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Had my 2nd session with Thomas Hooper yesterday. Mostly dot shading and mostly sat okay for it. Much easier than the line work during our first session.

I echo that sentiment! If someone posts a picture of tattoo on LST that you don't like, please don't shit all over it. Even if someone ask for critique, try to be gentle with your feedback, and educate rather than simply state how shitty you think it is.

Are you cray? He is totally that weird brown wizard with the animal poop in his hair. Let's be real.

The latest addition to my Simpsons in Space leg sleeve. Work was done by Rev. J.R. out of Vicious Ink in Rochester Hills Michigan.

Lemme throw in Mr. Hot Stuff himself, Danny Reed: And @mmikaoj, I love that Judas piece you have - it really stands out from the other pieces on your legs. - - - Updated - - -

Did another six hours yesterday covering the waist to knees. I watched a couple of movies which helped keep my mind off everything, although I found the ass/legs to be way easier than the lower back. We've got 10 hours total so far, and the next appointment is only in a few weeks, woot!

i think this tattoo looks awesome. @2bacanvas you need to STOP overanalyzing it immediately. You are going to drive yourself nuts. It's kinda like body dysmorphic syndrome going on right now. You are seeing problems that aren't there. It is an excellent tattoo. Stop getting hung up silly little trivial issues. Imagine what you'd be going through if you actually got a bad tattoo! This one is great! Stop worrying and don't even think about lasering some and having someone else finish it. I've made the mistake of having someone else touch up an another artists work. It ruined what was a very nicely done tattoo. I had to wear that crap for almost 20 years before I finally covered it (with a bad ass panther). Be happy with the great tattoo that you recieved.

Wow, when I read the thread title and article topic, I just assumed it was birthmark on her face. Sure, her birthmark is big, but it's on her leg. Your otherwise healthy child has a birthmark on her leg that can be covered by pants most of the time; and at a later dated could almost certainly could be lasered to be lighter/less visible. Maybe this is just my perspective as the father of a child with special needs; but this seems super dumb to me. It's also a waste of money and quality tattoo real estate.

Javier Betancourt. The whip is amazing.

Here's my hand by Rudy Fritsch, made at the London Tattoo Convention.

Ah-HA I think we have root cause here, folks. Maybe you should stop by the thread below if you haven't already. It's your tattoo to be happy or sad about. It's hard to not let our wife's opinion influence ours, but in the end, you're the one with the permanent mark on you. I doubt my wife likes Kongo Yasha's faces, and who can blame her, he's an ugly bastard, but that's what he looks like and she has to deal with his ugly mug along with mine. http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/546-relationships-tattoos.html

Welcome to LST. As much as I am sure you want to be a tattooer, it sounds like you need to get the fuck out of this sketchy apprenticeship.

Maybe it's because i just woke up, but the first thing that popped in my head when i read all that was a wizened old hobbit playing ice hockey. Something to do with @Graeme being Canadian i guess... awesome mental picture though.

So I feel like a fraud but... I cancelled my appointment. I ended up drowning in doubt. Doubts about style, design, my chosen artist. By the time I'd finished tying myself up in knots, I doubted whether I even wanted a tattoo at all. So not the best frame of mind in which to make a lifetime decision. I was pretty bummed out about it for a couple of days but I know I made the right decision and I'm gonna take some time to get my head straight before making another appointment. I think the best place to start doing that is right here. I'm gonna soak up some culture and wisdom. I'm also going to attend a couple of conventions in May.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be a hobbit?

I love that this thread has gone from contentious to nerdy. Always a good change of direction.

If you look at patterns of Berber face tattoos, or Harquus patterns, you'll notice they're kinda similar to the tattoos you posted. You'll also see similarities with the patterns in assuit fabric and Tuareg jewelry (the shapes of the jewelry as well as the etchings on it). If you want to decipher what those tattoos mean, I guess you could also research the symbolism of the aforementioned examples. When it comes to these simplified, geometric, pattern-based tattoos, you could point to several different cultures and find similarities. Humans have been adorning themselves for so long with these kinds of shapes, it's almost impossible to guess what the artist is basing their designs off of (unless they're explicit about it).

No outline, no black shading...they're not going to have those tattoos when the kid grows up.

Awesome pic! Oh, I can't wait. This will be me sometime in the future. Consult in April!

Pic of me getting worked over by Horitomo if anyone is interested. https://instagram.com/p/zjCmORIcF9/?modal=true

Psh. @SeeSea you say that as if that's all we say around here... Tigers are the other acceptable option.

Right on! I got this fun little Geisha that he had pre drawn from some old Hardy flash. I was even representing LST whilst getting it, haha!

I submit for your consideration my coverup. This was just done, so there was a little swelling and bleeding on the bullets. Unfortunately Im at da3 3 of healing, so no proper pics for another 4 or 5 days. While not you typical tattoo, please consider that fact that this is a coverup and I wanted a tattoo as comic like as possible in style. This is a reverse image of Captain America Volume 7 #15 from March of last year. This is a large piece that takes up my whole left upper arm

Hello, new poster here! I'm starting my back with Chad Koeplinger next week, extra super stoked! Last time I got tattooed was a year ago by Zach Nelligan and Joel Madberg Soos.

just don't post a picture because we might critique the amount of butter/salt and the number of unpopped kernels.

@silentspring - wishing you a speedy recovery. Your tattoo does indeed look pretty impressive given the circumstances! I doubt any of us can advise what to do about it, but I will say that there is a local old timer who has a faded old chest eagle that has a huge scar from his pacemaker right in the middle of it. It looks tough as shit. So see how it all heals and then decide if you want to rework it or not! And crossing my fingers for a clean report from pathology.

I'd stop while you're at it man. Let it go and hey, keep getting and posting good tattoos.

By the time thst child is in her 20s the birthmark will most likely only cover some of her thigh, where as her parents' tattoos are going to be giant and red more-or-less forever. I saw this article on my facebook feed earlier, and at the risk of sounding heartless (I am sure they are very thoughtful and lovng parents) I feel that they should try and help their child embrace their individuality, as everyone is different - rather than go to such extremes just to make your child feel 'normal'. I dunno, just found it kind of odd. Edited because I just read through the article and saw that her birthmark appears to be growing with her. So this could be something that could cause her to feel self-conscious. However this does bring up an intetesting question, how will she feel about her oarents tattoos as she grows older?

best thing to do when you dont like your new tattoo... get another! seriously - it works!

Disclaimer: I'm not sure if this is the right subforum or not, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Feel free to move it as you see fit. I don't know if anyone has heard of Edgeland podcast, but it's a weekly podcast that comes out every Friday. The host interviews someone who is currently/still straight edge in the first half hour, and then someone who has broken edge in the second half hour. It's obviously geared towards the hardcore/punk community, and it's most weeks the interviews are pretty good, regardless of your edge status. In addition to musicians, it's not uncommon for him to have tattooers on there. In the past he's had on Heather Bailey and Beau Brady (and maybe others I forget). This weeke's episode has DJ Rose in the edge section and Chad Koeplinger in the non-edge section. I haven't listened yet, but I thought it may be something people would be interested in. You can find it on iTunes or Stitcher (or whatever you use for podcasts probably), and also on twitter and Instagram (@edgelandpodcast).

Thanks @Iwar ! My last session is in mid March and I'll try harder then to get a picture of both in the same picture together.

Hi Flo. Welcome to LST.

I once started a fire that way. But yes, from a pot, dumped into a paper grocery bag, and smothered liberally with melted butter. Eaten preferably at the drive-in with the tinny static speaker hanging in the car door window.

To be fair to @herewego he was disparaging about the octopus tattoo too. To not be fair to him, he seems like he's a jerk who doesn't know how to talk to people and considering that motherfucker doesn't bring much to the forum that can't be easily found on instagram, he's about worn out his welcome.

Booked all the tickets for my next trip yesterday. Flying to Barcelona since it was cheap, taking the bus the next evening to Toulouse to get tattooed by Guy Le Tatooer, meet up with two friends and have a good time. Two days later I take a long bus ride up to London where I spend one day before finally getting on the last bus that will take me to Edinburgh. On the sunday my backpiece gets finished by Iain and Rudy and on the monday I fly back to Stockholm. I get to hang out with my girlfriend for a few hours before getting on the night train to spend easter with family and relatives in the very north of sweden (above the polar circle). When I get back to civilized parts of Europe again I am moving in with my girlfriend, in her apartment in the city center. Spring looks like happy times. Edit: actually this was not something awesome that I did. I did however plan and book the trip and me and the girl did decide that we want to live together. That's pretty awesome.

This is clearly good advice. People are free to do what they want, but there are somes rules... On a arm tattoos should go from the top to down, not from the hand to the shoulder.

Ouch. I hope all turns out well. Good luck.

I think this is absolutely beautiful!!

Whew. Side of knee done yesterday by Kevin Collins at Vanness & Fellows in Raleigh. I can't say enough about Kevin, Mark, and AJ. One of the nicest tattoo experiences I have ever had.

also posted this in the ladies thread Here are a few names to get you started: Jill Bonny Junnii Katja Ramirez Gill Gold - - - Updated - - - also Darcy Nutt

Thanks @Patrick Bateman! Day 2 with Emily done, and boy am I so very glad that is over. Was quite a mental challenge today, the left side of my body seems to be more sensitive than the right, and I stupidly saved the left thigh till the second day. Here is the tiger, and I stitched both pics together so you get an idea how they look together. No photos of the horse today as she is swollen and distorted.

Please forgive the terrible pic. Still one more small session to go. By Papa Joe.

I had the seventh session on my back yesterday and we finally started in on the colour and crushed the tiger. There's still a bit of shading to do in the water, and we're still figuring out what to do with the snake with regard to scales or patterns, colours, etc., as well as what colours to do the maples, but I am super stoked on the progress we're making.

Wifey got her 2nd session done earlier in the week. Picture stolen from the obvious source . . .

Cover up action. Who doesn't love superheroes? I have one more session in 3 weeks

Cross posting from the back piece thread, this is after session 2 with Marius Meyer yesterday. Yesterdays session was all the scales, all the shading in the skull and all the yellow. Looking to get the next session booked in for around the beginning of April, hopefully.

Here are some recent ones for me... Got this guy from Alan Berg Started this with Mat Welch and snagged this Bert Grimm horse from Miguel Olascuaga

My arm isn't done, and I've only really started on one, but I can actually contribute! So I shall. :) Taking pictures of my own arm is hard, and I suck at it. There are individual pictures of these in my gallery, though, anyway! I was really late in coming to an appreciation of traditional designs (aside from traditional Japanese, which I have always loved). What sold me on traditional sleeves was the interesting way in which individual pieces become more than the sum of each individual tattoo...it becomes this collective aesthetic that I find so fascinating, in addition to being a very cool collection of individual images. I mention this because I have similar feelings about 'masculine' and 'feminine' aesthetics. (I'm also one of those people who thinks a man or woman can wear whatever the hell they want and still be masculine and feminine if they want to be, but that's a discussion of a slightly different variety. For the purposes of this post, I'm just using the generally accepted definitions of those words.) I think whether something reads as 'masculine' or 'feminine' in the traditional sense depends mostly on general presentation. There are tons of pictures out there of women wearing tough, aggressive traditional work, but they dress or present themselves in a way that's still super-girly and feminine. I think this look is amazing. Of course, there'll always be people out there who just find tattoos in general 'unfeminine' or whatever, buuut. That's really more about them, imo.

I've had the flu since Wednesday night and this video's the only thing keeping me going:

"Bunshin" is a synonym for "irezumi" and "horimono" FYI ; )