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Latest session. 18 hours in now, the end is in sight! Thanks to Stewart Robson and FST.

who got this? Instagram Haha forget it, it was @Eilin of course, I knew it! Sorry Eilin for jumping the gun on posting this, I'm just really happy for you & your awesome tattoo and all the more psyched for mine now.............. Can you tell me approx how many hours it took?

You're willing to drive close to 15 hrs? ... How about as long as 16.5 hours? (Houston to Tempe AZ.... ) It's well worth it. Home to someone doing hands down the most amazing Japanese tattoos in the US. Anybody that knows, knows. Anyone that knows would agree without thinking twice.

Yes thats mine indeed! Veery happy with it! And it matches my Bingham panther on my other leg too :) will post a better picture when Im back home. He took his time, it's a very small tattoo and it took him aprox 4 hours! He is very meticulous about his cats! Hehe He does do tebori, but he used machines on me, im happy he did. Can imagine it would take even longer with the tebori technique!

Haha beat me to it^ @cookietruck Roper.

I forgot about him. Definitely one to consider. His style reminds me of Trevino's earlier work, which I mean in the most complimentary way possible.

Chris Trevino at Perfection in Austin has to be mentioned. Another Chris--Ayala at Scorpion Studios right there in Houston--also does gorgeous Japanese work: Chris Ayala

Got this pantherose from Jeff Rassier at Black Heart yesterday. So stoked. If I lived here, I'd get a lot more tattoos a lot more quickly.

Here's the result of my recent trip to Austin... Instagram My hands are currently swollen to the size of boxing gloves, so I had to borrow the above picture from Thomas's instagram. Super happy with 'em.

How's it going everyone, I am 24 years old, from the state of Texas and currently enlisted in the Marine Corps. I have several tattoos to include my partial sleeve on my left are with photos below, and working on my right sleeve as well. I am a typical Texas country kid, I love to go fishing, hunting and shooting and even playing in the mud. Cheers all

Chris Lain at Pinnacle Tattoo in Corpus Christi Jason Brooks at Great Wave in Austin

The grey ghost of tattooing.

my guess is Mike Roper.

Here's one of mine, redrawn from the Bowery book and tattooed by Sophie at Eight of Swords last year, a very nice birthday gift from the one and only @MrsGougeTheEyes

Derick Montez at Everlasting in SF is doing some pretty cool stuff.

Thank you for your service sir and welcome to LST!

Ice pack will help with the swelling too - honestly my arm swelled so much my bandage was tight by the morning! Though since that it's been a brilliantly easy heal!

I've recently fallen in love with this piece: Absolutely love the abundance of finger waves and the classic simple but powerful koi imagery. Adding this to my folder of ideas...

Also drove up to Napa to get this lady head/eagle from Chad Koeplinger on Thursday. Super good experience.

Thank you!! So, as I have mentioned before, Junii usually has some inspiration right before the tattoo and our plans change a bit - now it looks like we're going back to two snakes, no hannya (maybe). And the collab? Oh, just Junii, Shad, and EVERYONE IN DIAMOND CLUB, nbd. !!!!! At the beginning of the second day, I was looking at some frog paintings my hosts have around their home and vaguely thinking "what a cool tattoo that would be". Headed to the shop. As soon as I get there Junii says "what do you think about this?" and pulls out some frog stencils she made!! As my mind was wrapping itself around this fun bit of synchronicity, she explained that she wanted to put a meditating frog down at the bottom of my leg, and then add some dreamy clouds working their way up so it appears that everything we see is what the frog is sitting and meditating about - we have a beginning now!! She is going to add a few more frogs, one guy with beads, another one with a coin, maybe another guy. I am so satisfied with how this tattoo is coming along - not just with the quality of the work, but also the completely organic nature of how the tattoo itself is developing. It's really incredible to be part of this experience!! ...searching for more words...I'm just into it, is all. :p I'm booked again in July...we'll see what she comes up with next!!!!! I've attached some action shots and one of me being just clearly insanely happy to be where I am. (Thank you for indulging me). Yes @Lance, best birthday present to self ever. @Zillah the koi looks great!! You are a beast to sit for 7.5 hours - that shit is hard! Congrats and can't wait to see a healed pic.

FIGHT THE POWER

Twice now I couldn't go swimming while my arm heals -- I know: boo f*ckin hoo. Got called a "party pooper" by a six-year-old at yesterday's pool party (and deserved it). I thought tattoos were supposed to make you look cool -- not like a dork sitting there in your long-sleeved shirt while everybody else has fun in the sun.

Willow bark is a natural version of ASA/ Aspirin which would be helpful for pain and circulation. Aspirin will likely work faster. I haven't had leg tattoos by the boy has and most of his discomfort came when getting up or stopping when walking - long sitting should be fine - it's just when the blood flow rushed to his legs that he had a rough time.

Woohoo! Monmon cats, a must love. Okay, I can't say I've driven back to LA after having my lower leg or feet tattooed but I did fly. Not much fun. I feel I'm not so good with lower limbs though. When I had one of my lower legs tattooed and when I got both of my feet tattooed they swelled a lot. Did you ever see the first Star Trek re-boot, where Captain Kirk's hands swelled into balloons? Yeah my feet were like that. I kind of regretted not taking the first flight back into LA where I could immediately go home and just prop my legs up and not do anything. After the session my feet were sore but not too swollen so that would have been good. Instead I stayed in SF and flew home the next day. When I woke up in the hotel the next morning , I almost laughed it was so comical. Even though I had my feet propped up, and iced, over night, the swelling had increased significantly. Running to catch a flight home later that afternoon sucked. Perhaps driving won't be as bad because you won't be putting weight on your leg. You're just sitting there. Or is the leg you're getting tattooed your right side? I will say this though. One of the guys at the shop recommended "white willow bark". After taking it in the morning the swelling did reduce a lot. It was still swollen after but helped reduce the swelling noticeably. I recommend looking into it before you go though. Having to stop off at 3 different locations looking for it on the way back into SF, probably did not help my cause.

Didn't have to, but I did a 6/7hr motorcycle ride the day after getting a knee-cap to ankle shin piece. Wrapped it with saniderm on my artists recommendation (which leaked all over...my socks/boots were pretty gross) which kept it pretty protected. It wasn't bad at all while riding, but standing up wasn't super fun after being seated for awhile.

Ha ha @TrixieFaux, you beat me to it. I was just about to post a comment about it. @Eilin, you win again. It's soooo soooooo good. Cheers to your awesome new tattoo! I definitely think I will have to get another one of these

^so good. I'm not a cat person by any stretch but these are really rad.

welcome welcome, my only advice is to go slow, research, and learn all you can to make the best decisions about your future art.

Thanks. Yeah, when it was done, I immediately wanted to get more tattoos from him.

You're screwed. I see at least one or two people die a week at the shop. See ya on the other side.

been skating a bit for the first time since my knees broke down a couple of years ago...been awesome and going pretty decent i must say. not as it once was but hey, i'm not getting any younger!

Greg Christian does beautiful swallows. There's a newer one on there in a different style that's equally beautiful.

Boom!!

I think you're right. This has been a good reminder to spend less time online, though.

He had mentioned..... "If that is absolutely the way to go i would be willing to do it though." Just thought I'd throw those suggestions out! On weekdays at the right time those two places aren't too bad to get to and find parking.......at least that's been my experience! Perfetto's shop isn't too far from the subway....maybe like 4-5 big blocks I think....I know I walked up that way while I was waiting to be tattooed...

On a plane about to take off for SF...tattoos lined up tomorrow and Friday....today is gonna be a good day :D

When I think about people I actually know in real life with bad tattoos, a lot of them want their tattoos to be "meaningful" or "representative" of something above all else and they basically don't care about the art, history, or culture of tattooing. They have somebody they go to, they're happy with what they get, and they go back to that person. I don't really talk tattoos with them because I think that even though we're both into tattoos, that we're both after very different things. You can't make people care about art. It doesn't make them bad or stupid people.

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 lady is an artists (not the tattoo kind, unfortunately) and here are a couple of my favorites.

"Nattpatruljen", Norways answer to "COPS". This is how Norwegian police handles a drunk, angry man. We of course have police officers that are total dicks over here too, but fortunately, some of them are quite alright.

By Mike Rubendall at Kingsave NYC. Still need to add some patterns on the veil. Any suggestions?

Yeah, a body suit of cats all done the way he did them in the very first episode of this season.

this magnificent bastard is probably the most retarded, fluffy creature ever. He's awesome :D he always has this look on his face, like he is thinking about the meaning of life. edit; its my cat

I forgot I posted Louie in this thread, haha. Since then I got a dog, she'll be a year old next week. Louie's friends with her now but it took awhile. Bonnie: Bonnie kayaking: (well, taking a break from kayaking)

Wendy Pham out of Conspiracy Tattoo in Berlin, Germany Super detailed and whimsical work. Instagram

Greg Whitehead, Scapegoat Tattoo, Portland OR All pinched from his instagram. @cltattooing humility is a great thing, but from what I've seen, you're killing it too and should be included here. That Pharoah's Horses you posted in the tattoo of the month contest this month is a great tattoo period, not just great for a young tattooer.

I love this thread. My girls: This is Daisy. She's a retired racing greyhound and is the sweetest, laziest dog ever. We adopted her from a greyhound rescue about a year and a half ago and watching her go from being this dog that had never lived in a home before to being this sweet little girl who just wants cuddles from everybody she sees (except for children, she is afraid of them) has been one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my life. http://distilleryimage5.s3.amazonaws.com/a5b74d08dff811e1a2ce22000a1c86dc_7.jpg And this is Susan (grey one) and Willa (orange one). They're sisters. We adopted them from friends of friends who took in a pregnant stray off the street. She gave birth to four kittens. We couldn't decide which one we wanted so we got two. The guys who took in their mother from the street read somewhere that the best way to socialise kittens is to hold and touch them from birth so they have none of the usual cat aloofness and you can pick them up and cuddle them and rub their bellies and basically do whatever you want with them. Willa regularly shits outside of the litter box because she's an asshole. http://distilleryimage3.s3.amazonaws.com/ee70b336e26911e1bb6a1231381f737d_7.jpg

my cat Louie... only photos I have were taken when we first got him from the shelter a year ago. He's got two extra toes on each paw.