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I just got back from another fun-filled session. 3 hours of stabbing on and around my spine....fun fun fun :) This time a lot more black went in (coat and bow mostly), a bunch of purple in the coat and bow and some pink in the Kitsune's feet. I have another 2 sessions planned (in 2 weeks, and the last one in 4 weeks), and the piece should be done then! :cool:

I hate those things! They remind me that those people were cool because they didn't need tattoos to be cool and that I might be barking up the wrong tree with my obsession. Ha! The thing about ideology/fashion is you can't see it for what it is when you're in it. Look at any photo of yrself from more than a decade ago. You look silly but at the time you thought you looked great. At the same time that's what's great about tattoos--you're committing yourself to something for life when it's obvious that nothing is "timeless"--it's inherently stupid and in bad taste.

Dude, it is a COMPLETELY idiotic option! If you slow down our ham eating odyssey, I will never forgive you!

Finally got around to finishing my knee with Koeplinger. It sucked, so I'm kinda dreading the other one. If I were you I'd wait @Graeme. Walking a lot can be a challenge, at least the first couple days after.

I think people are really overstating the timelessness of traditional tattoos. I first started seeing them in the mid to late 90s when hardcore kids started getting them. I would guess this was to a large extent the influence of Higgs trickling down, though I did know a dude who got a bunch of bad old metal tattoos covered up with some really beautiful classic traditional done by The Dutchman in probably around 98 or so, and that was coming from a different place. Regardless, traditional tattoos have a time and a place, there isn't this continuity with them that a lot of people imagine there is, and my suspicion is that it's probably not going to be too long before traditional is going to be looked at with the same kind of sneering derision that a lot of people usually save for tribal or chromed out dragon sleeves. I'm not saying that a well-done traditional tattoo isn't going to age super well and that a big fuck off eagle on the chest or roses or a panther or whatever isn't always going to look badass, because it will, and I'm going to continue getting tattoos like that because they're powerful and they get me stoked, but don't fool yourself into thinking that they'll always be the "cool" tattoos. There are a lot of twenty year olds out there who are keepin' it super old school by getting face tattoos who are putting on shitty "traditional" tattoos that look like total ass. There's stupid things circulating of old timey celebrities with traditional tattoos photoshopped on them, I mean, there was a recent thread here about a gallery show of fucking porcelain dolls with traditional tattoos painted on them. Shit is becoming an unfunny joke.

Yes.....I know this is probably not the proper place to put this so please forgive me! I just wanted any of the NYC people to see this and figured this was probably the most visible forum.....so again I appologize! I am leaving the tattoo shop tonight and heading up to NJ outside the city to stay the night and then heading into Brooklyn tomorrow morning to hang out with Tony Polito and Marvin Moskowitz at Old Calcutta.....so if any of the NYC/NJ/CT people would like to stop on in then it would be awesome to meet you all! I know it's severely short notice BUT I wanted to make sure it was 100% before I said anything! Anyway....stop on in tomorrow if you are close by! Thanks, Bunny

Starting my back & ass-piece tomorrow. Collaboration between Iain Mullen and Rudy Fritsch. Very happy that this is going to happen!

Chrome bodysuit=robocop reboot. Don't worry everything repeats itself as far as trends go. New means, you just got exposed to it. Be ready for the 90's reboot because it's coming. Not limited to just tattooing. I've been seeing weird and frightening fashion statements being made on a regular basis. Some hybrid high waisted Mc hammer pants, just one example. Lots of 90's movies being remade too. I'm ready to start doing that chrome tribal robocop bodysuit on the first new trendsetter.

me and my mates all got these fun little felix tattoos today, mine was done by Adrian Hing at Frankie Lee's tattoo parlour in Melbourne.

My newest tattoo, I sat 5 hours for it last Saturday, and this pic is from the next day. I commissioned the art from my favorite artist (Hannah Yata) and had the tattoo done by Dana Krieg at Pop's Tattoo Emporium in Kingston, NY. I absolutely adore it!! (Although the current healing phase is driving me crazy)

Bitches, am I right?

This is why I like you. I love traditional tattoos, immensely. They are great. But I also love getting tattooed by people who are illustrative, who are technical, who are bold, and who are delicate. I like getting tattooed by people who can draw. An open 21 liner (jokes folks, I hope no one ever does that) and a bunch of skip-shading isn't everything.

@beez, Friday the 13th tattoos are so passé. Now, Sunday the 15th tattoos are where it's at. Be a rebel ;-)

I was in my last year of high school and really wanted a tattoo, I went to a shop and made an appointment for after my 18th birthday. I even got birthday money to go towards my tattoo. I was (is) very much into art, and particularly surrealism. So I got the elephants from "Les Elephants" by Salvador Dali as I had a large print on my wall for years and it's my favourite painting of his. It cracks me up as apparently it's a (relatively) popular tattoo, but I don't care. I still like it, and I especially like how it's framed by my sleeves. It was done by Scott Veldhoen at Eternal Image Tattoo in Calgary (Canada). First photo is after I got them done in 2003 (I was doing hair modelling for a hairdresser pal hence the cheesy photo) Second photo is at my wedding in 2011

Chad did most of my shin in under two hours which wasn't too bad, though I remember thinking at the time that numbness is a really wonderful thing. Me and @Pugilist are going to Barcelona and I'm hoping to get tattooed by El Monga or one of the other Aloha guys. If it happens I'll just pick something off the wall and stick it on my legs, but I was wondering if one of those bat heads or something similar on the knee was not a completely idiotic option.

My mates and I got sweet Felix tattoos today for Friday the 13th, mine was done by Adrian Hing of Frankie Lees Tattoo Parlour

Snake tattoos always work. For anything. Which is why I have three.

I love the legibility and solid colors in this! A LOT!! I've really found myself liking the less detail cluttered Japanese stuff these days. Like ones you see in books from +30 years ago and older photos from the early 1900s. The clarity of the subject is very powerful. These posts really inspire me to begin work on my torso soon, but I'm still wracking my brain trying to figure out what to get. As an aside if anyone has suggestions on what works with a samurai/namakubi backpiece and dragon/ho-o sleeves by all means feel free to shout out. Suggestions more than welcome.

Oh lord, no... The knees are rough. I didn't want to walk *anywhere* not even from the couch to the kitchen for a couple days after mine.

I like this thing, it's been done for the last few hundred thousand of years...word of mouth.

Good thread. Here's my mutant viking. This is years old, never been reworked. I remember this one well, Dino (RIP) belted the fucker in.

Got a spot as well, cannot wait.

Don't scratch it. Slap it like the bitch it is.

Hi @Breakme and @Pugilist - thank you for asking :) She came home today - she got through the surgery just fine yesterday and was a model patient - kicked butt for a little old lady. She's upstairs passed out after a good supper. They removed a liver mass but she had a big mass right in the middle of her pancreas. They got a lot of it which will help with her nausea and barfing discomfort - it was really pressing on her stomach, but whatever it is, it will grow back. It is too invasive. They also found a shadow in her chest on the X-rays. Test results for the two masses on Monday, sigh, but I think we all know where this is going. We just hope it's gonna go there slowly and that we can keep her a happy kitty for all that time. I think about her being a monmon kitty on me somewhere. She has the perfect coloring for a koi.

Nice post Graeme. Applies to many things. I'm too old to care what is currently considered "cool". I just go with what I like.

get a tattoo from @cltattooing

I'm sure Grez has a super extra stock of black on hand at all times haha

I'm just saying that we should beware the hubris of mocking how ugly a former tattoo trend while thinking that our current tastes are timeless and will never seem outdated to anybody. I love my traditional tattoos, but I also know that they will look very much of their time and uncool to people somewhere down the road. Tastes change. No one and no style is immune.

Thanks for the kind words, y'all! I am so stoked both to have it and to be done with it--I got it done in about a year, which flew by (even if each session was a mini eternity) but I'm excited to not have to heal this summer.

On Sunday I got a gross Mr. Toad. No particular reason, I wanted to start getting more stuff on my legs, and I wanted something traditional Japanese. Done by Stace at waterstreet tattoo in vancouver, Canada.

My bad. I misread your question. Train on a railroad track? Monorail cat?

We're all a bunch of unoriginal bastards anyway. Waiting for chromed out shit to come back.

Thought that Amy deserves a post. My 1.5 year old frenchie.

My kitty Molly has 2 masses in her abdomen we found from an ultrasound today. They sent away cells for testing. It looks like one may be obstructing her stomach causing nausea and vomiting. They may have to do exploratory surgery to know for sure. She is 16 and a sweet little thing. I'm not sure what to wish for from the test results, other than that we could cause her as little pain as possible. God, animals just wrap their little furry paws around your heart.

So glad to hear that he's feeling better! I am a bunny lover myself, however I'm in the bad books at the moment, Hermann is sitting in MY on the couch refusing to move or talk to me as I rearranged his designated area without his prior permission. :rolleyes:

@JAllen I'd buy that for a dollar! :eek:

This review drives me nuts. It's the one 3-star review surrounded by all 5-star reviews for Memoir: As much as I would love to give a great review, my experience was somewhat of a struggle with Memoir. It was very difficult getting an appointment set up with Kim and getting in touch with her assistant. I sent an email via her website and emailed directly. It took about a week or two to hear back. Kim's personal assistant emailed and left me a voicemail on my cell so I called back several times and left messages as well as email but never received a call back for a number of days. I was very eager so I continued to call until I got an actual person on the line. When I finally got someone on the line, I was able to set up my appointments. Unfortunately, a family emergency came up and I had to cancel indefinitely. I asked if I could get my deposit back and her assistant said she would find out if I could since it was "non refundable" (didn't see that posted anywhere on her site, nor was I told). I still haven't heard back about it. As far as I can tell Kim is a great artist and seems very nice. I was very much looking forward to getting something done by her. I realize she is very popular and in high demand. I have no problem waiting but the process does need to improve. It strikes me as odd since Kim doesn't have an assistant... Maybe she did in 2010, I don't know. They don't even have a front desk or receptionist at Memoir. They all do their own booking. I don't think they have a central phone--they request that you email, then get back to you via email or phone. But more importantly, how can you review a place that you didn't even go to?! Why would she get her deposit back if she bailed on the appointment, even if she had a valid reason?! This is why they have deposits, so their time isn't completely wasted in these situations! Grr. I'm sure everyone who reads it overlooks that one so it's fine, just annoying.

@SeeSea she sounds like a tough wee thing. Glad she made it out of surgery OK and is eating, good luck for the test results next week.

lol indeed :)

I think there are tattoo styles that stand the test of time. So many of us on here get traditional flash that someone also got decades ago. I think in the future traditional tattoos will still be around, just better executed. Nowadays traditional still exists, but as an enhanced version of the old stuff. I only see tattooing getting better... Fads, like chrome tattoos, come and go. I think watercolor tattoos are today's fad, but traditional will always hold true.

I hope this board still exists in ten years so that I can read the equivalent thread to this that makes fun of how absurd traditional tattoos are.

Are you a fan of the bio-mechanical style of art? A great artist who specializes in that could really make your idea work, if you're into it . . .

finally got my other knee tattooed this afternoon. by lowercase j

Booked in with the legendary Eddy Deutsche. STOKED.

I was 18, it was three days after my birthday and i was finally at the legal age, my artist is an old family friend who works at tattoo paradise. I'm part Irish so i wanted something uniquely Celtic that few people would get and found an old drawing of a Celtic warrior with a la tene tattoo sleeve and thought it was perfect so he designed a variant for the first piece to go on my shoulder. I wasn't scared, mostly excited, but i didn't know what to expect. The guy is great with first timers, he explained everything he was doing and when he started he told me he was going to do a quick line so i knew how it felt and then when i was ready he'd really start. It was very painful, naturally, but he helped me get through it and we had some great conversations so all in all i had a great time. i have to say the worst part was the healing afterwards being sore and having to be careful when i slept, and i survived the dreaded itching and was able to carefully scratch the untouched skin in and around the tat. To me it's very special because it was my right of passage to become a man.

mine from Claudia De Sabe (sorry if the photos are huge): photo's from when the tattoo was a month or so old but it still looks completely solid now. planning on booking in something for my other elbow from her soon...

I got a tattoo of Snoopy Playing saxophone. I was just graduating college at the age of 27 having put myself through on my own dime by enlisting in the military and serving in Korea and working part time in restaurants and factories welding and forming steel power distribution equipment. I still didn't know what I was ever going to do with a Music degree, but I knew I loved it enough that I was never gonna stop having fun with it. It was 10+ years before I got another tattoo.

Some guy named @Scott Sylvia put a cobra over my elbow. It swelled up nicely: But healed perfectly: Every tattooer who sees it is amazed that he got that red in like that in one pass.

Haha...I have a mini Battle Royale done by Rassier. It's a panther-headed eagle versus a Hot Stuff-headed snake: