But everyone already knew it was going to be. Here's a rushed description of the exhibit space itself. This doesn't do it justice or describe the energy on Friday and SaturdayI'll write something up later regarding the actual experience of this exhibition mixing people with tattoo knowledge mingling with those who don't (that was interesting. Kind of cool in a funny way), the lectures, tattooing, etc, which were all cool too. I'm just too tired right now. But it was great to see Reyeslv on Friday, and @TrixieFaux & @DJDeepFried on Saturday. Btw, DJdeepfried, get that spot with Stewart Robson! You've got to. I was too shy to introduce myself to him, again (headsmack!!!) For those who did not make it out to the opening and can't go due to travel restraints it's located on the upper level level of JANM. The exhibit is contained within 2 rooms. Before you even enter the exhibit the anticipation builds as you encounter kites hanging from the ceiling leading you towards the exhibit. On each kite is printed a close up of someone's tattoos echoing the woodblock printings on kites of Japan's past. It's an effective drum roll as your pace quickens to drink in all that will come mere steps away. Once you enter you're greeted with an explosion of these kites suspended from the ceiling and not only the kites but you are welcomed by a large floating temple style gate sitting in the center of the rectangular space. Starting at one side of the gate, ringing around and ending at the opposite side are suspended panels of life size bodysuits created by the 7 artists that are the main feature of the exhibit. When you step inside, each panel displays a Client's back. As you walk around you see the Client's front. It's quite impressive. Especially when you are in the center of it all ringed on all sides by these amazing images. Hanging on the exhibit walls are a series of double rowed smaller photographs lined up and down. In the second room there are more photos placed in double rows on the wall. On the white walls, are intricate reproductions in black brush strokes are drawings by some of the tattooers. On one wall a koi, another a dragon, a third, Benten, etc. these pairings work well with the photos and subject matter and also informed where photos were hanged in arrangement. It's all very clean and well thought out. One wall in particular,which I thought was a great idea, is dedicated to those who don't have knowledge about Japanese motifs. There are descriptions behind certain supernatural entities flowers, warriors, etc. This was nice and absolutely essential for anyone not familiar with Japanese tattoos and helps inform viewers. Also, within this 2nd room, floating just off center from the center was a large curving panoramic depicting 13 of Shige's Clients. If you are a fan of Shige's, this is a must see Soaking it in was a delight. All of the exhibit was a delight and deliberate. All the elements not on walls were suspended. The kites, temple gates, Shige's panoramic. All were floating and I couldn't help but think this was a deliberate act to allude to the ideas of the "floating world" of old Japan. Even if this wasn't deliberate, I think it's a cool thought. Accompanying this was the exhibit catalogue. Oh my! It's so amazing! This will be my favorite book for a while. it's absolutely worth more than the $20 you pay. I love the images of course, but also how it's broken down. I think it and the exhibit does great justice to tattooing. The format is awesome. From including descriptions regarding Japanese tattoo elements such as munewari and soushinbori, to showing traditional Japanese tattoos and tattoos influenced not by Japanese subject but by Japanese form. Basically a bunch of good things in it. My favorite of which is a chapter specifically dedicated to Chris Brand's 108 heroes of Los Angeles. Another favorite is a chapter featuring the work of Onizuka Tattoo owned by Lil Tokyo Jiro in LA. I haven't heard many shout outs for this shop but Iv'e been aware of them for years. 3 Japanese ex-pats working out of Little Tokyo. Jiro Yaguchi who has crazy solid work, and works by machine, LA Horitaka from the Horitoshi I Family doing tebori work, and Jakoh who's work has a modern twist. I'm happy to see them get attention. If I hadn't gotten tattooed by Jill Bonny 5 years ago, I'd probably be going to Jiro right now. Taki, Kip Fulbeck, and all involved deserve a great deal of congratulations on a job well done and our thanks for putting something like this out to the world, not just the tattoo community. Btw it's also awesome to look at this book and see larger images of 3 torso tattoos depicting Fudo Myo-o by Horitomo, Shige and @Stewart Robson. All 3 are uniquely their own and equally beautiful. I wish they were shown together.

Horitomo Horiken, Horitomo, Bob Roberts Tattooed hipsters watch Shige at work Miyazo tattoos Yebis Shige Back pieces by Shige Yellowblaze Crew Horitomo Shige Smoking teal-haired woman in kimono - - - Updated - - -

Doing anything while listening to Dio is fucking awesome.

@Eilin is a badass. I want to be like her when I grow up!

Per Graeme's suggestion, my entry into the Ron Henry Wells Tattoo of the Month contest: This is all your fault, by the way. The collective you.

@suburbanxcore and @graybones if you're going to play it like that, I'm going to throw this into the ring and we're going to have a three-way Ron Wells showdown.

I think it goes beyond the price haggling and complaining, you have to size someone up as they walk in the door, how they are dressed, what they drive up in, what kind and how much source material they have with them, what their other tattoos look like and how they conduct themselves as a person. If they act like a cartoon character or try to come off as super cool or do they interact with you like a normal person. My main red flag even if they pass the other tests is when someone says they would never get something off the wall, that means they might be more likely to be difficult when it comes to the drawing. But we try not to turn away business and deal with most people, i would say price haggling is the only real deal breaker and once a number is thrown out there it never goes down. If someone is going to be a pain in the ass, you should at least get paid what you are worth for it and price will weed out a lot of crazy and hopefully avoids the scenario of losing your cool on a customer. But don't be mistaken, some people need to be kicked out of a tattoo shop, but most people don't they are just sensitive yuppies who need a little extra attention.

Are there way too many feathers, especially on ducks? The body is not a pillow. What's wrong with these warped pieces of poultry that they don't have any concept of what it means to be a living bird? You're not an eagle that rents grass for piles of snakes and crossbones.

@baberry64 There is no need. Tipping is optional but always appreciated. I tip because I want to not because it is required.

I was in a wedding back in September, this is one of the candid shots the photographer took :)

When I was growing up, tattoos were always something bikers had. I dated a guy who didn't like them, and when I got my third tattoo, he was not thrilled, and joked about calling me "biker bitch"...that third tattoo happened to be Tigger holding three daisies. That's really what all the Biker Bitches are getting, right?? Then I dated another guy who tried to force me to not get my 4th, a tree frog. I told him I wasn't living my life according to his sense of beauty. Now I'm married to a guy who digs the shit out of tattoos and encourages me to get more...and some of what I want are things he doesn't like and guess what? I don't care. I want him to find me attractive, obviously, but at the end of the day, if I think it's pretty, and I want it on me, I'ma git it. I like looking at tattoos on women. I probably look like some weird stalker or something, but I find them very feminine, and I like to admire, say, the curve of a shoulder that is tattooed. It's beautiful.

Girls with tough tattoos are my favorite thing.

Maybe he's saving space for some new work when he get's old.

Yes!! I had to do a thing that scared me earlier this summer... I was totally freaked out about it... nearly chickened out and didn't do it at all. And then I changed clothes into something that showed "Steve" (my knee tiger). Steve is so tough, he makes me feel 10x tougher when I can see him. I skated through my scary thing no problem... Reading this, I think it sounds weird, and people will probably think I'm a nut... whatever. Rawr!!! Me and Steve. We've got game ;)

Not to mention, some of us work out and stop partying and find ourselves in better shape in our forties than we were in our twenties...imagine that?!

So only women's bodies decline after the age of 35ish? Hmmm. Guess I should stop getting tattooed, worry about what my body looks like, and leave it to the men to get all the sweet tats. Sorry, had to go there.

So I bought some fundoshi's off of eBay a while back, thinking I might use them when I start my backpiece. In hindsight I should have known that only japanese men with bodysuits can pull those off. Pale norwegian guys, not so much. Had to cherish the moment with a picture though. I hope you all feel privileged! :cool: - - - Updated - - - Only thing I made my mind up about pretty early on was that I wanted to go big on my front and back. Other than that I'm just randomly filling it in with different styles of work from different tattooers I dig. I guess my thighs and feet match each other, but other than that I just pack'em in there. I absolutely love the look of japanese bodysuites though, but that's not for me. I like too much from both worlds. Now let's see the rest of you in your fundoshis! If you don't have any laying around, all you need is an old bedsheet and a pair of scissors, and voila.

I think they should have to tattoo the producers.

Everyone here is cool about things, gotta love this forum. CG

"But at the end of the day, are you really a happier person? Has this tattoo, for instance, caused you to learn something new about yourself? Has it challenged you? Has it led you to self-growth? Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that's it. You do something productive, though, and you see results. That's a genuine, satisfying change in life. Not ink." At the end of the day when I've gotten a new tattoo yes I am happier. Tattoos can cause you to learn something new about yourself. Tattoos can change you. Tattoos can lead to self growth. Her idea of doing something productive "Invest your time, money, and effort into a gym membership, or yoga classes, or new clothes, or experimenting with different hairstyles if you're craving something new with your body, not a tattoo" So instead of getting tattoos all women should do whatever it takes to be skinny and have the latest fashions? So according to her going to the mall is a way to promote self growth and positive change? Wasting your money on overpriced goods so that some guy will want to fuck you is better than investing in artwork you will carry for the rest of your life? Awesome glad I know how to make my life more awesome now. And just to be a bitch I'm gonna go ahead and guess that girl who wrote the article is just dealing with some jealousy as she's not very attractive herself and looks to be rather plain and boring. Way to go lady! P.s. since when is a woman equal to a Ferrari or any other car? Talk about degrading yourself by getting tattoos and then you're gonna write and article comparing women to cars. Shit like this drives me up the fucking wall.

I see this guy on the road sometimes: