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Just got this blaster today by Ron Henry Wells while he's in town at Lombard St. Tattoo. A somewhat new take on his drippy wolf designs - I'm so happy with it! Photo taken by Ron and stolen from his IG - Instagram

this is my back, done by Russ Abbott, I think right after it was finished, roughly 5 years ago now I think.

Just came in the mail! :) By Ozuma Kaname: Tattoo Fantasy Women in Tattoo @Dennis Kaname's Women in Tattoo is INCREDIBLE and far outstrips what I was expecting when I ordered it. I saw in the thread that you also recently received it. Big smiles over here! I also have Shienrenjo and Tattooed Beauties. I am pleased with my Kaname collection so far :). The other pic is of my tattoo book shelf, which also has some other odds and ends on it, but I'm pretty stoked for my burgeoning tattoo book collection :).

Another session with Junii and Matt at Diamond Club at the end of the month :). More leg and butt work. Hopefully shad will be back soon and we can start on my upper back! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Backpiece appointment number 2 with Marius Meyer booked in for Feb 9th. Flights and hotel all booked up, bring that shit on

Thanks for sharing this stuff - that gives me a better idea what I'm getting myself into. And pasties? Um, no. I think I can rig up a halter top and see what kind of teetering high heels I have shoved in the back of the closet. I have no expectations - just cracking myself up at the audacity of it all. Just to say I did it - what the hell. No, my husband won't be coming, but I might be able to rope in a friend.

Got my lemur rose morph yesterday... it's a partial cover up, I'll get another soon with background to cover the rest. Also, the tattooist is going to go over the purple in a darker shade once healing is done in order to fully obscure the design underneath it.

YES! My backyard! LST East Coast hangage?

You people rock.

what are you feelings about drawers with exposed wood?

One thread discussing things that happen on Ink Master is more than enough, thanks.

I've been really enjoying getting lots of little fillers done recently, as I work on my left leg. This weekend I went to The Okey Doke to see Franz Stefanik. He did the mace, the tooth, and the chain link around the bulldog that he did for me in the summer.

My good friend got me 'Bodies of Subversion, A Secret History of Women and Tattoo' by Margot Mifflin for Christmas. I wasn't expecting it. Amazing present. I can't wait to sit down and read it.

We always open gifts on Christmas Eve. The parents and wife know where it is at! I'm pumped!

Welcome Alessandra! I really like the idea of a phoenix tattoo as it has potent symbolism and is a strong, beautiful image. That said, three to six inches tall is too small to do much justice to the idea: when I think of the phoenix tattoos I've seen that I've really loved, what makes them really work is both the way that the shape of the phoenix, especially the tail feathers, flows with the body; I also love the different contrasting patterns in the body, wings, tail, and head. You need space to make that work. I'd also advise against incorporating initials into the tattoo, for the simple reason that I've never seen a tattoo improved by adding initials or anything like that. Tattoos are by themselves meaningful without needing to shoehorn in any additional meaning. Another new poster here is planning on getting tattooed at Carter's Tattoo Company in Bowling Green, KY and it looks like they do really nice tattoos there.

Before @Pugilist got tattooed at Adorned we ate at the Blue Ribbon fast food chicken sandwich place and it was really good and from what I can recall not far from Kings Ave NYC either.

Back on the table next week w/ TheGangOfOne ! Excited to get some momentum on my ShaoLin backpiece this new year. Lined in at the beginning of December. Was hoping to sunburn it off during our trip to Mexico (so I could feel the full wrath again haha) but alas it was pretty chilly down south. <sorry i'm scrambling my lines until I get more progress, only sharing the full view privately for now> @ - - - Updated - - - @beez Shad "Horitsukikage" ? Steve is great pals with Shad, got a bunch of cool stories about him and the way he tattoos. I think he's coming to Edmonton to visit in the near future, I'd love to get a small piece and meet him!

Heh, heh. Well, if you're going to wear heels, @SeeSee - then @Cork has to, too. Just being fair, here . . .

You cannot control people's opinions. I went from no tattoos to 5 in the past year. Shoulders and legs, so they are easily hidden. This past summer I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. A casual friend told me I've changed a lot. I asked what he meant. He stated I didn't think you were the type to get tattoos. I asked him if this was winter and you never saw my tattoos would you say I've changed a lot ? He replied "I guess not " No one at work or any customers/clients know I have tattoos. Appearances do matter. How you dress, how you groom yourself, your tattoos. Look around to decide what your appearance should be and don't just look at your co-workers. Look at the supervisors, managers and bosses. I'm entitled to get tattoos if I want. But I don't expect people to share my point of view or opinion on things. I have a good job that pays well. It affords me to get good tattoos by good artists.

From the JANM Tattoo Show facebook page: "Perseverance will be traveling this year!! We will open in Baltimore, Maryland at Towsen University in February and in Richmond, Virginia at the VMFA in May!! ‪#‎perseverance‬ ‪#‎janmtattooshow‬ ‪#‎janm‬"

Haha! Good one. Mine does end rather abruptly, doesn't it? ;) (BTW - the broken tilted mast in the middle is the mast of a Japanese cargo ship (Nippo Maru) from WWII that was used in the war as a water carrier. Before the war it had apparently been used to transport bananas! Plunder would have been much more fun if it had been sake.) Although there was pretty cool artillery, a tank on the top deck and torpedoes in the holds. Yeah, it will be cool just having done the contest regardless. We can have our own contest with the following categories: Philly Tattoo Convention, Contest: Back piece, Division: LST, Class: Male. And the Winner is - @Cork! Philly Tattoo Convention, Contest: Back piece, Division: LST, Class: Female. And the Winner is - @SeeSea! Of course, unless some of our cohorts around here decide to join us. Then we'll have to create sub-classes such as Japanese, B&G, etc. Because you know, now in America, everyone has to get a trophy. - - - Updated - - - Here is the mast reference for my back, and stuff on the deck. Pretty weird to swim over that and into the holds to see torpedoes jumbled about. They told us, don't bang your gear around - everything is still live.

I've never seen Ink Masters.

i guess it depends on if it's hardwood or softwood.

Every show is different. Depends on the size of the stage, the panel of judges either sit directly behind you or up the front of the crowd. No. Chicks don't go topless. You'll know what to wear. Like a top piece swimmer or similar. Most events will have a best back female and a best back male, but I have attended a combined category once before, that was at a typical "convention'" style show. I much preferred the old MC shows. Panel composition. Let's put it this way, every show has its flavour and dependant on that flavour is how the judging will go. Not necessarily does the best tattoo win the category, but best for that particular style of show could be quite appropriate. You get the feel of this after attending quite a few. I've taken out best back at some events and haven't made the final judging at others. Anyway, it's all about having some fun and showing the crowd of like minded people. You'll get more "fuck yeah" comments when you're back mixing with the crowd. No, they're not that formal. Just have fun. The best 1st place trophy I won was a Viking drinking horn. Filled full of rum by a very nice looking young lady as I made my way back to the table [emoji4]

I'm not sure if I ever posted a picture of my back when it was finished. Anyway, here it is. (found a better picture)

Funny - I had the same question. I have no idea how this works. I was looking for some sort of top I could wear that would show my entire back without showing everything else to the world, too. Hey - let's both give it a try and meet up, and if either of us wins, we'll just have to agree to 2-out-of-3 and head to Baltimore in April! :D

@KBeee thanks, it was an awesome experience to get. Most of my torso is now pretty much full now as well. All by Stewart.

There was that time in November where we decided to say screw it and get married a year early, in a public park, with 9 guests.

Back with Chad K at Congress St Tattoo on feb 27th for my 4th session on my back!!!!! This one he is calling a "power session", which honestly just sounds terrifying!! He is finishing the lines and hoping to also finish all of the black shading!! Should be "fun"!!! Seriously though, I'm super excited!

Getting this one colored in this Saturday after 4 months of waiting. I'm already planning my next piece and will probably travel out of state for it.

I had my favorite tattooer in the world, Erick Lynch do this on Friday at Redemption in Cambridge Ma. My girl and I have been together for 7 1/2 years and got married in October…. So, I got her name finally :-) I'll have to repost this when it heals.

On my way to arlanda airport in stockholm for my flight to Barcelona. Two full days of backpiece awesomeness with Jondix to look forward to!

here is my finished panther and roses tattoo by Jebb Riley, done at Congress St Tattoo in Portsmouth, NH. (finished last friday) I keep forgetting this is actually a coverup. The butt / thigh covers up an originally well done celtic knot that was touched up HORRIFICALLY by another artist after I moved from miami to NY in 1995. Lived with it for almost 20 yrs before covering. Not sad to see it go. Very difficult to photograph as it wraps around my arm and starts at the top of my shoulder, ending below the ditch in my elbow. Jebb did a nice pic stitch so I stole this from his instagram. Still, with the glare, and the bleeding, this pic doesn't even come close to doing justice to it. Started in July of 2013. Panther outlined right before my second and last session on my chest with Chad Koeplinger (he was running late, so why not?). Sessions were spaced very widely apart due to me starting my backpiece with Chad last year. Jebb has been very understanding. Total time on this is about 9.5 hours. Jebb Riley is a super great tattooer and and even nicer dude. Super stoked with how this all came together.

Booked what will probably be my final trip to Japan for a few years... Tomo is sure he can finish my front-piece this visit, so...I'm going over next September. Flights and hotel booked. It'll be an interesting trip. He's finished up in Yellow Blaze by then and I'll be getting the shinkansen from Tokyo to his home city (1.5 hours) to his new studio. I'm really bummed out to be finishing, in many ways. When I started this front piece I remember feeling like "oh my god, what have I done - this thing will never be finished". Now that it's within my grasp it's all a bit anti-climactic - I almost wish there was more to do. This will be my last big piece, I have room for no more big work.

my back piece by Chris O'Donnell

I feel like I've been talking about it forever, but I guess I booked pretty far out. I had my "official" consult with Grez at King's Avenue for my left arm that will start in two weeks. I'm doing a 3/4 sleeve, and we decided on an eagle fighting a dragon. I knew I wanted an eagle, so then we kinda worked through some options. I'm mostly letting him run with it, as everything I've had him do for me so far has been perfect. Haha. I can't wait.

Finished my back on Friday night (well, Saturday at 5:30 am). It was a hell of a ride - it took almost exactly a year of sessions every 2-3 weeks. We'll do a final session after this heals to tie the bow on it. This tattoo was made by Sean Zee out of Brick, NJ from pictures I've taken while scuba diving. I gave him 50-some pictures and a wish list, and he selected about 15 shots to create this scene. These pics were taken on 4 continents from 1998 through 2013 using (mostly) a Nikonos V underwater camera with an SB-105 strobe, UW Nikkor 35mm, 28mm, and 15mm f2.8 fisheye lenses, Sea & Sea (no relation) macro kit and Nikonos closeup kit. Sean is a great guy, dedicated and amazingly creative. It boggles my mind how artists just "see" stuff like this and make it happen. He put up with a lot of questions and "what ifs" and "why nots" from this nearly virgin canvas (as he likes to say, "this woman only had lil kitty paw prints on her shoulder before this"), explaining to me all the ways this tattoo would NOT work, and ended up just putting it on the table that it really needed to be a full back if I wanted so many references. And to prove it, he designed the whole thing superimposed on a picture of my bare back and emailed it to me. I remember the moment I saw it for the first time and it shorted out my brain. I committed to the full back about 20 minutes after I got the email. (And I admit at the time I did not understand in the least what I was in for...) Kinda funny, thinking back on it, how all the chatter and uncertainty and 14 years of wanting some sort of tattoo with my eagle rays were completely silenced and resolved in a heart beat. Anyway... So, the critters making appearances, starting at the top right and going clockwise are: two moon jellyfish, two Moorish idols, two clownfish and anemone, a batwing coral crab and mustard tube sponges just behind him, a leopard moray eel, two squirrelfish hiding in red sea fans that cross my lower back, a sea snake in lettuce coral (very poisonous, which I didn't realize until after I'd crawled up in his face to take the picture and then been admonished by the divemaster after the picture was developed), a queen angelfish and a hammerhead shark. In the center are two spotted eagle rays and the broken mast of the Nippo Maru, a Japanese supply ship sunk during WWII by US forces in Truk Lagoon, Micronesia. When I look at this, I don't just see a tattoo of fish. It's a diary of my favorite diving experiences. Each part has such different memories of the location, the people I was with, and the experience on that dive. (Yeah, poisonous sea snake. Whoopsie on that one. And the clownfish was actually guarding a little ring of day-old eggs. And trying to photograph moon jellies in a surge without being hit is like playing a 3D video game. And that I really really wanted my spotted moray eels but Sean said the pattern wouldn't age well, so with resigned sadness, my handsome spotted moray had to morph into a leopard moray. Sniff Sniff.) All of this flooding my brain at the same time. And then I get this goofy grin on my face thinking about walking around with this huge awesome back piece that anyone I know would be shocked to learn I have. He put up a little video where you can see the ribs, too: Video of SeeSea's Back. Healed pics coming to an LST contest near you. I want a T-shirt, dammit :D

Above is a picture of me laying like a passed out pale seal on Iain Mullens table. Today was the second to last session on my back. Can't wait to see it finished. We're doing the last bit and touch ups with Rudy Fritsch at the Scottish Convention in the end of March. Going to be fun/hell. Todays session was nice except for a few bits. I can't believe how quick this piece has been. I got the idea to start my back in April last year, asked Iain about it and then we started in mid June. It really helps that both him and Rudy work super quick and make for good company + conversations during the sessions. Secret bit of knowledge exclusively for LST (I know people love that exclusiveness, I sure do): that ain't a dark red, but actually a light gray wash looking bloodied and irritated. Haven't got a piece of color on me, except for a few patches of gray and white.

Finally scored a copy of Ozuma Kaname's long out of print "Women in Tattoo" book. I've been drooling over it ever since I saw it in Kurt Wiscombe's shop 6 years ago! Can't wait for it to come in!

I think you are very confused as to what blue collar is if you are associating it with being a high school drop out.