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Got started on my right arm yesterday with Clare Hampshire

Was lucky to get this dragon head from Horinao (IG: @horinao1) at the Bay Area Convention. Not sure if I want to add background to it later or leave it in that American piecewise style as I really like the negative space.

Promised the tattooist (Randy Muller) that I wouldn't post any in-progress pictures - and after 7-8 sessions it was finished late Sept and now is fully healed: I'll post this onto the end of my laser treatment thread, too - just to wrap that one up for future referencing.

my pleasure! here's the last few...

My inner thigh leopard tibetan dagger done by Chad Koeplinger at last Barcelona Tattoo Expo.

Shige practicing Zen in the Art of Tattoo... so good he can do chest pieces with his eyes shut. The knee tattoo brings back bad memories of pain and swelling.

As I upload these photos, I realize how spoiled I am to live in the Bay area and get to see all these heavy hitters creating amazing work every year. On Monday, I was bummed that I have to wait another ~362 days until the next one!!

Even with restraint, I managed to get tattooed by Stewart Robson and Virginia Elwood, got a patch from Spider Murphy's (their new book looks so damn good), a shirt from Black Heart, and two posters for @abees , my wallet hates me too. But like everyone else, I'm so stoked with my weekend. No regrets!

Done by Horimitsu at the Bay Area Tattoo Convention. I've heard so many different things about tebori, but it was an awesome experience. So much that I'll ask Horitomo to shade my back by hand when we get that going.

I picked up both of these this week at Seven Seas Tattoo in San Diego. The girl head is by Thor and the panther head/rose is by Dan Pryor.

Well, seeing as how tattoos involve permanently injecting ink into the skin, "dealing with it" is indeed one of the only ways to handle imperfections in one's tattoos. Stop being so fucking rude to people taking time out of their day to explain shit to you.

As the Dead would sing, What a long, strange trip it's been:

Ya don't need to be a professional to know a blown line when you see one. My skin hits blow outs from time to time. Even my tattooer mentioned to me he has to take extra precaution because my skin is so transparent that it's easy to hit a blow out from time to time. I had some full lines on my calf that blew out real thick, that pulled back into line after time, which is cool...I like bold as fuck line work anywhere we can slam it in. I've also had the blow outs where the ink has spread out, mainly on my fingers & hands where you know that spread is blown for good. By the picture I saw of your blow out, it reminds me of a blown spread that won't reverse. I like my blown lines, they add character, and some of my blow outs are of Runic symbols consisting of straight line work. Nothing that can be done about it now. At first, with those Runic symbols & me wanting them to be perfect, it annoyed me for 2 weeks, now I don't give a fuck...I like them the way they are. We understand, this is your 1st tattoo, and if it's the 1st of many more to come, believe me...in time it won't bother you one iota. Suit down...that's the answer!

What went wrong is that instead of getting a tattoo you got some dumb nonsense that I'm sure holds plenty of personal significance to you but was never going to work as a tattoo.

So overwhelming! Yet so fun! Almost pulled the trigger on: The Good Book, walk up with Eric Jones, walk up with Ben Siebert. Will power kicked in. I think next year I won't book an appointment. I'm just gonna try to score a walk up.

Makes me think of the tattoo Phil Sparrow had on his forearm of inch marks so he could measure dong length.

Tattoos are imperfect b/c they are done by a human, which in and of themselves are imperfect. I have some blown out lines from really rad and reputable tattooers. Skin is a weird and funny thing. Lots of different depths, lots of variables. Don't sweat it too much. If you continue to dwell on every imperfection you'll go crazy. There really isn't anything you can do to fix this sans lasering or getting it covered. I would consider that if you wanted to, but the tattoo isn't ruined by any means. It's just an imperfection done by an imperfect person.

Had my elbow blasted today by Juan Arreguin "El Super" at Superfly tattoo here in Leon Mexico. No pain, no gain.

@Fala - Hahaha we rule at peer pressure! We will be happy to oblige! Virginia and Saved are so great and @Graeme and I can vouch for the "couple's tattoo" experience there, as we often bled next to each other at the same time. I think he found this very romantic. (He is weird.)

@flowergirl - I know that it can be hard to convey tone on the internet, so I just wanted to let you know that your responses on this thread come across as really snotty and rude. People are trying to give you good advice about how one deals with these things as both a tattooer and a client. Don't be a jerk about it.

As far as a root of a problem, there's a bunch of different things that could have happened. They may have made a mistake, or you may have twitched (even an involuntary nerve twitch), causing the needle to penetrate a bit too deeply... tattooing is a two way street, and not all of the issues that can arise are the tattooer's fault. If you want it fixed, it sounds like about all you can have done is have that line made a bit bolder, and everything else modified to match. Also, a one inch line with markings for smaller measurements is a fairly difficult tattoo, if you want it laser straight. I sweat those more than big roses or skulls. Plus, if you have it for practical reasons, I feel a ruler would be much better, so that you're not measuring things on an uneven, rounded surface all the time. Plus, as the tattoo naturally ages with you, those lines won't be perfect measurements anymore, just to let you know.

It HAD tattoo artists, but not many of them wanted to stick around when people came around acting rudely because they didn't like the very good answers they were given.

Phil Sparrow contributed a lot not just to tattooing, but also to the understanding of sexuality thanks to his work with Alfred Kinsey, so I would hardly call the recorded anatomical details in his Stud File to be "gross".

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

He loves you, right? Does he think that a marriage certificate is the best way of proclaiming his love and commitment? No way, that needs to be done in blood. - - - Updated - - - I saw that on his instagram and it RULES.

Awww... you two are so cute! Husband is the one who chose Virginia (wisely, I might add), now we need to figure out the when since he keeps waffling and I kind of wanted his first tattoo to not be a couple one, you know?

I know what you mean. Getting tattooed by Valerie and Rubendall, I felt like I won the tattoo lottery. My wallet on the other hand isn't feeling too good. Would do again though, no regrets!

i think you are misunderstanding the feedback here - there isnt anything that can be done with that tattoo so folks are just being real with you also - people are correct in saying that you will need to get over it and you will i also believe that if you get into getting tattoos and get more tattoos - your perspective will totally change you will be able to appreciate the imperfection of it all which in turn lets you appreciate the specialness of it all little story - i got my first tattoo about 5 or 6 years ago a small cartoon tattoo - plankton from spongebob hey hey don't judge ;) anyway - it got infected - i lost skin it got scarred and became of scarred blur of color this was on my calf - my only tattoo for all the world to see so i said to myself - ok - tattoos are obviously not for me i get a tattoo and look what happens my friends affectionately referred to said tattoo as my tattastrophe it was embarrassing but i dont mind laughing at myself so whatevs well a year goes by and i felt like i still wanted to get tattooed so i find a guy to do a cover of this scarred mess with a bob marley tattoo he tells me ok but says with how bad the scarring is the cover might come out 'so-so' and it did come out 'so-so' - you can still see the 'ghost' of plankton but hey - it was better than it was imo - so i'm living with it so what happens next to this bermuda triangle on my calf - i get attacked by a pitbull long story - need a diff thread so now i have - on my calf - a bob marley covering a scarred plankton with missing ink from said dog bites check my gallery - there is a pic :) so what did i do - i kept getting tattooed - and i love it i dont worry about imperfections or if something doesnt heal right - i got some of those too i got weird tatts, funny tatts i love getting tattoos - i like how it feels - i like the way a tattoo shop smells and sounds so long story over - i hope you stay with it get more tatts and just wait and see - this might end up being your favorite one day not cause its perfect - but because it was the start of a journey

Your wife's tattooer told you correctly. They do not age very well.

As an apprentice, I've made plenty of blown out lines. @JAllen is tattooer and he responded to you. Plus the people who have talked to you thus far have tattoos from incredibly top notch tattooers so they know what to expect. Migration is a bullshit term if it is so new. Yes, that is them covering up the idea that is was a blow out. But it doesn't matter. There is nothing to fix this tattoo to get what you originally wanted. You're not a tattooer, therefore you have no idea how hard it is to do something that perfect. If all you're going to do is bitch and moan on Yelp, then that is not the type of community we foster around here. Talk to your tattooer, let them know, that yes, it is a blown out line. If they still push against you, then I'm not sure what you can do. Like @JAllen noted, most tattooers want to have good work out there and fix their faults. If they don't, then you chose poorly in regards to the quality of their scruples.

It was so awesome to meet some of u guys! I had so much fun, as usual! Hope to catch u guys next year! I'll be Carlos Torres' booth bitch next year so come say hello.

One could argue that your tattoo was not "so so simple." You wanted a perfectly straight line with even width and perfectly perpendicular cross bars. It takes some talent to pull nice lines like that. Don't underestimate the talent required to do that - there is no room for error, as you can see. A "simpler" tattoo would have lots of shading and shadows to hide imperfections that you'd never realize were there. Go to someone else and get the proposed "fix" done by someone who does solid line work. I don't think you'll ever know for sure, so I recommend that you take a deep breath, assume the fault lies with the tattooer, don't argue with him, and go find a different one. Good luck!

Cool - like him. I vote for the negative space - he holds his own nicely.

I just thought I'd chime in and say I hate you all because you all went to this and I couldn't....... :D

@CultExciter put it perfectly. I'm no expert with terminology, but what does it matter if you call it migration or a blowout? It's not like you can do anything about now anyhow.

Ink spreads under the skin naturally over time. I've never heard of ink migration as a term before. Unfortunately there really isn't much you can do however. You signed a waiver when you got tattooed.

I would treat everything @Ain Hallap says above about laser removal with a healthy dose of skepticism, as he'd previously been run off the board when his introduction about DIY at-home laser tattoo removal didn't go over as well as he hoped.

How blessed can I be to be able to get a group picture with three GIANTS of the tattoo world (@shige_yellowblaze @gogueart @carlostorresart) who just happen to be the three artists that collaborated on my torso!?!?!?!! I am truly humbled and honored to be able to wear the work, but more importantly to be able to call these class guys my friends. Much love!!! Special shout out to @jessyentattoo and @jasonbutcher who also took part but could not be there. - - - Updated - - - James Tex in March at Summit Convention on my armpit to finish my torso!

The people who said they didn't think the elbow was too bad are all insane. Or they have magical elbows. More fun stuff on the arm with Greg. Took the photo from his instagram. Feels weird to include something this little this week when there's so much crazy stuff on my instagram from the Bay Area convention, but oh well! The trend of 'never actually doing what we previously planned on' continues. At this point I kinda hope it always does. And now I am done until the end of November!

The peony on my left arm was done over a very dark older tattoo with a lot of black in it. This was done in 2011 and the white and blue have held up well since then. I'll have the white touched up on a future appointment. I would have never guessed it was possible and was entertaining a chemical peel or having it lasered off.

My arm by Joel Madberg, Salvation Tattoo Stockholm:

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

Not to be obtuse but ask your tattooer - or, at this point, maybe a different tattooer. If you don't like the answer then decide whether or not to be tattooed by them. Your tattooer wants his/her work to look great, just like you do. You came in with a pretty tall order - straight lines & right angles on an irregular surface with strange curvature and 0 shading space. At this point you can basically love it, hate it, laser it or cover it. It's on your skin now.

I have a few tattoos, my cousin has allot, they all look so perfect, but the more I look the more I see minor imperfections, I call it personality. Nothing in this world is perfect, your skin may settle and it turnout ok for your standards i wouldn't sweat it.

I'd spend less energy trying to decide who's fault this is and more energy on how to have a tattoo on your arm that makes you happy. If you are unsatisfied with the artist and/or shop go to a different one and figure out what your options are. Wait a while for the healing to be complete and keep an open mind. Tattoos are permanent and often come with some amount of initial remorse. Your arm is far from ruined.

@daragao - as you look at the work these artists do on folks, you'll notice how smaller works are laid out differently than larger works, and that anything involving long lines takes up a larger portion of the body for more oomph and visual power. It is fine to have a meaningful tattoo, but remember to not let the meaning dictate the form. You want something that will work visually with your intended meaning, that may mean that you have to change the form. And, your tattooer will likely not care about your intended meaning; but he/she will care about making a kick-ass tattoo. So, my other bit of advice is to not get hung up on the meaning or the image, and to provide your tattooer with a list of ideas/images (high quality images) that represent what you are going after. Then, let the tattooer do their job and trust them to do a good job.

don't lean on your elbow! if you are going to dry heal, just be aware of your elbow throughout the day. if your elbow gets super dry and you are moving your arm a lot it is going to crack. Crack will scab. Scab might pull some colour out. your arm looks like you've healed a bunch of other tattoos just fine...so what are you worried about? don't overthink it, that tattoo ink isn't going anywhere ;p nice tattoos btw

Nice shot of Valerie giving my inner thigh the bizzness. Great meeting Hands On, MoisTowlette, and hogg!

definitely a fan of whatever floats your boat and i think the subject matter you want to commemorate is very cool but... i think the right tattoo artist will be able to help you develop a better articulation of the subject (i.e. - something cooler ;) ) good luck and welcome

If you look in a lot of older shops you will see signs that say....."No photos please!" But people still took photos on occasion.....tattooers traded flash with other tattooers.....and eventually some tattooers with artistic talent redrew images and put them on a sheet all together and sold them even though they probably were not all their own images or original ideas! Hence......"flash" Honestly......and I will probably take some heat for this.......If you don't want your tattoos reproduced then DON'T put photos up on the internet for the world to see! That goes for tattooers and for customers! It's a big world out there and you can't expect everyone to have integrity! Your work IS going to get stepped on somehow by someone eventually.....eventually it all gets done over and over and over! Okay......so like was said....educate the people and explain to them keeping in mind someone down the street is going to do what they want eventually! Let them know in your opinion it is stealing someone elses work and you'd like to make some subtle changes to "make it lay on their body better" or because it's well done BUT "something could make it even better" Tattooers are sales people......it's one of those things you need to do.....be a sales person and talk the people into something you want them to do with it....make them think it's their idea too! If they have to walk.....then they have to walk.... At the end of the day when you go home......you have to be able to live with yourself so you do what you think is best! :D