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Next session with Kore Flatmo is 2 weeks away! Then I start stomach/rib pieces with Thomas Hooper a few weeks after that! Super pumped!

Not the finished product. But this is a peek at my latest piece.

Hello friends. It's been a while since I've posted, as it had been a while since I've been tattooed. That ended today with the first sit on my back piece. Overall, I'd say it wasn't as awful as I expected, but certain areas were downright painful. Notably the bum. Next sit isn't for 9 weeks, so I've got time to mentally prepare myself for more pain. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Progress shot....pretty much finished the top half.

@bongsau - Shad is super nice, and SO FAST! We got that snake done in 4 HOURS! 4!!!! Outline, shading, color!!! He does use bactine, as you mentioned, and that helps so much. He said he is going to be up in Canada, so I hope you get in to see him! This was a really painful session, all in all. The upper back is like hot fire. Not fun! I am so stoked to get to this point in my tattoo, though, and I can't wait to continue the collaboration. We were talking about a dragon on the rest of the back of my legs looking up at the snakes. !!!! Anyway, for those who might have missed it on IG, here is my new snake!

I saw Chad Koeplinger while he was in town the other day for rose #4. Done at Rock of Ages in Austin.

Appropriately posting this one on Easter. I got this one from Matt Arriola a few weeks ago at Spotlight. Photo stolen from his IG: For reference, it's on the back of my thigh:

Ouch! Happening now.

When I was young, my mom used to always sing while she curled her hair in the morning. Que Sera Sera was one of her go to songs and it stuck in my memory... now it's stuck in my leg. The Sly and the Family Stone version is way more my style than Doris Day though... https://youtu.be/v7G5MIpFui4 Tattoo is by Jill Bonny. It's not a portrait or likeness of my mom... i just asked for a gypsy with a bandana, curly hair, roses, the song title and let her do her thing.

I'm about 3 months into my apprenticeship. Last week my mentor says "Set up a machine and draw up some small designs right now, I have someone coming in for you to tattoo in about 30 minutes." "Are you sure this is a good idea? Who is coming in?" I asked. "Just some big biker guy I know." I was shaking so bad that I could hardly get the machine set up. Hell I hadn't yet been taught how to use a machine. I wasn't sure if this was for real or a joke, but this is definitely the kind of thing he would line up just for the sake of fucking with me. I imagined some gnarly big dude he met at the local dive bar. I'm sitting at my station frantically drawing a spider and a skull and I hear the back door ring and my mentor say "Hey man come on in, he's just finishing up your drawing." I walk over to the station shaking and see a grapefruit sitting on the chair.

So since pretty much forever, I'd been bugging my mom to get a tattoo. She can be really socially conservative and definitely came from the "tattoos are trash" generation. After enough bugging, it became pretty clear that she's never going to be tattooed, so I started bugging her to come with me to get a mom tattoo so she can be a part of the process and get a feel for how rad the shop environment is. That kept getting pushed back farther and farther until I realized again that it wasn't going to happen. So basically, I gave her the "you're going to be part of tattooing whether you like it or not" talk, and told her that if she wasn't going to participate as a third party, she can participate as a first party and tattoo me instead. So she did. :cool: isn't it terrible? I love it so much. It's supposed to be a bear, looks kind of like a weasel, 100% precious and motherly. Moms rule!

I have a Thai mythological leg sleeve and hand tattoos. Done by IG: @fulltimetattoo back in 2007.

Saw hello to my new tattoo, which I got done yesterday, pic was taken by tattooist shortly after it was finished. A tribute to H R Giger, a portrait of the man himself, it wraps around lower left leg and, was roughly 6 hrs, done in 1 session. I slept through most of it. Tattooed by: Tommygunn in Belfast City Skinworks, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The entry here is the knee demon done by Franz Stefanik at The Okey Doke in Toronto. This is the best pic I have of it, so please filter out the surrounding work.

Well, here is mine. Still have a bit of work to be done but is almost there :D Done by Elijah Nguyen from Skin Stories Tattoos in Spring, Texas.

Picked up this Thin Lizzy "Cowboy Song" themed a couple of week ago from Ethan Franklin at James River Tattoo.

Greeting, I am currently living in Bangkok, Thailand and have been yearning for a tattoo for years. My journey began when all I wanted was a tree on my back - the next phase was what design - hence the years its taken to decide. A friend of mine sent me a picture of a tree and the process of umming and ahhhing over the butterflies and flowers went on for ages. The day and moment of action stations came when I was sitting on the beach along the coast of Thailand. Everything is very chilled here but I was quite shocked to witness a man getting some brush ups done on his tattoo - right on the beach! Gulp! That can't be very hygienic but I inquired if they had a shop and went to check out the scene there. They looked experienced and everything looked hygienic and a well run business. I duly turned up for the creation of my work of art - after the first hour I kindly informed the tattooist that if he didn't step back I was going to punch him. Im not a person of violence but in that moment the pain was so unbearable that I didn't trust myself - lol! Shame, in the tattooist's defense he was a little Thai man and realised that this almost 6 foot Farang meant business. The outcome of the tattoo after 2 sittings wasn't what I wanted - there was no shading but I blame myself there - he was genuinely scared of hurting me. I returned back to Bangkok and got hold of the 'big guns' who had been referred by numerous tattoo lovers. Ten hours later, 2 sittings, pain killers and numbing cream changed my life. The numbing cream worked wonders and I left feeling empowered and proud of the art on my back. In the past, before wanting a tattoo, I used to look down on tattoos but through this journey I have realised that it is something that is cherished, shown off and special to each individual - it sets us visually apart from anyone in the world!

it should be fine and you shouldn't mess anything up... but that's just my take. if you live nearby the shop and you're concerned, you should drop by and ask your artist or anyone available there to make sure it's all good. if some parts of your tattoo are healed, the artist may just avoid the areas that aren't healed and work where he or she can.

@CultExiter. Nice one! Better than my shit show!

And boy, getting the kneecap tattooed is so easy compared to my armpit/head/palm tattoos of recent.

All right, you guys are awesome as always, @Graeme, @polliwog, @marley mission, @RoryQ, @AverageJer, @BrianH and @Breakme! Sounds like I won't die ;-) Just keep moving, not too much, dresses or loose pants, don't plan big exciting things for the morning after, and have a great time! My trip started out as, "Fly out for a tattoo, spend a couple days with Mom." Now it's turned into, "Mom and I fly in and have a nice vacation in SF and I happen to be blasting down to SJ to get a tattoo while I am there." ! Yes, planning on getting the tattoo on a Wednesday and flying back on Friday, so we'll probably fly there the Saturday before. This would be a perfect situation to use Saniderm, but since I've never tried it before, I don't want to start with this one.

Kore's studio is mind blowing and he works with really awesome people. Hoopers work is amazing too. Great energy, have fun.

Goddamn you're good at life.

Edited. Forget it, not sure why I am replying to this.

One of the rare occasions I got to lay down during this piece.

You mean like an octopuss? Cause all the ladies I know are tough as nails.

have an appt with Tony hundahl at the Oklahoma tattoo convention put on by Richard and Jennifer Stell.

my pain was so bad this time that I had flashbacks all night while trying to sleep! yowza! That said, I sat like a friggin rock for 7 hours. Made some faces, but did not move or make a sound. Not bad for a middle aged pencil pusher.

@beez woah total beautiful baddassery

Here are a couple of threads about this: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-advice/6370-tradjapometric-another-mixing-tattoo-styles-thread.html#post110467 http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-advice/6329-considering-mixing-black-out-japanese.htmlY

I hope your health is improving but as always stay low go fast man

Time to disengage. He's a blowhard and he doesn't deserve further effort on your part.

Gender makes no difference in tattoos. :) That's a lot of words for a small space, and a picture speaks 1000. You could interpret them creatively into an image. I have no idea what style of tattoo you're looking for, but the first thing that came to mind with those lyrics is a boat at sunrise, you could maybe have the band's name or an abbreviation carved into the side of the boat. I favor traditional style images so this is sort of like what I'm imagining:

I'm so glad I found this thread. Although I never screamed during my back piece, it was brutal at times. I literally saw stars during the session that we did her face and shoulder area. I did this in 2-3 hour sessions. By Matt Dinovo out of Black Squirrel Tattoo in Omaha, NE.

They get in that ass, larry. All the way in that ass! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhk5N32Tec

Here goes. Head tattoo by Jesse Roberts. 3 sessions about 3-4 hours each, then one quick touchup session. Completed in about 2 months.

Oh man I love that tattoo @heathenist, looks so tough and folky at the same time. Just so nice, congratulations...I gotta keep a closer eye on Matt Arriola, such great work!

The problem with tracing photographs is that tracing never looks right. Your eyes do not see a drawing the same way you see a photograph, and in the end it will look off. That cuppie doll tracing looks off. If I didn't see the original photograph I wouldn't have known the pose it was supposed to be in. When you draw, you have to tweak things so that your eye sees things the way they should be seen. For example, you can trace out every single hair on someones head from a photograph, but in the end it will just look like a blob of lines. Hair has to be drawn out in order to look right on paper. Same goes for a skull. Allot of amateurs draw the teeth of skull with outlines around each tooth, (I'm talking for a realism drawing here) and although each tooth might in reality appear to have an outline, it still will not look right on paper. Contrary to popular belief, a photograph is not a perfect representation of the thing it is trying to capture. Spend the extra time and do it right. My $.02.

Oh shit, it's the 5th already, and I haven't announced a winner yet! Sorry guys!! The winner of Tattoo of the month March 2015, for the second month in a row, is my Norwegian buddy @Kai Eirik Espedal with bad ass wolf front by Marius Meyer. Congrats, once again, Kai!! But since Kai has already won a shirt, we've decided to give it to the second runner up, which is @jvince1230. Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. New contest will be up shortly!

Well that was a brutal last session but damn the result is worth it:

got this guy from Lee Knight yesterday, was meant to just be a consultation but he had space that afternoon and was blown away by what he was sketching up on the spot so went straight for it. Sits between the last two i posted the other day, on my shin

All right. For those who've seen it all ready, for those who've been waiting, for those who don't know what the fuck I talking about, for those who don't care: here is my back now. Finished this Saturday at the annual Scottish tattoo convention in Edinburgh. Iain Mullen and Rudy Fritsch converged for the first time since we did the lines in June, to do some two machine shading on the lower part and add some extra detail. One more touch up session with Iain in Stockholm and then this experience is over. It's been a great ride on so many levels and if I were to explain how happy I am about the result I would have to invent some new words. Both Iain and Rudy rules and everybody who has the chance to get the chance should really consider getting something from them. I will post a longer write up on this thread full-back-piece-experience-thread.html shortly, perhaps tomorrow. Right now I have a bad fever to pull through. One good thing about getting tattooed is that, if you do it right, it teaches you how tough you really are. Peace!

I haven't gotten tattooed in like 5 years... Well, in a local shop started a new artist. Young cool dude, just over twenty, been tattooing for 3 + years or something. I thought that fuck it, he has some potential, I will get tattooed because its time. I first was going to get a chest piece, just a compass rose. But, Murphy's law struck and got a horrible shave rash in my chest. When I went to the shop, we mulled it over and decided not to tattoo the chest. I remembered he had a Bill Hicks drawing and in 5 minutes we decided to do the late great American Rebel who I have been a fan for about 10 years. He loves to do stuff like this, so I just let him do what he wanted and choose the picture he wanted. Have fun with it. Its now about week old. We will expand it to a sleeve and then start another sleeve. Next up is Carl Sagan. https://instagram.com/lekkeri_wct/ If you can guess what part of his act its from, 10 points! We weren't shure and I checked, well, funny shit ;)

im flying to la to start my back with bryan burk next week, appointment got pushed back a couple times, but finally after hundreds of wasted airline tickets were doing it haha. hes flying out that night so my appointment got moved to 10am. oof. going to be dead tired and after have no where to go until my friend gets off work at 8pm hahah

Mid grind. Lovin' the ribs and armpit. Not.

By Valerie Vargas drawn straight onto my arm