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Big reveal in the wild. Diving in the Maldives. On this trip, I saw several of the creatures on my back, which was pretty cool. The response from my dive buddies was overall pretty positive, and it changed a few attitudes towards tattoos. I had been chatting with three of the women before I let them know I had done it, and unrelated to my tattoo, they all spoke down on tattoos, including the "Why would someone do something permanent - your tastes will change over time" and the "What will it look like when you get old?" Sigh. One of these women really liked it and said it was the best she had ever seen, and she is in the medical field and has seen a lot of bare skin. A lovely woman from Austria was just in love with it and gushed about my "sea" that I can take with me. :-)

So it's been a couple of months since I last updated the progress on my back. The shading sessions are just so much nicer for me than the outline. I think I May have even fallen asleep at points during the session in January. There was no chance of that this week though as the studio was pretty cold despite the heater just next to the bench. I ended up putting half my jacket back on the side that wasn't getting tattooed. Anyway enough rambling this is how it is looking now: p.s. @SeeSea your back piece has come out great. Congratulations.

Are we counting wind bars? I have way too many wind bars.

Just came back to this thread so many nice legs. think we should have all have a update soon

I used these. It's nice to have the double mat - it lifts the glass off the print and gives it some depth. However, I went to Michael's directly rather than ordering online. This company seems to have some quality control problems and many of the second mats are mounted crooked, so you need choose in person. They are generally 40% off when they have frame sales. Studio Décor® Airfloat Gallery

Have we given up on the Latest Tattoo Lowdown thread? Because I like a thread where everybody posts their new tattoos instead of these individual threads that will be forgotten about within days.

I'm actually getting the last two little gaps on my lower leg filled on Friday afternoon at my local shop. Some Lehi flash will be in one of em. Then Saturday I'm spending it at King's Avenue with my Valentine, Grez, for the second sitting on my left arm. I should find some weird gift to bring...

I searched but didn't come up with anything. I am going to approach my collecting the random way.

Thanks @Thailawson The artist is Kian Forreal based in Sydney. I went to him because I love the traditional look of his work. He has done both my sleeves, back and idiot me has already started the conversation with him about extending my 2 chest panels to a full front with Munewari. Definitely not looking forward to doing the front side. I think we are about 70-80 hours in so far. I have had 3 decent sized tattoos removed that were in the way of the backpiece, 2 on back and 1 on thigh. We have found that those areas have required often require a 2nd pass to get the colour saturation that he wants. I had seen Adam's work and he was on my list of maybes to start my decent new work but I really connected with Kian's style of work and plus he was only about a 4-5 hour car return trip from where I live as opposed to Adam was maybe a 16 hour return car trip. :) @SeeSea looking amazing, must be a good feeling to be finally finished such a long process. I am a recreational Scuba diver as well and I am looking forward to being finished with my back so I can go for a few dives again. With my sleeves, back and removal I have basically been out of the water for 2 years. Even though I am in talks on continuing my work I am definitely taking a break after my back is done. @Cork, Saw your finished pictures and it looks awesome. You too must be happy to be finished although I am sure you have plans for more. :) Cheers Jason.

@tattooeddad Best Pizza was solid when I went, but didn't blow me away. I'd definitely try it again, though.

Despite the received wisdom that it hurts less if you're not wearing pants, my experience so far has been that if the pants are off, you're in for some serious hurting.

dont hang w haters

Thanks for the link. Many prints show the mouth. There is one that really looks like mine but it's got a naked diver chick in it so I won't post it. Lol

I see what you did there. Never enough barber tattoos if you truly #respecttradition.

It amazes me a guy couldn't remember his daughter's birthday.

Just downloaded, looks great, excited to watch it grow.

Re: the mouth, I know little about Japanese art but it seems like octopuses often have odd and fantastic mouths in ukiyo-e prints, and the mouth of your octopus is well within that norm... Results for 'octopus' - Ukiyo-e Search Seems like maybe some of the people making negative comments just aren't familiar with Japanese depictions of octopuses. I hope you like it more when the color's put in but I think it's cool.

...if this were posted anywhere else but a tattoo healing thread...

Great work so far this month. Glad to see some more progress @Diehardonvhs @Shaggy and @MrToby. Diehard, you're going to be hitting that other cheek?

I am in the same boat... I am starting to get a bit nervous though,I keep moving around and waking my self up due to small pain... Keeping my back away from bed/blanket has proven to be one hell of a task... I do have to thank my wife... She has been awesome through out the process.

No doubt, one after the other. 9 WD and 10 Saul Goodman

Whaaat?! I didn't realize the premier was tonight! Thanks for the heads up!

After I had 7 laser sessions I finally could get a cover up I wanted. I booked in with rob Richardson months ago when he opened his books. This is what I came back with after 3 sessions in a row full days :).. I will post healed pics later and if anyone wants to see the before pics let me know! Iphone camera used nothing fancy. hope you like it! adult image sharing

@ChaosDani @Boiled Dove Better Call Saul on tonight!!! also Walking Dead, but I'm more excited for Better Call Saul.

healed, happy with the outcome upload image

In the last three days I have read these: "Haiti bound on Tueday". "Thank you coming to our fundraiser" I missed both errors on first reading, and needed the first one pointed out to me (my defense is that the font was weird). And then I wrote this on a note at work "John - to sick to come to work." I am usually the 'grammar nazi' type guy who is very bothered by the you're/ your, etc., etc. But anyone can make a mistake, and given that there are probably thousands of text tattoos being done daily in Canada and the U.S., mistakes by the tattooer that coincide with mistakes by the client WILL happen every day as well.

I just added small pieces as I went along. I didn't think thematically, except to say that I chose all traditional tattoos.

On a traditional style arm full of one shot pieces I don't think a cohesive theme is necessarily important, unless of course the theme is "rad tattoos." It is of course possible to put together a collection of related imagery but when you start filling in awkward gaps you would have less freedom of choice for those areas. I do like the look of a big cohesive piece, and it can be done in a traditional american style, but I think big conceptual or thematic designs lend themselves better to the Japanese aesthetic.

Nowadays, I think a lot of clients have shifted from wanting a tattoo right on the spot to wanting something custom, so shop styles are shifting with them. I would like to think there's an understanding with those shows that clients aren't everyday walk ins off the street. They're coming in for an appointment that combines the consult and tattooing because their concept has already been discussed and prepared for. Reality shows are popular because they're entertaining, not realistic.

I'm a jack of all trades artist in a fairly average shop. You could call us a street shop by the amount of flash on the walls and the number of walk-ins we do per day, but over 90% of the work we do is custom. The good old days of street shops is over. People look down on "picking off the wall" and instead turn to cell phones. Which generally means they want something even more unoriginal that won't age well and it always comes with a pile of other complications. The stuff we have up on the wall these days is phenomenal, and we can tattoo stuff like that all day long, but almost nobody looks or cares. As an artist who hasn't really specialized in anything by choice, I'm doing whatever the customer wants, day in and day out. Compared to when I first started tattooing 10 years ago, the average tattoo tourist isn't looking for a street shop, they just want a spa-like service that will fulfill their tattooing desires.

Are we taking inventory now? Okay, I'll play. 3 daggers 4 skulls 6 roses 7 girls 2 tigers 4 snakes 2 severed heads 2 hannyas Might be forgetting something, but I'm not in the mood to undress and stare at myself in odd positions in front of a mirror right now. Fun thread though!

Back in the day, if you wanted a tattoo right on the spot, you had to settle on something from off the wall. Shops were so busy on Fridays & Saturdays that if you hesitated, the chair would be yanked right out from under your ass.

Congrats on your new tattoo. I wouldn't do what you are thinking. It sounds like you are considering covering a lot of real estate on your back just to connect two tattoos, and a color trail would be boring. This tattoo stands on its own just fine - no need to mess with it. Instead, think about a completely new tattoo on your back. The back is a huge flat surface and it would be a shame to eat up some of that great room with a long filler. My $0.02.

Booked in with Eddy Deutsche in a couple weeks at Marius Meyer's studio, and I'm getting a small one from Grez at Blue Arms Tattoo in May. So pumped that more and more great tattooers decide to visit Norway when they're out traveling.

It's only too fast if it's too fast for you. My first tattoo was a sleeve / chest piece; second was a back piece; third other sleeve / chest piece. All in about three and a half years. I keep telling myself that when my current sleeve is done, I'm done. HAHAHAHAHAH

Here's my baby! Seven hours down, an estimated two to go to finish up. Done by the incredible Erick Holguin of Ink & Dagger in Roswell, GA. It got a little sore at the end, but he was so gentle/light handed that it was smooth sailing for the majority of it. It's in memory of my mother, who loved cardinals, and is even better than I ever imagined.

Bit of a long break from LST but I am still alive and slowly chipping away at my backpiece. Had a decent break from tattooing over xmas which was great but back to the grind now. The snake has taken quite a while but almost finished now. Each scale of the snake has 3-4 different shades of green so has chewed through some time.

@herewego, yeah. It's literally two doors down from Saved if you're facing it. It has a coffee shop, bakery, groceries, and other incidentals.

@herewego Walter's is excellent and you can't go wrong with an Old Fashioned and oysters there.

All true statements. When I was getting tattooed by Dobleman, Bryan Randolph did some yin yang symbol walk ins on two younger girls no problem at all. No complaints. He even said "that was fun" in a non-sarcastic tone.

some spots were okay, some were bad, and some were really bad.

Here are the results of the first session with Rubendall at the Kings Ave Manhattan shop: I have a few more pictures to share but I want to organize my thoughts and write a little blog entry to post along with those photos.

I would nix the tear drop and spiderweb...IMO it makes the design look goofy and will date the tattoo...non-sensical with theme of Victorian-JC...my opinion though. I echo @Graeme's sentiments about a strong traditional looking JC design...but it's your body, so if you like the design, you like the blue spiderweb, go for it. It can mean whatever you want and that meaning can change over time. It's your tattoo, so you own the meaning :) Ice cream cone...the only design that gets a pass for tattoo on the face.

Honestly, it would be way cooler if you got a regular Jesus. In my opinion, that illustration already looks dated. Getting a more traditional Jesus head is timeless.

I just bought 4 more. My wife is running out of patience, it's a good thing she is a cat lady, haha. Now we have a total of 7.

currently going on ep 4 of season 5 of SOA - very addictive

First tattoo... - commits to wait until he has his life pointed in the right direction - gets a massive black panther, simple bold classic design - bonus points for a TEAROUT! - does a heavyweight sit to pop his tattoo cherry - great idea to expand down the leg in the future Someone get this dude a trophy! well done and welcome

Little bit of knee action