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Welcome! My vote is to keep it simple and get a traditional yin yang. Just find an artist that makes cleans lines. Nothing wrong with a simple tattoo.

- - - Updated - - - I take terrible photos. She looks much nicer in real life ;)

After I got tattooed some of the white in my paired monon cat feet tattoos didn't heal up well, since instead of relaxing after the trip up (as intended), I came home to a car that broke down and required me to run around town to get it fixed. Fast forward to this past SFO convention, I ran into Horitomo, and he asked to check them out. After looking at them for a bit, he offered to touch them up for me. Very cool of him! I finally contacted the shop this past week and I'll be back up in August. And since I'm going up again, I scheduled a consult to get more monon cats! I must be the totally crazy cat person with no cats. I'm scared though. Arm pits. Aw f*ck me!!! @SeeSea, you are totally going to enjoy yourself when you go up. Horitomo's station is a raised platform in one of the corners at the shop and it's filled with his amazing sketches. A really cool experience. @peaceridge, I agree with the other posts. Keep trying and be patient. Sometimes timing is off but if you're persistent it will happen. It initially took me 2 or 3 months to get into contact with my regular artist just because at the time I tried to set something up there were a lot of conventions/guestings/trips going on with the artist.

You could have it be a black and white pair of koi. Or any other animal

Get anything by him. If you pass up the opportunity you will mad in a couple of years when he isn't tattooing again

If you get tattooed by Chris, please get a girl head. No one in the world does them like him.

full sleeve dragon on one arm. and full sleeve tiger on the other. for balance

Panthers

I'm going to try to post a picture from my phone here: By Steve Byrne at Rock of Ages. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got one of the best tattoo experiences I've ever had from Chris. The awesome tattoo he put on me came almost as a secondary bonus to the whole experience, haha. Go for it @TrixieFaux! You won't regret it.

@hogg I really love @Eilin's girl head with the black cats. For some reason I have never wanted a girl head... but I do find them beautiful. Hmmmmmmmm. I've been wrong before. We met Quan Nguyen at boxing last week, and this is what has put the idea of a CC tattoo back into the forefront of my mind. Quan is a great guy with some beautiful tattoos!

I want a tattoo from Chris but I don't know what to get... It's a strange problem. I guess I will figure it out. I'm not closed off to suggestions though...:confused: PANTHER SKULL DAGGER?! :D - - - Updated - - - ETA: I was just kidding with the panther skull dagger thing, but...come to think of it...a Chris Conn panther would be really amazing, maybe that is what I need.

@BrooklynDude spend some time looking at other styles of tattoos. When I first found LST I thought I would be relegated to some blackwork which I think can be awesome but got great advice and ended up lasering my back. Early on I thought all black and grey (which i still find very cool)but quickly saw that bold traditional or Japanese was great for longevity and really started appreciating it. Fast forward 4 1/2 yrs and I have all traditional style tattoos and I love em. I see tattoos everyday most just re affirm that I made good decisions thanks to the help here.

THIS!!!!!!! - - - Updated - - - And THIS too!!!!!!! Or dragon sleeve and ho-o sleeve? I didn't ask for it but Horitomo gave me a a double yin yang - ish pair of Monmon cat tattoos on my feet. Each cat sleeping in the opposite direction of ones other with tattooed snakes doing the flip flop swirl. I just wanted a tattoo from him, it was his design choice. Genius! Which also brings up talking about the idea with an artist. They'll do you right.

Flyrite is a block or so away from Saved in W'Burg. Both are excellent shops. There's also Three Kings, Daredevil, Fun City, Invisible, Smith Street, Greenpoint, Bound for Glory, North Star, too many to name really. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that NYC is one of the best cities in the world for tattoos at the moment. For watercolor tattoos I agree with @bongsau but if you want to spend way too much money on a tattoo that is going to fall apart really quickly, you have Amanda Wachob and Gene Coffey, and probably others who are also "good" but really you should read this thread before you think about something like that. Welcome!

@jen7 @xcom you both are lucky! by the time my back starts peeling my wife is checked out like, yeah you're on your own budd, gross! guess I'll have to rub A&D on my butt by myself :(

Here is a picture to illustrate my awesome socks, which I have found to be vital in keeping me toasty.

Just a few weeks now till my appointment with Emiliano at Frith Street! Can't wait!

Johan finné

Peter does really cool stuff, little bit different than what you have gotten from valerie(which is fucking awesome)

If you like straight up bold traditional with a bit of a folk art/psychedelic twist then check out Jonas Nyberg, I'm getting a rib piece rooster finished up by him tomorrow.

Thanks! The Oni came out great and my only regret is that its not in a more visible spot. Took some photos today but they all came out a bit yellow. Ehh, best i could do. Top part JP Wikman, bottom Gustav Fröberg Hexa a yellow and badly focused pic of the Oni by Javier Betancourt its still much the same, the white highlights have faded to look more smooth but thats about it

Check out Calle at King Carlos tattoo - Probably my favourite Swedish artist, he's a really nice dude too!

things that look good in that space: flowers spiderwebs girl head compass tudor rose mace on a chain going over the shoulders and through the neck butterfly spider scorpion snake beetle

its covered in saniderm right now but heres an action shot. :)

Thanks bro! It's not an elephant but it does have bbq sauce! ;)

yesterday's session...

- - - Updated - - - Full leg fox and hare or fox and crane japanese influenced. !

I have this hand holding a snake by El Monga. This is his picture from when it was fresh (September 2013), but it's better than any picture I've managed to get of it. Not sure if I've ever posted this on LST, actually.

My opinion = this one is way too small

Yeah, my post was kind of a "put up or shut up."

Somehow managed to get Gogue to do my leg sleeve. Start feb 2016 2nd and 3rd full days.

Ha, thanks. No color, just black and grey shading. Lots more to do with it. I went to the black and grey master, so hopefully it will finish up photorealistic. It's funny, I showed my back at the start of the session and the only reaction was "lookit all that white skin!" It was a relief for sure.

Sorry, I don't see fat. I see an awesome turtle on some nice skin with beautiful hair. Is color planned? I've only seen one sea turtle in person (and the light filtering through the water may have shaded it) that had green/yellow tones.

This thread has become a source for spammers... :( - - - Updated - - - I think he is a spammer...

I did my first tattoo. I have been in my 2 year apprenticeship for around 7 months. Apprenticing has been one of the most challenging and humbling experiences of my life... until today. All of the grapefruit, melons, and synthetic limbs in the world could not have prepared me for the intensity of tattooing a person. In the words of my good friend, Albie Rock, "that first line is a real gut-check, m@therf#$er!" With the support of my teacher, and the confidence of an amazing client, we all made this Ohm symbol, together. My head is still spinning and I have yet to fully process the reality of what happened today. The highlight was receiving this picture from the client, thanking me for choosing her for my first tattoo and saying, "I love it! It's perfect!" I mean, we both know it's not perfect, but, in a way, it is. I learned so much about myself as a person today. It's not always about completing a flawless piece, it's about being a part of someone's journey. It's about being real with someone for a moment in time. Anyway, I don't know if this is appropriate for the Introduction section, but this is truly my introduction. I have so much more to learn... but that ever crucial tattoo #1 is in the books. Here's to many more. Thank you for reading. I'm spent!

Thanks you. She sat like a champ. I messaged her yesterday, to see how healing was going. She said all was normal and that it looks, "So awesome!" I'm one happy apprentice right now.

Horitomo September 23rd! Woohoo!!! :: happy dance ::

Finally finished my back last night. Yup @a1steaks - back to running next week - congrats on yours too! I'm going to wait and post healed pics so I can show the sides too, but Sean posted the straight-on shot on his instagram. All sorts of funny milestones have been going through my head. The last 5 am drive home. I just took my last "first" shower. Coincidentally, the bottle of Dial soap is nearly out. It's the last week of smelling like Redemption. The last week of red welts from the painters tape on my stomach. The last week of really uncomfortable sleeping. I was somewhat out of my mind with exhaustion and chills at the end - I actually said goodbye to the massage chair. ::rolls eyes::

So I finally got my chest piece. So happy with how it came out. By Valerie Vargas of course.

Met with Carlos Torres in Paris after the convention to finish this little side piece. Fuck me this did really really hurt!

Grez Eagle, Chris O'Donnell Snake, Mike Rubendall Dragon Instagram view of this battle royale insanity

This thread is weird.

In our household... we like our Battle Royals with cheese and no whine, in one shot... Preferably in one sitting. I'll post a couple pics... It was his kids first tattoo, one sitting, like 8 hours...