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Color added. Robert Ryan, Electric Tattoo, Bradley Beach NJ

Last one by Hugo from Siha Tattoos (barcelona) the pain was bearable and it was about 3 hours of line. shading and colours at the end of the month! Teapot by Mors from Chiale Baby (Lille) and calf by Servadio from AKA London the lettering reads "DOOM"

Papa. I am not stupid. 2 small boxes placed next to each other is not the same thing as 1 bigger box. DUH !

Hey guys, This is my peacock 3/4 quarter sleeve, taken straight after yesterdays session so still pretty muddy and raw. It was done by Mie at Nine Tails Tattoo in East London, a small shop that specializes in Japanese tattooing which I cannot recommend enough. Started this tattoo as a cover up in november last year and will be getting the final touches on it in a couple of weeks, I'm excited to see how all the colors will come together when it is finished. I initially had all sorts of ideas about what colors I wanted for the peacock but in the end, the near finished piece is a testimony to the wisdom of trusting in your artist! So pleased with how its turned out. So many beautiful tattoos on this thread...

visited belgium on friday and got this little birdy from guy rubicon

Got my shoulder capped by Aaron Coleman tonight. Really pleased with it, finally feels like my arm is coming along.

12 days and counting until my life gets ruined by some hand tattoos courtesy of Thomas Hooper...

Important news via Instagram: Richard Stell cut off his beard braid.

I forgot to post this awesome little tattoo I got over the weekend. It's from an old piece of Ralph Johnson flash that I found in the amazing book Flash from the Past. It was tattooed by the lovely and talented Cat Bijou at Tattoomania in Montreal (photo stolen from her instagram). Not only do I love it, but by some strange miracle, it is healing amazingly and didn't swell at all, despite being on the back of my goddamn thigh.

Shirts and Destroy just started carrying shirts designed by Tim Lehi. You can get one with a tiger on it and pretend that you're @hogg: Tim Lehi | Webstore If you're not up on S&D, they print t-shirts designed by your favourite tattooers and illustrators. I've had some of their shirts for years and they're comfortable and high quality and the designs fucking rule.

Hey guys. Well, it's about time. I'm coming out to San Francisco this summer. I just booked my flight. Flying out on Monday, June 30th and leaving the 5th of July. So far, I'm planning on going to Blackheart, FTW in Oakland, and hopefully others. I'll be traveling with my friends and acquaintances. My pal Chris, Dustin Golden (Deluxe Tattoo), and Bunny (Rising Tide Tattoo). I know they already have appointments lined up at Blackheart. Needless to say it's a motley crew. But, that said, a lot of you fine folks live out there, and I sure would like to meet those of you that are so inclined. We can discuss all that radness here I suppose.

Got this sweet tengu mask done by Stewart Robson at the Scottish Tattoo convention last weekend. Sorry for the crappy phone picture. I am well chuffed with it. Edit: the picture quality is worse than I thought. I will switch it when I get a sharper one. This doesn't do it justice at all. Sorry.

I mean, if you wanna just rock one Lehi tiger, then sure.

After a month off I am back at it this weekend with a session on my arms with Horitomo and next weekend my back with Jill.

So I now own a company (yea!) and this topic creeps into my head every once in awhile, but now from a slightly different perspective. I'm moving toward the slightly heavier tattooed situation week by week and personally keep by my motto "when in doubt cover it up". Then again i generally am wearing a suit, so moot point as I don't have anything below the wrist or above the collar. I did just recently run into I guess an issue...I have an employee who is getting tattoos, which is all cool by me. Hell show em off when you get em and if you want to burn a PTO to get one, all cool by me. The problem is the same guy has mentioned he wants to get some more visible tattoos, and generally the themes are a bit, eh, black metal. It's a no-go by me just because customer relations standpoint but man is it hard to push that when your employees know I am covered in skulls, demons, snakes and daggers. On a more refreshing note, it was wicked awesome to walk into a clients office and see people with tattoos galore! I was like YES! Can't wait to be able to wear a polo again to work on casual events. The industry I moved to seems to have a much more relaxed set of people in it, as far as tattoos go. Even met a guy with his hands/neck done. Not the usual but nobody seemed to care all too much.

I'm sure everyone with Instagram has seen this, but Chris Cautillo and Ron Wells just opened The Torchbearer in Pawtucket, RI. Instagram Looks like it's in a beautiful old converted factory. Pretty excited that this is close to me.

Got an appointment with Chad K on the 20th. Stoked to be getting tattooed 2 times in a 3 week period

I'm not an expert but, I think Horitomo does tebori, and it seems like white turns out a lot better with tebori. I saw this guy's arm in person, and while the white parts aren't new, they haven't discolored or faded. Besides all of the objection to white tattoos I've seen is aimed at tattoos that are white only, not white tattoos with black outlines.

Let us discuss UGK in person. Are you booked in anywhere?

You know, he's doing much better now. He was just hungry all the time and they could not figure it out. Here's a pic.

here's my new snake on my lower leg by Bailey Robinson. Taken from his insta, best photo I have at the moment.

Healed whispering devil and fresh heel tattoos (and dirty feet). All by my pal Iain Mullen, Imperial Tattoo Stockholm. I am happy I finally decided to get this devil done, had been looking at the sketch in Iains box for a year all ready. It's actually facing inwards, against common tattoo-logic. If you follow around the leg you can see that it's point towards another tattoo of a sleeping lady head, by Jaclyn Réhe. edit: about the heels, the mouth with yin yang was my idea but made to fit by Iain. The other thing, whatever, was drawn on by him. We think it might be a satellite and/or one of those things alchemist brew their stuff in. Either way I think it's just right.

Just got a cool little bat from Austin Maples. Idle Hand, SF.

Here's a couple from my trip to New York last month. A pin-up from Steve Boltz and a cheeky little eagle from Dan Santoro.

busy month! got some fun sailor jerry flash from ryan shaffer the other day and this ishikawa goemon head from koji ichimaru and a tengu from liam alvy oh, don't think I posted my higgs mummy from austin maples yet whoops. shout out to uncle sam for the tax return. no more for a while, ha. p.s. inner bicep fucking sux. not looking forward to doing the other arm.

Got this one from Chad whilst he was at smith street last week. Top dude, real good experience

I'm going to say that piercing is totally not my thing, but I went with @Pugilist when she got her second set of lobes pierced and I was really impressed with the piercer and the level of professionalism, seriousness, and dedication he has towards his craft. It reminded me of tattooing in that way. I've been dismissive of piercing, and I'll admit that I don't really "get it", but you're right...live and let live. And don't go to the piercing equivalent of a scratcher.

I've been getting pierced from a very young age and plan to get other piercings in the future. I don't really understand the puritanism when it comes to the cross-over between tattooing and piercing. I mean I don't think that tattooers should pierce and that piercers should tattoo because they are both very specialized, attention-demanding, and separate crafts. I guess that I mean that the judgement directed toward piercing from tattoo culture is stupid and hypocritical. Conversely, I think that a lot of the holier-than-thou "contemporary shamanism ideal" that many piercers indulge is also fucking stupid. Live and let live and whatnot. Anyway, I've been getting piercings from the ages of 6-21 and if it weren't for getting pierced, I wouldn't have landed my apprenticeship. Currently I have both nostrils, my septum, conch, both ears at 9/16" and my labret which I don't wear jewelry in anymore due to dental health issues. My goal for my ears is 5/8", I'd like to do my other conch and second lobes, and probably nipples if I can ever get over the horrifying idea of putting a needle through my nipple. Twice. Fuck.

Remember: it's not the pants that make your impatience look fat.

I've got a bad feeling. This is 2 weeks post. The fish isn't done yet. The halo is around nearly the entire fish, even the nose. It looked just the same now as it did right after the session. I was a little bruised in that area but it was a normal looking bruise that has faded - this is on the side of my back extending under my arm. This session hurt like hell and I was a little fidgey. The rest of the stuff on my back looks great - this looks like a different person did these two fish It's still scabbing so don't judge the chunky-looking parts. I took Advil this time, and never had before. Is this a big blow-out? I sent a pic to the tattooer and he hasn't gotten back. I have a session on Friday and I'm considering cancelling it. If it's a tenacious bruise, it needs to heal. If it's not, maybe I need a new artist. I read online, and I am the stereotype of pale skin, older, thin skin.

@ironchef seriously the most beautiful cat I have ever seen.

So, looking at actual tattoos of the tattoed cats I noticed that most (all?) of them seem to have quite a bit of white ink in them....so far my understanding has been that white ink was a bit of a no-no due to quick discolouring/fading... Am I mistaken or blind perhaps? Or do we not care in this case because the cats a just too cool (which they are of course)...? Sorry if this is a dumb question, still trying to learn... Example:

My parents 15 year old fellow is the same. They just had him checked out and he has a hyperthyroid. So he gets all the treats all the time now.

I entered this into the contest a few months back, but that was when it was a half sleeve. The top half is done by Lillian Chen in Yorktown VA at Ancient Art and the bottom part is done by Stacy Mcleaf of Chrome Gardens in Gettysburg PA.

Bunch of good advice from all sides here. Agreed on these fronts; If it really comes to it and you are determined then sit down with your tattooer and talk about what works best. Too many shades and tones in a flower and leaves that size esp in a traditional tattoo doesn't look 'proper'. Over analyzing. Live with it for a few months before making a decision to change it; it might grow on you just as is. That being said, if someone said they are just dying to add some other colors the best options imo would be either a small one color burst from behind it or a color (maybe 2!) in the banner but not both options and not too much of anything at all. That's just too rainbow-y and looks like a bad fail not a good fail. That was my attempt at a clever witticism with the banner quote but that's the best I have at the moment. Consider colors not used already but not pastel-ish or muted tones. I would offer the idea of whipping some golden yellow from the fail side in and whip some blue or aqua from the better side in. Gold being a lighter color will balance with amount of red green and black on that side and blue being a fairly mid tone color will work since there's not very much else close to that part of the design. More green or an orange just would look too similar to what's there. But mostly just live with it for a few months. It looks fine.

It's a Kuniyoshi print. Mitsukini Defying the Skeleton Specter

I love both. I have not been pierced in some time, but it all boils down to your own individual style. My friends and I have some of the same piercings but we wear them very differently: i.e placement, type of jewelry, guage. There is nothing more beautiful than a person who "owns" or wears their modifications well. I have stretched ears and wear huge semi precious stones that look great with the tattoos I have around my ears... The celebration of our expressive freedom is a gift and it would not be so wonderful if there weren't such strong feelings both positive and negative about modification.I believe piercing and tattooing share the same boat.

I may have mentioned this before, but I really like the way the crow/raven's head turns when you bend your arm. Very cool! Can't wait too see it healed.

Kinda off topic (is there a "so I had to soundclash my neighbours" thread?).... Today my downstairs neighbours decided to play window rattling dubstep from 11am. At 6pm, admittedly out of character , I got super passive aggressive lay the speakers face down on the floor and turned just one song up to eleven, just to convey the proximity of our lives and the inconsiderate nature of their music selection/volume/duration. This was my song of choice: (worked amazingly well)

Because people want to posture about how crusty and old school they are? I have a friend who's main source of income is suturing up the huge stretched lobe piercings on tattooers who want to talk shit about piercing.

Aaron Coleman (not sure if these have been posted before or not?) Immaculate Tattoo - Home

I joined just to contribute a photo of my neck-to-knees backpiece done by Dan Wysuph at Samuel O'Reilly's in Santa Cruz, CA. My username here was derived from the nickname I earned by spending so much time naked in their shop. I think Adam Barton originally coined it and everyone there calls me that to this day. It took 20 three-hour sessions over the course of almost 2 years. To answer an earlier question regarding healing, it is not sitting on fresh tattoo that hurts, it's sitting down or standing up, or just about any other activity that makes your clothes (or sheets!) rub the area. Also, having a wife to help with the cleaning aspect of the healing process was a huge help. -1891-

I wish I had something intelligent to say, or at least a witty comment or observation... but all I can say is - F@#k Me. By Mike Rubendall kingsavetattoo | Just another WordPress.com site

This thread isn't complete with out Kahlil Rintye. Fucking amazing stuff! Ed Hardy's Tattoo City - Kahlil Rintye

I know @hogg posted a link to Asakura Horiyasu's site earlier in this thread but I was bored and had been meaning to post some photos of his for awhile so here they is ;) And as always, go here: Asakusa Horiyasu Studio

So yesterday was interesting. By the time I started my back piece I'd been up for 30 hours working. But the lining is pretty much done. Here's the link to his blog: Panther vs Tiger in Progress – Stewart Robson The sparrows were a suggestion from @Stewart Robson and from the Amund Dietzel book and I think an excellent idea. Can't wait to get the lining finished and start on the shading :)

Speaking of Miyazo ;) http://www.miyazo.com/welcome.html ^^ wow. just wow. In the series I posted above, Horistune talks about how important the background is, and how when a client comes to him with an idea its the first thing he thinks of. Well, I think he has passed on those ideals to Miyazo perfectly - every time I look at his backgrounds I could get lost for hours

These are by Horitsune II from Osaka Japan. The first is on his pupil Miyazo and the second is on tattooer Rob Admiraal (The piece on the lady is one of Robs' clients/his work) ^^ So friggin good!!! I tried to find a better photo of Robs' backpiece, but good luck finding much if any of Horitsune IIs' work online. There is a series of videos though called 'Onko Chishin' and are well worth checking out, so do it ;)

I was about to say "How can there be no Judd Ripley in this thread?" and then saw that Perez had posted something awhile ago ;) so here is a bit more Judd Ripley