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Heavy blue session. Not a great pic, but you get the idea. From Dana's instagram. Also, @Bunny Switchblade it was a pleasure to meet you and your husband yesterday. Again, sorry I wasn't a great conversationalist, I thought I'd be doing better off than how I really was!

Thanks! It's my second one from Eli. I have one from Bert too. Someday I want to get tattooed by Boltz and Santoro too. - - - Updated - - - Panther by Bert Krak. Done at SSTP June 2012. My third tattoo ever.

Dragon vs panther vs car battle royale

a dragon

Boltz, 2012. Love this little gap filler.

Rat Fink

Here's that morph for anyone who's wondering.

These are healed from Craig Boxcar Chaizen and Josh Adams, respectively, done around a month ago. I suck at pictures and any wonkiness is from the position i had to contort myself into to take the shot.

I like the original idea. It totally suggests a car wreck to me.

I really don't like the term "plain skin".....seems derogatory in a way..... Like we are really that much different.....just because we chose to alter our appearance or something! Anyway..... I don't even realize I am tattooed anymore.....I always think maybe there is a stain on my shirt or food in my teeth.....LOL! Stares or comments don't bother me much anymore......and yeah you do hear some really strange things come out of peoples mouths BUT I have also heard some of the same things come out of people who are less tattooed than others are too! - - - Updated - - - Okay....funny story....maybe a little off topic though.... I had a girl I was dating come to visit me several years ago.....she was moderately tattooed! She told me at the airport she was sitting there and everyone seemed to be staring in her direction.....in fact so much so that she was seriously thinking about asking why everyone was staring at her so much....."Haven't you seen a tattooed woman before???"....is what she was thinking! Then she realized........she was sitting under the Television......LMFAO!

I agree with @BrianH - think about why you want this tattoo, and what about the experience you want to commemorate? What do you want this tattoo to do for you? Sometimes choosing non-literal imagery that symbolizes the feeling you are going for is a lot more successful than going for a very literal image. For example, if you want to commemorate survival, I think a phoenix could be cool. Or if it's about luck, see the suggestions above. Or if it's about a near-death experience, I like the reaper idea above, or even something like a skull, which to me is the most classic memento mori. There are a lot of amazing options if you think outside of the box a bit and go for the thing that feels right rather than what represents it most obviously.

It's funny how we get more upset at someone for their reaction to your significant other or family but could really give a shit when it's directed at us.

You are definitely getting great work done on you...and yeah....definitely get something from Steve & Dan too! It's so awesome when you walk into shops like Smith Street (or Frith Street in London) and know you really can't go wrong by being tattooed by anyone there!

Well, I'll be stopping at the Torchbearer next week (yay!!) so I'll have to keep my eyes open - I would imagine they're still decorating, though. I'm sure it's been said before, but all of the Higgs tattoos I've seen have this totemic power that manages to come through even on something like Instagram. Pretty amazing.

You live in the Northeast. Stop by Torchbearer and have Ron do his take on some Higgs flash. You won't be disappointed.

Valerie finished my backpiece yesterday. Had some serious post-tattoo nausea after this one. Glad it's finally done, but will miss the process.

Octopus by Yoni Zilber.

Car rose morph.

What a great thread, thanks! Some old, random favorites:

what about the the crash do you want to remember when you look at the tattoo? the near death experience? maybe a grim reaper the violent twisted metal? maybe bio mech how lucky you were to survive? a traditional horse shoe, four leaf clover, or other lucky symbols the unlucky Friday the 13th date? lots of traditional Friday the 13th tattoo designs to choose from

I don't think I can teach that one in SF though. Not touching bumpers might be beyond my ability in some parts.

Hold up Hoggy, I want to talk about parallel parking. Parallel O Parallel plan driving routines for your newbie drivers as per experience. In the beginning we arrange the drivers for 0-3 days experience.

Hi, William. This is a forum for discussing tattoos.

Broken steering wheel? And yeah forget the banners and dates and shit

If there's one thing I've learned from here, it's that tattoos like this don't need a bunch of banners with script/quotes/sayings. Good solid imagery can do the same thing for minus the daily questions behind it's meaning etc. I have a remembrance tattoo and if I were to do it over I'd drop the banners and script.

Just say, "and I remember you before you were a dick."

Haha that's it mate, it keeps things interesting. My full blooded Australian fiance struggles to keep with with the shit I come up with sometimes.

I just saw my niece take her first steps :)

My wife is Maltese. Speaks 3 different languages. Prides herself that her theoretical understanding of the English language is sound, until..... My mates rocked up the 1st time when we got together on their bikes for a bar b and a few sherbs. Cranking the sounds, knocking back the ales, swapping lies with the general lingo happening. She said to me the next day, "why can't you blokes just speak normal English? I had no idea what you's we're talking about" My reply was, "but babes, we're not English. We speak faaarkin' Australian". Even after 13 years together she still at times struggles to understand our humour and lingo. God love her, keep her guessing eh hifire!

all you dudes gotta do is think of something and then ask for it i'm sure these guys would be happy to switch this up even more...

Jersey is great! It gets a bad rap in the media and whatnot, but having lived here for the past 5 years or so... I love it. (Although I'm liking Hoboken less and less everyday. Jersey City is where it's at!) Also... LST meetup? There is plenty of Jersey people on here now and NYC, of course.

@Graeme New Jersey is a fantastic place. I say that sincerely.

I am heading down to Read Street tonight to see Dana....and to watch Cork get tattooed! :)

I believe they mostly are referring to the bogarting of their own photos, which in turn get reblogged and spread to every Tumblr without proper credit given to them.

@ThatGuy - I love when I gawk at awesome shit on IG and then find out it's on a poster! Totally worth the nausea. :) I am not sure if I ever posted my completed back on here. Done by Stephanie Tamez at Saved in Brooklyn, from summer 2012 to summer 2013. I loved the journey and love the tattoo(s?) and it feels like it's been on my back forever. The map was my first ever tattoo from a long long time ago that we worked around, although she pumped it up a bit to integrate it into the larger composition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIi94s5Tp-E My ex still has my Bad Brains CDs. 7 Seconds is playing near here in June. Black Flag later this month. Buzzcocks also in June.

I'm a big fan of Wolfpack/Wold Brigade. I was actually just listening to Disfear! Probably my favorite crust/d-beat band is a band called Martyr Dod. Just heavy. However, I'm into this all the time:

First post from a long time lurker, but I wanted to share this one I got from Chad Koeplinger yesterday. Came across this thread while searching for other examples of this style and though I would contribute. Cheers!

Are you thinking of the Steve Byrne one on someone's hand?

That Eli piece you recently posted is soooo good.

I agree with you, @SeeSea ! I also kind of can't imagine doing any kind of activity solely under the banner of "modified". That's not enough to unite a bunch of disparate people. And weirdly, despite the fact that I of course don't think people should judge one unfairly based on being tattooed, I also find these self-conscious attempts to make tattoos/mods seem more "acceptable" kind of annoying. I feel like this stuff actually exaggerates how "hard" it is to be tattooed, when I don't really think it is in this day and age. (And to me, a lot of the shit I DO get as a tattooed women has more to do with misogyny than tattoos.) Also I am not a doll! My dog is, and she has two visible tattoos, so maybe she can join. :)

Bert posts a wolf tat every other week or so. I'm not putting up something that has a secret trick or anything like that.

@Cork I like Wendy's florals but LOVE her whimsical little creatures. Have to think a little about it and also placement since I'm slowly running out of real estate. I've been looking over her Instagram and Tumblr for ideas. Right now just hope I get an email back about a spot. Great idea on the heikegani. I thought the lobster she did with little Murphy the hamster riding it was AMAZING. Very Miyazaki like.

I think @beez and I woulda been best friends in 98-01.

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.

My parents are very religious muslims, so it wasn't even a topic that was open for discussion as tattoos are so forbidden in Islam. My older sister got a tattoo before me, and whilst i knew my parents hated it i was never around to see my parents finding out about it so i had no real idea about what sort of reaction they had. So i got my first tattoo on my back, second on my chest, and then my third on my forearm. During healing i was wearing a long shirt to hide it, and i kept bringing up the "Can i get a tattoo" and my mum would always say no, i brought it up once when i was in my mums room and whilst talking about it, she spotted the gap i had in my shirt (It had buttons down the sleeves kinda thing) and demanded to see my arm, she freaked out had a nervous breakdown, sent me out of her room, cried for a couple of hours and i could tell it was easily one of the most upsetting things in her entire life. This same ordeal happened (And to this day does) everytime i'd get a new tattoo and she'd "Find out" about it. I have a full sleeve now, entire chest and other tattoos here and there, and it's still something that plagues her, she can't stand my tattoos. The point is, even if your parents are only a little bit opposed to it, or completely opposed to it like my parents, showing them sooner than later is the only way to go. When i'm hiding tattoos i have this constant fear of them seeing them, and when they do know all about my tattoos at least i have a sense of relief.

I really want one from Jeff Rassier. Photos stolen from his IG.

What do you think about this guy's work...Travis Hulshizer in Fayetteville, Arkansas? Someone on LST recommended him, and I think his work is pretty outstanding...especially for a small market like Arkansas.

Ed Hardy on Richard Stell.... I begged for a picture. Worth it.

Isn't gay bear redundant?