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Congrats, Bunny! I imagine finally getting that tattoo after seven years of waiting is a very satisfying feeling. Greg and I didn't get to two tattoos last night, since we got an unavoidable late start. We did go with the creepy Lo Pan hand holding a dragon that we were joking about the last time I was there. It's pretty much all a result of talking about Big Trouble in Little China with he and his coworker when I was the last one in the shop on my last appointment.

Yes, I did......I got the tattoo below from David Bruehl......and I got another piece to my snake (no photo of it) by Mike Fite! Mike Fite and I have an agreement.... He started a skin tear snake head on me about a year and a half ago sooooo......every time we see each other....he adds another piece of the snake on my body somewhere as a filler piece....LMAO! :D

@polliwog - I agree with you that "A lot of the most fervent defining seems to be done by people looking at the tattoos, rather than the actual tattooed person." The article is a thoughtful read, but it also needs to be understood in the context of what the vast majority of tattoos are, i.e. those tiny infinity symbols and whatever. The kind of work folks on this board get is not the norm, and so our reasons and attachment to tattoos is probably not going to conform to that data super well either. I do often get tattooed to mark particular moments in my life or transitions. I have many tattoos that to me did feel like alternative rites of passage where there were no "mainstream" ones (getting a tattoo to mark finishing my PhD, for example), so I can relate to some of what the article is saying. But I have two principal issues with it nonetheless. First of all, I hate these strange studies of "identity" because they make it seem like this rigid, easily defined concept. I mean, I feel like I have a strong sense of who I am and am searching for who I am at the very same time, and I imagine that is true for most people. I find their discussion of that stuff very over-simplified. Second, I am fucking sick of all these millenials articles, and I am not even a millenial! But like seriously, the desire to cast each new generation as a bunch of iconoclasts with no connection to the past is insane. Millenials are not a fundamentally different kind of person than the rest of us, and writing like they are some kind of alien culture that must be studied makes me crazy. Like we live in a weird world where we are increasingly less and less attached to communities that traditionally defined us. So yeah, we're all searching, and maybe tattoos help us with some of that searching and maybe they don't. We invest a huge amount of time and money (and blood!) into them, so obviously they mean a lot to us and impact our identities. DUH; I would have a hard time disputing any of that. But trying to turn it into some kind of "definition of a generation" psychobabble is a bit much.

It's been a while since I've seen someone use this many words to say nearly nothing. This almost sounds auto-generated. Well, except for this, which is pretty pretentious. Like if we're good enough for him, heh. Perhaps we don't feed the troll.

little sumtin...for da kids...

Well.....I went to Virginia Beach the Thursday night before the Richmond Tattoo show and woke up Friday morning to go to Ancient Art Tattoo (VaBch) to be tattooed by Scott Sterling! What was going to be a small banger to palm size tattoo.....turned into this........ Due to a lot of weight loss....I do have a roll on my side.....Scott used the fact that I have this and made it so the mouth opens and closes.....LMAO! Very fresh photos....sorry the photos isn't better!

Just got a purrdy bird from Brent McKenzie, picture stolen from his instagram About 7-ish hours divided on two sessions. So happy but damn the thigh hurted like hell, I was a complete baby about it.

I love that little scorpion, @hogg and @cltattooing ! Chill dude. I feel like you have all already seen this on the 'ole Instagram, but I had the great pleasure of getting a couple of peonies from Brian Kaneko this weekend. It was a great experience to get zapped by such a nice, funny and talented person, and it was also our first time at Adorned, which was also very fun! What a lovely space. Can't wait to go back there, and will definitely be getting more work from Brian! You can peep the tattoos on his IG here: @truenaturetattoo I am of course in love with the peonies, which I've been wanting forever! It's such a treat to look down and see them there. They are healing like a dream so far. I have to say, I love this finally tattooing my arms business - soooo much more pleasant than all that back/thighs crap I started with.

An interesting read from The Atlantic -- just offering it up for perusal: The Identity Crisis Under the Ink - The Atlantic Excerpt: In 1998, Velliquette and colleagues conducted an interview-based study that found people use tattoos as a way to cement aspects of their current selves. “We were hoping to look at the postmodern identity, and really what we found is that we were in this modern era where people did know who they were,” she said. “They had a sense of their core self.” Eight years later, the team revisited the idea. The second study, like the first, found that people used tattoos as a means to express their past and present selves. But the people interviewed in the second group also seemed to need proof that their identities existed at all. They relied on tattoos as a way to establish some understanding of who they actually were. “We continue to be struck by rapid and unpredictable change,” study co-author Jeff Murray said at the time. “The result is a loss of personal anchors needed for identity. We found that tattoos provide this anchor. Their popularity reflects a need for stability, predictability, permanence.”

I wanna know why he can't get tattoos.

I am so curious what is this impassable barrier to getting a tattoo. Hell even a shop minimum rose is something. I feel like a strict business manager in a tattoo shop is missing the point of the industry. What do I know I'm just a collector

I should be getting tattooed by greg christian agan in 2 weeks or so.

'Bout to start driving to Portland on four hours of sleep. It's a four hour drive. Two tattoos when I get there at noon, both on the inside of my arm, until whatever time Greg punches out tonight. Gonna be a long day! If it is possible to simultaneously be looking forward to a thing and also be the opposite of what looking forward to a thing is, that is me, today. Ha. Gonna let him put a panther head on me, too. I think this marks the beginning of the end of the beginning.

Hey there! I visited Northern Ireland a few years ago - it is a beautiful place! Welcome to LST. I hope you will show off some of your tattoos.

auto gen feel for sure it reminded me of craiglist spam i get everytime i try to sell a damn bicycle

Welcome! Tattoos to show?

what the fuck? go away

@Bunny Switchblade = f*ckin' awesome. Absolutely love the teeth and ears on that panther.

Well, I womaned up and dared to bear my post-natal belly at my appointment yesterday - thank you all for the encouragement! Turns out the skin wasn't a problem at all, a bit of a challenge but doable (just like you said @Pugilist). Only got the lining and a teeny bit of shading done in the time available but TBH that was plenty. Sternum and navel were, urm, fun.

@Bunny Switchblade, love that panther. I love seeing full back pieces make creative use of back-flaps too - there's a Thomas Hooper one where the eye socket of the skull fits into those folds perfectly. Back fat: the possibilities are endless! (I hope to adorn mine someday.)

@SeeSea just thought this one came out the best? Here's the one with the flash so you can all our lovely faces!

I got my first-ever hand-poked tattoo last night from our own @cltattooing: It's also my first scorpion. Let's be honest: I needed one.

Here we go, done by Darcy Nutt at the RVA convention this weekend. Couldn't have asked for a better experience, she is top class in every way possible! There's some weird shadows and lighting in the pics, cause they do the piece no justice at all.

Always good to also look for the source...

That's where it lays. I got some old mates, who have been around, who are also into tattoos, but none of them can fathom the heavy suit approach like punching the armpits solid, in through the groin area solid. It's the attitude that gets you to the stage of firstly making the decision, committing to it then finally sitting through it. There's so much more to that statement than meets the eye as the attitude forms years beforehand. It's the attitude that separates the wishers from the doers.

I joined just to contribute a photo of my neck-to-knees backpiece done by Dan Wysuph at Samuel O'Reilly's in Santa Cruz, CA. My username here was derived from the nickname I earned by spending so much time naked in their shop. I think Adam Barton originally coined it and everyone there calls me that to this day. It took 20 three-hour sessions over the course of almost 2 years. To answer an earlier question regarding healing, it is not sitting on fresh tattoo that hurts, it's sitting down or standing up, or just about any other activity that makes your clothes (or sheets!) rub the area. Also, having a wife to help with the cleaning aspect of the healing process was a huge help. -1891-