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I laid most of this out in my introduction thread, but wanted to reiterate some things for all the people who want to become a tattooer. It's hard. It's exhausting. You will be broke. You will be overwhelmed. You will try to find shortcuts that don't exist. You will learn so much about yourself. I live in a ski town. Last season, I skiied 140 days and over 1.5 million vertical feet. I was lost and skiing gave me purpose. I have been drawing since I can remember. In kindergarten, I drew the Easter bunny with a bloody knife through its head. The school made my parents come in for a meeting, where the discussion was on whether everyone should be worried or if I should go to an art school. Neither happened, because kids do weird stuff and my family was broke. My entire life, people told me that I would do something with art. Unfortunately, I never believed in them or myself enough to try. So, fast forward to now. I'm 32 and have been an apprentice for 7 months. I put everything into this. As I write this, I'm checking the clock, because it's my only "day off" and I need to go in and sterilize a ton of barrels, do paperwork and return calls. See, I had to fly back home to NH last week when a tree fell on my house and it left me homeless. I knew my teacher needed barrels before I left, so I slept on the shop floor for two nights to get the place in order before I left. My point behind all of this is that you need to dedicate your life to becoming a great tattooer. At every opportunity to quit, you need to face your fears and show your true determination. Your teacher deserves it for giving you a career. You future clients deserve it. You deserve it. Long story, not that short, yesterday my teacher offered me a day off. He was tattooing two women who are long time clients of his. I always feel like I need to take every opportunity to learn, so I went in. I had met these two women a few times at their previous sessions, but didn't think we were "friends" yet. They were so excited that I had done my first 2 tattoos since the last time I saw them that they demanded to get my 3rd and 4th tattoos. It was an honor. These women have around $20,000 of combined tattoo work between them, by amazing artists, but they wanted something from me. I could have stayed home and slept in, gone for a bike ride, done nothing. Instead, I went to work, did 2 tattoos in one day and left with $120 in tips. I'll be honest when I say I teared up when they gave me money for their tattoos. I'm not the best artist in the world. I'm definitely not the best tattooer they could have gone to. I don't get mad when I can't do a full Japanese back piece in my first month of tattooing. I'm working my hardest just to do a little butterfly silhouette on your ankle. I try hard, I'm humble and I'm real with people. Those three things will take you wherever you're trying to go. Thanks for reading this.

Just got this one from Mike Fite at the Baltimore Tattoo Convention. Picture lifted from his instagram.

Essentially healed tiger head from Tim Lehi. Done at the Summit Convention here in Colorado.

Havent painted for around 5 weeks as I have been over in the Philippines enjoying life surfing. Painted this one just before I went over, thanks for checking it out

I am stoked! Saw a post from Jon on instagram that his appointment did a no show no call and was looking for somebody to fill the spot for 8hrs. wwww00000tttttt!!!! I am game homie! 1st Session 6hrs.

Thank you @Bunny Switchblade for the best advice I've ever received on the internet. Got an eagle and skull from Mike Fite just a little while ago.

Andre Malcom the summer (confirmed interest just shelling out flights with the lady) freakin stoke. Getting entire right thigh done.

couple from today...errr...yesterday - stolen from the artist IG traditional pieces by Shannon Pagliarini @ Crown and Anchor Tattoo in Pt. Pleasant, NJ

By Trevor Shea in Vancouver BC. Healed and no filer...seriously. Trevor is the Mike Roper of Canada in my opinion. Bodysuits that you will never see online.

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

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

So far I have my right lower leg covered and my left 1/4 sleeve on my arm. I also have a full back piece. Oh, forgot about the butterfly on my left foot and the tiny konji on my right wrist. Right now I see myself stopping there for a bit. But I am contemplating my next placement and the subject matter. It's defiantly I put a lot of thought in to. When the time comes, I'm sure I'll be here seeking some advise.

I'm so stoked you were able to get tattooed by Mike! He does amazing work......definitely tag me in any photos you post up..... Glad I was able to help out! :D

Aaaaaaa that's so cool!! @Bunny Switchblade gives great advice! It's been said many times before, but I love it when folks here end up with great tattoos thanks to the advice of knowledgeable posters.

Here are some thigh tattoos from an artist collaborating with G Tattoo Design. Unfortunately it's not possible to schedule tattoo session in US, though you can ask her for a custom design. An outstanding design as you see.

I popped in for a little while this afternoon. It was very busy, loud and somewhat overwhelming. I'm not sure it was that useful for me, but interesting as a brief experience....

Hello. My name is Alex. I'm here to share some arts of tattoo artists collaborating with my studio. Tried to diversify styles in this posts. Hope you will like it.

Haha, I brought my artist a book of illustrations Ive loved for 30+ years and pointed out 3 ideas but left the entire design for my 3/4 sleeve up to him. I saw it for the first time yesterday. He damn near put the entire book in there. LOTS of line work, it's gonna be a real PITA for us both. But it's stunning and I'm already old so I'm not to concerned with its aging.

I am getting ink. Does that count? lol!

Working on a shark and eel combination. Pretty stoked. Wednesday going to see the drawing and if all good I'm going for it. Can't wait to complete this sleeve

In Progress by Matt Dinovo. BLACK SQUIRREL TATTOO.

Thanks, I'll try to find him. I didn't make it there yesterday after drinking all day through the O's terrible home opener loss. I should be heading downtown pretty soon though. If anybody's there and sees me, feel free to say hi, I'll be the guy with long hair and tattoos ?

I also had alot of reservations about the sleeve I have always wanted. I just turned 43 (plain skin girl) and said to hell with everyone else. I trusted in my artists skills to create from my inspration and had my fisrt sit yesterday. We/I had a great time and I am so happy with the results so far. This morning, I have ZERO regrets! Im in LOVE with my new arm. Take your time, let the artist guide you and trust the advice of the knowledgable people here on LST. Good Luck! Nina

I'm around the same age as you and I went through a similar pause in my planning. I was originally going to get my sleeve last fall, but just started this week. It's all good in the end. Good luck with yours! Chris

If you've started more threads than you have tattoos, it's too much.

From someone who does laser, my advice for cover-up tattoos is almost always start with laser. With something as dark, heavy and scarred as that it will show through the new piece. Maybe not at first, but a year or two down the road it will, and the scarring will still be felt to finger tips and also visually seen through the new tattoo. In my experience, a good number of people who come to with similar scarring see a significant reduction from the laser tattoo removal process, so it's more than likely worth a shot. The other thing to keep in mind here is that the dermis has only so much room. In addition to the pigment that was put in here, it's competing for space with scar tissue. Adding more pigment could result into a less than favorable final product a few years down the road.

new lil dude from Hector Fong at Tattoo 13 in Oakland :)

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!

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

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.

Some of my crappy watercolor paintings. Dip pen and brush on watercolor paper. There are a couple more on my Instagram if you want to cringe some more.

This afternoon I go in to have my last tattoo worked on. I have been unhappy with it, both design and execution - some my fault for not stopping him at the stencil review, (but I thought he would correct flaws in it as he worked) and some his execution. If he is willing to make two corrections, it should be good enough that I can live with it. It is on my forearm, and I've worn long sleeves (well, it has been weather for it) ever since. I sure hope he will fix it. Besides the cost of laser, I'm too damn old to wait for it to be blasted off and replaced.

It's been a while, but I just recently got back to reading the forum and looking at what other people are posting as far as new work. By way of jumping back in, it seemed like posting what I've been up to since I last participated in this thread is the right way to go. This might be a bit of a long one. Sorry. Sometimes you're in New Orleans. Sometimes you end up with a butterfly. Brent at Uptown Tattoo did this one: Jake Miller from Cathedral Tattoo in Salt Lake did this little ditch guy for me: I did a bit of a run of appointments at Great Lakes Tattoo. Erik did this one: Nick did this one: And Matt did this one on my calf: Javier Rodriguez at LTW in Barcelona made this crazy tiger head for me: John Raftery, who is also at Cathedral in Salt Lake now, did this snake while he was still in New York at Fun City: Ben Haft at Fun City did the tops of both of my thighs with a sinking ship and a rose of no man's land: And finally, Mike Suarez at Hand of Glory in Brooklyn was able to squeeze me in on Saturday and do this on my shin: I picked up a few little bits of filler here and there, too. Next up is getting my left knee done, I think. All of this has really just motivated me to start thinking about back/chestpieces. Further down the rabbit hole.

Fun little Friday the 13th banger at 510 expert tattoo. Almost the whole shop was just doing walk-ins yesterday churning out cool 13 stuff.

few recent ones.