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My arm by Joel Madberg, Salvation Tattoo Stockholm:

A little snippet of my back done by Grime...

got this little herbert hoffmann-design as a tribute for my omma - which is a colloquial expression for grandmother (oma) in my area of germany///@alexwildtattoo

Have not had to much time for painting lately, trying to paint more often.

I'm in Stockholm at the moment and joel madberg did some more on my arm. There is some space left on the wrist and a candle waiting for color in the inside of the elbow. We will finish that in belgium hopefully. Cheers [emoji4]

For fun, my peony by Wendy Pham done as guest spot at Red Rocket Tattoo in NYC

Nekomata Monmon Cat - By Horitomo, State Of Grace. Done at the London tattoo convention 2014!

Here's an update on my Mimi-Nashi Hoichi (Hoichi the Earless) back piece by Fil Wood at Black Crown. Second session and going strong

@CaitlinBurnett10 Read this article by David Bruehl about tattoos and nutrition. I've found that some food at the right moment really gives me a good boost to get through tough sessions. Bananas are supposedly good for endorphins, so is dark chocolate. So much of pain management has to do with mental preparedness too. @DeathB4Decaf I think we probably all feel like a wuss at some point. Tattoos hurt! I know that I always worry that I won't be able to handle it but I seem to do fine. Honestly, I didn't think that ass/back of thigh was as horrible as I was expecting. I even went to work the day after getting mine lined (it isn't shaded yet) and I was fine despite working a physical job.

Finally finished. Ever since my first "off the wall" flash tattoo in 1989, I have always dreamed of a full back tattoo. It was a year long experience that I'll never forget. I'm happy it's done and really happy I won't be in a constant state of healing anymore!

I just wrote this whole long rant but then I reread the thread and realized I couldn't say it any more simple or eloquent than this. If we're being honest, aren't all our tattoos a form of narcissism to some extent? Also, if we're talking "famous," how many tattooers can the average person name? Kat Von D, Ami James, maybe Bang Bang (who's famous mostly because he tattoos famous people)? Totally agree with the idea of seeing tattoos in person vs. tiny closeups on Instagram. Seeing Shige and Jeff Gogue tattoos up close and personal at the Perseverance opening blew my mind – like I had no idea how powerful a tattoo could be. It's like looking at pictures of paintings in books vs. the real thing.

Yesterday. Sorry if it's too big.

OK so I tried to put this post up about three days ago but whilst I was doing it a power line nearby got struck by lightning and we lost power for a while. So that was the end of that. Now that we have power again and I have a bit of time I will try again. I had the fourth session on my back last Monday. I was hoping it would be the last session of outlining but that went straight out the window when Ian started the session by asking me "How do you feel about Tibetan skulls?" Luckily enough I think they are cool and the design that Ian had drawn up was pretty killer so we went for it. The result is that I now have a Tibetan skull on my my ass cheek and the back of my leg. I love it and am very happy to have it on there and we definitely have only one session of outline left. So after 12 hours of work so far my back looks like this. I have included a close up of the skull as well.

Regino Gonzales of Invisible NYC. He's a cool dude.

OMG I would love to go on a pug crawl.

Tiny Lady Tattoo Font #27 :D

Looks great. I really have to check out Trophy. I heard its a nice spot right by (under?) the new Crow's Nest. I picked up a couple end of the season tattoos from Tim Pausinger at The Pearl in Toronto today. I'll post in three pictures. My left leg is really coming together now. I hope I can find good employment soon, because there is still a ton of work to be done!

I just joined this site to learn more about getting my first tattoo ... . I'm quite confused, I've been reading these forums for a few days, and it seems, If I ask the tattooer what I should get, I'm an idiot because I don't know what I want. but if I print a picture off google images, and say I want that , I'm an idiot because I'm not listening to the proffesional artist, like not listening to your plummer when your toilet breaks ? What am I missing ? If say I want an eagle on my chest, I should bring a picture of it, but gladley change it to however my tattooer chooses ? Help ?

Nice teaser! Hopefully I'll run into you at the Convention and get to see more of it!

What a great time today with my hottie riding through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Cherokee, NC for lunch, then up the Blue Ridge Parkway for the fall colors. It was great up to ~5000 ft, but we ran into heavy fog/clouds and I bailed on NC151. What a great road that is! I've got to come back when it is dry and leaf-free to straighten it out some! Thru the ether from my LP2

I'd say a tie up bikini to be your best bet. Tie up prior to sitting up and works for both top and bottom areas. But I'd love to see what other people suggest. Oh, and the infamous Rocky suit (sweats top and bottom) for after the session for max comfort. ;)

V&F is awesome! I frequent Blue Flame in raleigh as well.

Hi all! I have a question for you ladies who have done a full back piece.. How did you manage your front whilst being tattooed, did you use tape? I'm a 10E, so am trying to find a solution before I get to the tattoo shop and boob all over the place! Also, with healing.. How long until you were able to comfortably wear a bra again? I should note that I am not doing a short session.. I've booked my full back to be completed in three full days sitting (because the artist is only in NZ for a short amount of time, not because I enjoy that amount of punishment). So will likely be a swollen/bruised/bloody/inky mess by the end of day three! Any advice would be appreciated x

This is NOT my back yard, but I wish it was! So much fun! https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151658937849364

Depends on what you have and what you want done. VanNess & Fellows Tattoo Boutique | Raleigh GLENN'S TATTOO SERVICE INC. Legacy Irons Tattoo

Well, I'm officially inked. :o This thing took 9 hours to bang out, I couldn't be happier. Jesse is so damn talented. Already got the next 3 appointments booked, going back in on November 7th to hopefully finish the top half of this sleeve so we can start working on the bottom half in December.

YESSS! A Sick Of It All dragon never gets old!

Sorry missed that part. Eagle would look great on your arm too. If you are willing to travel to Austin check out the Eagles that Steve Byrne, Tony hundahl, and Ben Seibert make.

Keep it simple and stick with tradition. Get an eagle on your chest.

@ian he won't be coming this year , he and I spoke a week or two ago and he let me know, he's got some good family stuff to take care of so yeah he won't be there. Well now the wifey and I got a good reason to make it out to Adelaide this year. I'm not too worried though I enjoy the process of getting work and the stages to finish it .I have plenty of other work I'll be getting and finishing up so I don't stress time

I really need to make it to this one year. Dave, who is doing my back, works it and he talks about how it's such a great convention. No nonsense, just loads of great tattooing. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but stupid tattoos taking up all my money so I can't travel to get tattoos.

It was funny looking through Tim's portfolio at the Montreal convention because I swear half of it is pictures of your tattoos. Great ones as always, and I especially love that frog. I hope you find work too because the only thing worse than having a job is looking for one.

So much good shit happening in Asheville!

It comes down to how YOU communicate your expertise. Your in the prime position to help educate. The average collector/ enthusiast without any understanding or artistic knowledge needs to seek their ideas from somewhere.,.dont they? Do you just expect them to come in with a blank idea and you magically come up with the same interpretation, or expect to only tattoo what you want to put on their skin. That comes with time and trust. It's like an old time piece of flash, it's been duplicated a million times. Isn't that plagiarism to a degree? A panther is a panther is a panther. I understand to a point what your saying, a custom one of a kind piece, well maybe, but pieces say things to people and can capture exactly what that means to that individual as well, so it could mean more than just wanting a copy cap design. It's like my smoking wizard with the starburst from the pipe as the background. I had wanted a wizard for 20 years, but no wizard captured that exact pictorial message, until I came across this wizard on the net. I took that picture in to my tattooer and said...man, after all these years I found the one. I can understand if you need to change it, but it's emulates something quite specific. His response, and knowing me for years was...man, your right, it captures you perfectly, I couldn't make it any better. We slightly changed some aspects like hat band & colour, but why try and reinvent the wheel on this occasion? It was perfect. Is this wrong? Fuck you to anybody who thinks it is, this is one piece out of my entire suit that had already been captured, it speaks volumes, it's my favourite tattoo next after my back tattoo. There's also been times I've taken an exact design in and said ...man, something like this...and from there we come up with a complete new transition, sn even better custom piece. Maybe next time someone comes in with an exact picture and turning them away (only to have it tattooed by someone else without any education) you can say...man, that's a great design, I can see why you chose this. What's it's meaning to you?...dig a little, become a consultant, tap into that individual a little and say, ya know man?...leave it with me, I reckon I can come up with something even better for YOU without doing s copy. That person may just walk out of there with a little bit more knowledge than they did prior to them entering, and maybe you EARN a loyal and devoted customer for years to come. I'm no tattooer, I'm also no artist, but I've learned a lot from my tattooer over the years because he actually took the time to help me understand. This is the 1 reason that he has been responsible for my entire suit, and the rework of everything he didn't originally do. I'm just offering a different perspective on this subject, not having a dig. We all help educate each other, because my tattooer had mentioned to me the same, that over the years has learned to appreciate where his clients come from also. "Booze, Blues & Tattoos"

Brian Kaneko?!?! As @rozone says, " @hogg wins again". And again! And again! And again! And agai...

You're #41 (but #1 in the hearts of LSTers everywhere). #42 is next week: Brian Kaneko.

I am slammed at work, yet I just read this entire thread. And I'm glad that I did, because there's some great back and forth in it. Thanks to everyone who posted something good here. I don't count my tattoos, but I do keep a list of who has tattooed me. Two weeks from today, I'm getting something from someone who's been on my wish list for a few years now. He'll be artist #42 for me. Then again, I started getting tattooed 20+ years ago. Some of the names on that list are very well-known. Some of them are complete unknowns. One of them is no longer alive, two of them have since stopped tattooing, and three of them were shit on in the this thread's first post. ;) Not a single name on that list makes me better (or worse) than anyone else who gets tattooed. But every one of them is a part of a story--my story. Just as every tattoo I have comes with a story of its own. I love meeting people and sharing stories, which is part of what I love so much about getting tattooed and hanging out with awesome people like so many of you. I'll stop rambling now, but thanks again to those of you who made this thread worth reading.

Well I received the grand price today :) Unfortunatly I can't show the t-shirt together with the backpiece, but at least I got some sleeves that pair nicely with the t-shirt ;-) (and yes, I'm sooo wearing this tomorrow to the office :) )

Dave Regan added some maple leaves to the namakubi he put above my knee at the beginning of July. I apologize for the awful day after picture. I really can't sing Dave's praises enough. He's a talented and funny fellow that makes getting tattooed a joy.

This thread has been fantastic, really great discussion so far, thanks everyone for adding your thoughts! After I read the bulk of it I had to jet off to work so I didn't have time to make a cogent reply until now, hopefully some of my thoughts have survived through the past few days of working. Anyways, these are my thoughts on the subject as a client relatively new to tattoos. Though I'd always been a fan of tattoos, I got a pretty late start on my "collection" so to speak, I loved the look of tattoos but throughout my teens and early 20s any spare cent went to drugs and booze so actually getting tattooed was fiscally impossible. I got sober, met some people with rad tattoos in and out of the program, and really started thinking about it again, I visited a bunch of trashy shops throughout the greater Colorado Springs area, and found nothing appealing in my search. I've always been a bit of a collector and really dig researching and finding the best version of whatever it is I'm looking for. I eventually found LST which I credit for helping me learn what makes a good tattoo, and really helping shape my tastes. You all have been lifesavers! Sorry for the long personal discourse but I feel it's a bit relevant to the rest of the post. So after two years of scoring the forum for information, flipping through instagram a few times a day, following an unmanageable amount of accounts on said instagram, I finally took the plunge and booked an appointment with Marie Sena after I had seen her name on the list of artists working at a then new shop (Dedication Tattoo) down in Denver. Her style really spoke to me, I wasn't really familiar with her as a "name" in the tattoo game, maybe read about her on here once or twice but I feel extremely lucky to have such a wonderful first tattoo from such a fantastic person. I never really set out to be the guy who never gets tattooed by the same person twice, but as of yet that's how it's turning out. I am wary of being perceived as some sort of "starfucker" as @Pugilist put it, but with Denver being so centrally located in this country I am presented with a lot of great opportunities via guest spots to get work from great tattooers! How am I going to pass up a chance to get tattooed by Adam Shrewsbury while he's in town for a couple days, he doesn't even make tattoos regularly when he's home! Chad's going to be here in a couple weeks? Well I'd better find a way to stack some cash because I won't let myself miss out on that. I have a list in my head of people I'd love to get work from, some may be big names, but it's all because their work speaks to me in ways that I can't really quantify, I don't want the most star-studded skin, I just want stuff that makes me happy when I look in the mirror. Besides the power of the imagery, it really is all about the experience though. Any time I've been tattooed by someone with a "big name" they have been some of the realest, most down to earth people I've met. Jeff Zuck is a gentleman and a scholar, Marie, as I said earlier, literally one of the nicest people I've ever met. Adam is the most down to earth dude, you can just tell how grateful he is to be spending his life making rad art for people. Every tattoo that I've seen Chad put out has blown my mind, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how humble he was, making sure the other guys in the shop thought the composition was solid on his sketch, ready to wipe it all away and start over if Joe didn't like something about it. Myke Chamber seems to get a bit of grief around here, maybe he's too self-promotional, his drawings are simplistic, but his message in all the interviews is a story of hope for those of us struggling with addiction, and I could tell that he was really grateful for his position in life. Now, @mmikaoj, again, I appreciate you starting this thread, the discussion has been really great! You caught enough flak for what you said about Deutsche, Shige, and Horiyoshi III, but I had to jump in and defend Walter McDonald! I know that some of his tattoos look a little off, definitely not what anyone would call perfect, but goddammit they are fucking tattoo magic in the flesh! That man is one of the best human beings I've had the pleasure of meeting, it's impossible to imagine him without a smile on his face. His shop is beautiful, flash from floor to ceiling, exactly what you picture in your head when you think "tattoo shop," not to mention that he's mostly responsible for me and the rest of the state being so spoiled for choice when it comes to guest artists on a regular basis. Walter is the coolest and I can't wait to get a tattoo from him. Sorry about the rambling, hope I didn't stray too far from what I was trying to get across.

I'll add some personal experience to the conversation here which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Seriously, LST has some really smart and savvy members that don't come off as know it all douche-bags. Without naming any names, I spoke with one older more establish tattoo artist about Instagram as well as one younger tattoo artist. The older one said while Instagram is nice and great for seeing what other artist's are doing, it lends itself to be a medium where people can rip off your work. The younger artist loves Instagram and stated that they get most of their work request via their Instagram postings (about 90%). Separately names are names, some established and worth the hype, others maybe not so much. I personally just get what I like and what is appealing to my eye. In the end I'm the one who has to live with the tattoo and if I'm not happy with it even if it was a "big name artist" why did I bother to get it in the first place. I completely agree in that seeing an artist's work on the Internet or on Instagram is not the same as seeing examples in real life. Again the Internet and Instagram is great for researching out ideas and seeing what artists are out there but it is only a component in the many facets of deciding on what tattoo to get and what artist to go with. There is still value in visiting a shop and going to conventions or even holding meet-ups like some LST'ers do from time to time.

Love the two different color eyes and the split tail! Nice!!!

Swoon indeed. I love the look!

Been trying to improve, starting with getting a clean line. Also found the 4 colours i like to use and have decided to use only these colours.

I painted this several years ago, just pulled out a pic of it and am trying to decide if I want to use it on my upcoming tiger tattoo.

Rose morphs were the first thing to come to mind, but they rule so it's not really a bad trend. However, I think we often overestimate how popular traditional tattoos actually are, sure they are hip right now, but in the larger scheme of things, are they really that popular compared to other styles? Like among tattoo collectors, the punk scene, etc. traditional tattoos might be pretty popular, but like in the general public I don't think many people give a shit about them. Whereas things like black and grey portrait work and even Japanese traditional are actually pretty popular in the general public.

Awww - excellent! I'm psyched that this thread is being well-received, and thanks for the advice about Time 'o The Month. Friday night should be fun. Ugh. As for what to wear for a back session, I wear a hoodie backwards so we can unzip it, and a fleece button-down backwards on top of that. It's been cold lately so I need the layers, and we can just do the top button of the fleece and it keeps everything together on the top. I wear yoga pants/sweat pants and sometimes a camisole all the way down around my waist for extra warmth if I need it it we're not working near my waist. It took me a couple sessions to work all that out but it works great for me. I might not need 2 layers with summer coming and the shop will be warmer. And everything goes right in the washer afterwards and so far only one spot of the pants have permanent stains. It's now all in my "tattoo bag" along with snax, DVD player, water, etc.

Then there are guys like the late Pinky Yun, who will tattoo a full sleeve dragon no stencil, just start outlining on bare skin.