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Here's the latestest update on my back piece after the third session with Fil Wood at Black Crown in Leeds Instagram I'm not at a computer for a while so an Instagram link will have to do for now

Tim Lehi oneshot

little executioner fella from my mentor yesterday.

@polliwog If you can afford nice decent sized tattoos like your Chad eagle, I would think that you could manage a backpiece financially if you make it a priority and like @Lance said above, are disciplined about your finances and can work out a reasonable schedule with whatever tattooer you choose. A backpiece is financially daunting and I'd be lying if I said that paying for mine doesn't cause me stress and forces me to choose between things I want. Right now I need to replace my computer's hard drive because it failed, but that's not really in my budget right now because of my backpiece. And that's fine, because beyond essentials like rent, bills, food, etc., tattoos are my priority. It sucks sometimes, but it sucks more not having nice tattoos.

Great idea! - - - Updated - - - Great idea!

you should direct message a few to all your LST friends on instagram

I vote "No". Would love to seem them but I like that his work is hard to find on the internets.

When people get tattooed it is usually an outward reflection of their internal climate, and what with damn near every person on the planet being obsessed with their death, skulls tend to be a popular motif.

My 30th birthday was on Friday. My wife took me out to dinner Saturday night and said we were gonna meet her brother for drinks. When we showed up to the bar she had a surprise party waiting for me. She said she was going out to have a smoke and when she came back in someone tapped me on the shoulder, my best friend flew in from out of state to show up. It was like a surprise inception.

First of all i would like to thank you all for this inspiring thread. Second Im so excited for the start of my back piece by Jondix in january. The waiting have been long but 'soon' it's time!! We have two consecutive days in row. Kinda nervous about how my body will take the long sessions. Anyone done two full days in a row? How did your body take it? Eat sleep try to relax, repeat..

Sorry, been super busy lately & haven't had a chance to spend my usual time allotment of lurking, reading, and generally enjoying this site! I have just got the first draft sketches through from Erin today, and WOW! I am very excited!!!! This Wednesday I fly up to Auckland, and we are tattooing Thursday Friday Saturday - she's pretty certain she can get it finished in three days still, so that's rad. I am arming myself with the usual session requirements, as well as with some tramadol to help keep me still, and a sweet playlist to zone out to.. Bring on a back piece :)

Here's my progress so far by Diego Azaldegui. Got another session in a few weeks which should hopefully finish it off.

Skulls are fuckin' cool. That's a good start.

According to an overly excited drunk fellow who was admiring flash in the shop, "tattoos invented skulls"

Help us welcome @Pugilist as our newest Moderator! She has had a solid presence on LST for the past two years and we look forward to having her on the team!

I'll post it up! Conspiracy Inc were really straightforward / cool by any standard- I said I was only in Berlin for two days, and they still managed to fit me in. Can't ask better than that.

I made these FTW shop shirts and they are available in small-xxl. They are discharge printed pocket tees, super soft and preshrunk. you can order them from my big cartel or stop by the shop any time to pick one up. thanks for looking.

Because everyone has a skull.

Tapatalk wouldn't let me add the image to my last post but here is said Rubendall back piece that he posted on his Instagram awhile ago.

@marley mission I had that problem with them. They were awesome, and I'm thinking of ordering more now that I remember they exist, but it certainly doesn't help that tattoo craving.

Took 6 one hour sign language classes, had a blast. She planned on having a follow up class tonight to rehash things, ask questions etc, and I had to take a muscle relaxer for a headache and felt too "drunk" to go. it's fun tho, I wish I had more need to use it throughout the day so I could get better/faster at it. My husband is probably going to be the new drug dog handler for the police department, so that's kind of exciting for him. He started a business this past summer and it is doing pretty well for being new. I turned 40 last week. Got a super blonde almost-pixie cut and new funky glasses to celebrate.

I think I am getting a little tattoo by Uncle Allan in December... Just waiting to finalise it but all looks good. Actually a pretty accessible guy, as is often the case despite perceptions about endless waiting lists etc. Thinking of asking him to do some of the flash from Halloween just gone...

If I see you on Sunday, I might take you up on that!

Well, it may come down to what area he works on Friday night. I'm thinking if he does all the below-my-waist to butt-crack I might not want to be driving!!! If he smashes ribs, I still have the other arm to drive. 6 pm would be great for me. I'll just have to play it by ear and see how trashed I feel but I'm gonna keep fingers crossed!

Thanks dude! - - - Updated - - - Between four and five hours, I think.

@polliwog, if you're still a couple years out from starting, and you begin saving now, I think you'll have a good start financially. Discipline is key though. Skip a night out here or there, grand vacation ideas may become pleasant staycations, make food instead of eating out. All that junk. It's doable. Difficult at times, really difficult even, but doable. I had to change my mindset and ask myself what I really wanted. For years I wanted a tattoo but always lamented not having funds for anything. one day I realized I was actually wasting a lot of money on things that while entertaining or seemingly needed were non-essential. Also start mulling over a design now. You may find the perfect design tomorrow, or you may find yourself going through a few ideas. You may even think you found a great one, then change your mind a month or 2 later. Over time one will stick but you've plenty of time. Also some artists have long wait lists so depending on who you want to do it, you may actually have to wait a while anyway. Might as well get in with who you want rather than settle for second choices. Good luck! Back pieces are AWESOME!!!

I've just read through this thread and wanted to touch on something in the very first post - I hope this is appropriate. I only started getting tattooed a year ago, but the more I look at backpieces, the more I would like to make one a priority. If I start after I turn 30, that'll give me a couple years to save - the financial part is the most daunting. I was wondering if anyone else here with limited means had some general advice for preparing or just encouragement - the plan I had so far was to get the cost of a few sessions ready before even booking a consultation, so that I'd always be a session or 2 ahead. Even so, it'll probably take a few years to finish, if the tattooer's OK with doing a session every few months. Subject matter is still up in the air, sort of decided on artist...

Ok edited to make it not so massive, we'll see if that works. Tried to get a head on photo to show the other side as well, but it made it distorted as it wraps around and looked funny. Done by Ellen Murphy at Lombard St Tattoo, Portland. As I said the other day, rad shop, Ellen was awesome, great day all around. Picked off the wall from a Stell sheet, mostly healed now.

First pass at a label. I think I am going to go with Horibrew or I just thought of Irebrewmi.

@Graeme, I suspect the tattoo Horitomo did is a depiction of the priest, Ikkyu. Not exclusive to only Kyosai, but he has an image or 2 depicting dancing skeletons with Priest Ikkyu and the Hell Courtesan, Jigoku Daiyu. I'm not positive it's the same client as I've only seen the pieces seperately, but I think it's a bodysuit with Ikkyu on the front and Jigoku Daiyu on his back. It makes cohesive sense and both are black/grey so I'm rationalizing it is the same Client. Couldn't figure out how to attach the image directly from my phone, but here's a link that shows an image. Third image down. http://kiritz.jp/2012/08/kawanabe-kyosai/ That said, I'm not sure if Shige's back piece is tied to any story or idea in particular.

@Graeme I don't know if it is the same but rubendall did a back piece with similar dancing skeletons. Try googling "citipati".

Session five yesterday, lining and shading background on the ribs and love handles. Goddamn the love handles are a shitty fucking spot. Next session we'll shade the background on my other cheek and thigh so we'll be going into the new year with a substantial chunk of the background done. I love how it's coming together.

@Cork Back Attack Brew (I love Palezumi!)

got this a couple of days ago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The upshot is that we identified the need for a female moderator, and @Pugilist has kindly accepted our offer! ;)

We love Wburg and don't mind heading up there!!! It is the only place we've been where everyone looks like @Graeme!

I Did this one on a Coworker at a convention this year, its on her thigh. took about 6 hours i think? anyways, Enjoy! i may repost if i can find the healed pic she sent me it healed immaculately. Open to input but try not to be an a-hole haha so yea, done by me (Marcus Hardy) at Planet Ink Tattoos in Hiram GA

Did the copyright form address not posting the image until he has had a chance to run it through a photoshop or instagram filter? All joking aside, I think face tattoo's work great on some people, but I'm personally not getting one. I love this one from Victor Portugal!

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

I got a thing today. Hard to believe it too me almost 33 years to finally start. A fun Percy Waters bird from Greggletron/Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat Tattoo. I stole the picture from his instagram. Side note: I really appreciate this forum. I went to my appointment totally prepared and actually knowing more than the average bear (which is still only a very little, admittedly), and he kept asking me 'are you sure this is your first tattoo?' He kept talking about how pumped he was to work on somebody who'd give him creative license, who knew about Good Tattoos and what makes them good, and...yeah. It made me feel really good. I'm pretty sure I learned all of that here. He would probably thank the forum too if he could. Haha. Booked my next appointment for October. IT BEGINS.

ThaliaCamille, I am super jealous! I got to use a hundred year old press (that was historically significant to local printing) while doing litho last year, and I thought that was cool. How does it run? And Posterboy, congrats on going back to school! Speaking as a prof, I love students who have returned (and teach many of them at my university) as, like PhilB said, y'all tend to be more motivated, less whiny and entitled, and get shit done. I hope it's a super rewarding experience, and PhilB, I promise that not all profs hate teaching! This is probably not that awesome to normal people, but my big thing this summer has been finally learning how to drive, at the tender age of 31. This is what happens when you grow up somewhere with great public transit. I am taking my exam next week and while I feel really proud of how confident and competent I've gotten behind the wheel, I am nervous as all hell. (I will admit that part of the motivation for finally going for it, though, is to be able to share the driving with my dude on upcoming tattoo-related road trips.)

This semester, I've been using a printing press from the 1500s. In a country "found" in the 1700s (or 1600s, if you believe the Dutch :P), shit that old is kind of exciting. I still suck at carving woodblock/lino/finepoint, but hey, I get to use cool presses :D

I found the healing to be pretty easy. It's not like healing an elbow or ditch or some other joint, at least in my experience. And Gouge, I feel you on the first 5 or 10 minutes. It always takes me a while to get acclimated. I liken it to getting into a swimming pool: it's freezing at first, and it feels like you'll never acclimate, but within a few minutes, the water's fine and it actually gets worse if you get out and jump back in. Another reason why I don't like taking long breaks during tattoo sessions--then I have to get acclimated all over again! I remember getting birdies tattooed on my chest over 15 years ago and thinking, "Man, there is no WAY I could get a full back piece!" But then 10 minutes went by....