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Started this last year at Kings Ave. Made progress at the Montreal convention then finished it last week at Kings Ave.

OK, I'll bite @ironchef. My first leg tattoo. Got it at the London Convention. By Eli Quinters, Smith Street Tattoo.

Done by Curt Baer from Iron Mountain Tattoo.

From the past two days at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Long Island and Manhattan. Yesterday was a shitty day in terms of weather but the Manhattan location was packed with appointments and tons of walk-ins.

Just finished a session with Yoni at NY Adorned, will post a photo when I am less red and bloody! It's a wheel of life with lots of nice colors - oranges, blues, greens, reds. Super short 2.5 hour 1-off session, flew by save for my hip screaming at me for laying on it funny for that long. And dang is the fleshy bit near the hip the pits to have tattooed, I think I'd rather have my ribs tattooed again. Bummed that I don't have anything else planned with Yoni for a while.

I hate posting the same pic over and over again, but i want a LST shirt! Done by Shige. Pics do this piece no justice.

got this sacred heart yesterday from josh mason @ old soul tattoo. if any of you are ever in the pittsburgh area i definitely recommend checking the shop out, even if you can't get tattooed. best in all of pennsylvania, in my opinion.

Skull crossbones and top hat. By johnny tugboat at the yellow rose tattoo club, kernersville NC SENT FROM MY LG G FLEX ON THE NOW NETWORK FROM SPRINT!?✌

Start of a neo Japanese sleeve by Shawn Van Oven @ Shamens Den Binghamton NY Shawn is an awesome guy so easy to work with. Met him at the Electric City Convention last year.

UPDATE: Two days of brutality on my back with Henning. This go around we started coloring in the phoenix at Kings Avenue Tattoo. 7 hours on Friday in Long Island, then 6 more hours on Saturday in Manhattan. Henning thinks we need one more full session to complete everything. I think probably 2 more including any touch ups. By the way...I really really hate ribs...and spine....THE WORST. Enjoy the pics.

was in sf last week got this from jeff rassier. super happy about it reaper1 reaper2

I only started getting tattooed five and a half years ago. These years has been very turbulent and challenging and, in the later years, also filled with positive learning experience on so many levels. I feel better than ever about myself and I now live a life where I am happy in the moment and also with where I am heading. The experience of getting tattooed more and more and learning about the art and culture has been like a companion through the struggles and personal development. Tattoos has often been a big part of my life so it's hard to separate what comes from what. One way for me to handle rough emotions has been to keep busy all the time, working for money. This money in turn needed to be channeled somewhere and I turned a lot of it into tattoos and travelling. So that was a delayed very positive side effect of negative emotions, new positive experiences. Tattoos have absolutely taught me to appriciate art more, different kinds of art. This has also been inspirational when it comes to drawing and painting my own stuff. Art of course ties into history, structures of society, religion, symbolism and culture: all things I that interest me now more then ever. The more I learn in these subjects, the more I get associations when looking at tattoos, which is also interesting. Tattoos and travelling to get tattoos has given me some very interesting meetings with people, and sent me to places I might not have visited otherwise. I've had many good conversations in tattoo shops and also made a few friends. Most of my friends that I met in other circumstances are not into tattoos, so I tend to not talk so much about tattoos with them. But to know some people that are as neerdy as me is a great joy. Some of these people have told me things that spiralled into new interestest and knowledge that I want to pursue. The experience of getting tattooed also gave some valuable lessons about pain and the body. I am more interested in sensations now than before, I used to be really inside my head and logical in my thinking. This was sometimes acting as a wall when it came to having good experiences so it was something I wanted to change. It's hard to say what's the egg and whats the chicken in this struggle but tattooing has been part of solving this problem and being more mindful and physical in many aspects. I am now more aware of my bodily sensations and I tend to enjoy them more. The tattoo process and the people I've met has also tied well into my interest in health care and nutrition. I also took a course in yoga recently, after friends and tattooers told me about the benefits. Getting tattooed quite heavily also did something to my body image. I am still not happy with the shape of some parts of my body but now at least they have very pretty wrappings. Also in relation to other people, who may view you differently when they see your tattoos, being a tattooed person has made me think new thoughts in social situations. Sometimes in makes me uncomfortable but not as much anymore, despite more and more coverage. It's funny because in many ways tattoos are more then something that I care deeply about and want to imerse myself in. At the same time it is "just tattoos". I think sometimes that other people, without tattoos, make it a bigger deal than it actually is. Like it's being fetishized and or stigmatized in many contexts. Some years ago I would still feel a bit uneasy when someone would ask me "what if you'll regret all this later on?". But now it is "just tattoos", there is so much more to me as a person than what I choose to make my skin look like. On the other hand I feel that I would take quicker showers if I wasn't admiring how damn cool/tough/pretty and sexy I look now. I could probably go on for a bit but I'll stop now. Tattoos has enriched my life a lot and I love it.

I think "it's a tattoo" is a PERFECTLY acceptable answer. This is not my style of tattoo, but it looks like you can expand on the design and add to it with more flourishes and elements. This might make you feel more satisfied with the total work I give it 5 more posts before someone recommends a panther skull dagger blast over lol

got this one Halloween. A reward for losing 40 pounds. Kind of a spur of the moment thing. I had a couple ideas and really wanted to get one, but couldn't decide on one of the ideas I had, walked around for a couple hours while searching the internet for ideas and other designs, finally picked this one and walked in before I could change my mind. really happy with it. the first one that my mother actually liked, kinda, she still hates tattoos.

The winner of Tattoo of the month "October" is @ironchef with this beautiful peony from Wendy Pham!! Congrats homie!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. New contest will be up shortly!

Electric Tattoos & Misc. Artwork (Hand/neck/finger/face tattoos and why I won't do them on you.)

Happy Halloween LST crew!!!

I respectfully disagree. RTJ2 still punches me in face. "Love Again" feat. Gangsta Boo goes so hard. Listen to it with headphones with BASS. Contemplating seeing them live.

sorry to hear that your finger bang tattoo dreams wont be coming true.

@BrianH You and me both brother. By the way, thanks for stopping by on Friday and taking some pics. Much appreciated.

I can't look at a picture of Henning without feeling pain.

something awesome that my girlfriend asked this weekend: "Does this mean we get to visit him in Denmark?" maybe in 2016...

Run The Jewels 2 is out now. I remember someone (I think @CultExciter) posting about the first one last year, and I loved it. New one is pretty cool.

@hogg I've got a buddy that would have done those sleeves for half price though...

Did 4 more hours today. Was supposed to be a 6 hour session but due to circumstances on both mine and Kian's side we changed it to a 4. I am glad to say it is now time to re-commence my backpiece. For the last 2-3 months it has been all about things and butt etc etc. I had actually forgotten that I was doing a backpiece. :) I am quite tall so my butt and thighs is a substantial amount of area to tattoo. Today we have all but finished up that area and started colour on background elements further up. I love looking at the progress after every session but after starting colour on my "back" I realise I still have a long way to go.

They fade so fast and hard. A buddy had finger work like you want and it's faded beyond belief after a year. Get something on the arm or chest. Nothing says guns like a big dragon sleeve

Greetings everyone! My name is Sara and I'm italian. I got my first tattoo when I was 18, a Nazca inspired tribal and a japanese ideogram for Raven but I'm working on a design for a cover-up. A few years ago I got very interested in becoming a tattoo artist and just a few weeks ago I finished a course that gave me the certificate to practice the profession in my country, although I'm looking for an apprenticeship before I ruin someone's skin. I've joined your forum because I loved the interviews section and I got really curious about your community here. Thanks for reading :o

@ironchef your back is looking insane! Very impressed indeed, and the finish line is in sight. It makes me very excited to finish the linework on my back this Saturday so we can then move on to some shading in December. But for now definitely a huge congrats on what is going to be a great piece.

This thread is relevant here: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/5489-our-imperfect-skin-scars-stretch-marks-more.html

Ok , so I missed this post when you made it in September, but just saw Valerie's post on IG today about it, and my mind was blown. I am wondering about the fact that Soap (who is a really nice guy and great tattooer) will be tattooing there though. What is happening with Lab Monkey tattoo in Stirling? Has he sold it, or will he still own it but work in the new London shop, or...? His own instagram (@soap138) mentions the new shop but doesn't mention the status of the old. If I'm not mistaken, Lab Monkey is where @Stewart Robson got started tattooing, or at least was a key part of his early tattooing career.

I'm probably the least knowledgeable person on this forum, but I suspect the general suggestion will be to find a good tattoo artist and discuss with them in person about your options. Personally, it looks like you should be working with a different artist. If you specify your nearest city/town I expect you'll get some good suggestions. e.g. I'm sure there must be a lot of good artists in Manchester or Liverpool...

An oldie. While getting drilled in the arm pit. Good times.

I met @mmikaoj this week in Stockholm! He hosted me for a night as a couchsurfer, and I got to enjoy an amazing dinner with him and all of his housemates, too! Very fun and generous folks, all of them. AND I got to see all the art he has hanging around, and the art he is making himself! A stand-up guy, this one (and talented). Thank you again for the hospitality and for being awesome, @mmikaoj! :) Hope to see you again soon -- either back in Sweden or in the States! (wink nudge)

got this wrapped up last week -- waiting for the healing to mellow so I can get a good / non-glare pic still. Super happy artist: Casey Jones

He lasered off 2 full suits and is on his third one. Crazy right?

Vheck out jeff Cribb at heroes tattoo in conway sc. I worked in myrtle bch for about a year - - - Updated - - - Its a hit or miss place with artists

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

Sounds like you are headed in the right direction, now. There are some really great shops and tattooers near you, as well. I used to work at Holy City Tattooing Collective in Charleston, SC. Jason Eisenberg is a great tattooer, as well as Dennis Hickman. In Conway, there is Jeff Cribb's shop, Hero Tattoo. Great artists there as well. Also check out Danny Reed and the guys at his shop in Asheville, NC "Hot Stuff Tattoo". " but on a scale of being burned alive to getting a blow job it's definitely on hell fire and brimstone side." Great analogy

i like it because it doesn't scream "super meaningful tattoo"

Nice.

A huge (yooj) thank you to @CultExciter for his handiwork on this preliminary flyer for the event!! Emails to artists will (hopefully) be going out tonight. Luckily, we've got the man himself @Scott Sylvia on board, as well as Justin Weatherholtz from King's Ave and buddies @Perez and Nash Hogan from 3Kings. And, one of my personal favorites, Michael Aul from Spiral. Beyond stoked with how this is coming together. And please feel free to spread the word and pass this along! For any more info, etc. check out www.thewarriorsfund.org and try not to make fun of my wordpress skills or just email me at [email protected] and I'll give you the rundown. Thanks everyone!

Had an ass and back of thigh shading session yesterday. It wasn't so bad. The imperial stout helped keep my spirits up.

@Rawok, haha indeed! I won't argue ;) I'm visiting Sweden kind of on a whim -- I'll already be in Europe this fall, and I have a friend here in the states who's from Stockholm, and he promised me free lodging with friends and family of his who are still in Stockholm -- I never pass up a free place to stay in an otherwise expensive place, haha! Looking forward to exploring a bit as it will be my first time to a Scandinavian country.

I've mostly been a lurker for a few years, so 'hi' everybody :). As far as my 'overall look' goes, I'm covered top to bottom. Sleeves on both arms, my legs are covered, stomach, ribs, feet, hands, fingers, neck, even palms. No head or face tattoos and I try to avoid getting a face tattoo. I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of back pieces for the plain reason that you can't see it, but as I'm slowly running out of real estate I strongly consider getting a back piece. Since I'm a big fan of American traditional, I'd love nothing more than to get a badass piece from Judd Ripley at Sailor's Grave :). It all started when I was 19 and I got a lettering (which is now covered) and a bunch of stars (not covered) tattooed. As the years progressed, I got about 1 tattoo per year. At the age of 26, I started my left sleeve. I made the common rookies mistake and impatient me made an appointment with a tattooer who had time the following week. I wanted to get a fullsleeve as fast as possible and so I had an appointment with him every other week. I didn't really have a solid idea for my sleeve (I just gave the tattooer the word 'music'...), so I wasn't really happy with the outcome. As I started travelling a lot and with Instagram popping up, I began researching and finding new artists and booking appointments with these artists. The idea to travel to get a tattoo from a great artist hadn't occured to me to that moment. And now , I'm here covered in tattoos from a bunch of different artists from all over the place and I couldn't be happier. About 98% of my tattoos are just designs I really like. Panther, eagle, shark, Sailor Jerry designs,...some are music-related (lyrics, potraits) and maybe 2% have a deeper meaning. I live in Germany, so people are a bit more conservative when it comes to tattoos than Americans. When it's hot outside, I never wear short pants or skirts. As an American friend, who once visited me,put it best:"The Germans have a staring problem." It really is a pain in the ass, even though I live in a big city. I travel a lot and sure, every time I'm in the US, people stare too, but it's just different. Usually Americans come up to me and say something along the lines of "I really like your tattoos". I like the sincerity. I hope I didn't get too offtopic here. Sorry for the rather long post.

Best album of 2014!!

I pretty much disagree entirely with this. First, it presumes that you understand the reasons why people get the tattoos they get. I read recently, it was either on here or on IG, a tattooer (I think for some reason that it was David Bruehl, but I'm not certain about that) talking about how there was a point in their career where they were tattooing a lot of yin yangs. The tattooer asked those clients what religion or philosophical belief that the yin and yang belonged to and none of them could give an even close to accurate answer, but that regardless of this, they were seeking to achieve a kind of balance in their lives. Horiyoshi III says in an interview in the book JBxH3 that a lot of people who get tattoos of Buddhist deities don't even know what they mean. They like the appearance or the name of the god, and maybe they learn more about it after. So even within what you describe as a "culture" people are getting tattoos that are outside of their realm of familiarity. Second, it's useless to talk about culture as this monolithic thing. If you want to talk narrowly about western traditional tattoos, a lot of those are sailor tattoos or military tattoos, or are deeply rooted in those cultures and traditions, and if you want to talk about people "staying within their own culture" a lot of us wouldn't have the tattoos we have. Third, at this point in time there are very few tattoo traditions that are "untouched" so to speak and aren't influenced by tattoo traditions from elsewhere, and I don't see this as in any way a bad thing. Shit, this isn't even a new thing. I read or heard somewhere...maybe it was from an interview with Horiyoshi III again?...that Japanese tattooing and this whole body compositions were originally influenced by Polynesian tattoos. You look at classic Western tattoos and you'll see all kinds of Asian influence there with dragons and what not--George Burchett went to Japan and observed the masters at work--not to mention that way that Sailor Jerry took that Japanese influence and brought it into Western tattooing with those incredible backpieces he did which have been so influential on the way we get tattooed now. What about Ed Hardy, who synthesised so many things into his tattooing? What about Thomas Hooper who does very European tattoos but is very open about how much he's influenced by Polynesian tattoos? I'm going to say that most of the exciting things that have happened in tattooing have happened precisely because people didn't "stay within their own culture".

Yeah, don't be a scratcher. Don't be everything that established tattooers who care about their industry hate and expect to be treated like a welcome guest. Our job is to do good work and protect our craft, not pass on bits of information and make you feel welcome or applaud you for having the courage to openly be a hack.