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Latest session, two and a bit to go!

@Rob I it was great meeting you and thanks for sharing your collection of tattoos with me. You have some outstanding work! Don't forget to try to make it up to the Montreal convention this year. I also want to mention that all the LSTers I've met in real life have been some of the nicest and most down to earth people I've ever met. Also here is the tattoo Chad Koeplinger made on me. Some of you may recognize the design from Valerie Vargas's snake flash set. I went in thinking Chad would only want to use the flash as a general reference and make his own design but he was super excited to do one of her flash designs so we stayed true to the original design. I am extremely happy to have this as the first piece of flash in my tattoo collection.

Not exactly new, but I finally snapped a couple (poor quality) photos of my sleeves now that my Kore Flatmo piece is fully healed. I can't believe it's already been a year since it was done, and over 5 since I got my Kurt Wiscombe sleeve! Time flies! Thanks for looking! I wish I had some better lighting for the photos! One day I'll get some nice ones taken!

Hey everyone, Some absolutely sick pieces this month, but i'm throwing my entry out there anyhow. Let me know what you think! Done by David Bruehl, RedLetter1, Tampa, Florida: Can't tell you how cool the studio out there is, and how awesome Dave was as well! Cheers :)

Chipping away at my front.

New one from Koji Ichimaru whilst he was at NY adorned

Reasons I love getting tattooed as a "bigger" person: 1) More space! Man, I can fit SO MANY MORE awesome big tattoos on my thighs than skinnier girls! 2) A reminder that I gain nothing by feeling as though I am "at odds with" my body; tattoos reconnect me to this imperfect skin I live in and close the mind/body gap a bit. 3) I often think about how some fat activist feminist critics comment that women, in particular, feel guilty for being fat because we "take up more space" in a society where women are expected to take up as little space as possible. I am constantly trying, in my life, to feel more at easy taking up space, being present, and not hiding - tattoos and their incredible presence obviously helps a lot with that. 4) Tattoos are like an awesome treat/adornment for my body - a reminder that it deserves to be treated kindly. 5) As others have said, tattoos have totally changed how I feel about parts of my body I am most insecure about; cellulite seems pretty insignificant when there's a huge colourful dragon over it. 6) Basically, we all deserve to feel like we have agency over our bodies. Tattoos remind me of this. Some extra fat is like, only a small part of what my body is - it's a whole lot more than that, both physically and aesthetically, and it's mine to do what I please with.

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

@BrianH it looks so damn amazing!!!!! Was awesome watching him tattoo it and talking with you guys. I was so nervous, the banter really helped keep me chill. Thanks for the compliments. Tremendously appreciated. I definitely hope to make the Montreal convention this year!! September?? What a great night!!!!!

It is brutal... Jason Kundell did the Foo Dog and Baku on my chest. Horitomo is doing the Fujin on the belly.

I can say from experience that Capilli is a very, very sweet guy. It's great that he's an awesome tattooer, to boot.

Claudia's stuff is beautiful but I think @Valerie Vargas has to be part of this conversation too. Definitely seek out the artist of your dreams. You may have to wait or be persistent but you'll be happier in the long run than if you compromised or settled. And we are talking about fairly local artists for you here.

Hey folks, I know I haven't been posting much lately and a big part of that is because I've been in the studio for the last forever. Here's a sample of what we've been working on. Let me know how you feel about it! https://terribleterriblemusic.bandcamp.com/album/pulling-teeth

If you can't afford a good tattoo don't get one. Tattoos are a luxury not a necessity. I wonder if they offer the "canvases" free laser if they're not happy. If they don't they should.

I was bummed I didn't get to meet you guys. As I get older the tattoos kick my ass more and more....on top of the fact I decided to lift a bunch of weights the night before and waking up early it set me up for my post tattoo "nap" lasting 12 hours. Still a great time as always..... chipping away at my back and it's looking great.

I know you're joking, but seriously, never ever let yourself think this. I am the world's most uncool square and I would never think twice about contacting a "big name" artist for a piece of work if that's what I wanted/had the means to do (Claudia being one of the people I hope to get work from some day!). You do not have to be a "certain kind of person" to qualify to get tattooed by someone that good. You just have to decide to go for it, and get in touch.

I have been really slowing down on getting tattooed recently, but I am very stoked to be getting an adaptation of this cute little nautical star/butterfly design by Robert Johnson flash (from the 1950s, found in the always amazing Flash from the Past) so that I may always keep moving in the right direction. Appointment in a couple of weeks.

@Zillah that's awful! I hope your tattoo experiences are much more comfortable and enjoyable from now on!

my vote is for Claudia de Sabe

Jesus CHRIST, that black on the ribs is solid (and brutal). It all looks amazing, of course. Who did your chest?

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)

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

What a jackass.

Some of those kids with the pacifiers may have had them to prevent grinding teeth while having a whale of a time with some of their favorite illicit drugs. Kids these days. And SpongeBob rules!

Can I +1 on the Claudia love? Her stuff is soooo good!! And I love badass women in general (I love badass men too, but I'm a chick, so....) and getting tattooed by a badass woman has been an awesome experience for me. +1 badassery.

What an idiot, horrible man. I once had two full afternoon appointments booked with an artist guesting at a local studio. She cancelled the first one last minute. I turned up for the second one, got left in the waiting room for 2 hours before she even came up to say hello. She was pretty dismissive of me, of my idea... everything. She hadn't prepared anything in advance, then everything we discussed she sucked her teeth over. By the end of the afternoon we had a design that was nothing like what we'd talked about that really didn't work for me at all. The saving grace was that she had no more time to actually do the tattoo. She told me I'd have to fly out to Poland so she could do it, I politely declined (by email afterwards, I'm a coward and she was really quite fierce!). I felt so discouraged by the whole thing. I'm so glad I didn't go through with it, I would have so regretted it now! Nowhere near as bad as your story though Stacey Stormcloud!

Or bronies... lmao Idk, I think anyone can watch what they want. I've been an avid Spongebob fan for 10+ years :p No shame.

Claudia is very high on my dream tattoo list :) Her work is mind blowing. Not familiar with the other artists, but for London you can't go wrong with Frith Street.

I love how one of the standard pearl clutching responses to tattoos is about how they'll look when you're old. Based on this thread, they hide a multitude of sins- tattooed folk are going to look darn amazing! Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

That's killer @Rob I!

I asked for the specific ones in red. Fugen is my birth year and guardian deity. I was born in the year of the dragon and I have a dragon 3/4 sleeve by Henning on my right arm. Made sense to highlight the Fugen on my right arm. For the left arm I chose Fudo Myoo to highlight in red. Being the immovable one and I also I like the flow and look of the written character a lot. The 8 Bosatsu together is a representation of all 12 Asian zodiac animals as well, a circle of life if you will and is basically protection from evil. I've always been superstitious (but not religious) so this all worked out. I know most collectors who get bonji, especially capping sleeves, get them in black. I went in with the traditional mindset but wanted something a little unique and different. I also chose red because I've seen large bonji characters shaded in red with a red outline and it always looked outstanding to me. Only thing I was bummed about is that I was looking forward to having these done in tebori but being that I have skinny arms and the characters stenciled out on the smaller side, he felt it best to do it by machine. I'm still happy with the results and experience and will definitely be getting future work from Mitsu sensei.

@Rob I holy shit. That is so great.

@Rob I Your back is insane!

@Rob I that's insane. I saw that last night and showed it to my wife. I shoulda figured it was someone on here. I also just told her the Martin dragon story since he's done her two arms. That's also so excellent. Great day.

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

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.

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.

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

@Zillah that is an awful experience! I'm really sorry you had to go through that. I've been lucky and have had mostly awesome experiences and nothing violating like that. So sorry. Have you heard of Capilli Tupou? I really like his stuff and I think he's from NZ as well! http://instagram.com/capillitupou

Claudia is absolutely fantastic - Just going by my personal preference I would choose her every single time out of those options. Her work is everything I would look for in a good tattoo, and I will absolutely be getting tattooed by her at some point!

Claudia,Lauren,& Tracy,do beautiful work..A few more artist to check out.What are you thinking of getting done. Instagram Instagram

I came across a place that does pretty twee flash when I was looking for someone to do my upcoming koi piece.

Thanks for the heads up - I sent you a PM just now if you don't mind helping me do some testing there. Thanks again.

@Jack I really liked that, sounds great.

@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.

Now I want people to start photoshoping subtle penises into the photos they put on line so that they get copied.

Hahahah, that is how I feel about this one I don't think I could cover that masterpiece up!

We are a Queer positive shop so we have no - NO - shortage of every kind of person from every fringe queer community and it's AMAZING. The other day, a guy said to me "This new album is SO gay." and I replied "YES THAT IS AWESOME!" It felt mututally nice that when someone called something gay the first reaction we all had wasn't like "Oh, really? It's stupid?" LOL Anyway, as for the massage tables -- STAY AWAY from the ones that have the beams that pull out and you click them into the four corner legs. They're cheap cuz they're week. Try to find one that fold out as simply as possible with as little assembly as those are the ones that I've used for years and had no problem getting REAAAAL big boys and girls on top. It's a nice thing, too, to be able to tell a client who is scared that they m ight d amage your table by virtue of their weight to, "do their worst." Or similar jokey-type-thing. Really breaks the ice and let's 'em feel like no one gives a shit if they've got a few extra pounds. We just wanna tatttoo em and not judge.