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Sarah Hurst (recently voted Knoxville's BEST tattoo artist - congrats!) placed this awesome cameo of my beautiful wife (from a photo taken on our honeymoon 34 years ago) on my left shoulder yesterday evening. I am VERY happy!

Well maybe not the Taylor Swift tattoo, but your Miley Cyrus chest piece? Um, yeah.

So are you saying I should regret my Taylor Swift tattoo?

Matt Thornton at Trader Bob's did this on his birthday. Strawberry plant for my Mom. Opposite side of my ankle from the tattoo for my son.

This. My brother got an owl tattoo towards the end of their trendiness, and just got a mandala. He isn't the kind of person to follow trends, I'm guessing he was just exposed to those images because they were trendy. Both are awesome tattoos and will age well. Trendy things don't always have to be bad.

Who cares what motivates people to get tattoos and to choose particular imagery as long as they're getting good tattoos.

Mandalas are the new hot shit coming into the shop I work at. I think they are super rad. I love a lot of that sacred geometry that was introduced by Tomas Tomas, Jondix, Hooper, et al. But watered down versions are becoming that new new.

I'm on a roll lately... I just booked an appointment with Eddy Deutsche for mid-June!

Fully healed from my Irish landscape/road done in a woodblock print style. The way the artist did the hills is different (I can't say not how I expected, because I wasn't sure what to expect with them), but I think it's a function of trying to get the reference picture into the style and I think as it fades a bit, it will look even better. My two minor issues are the shading of the road at the bottom right and the rock (I think) that looks like it got missed along the left hand side. Now that I'm healed, I assume it's not a big deal to touch base with the artist and have him fix those two areas real quick sometime?

New to me 2001 1200 XLH.

Didn't you start the Robin Williams tribute tattoo trend with your Genie backpiece?

Don't ya just fucking hate that!

Finished up with Rob yesterday. That guy is an absolute champion. It's hard to find the words to express how happy I am. Here's a link to his instagram for more vertical pics, hah. https://instagram.com/p/1y_HRiCO7e/

Yeh mines a right old mush mash of styles and quality! I'm lucky in that apart from the word destroy on my arm both my sleeves are good. I was about to get destroy covered by the lovely Lucy Pryor at in2u in London about 15 years ago...when Alex binnie stepped in and wouldn't allow it saying you shouldn't cover tats and that there a history of your life. I have a lot of stupid tattoo's that I got for stupid reasons or to commemorate acts I commited but as the great man Alex binnie said there a map to the history of your life. Even tho I'm pretty sure Alex can't stand me haha... I used to be that kid who would come in the shop off my nut and talk non stop ;)

Hi, posting at you from northern europe, Finland, to say i really like the site! I've found out about a lot of great artists and got good advice from here in my time lurking. I've been meaning to register for over a year since i found the site but i've put it off for not having any good recent photos of my tattoos, and i thought if i just register maybe i'll finally put the effort into taking some. I got my first tattoo 6 years ago at 18 and ever since i've been steadily adding to it a few pieces a year more or less. I decided very early on im going for full coverage but im saving the hand and neck tattoos for when im 30 if i still feel like it. Anyway, i managed to dig up some pictures, most are from artists instagrams i think. In no particular order: by Hexa, used to own Precious Tattoo, not sure where he works from now. Hexa Hexa Hexa Oni by Javier Betancourt at Ocho Placas I think i heard of him from here, theres so many crappy shops in Miami it was a chore to find something worthwhile but man am i glad i found him. Crow by Gustav Fröberg, also did my lower left arm which i dont have any pics of upper left arm is JPWikman no better pictures yet sorry Demon granny is by Hexa again In the last picture you can see a peek of the rooster on my ribs started by Jonas Nyberg and im gonna get that one finished up at the Helsinki Ink Convention next weekend! I'll try to get better pictures of all of it or at least the ones i dont have any of and post after i get back from the convention. Hopefully with a rad cock! :D

My first tattoo of the year is a week away today! Excited to get back into it. Does anyone else put countdowns om theor phones? Haha

I have actually never tattooed a grapefruit o____o

So I'm going through the bookmarks I've made of various artists I've found online over the years organizing them by State and city and I foind that I already had two people from RedLetter1 already saved.

Bingo. That's what she said. Thanks.

Just finished healing from Hanna Sandström at Dark Age in Seattle. I forget what kind of machine she said it is.

We are totally tattoo buddies. This is twice we've been tattooed on the same day.

I had no clue mandalas and shit like that was a trend nor had a "deep" meaning. I actually started a geometry piece because it expresses the logic of my thinking as a IT/IS/Coder.

I made a tattoo but never tattooed grapefruit until this summer. This fruit - bad client :) I did not like to work with him)) It was made not for high quality but fo fun skydivers=)

@Pleadco DAMN dude! That is most excellent. Really like the use of negative space in the antlers. Very unique tattoo and it fits your body like it was always there. kudos

Feathers!

Bird bursts! Arrows! Infinity signs!

I was thinking a bit more about this topic and had some more food for thought... The cut of a tattoo suit (or even a single tattoo for that matter) is very important. The composition and borders of the tattoo needs to match and "fit" the body of the wearer, like it was always meant to be there. We are all different shapes and sizes! And we all have different preferences to achieve the look we desire. Some folks want their sleeves to go right up to the hand, some are content with some space on the wrist. The borders of the backpiece on the shoulders, how far up the collar/throat you go on the front, how low below the belt you (no biker backpieces! jokes). Some body types will look better with the vest style bodysuit, others prefer the full blast across. The emptiness of negative space can have a very powerful impact too, and I've seen lots of backpieces where the negative is very thoughtfully incorporated. The inner thigh, crotch, butt crack and underside is no different. Some may feel it completely unnecessary to tattoo in the crack, just like others may feel it taboo to tattoo armpits, heads or feet even. I know I did not want a stripe. For me, my tattoos (made by a dozen guys) are all continuous and blend into each other, so I knew I did not want the crack stripe and wanted to maximize the tattoo coverage, get a little freaky haha. Go however deep or as shallow into the danger zone that you and the tattooer feel comfortable with and get your suit to cut where it makes sense and for the tattoo to look good on YOUR body. Don't compromise the "cut" of your suit out of fear of the pain. We all know and expect it to hurt. Bite down on the wooden spoon for an afternoon and than bam you are in the clear, looking good and feeling confident. That's why we are all in the mess, ain't it? A tattoo after-all has to fit YOU, compliment and enhance your body and whatever else tattoo-wise you got going on. That's what I love about tattoos, it is very personalized and you can go as conservative or extreme as you desire...no need to response a no one! @Dennis suit - the cut and composition looks great. It fits the body, compliments it. Tattoos (bodysuits and one-shots alike) should look like they were always meant to be on the wearer, this is a fantastic example, very precise cuts and we are lucky to have Dennis sharing an in progress peak. The way the vest cuts on the torso, the thighs, ankles yeah man! wow @Rad Kelham ah i took the photo down off my IG after a couple days which would explain why the link is broken. Backpiece (and 25% of my tattoos) are by Steve Batt in Edmonton. He doesn't put anything online, off the radar type of guy.

No more easy spots left.... JR Tubbs - inner arm, elbow to pit in May Nick Colella - chest eagle in June Mario Desa - Lower leg/ankle in June Smith Street crew - possibly later in the summer

sat for my 4th session last Saturday. updated my blog with a photo you might have already seen if you follow me on instatattooedmanbuttgram. also wrote a few sentences. The Back Piece: An Uncomfortable Journey: Session Four: Shading on a Sunny Day

trend? no trend? if this is a factor in getting tattoos...you're doing it wrong

We started up sign language classes again, on the 4th of 8 sessions this time, and we did 6 last time. Getting better and better w/the short sentences I have to sign at work w/my little guy. I sign to my kids and husband too...husband isn't impressed. But whatever, I'm impressed w/myself so who cares.

red letter 1

Well, some of you pals already know, but it's relevant, so I'll tell you all. I put in my resignation at my day job so that I could be at the tattoo shop more often. It's a big scary step, but you gotta start somewhere. Also, I quit drinking after being a lush for the last 10 years. Onwards and upwards folks.

So, I've always wanted tattoos but waited so long because life got in the way. Now, that I've had my outline done for my left arm 3/4 sleeve, my first tattoo, something I've wanted for 20+ years. (I'm 43) I've become unhappy or itchy? :( I look down and my right arm just looks so...Plain/weird to me. I'm feeling the need to fill up the other arm with something equally as beautiful. Which leads me to a new thought. How fully tattooed do I want to become and I'm kind of freaking myself out. Maybe fairly heavily? Though, I haven't discussed this with the Hubby. I think I'd like to do both legs after my arms. I guess I'm leaning to a balanced look.

So, I have an appointment with Shige later in the year to talk about getting tattooed by him. He knows I don't have much space left for pieces of the size he prefers to work on, so I'm hoping he'll agree to do a smaller tattoo on me. We'll see how it works out but fingers crossed. Really excited about this. I've been tattooed by Tomo and it would make me really happy to also get something from Shige.

This is my first post in the General forum and I'm pumped to have a consultation for my back scheduled with Horitomo, in May. I have a ton of ideas and probably just as many fears, but I'm going to do my best at allowing Tomo to work his magic. Looking forward to the journey and appreciate all of the support in this online community.

@chrisnoluck, you might have to change your user name. You scored big time with that bunny!

@chrisnoluck thanks for brining the thread back with style.

my girlfriend and i flew out to LA on friday and got tattooed by bob roberts. i really only have these weird spots left and i told him he could do whatever he wants and he just grabbed my arm and pointed to my ditch and was like "right there". walked over to the wall and he goes "what about this one?"

Some awesome inner bi's here. I'm quite fond of skulls in this location. Brian Bruno Chris O'Donnell

In Progress by Matt Dinovo. BLACK SQUIRREL TATTOO.

I don't have a one and I don't think I'll get one either, our relationship is rather, erm, complex. I do really like them though, this one from Bob Geerts (@bobeus on instagram) is rather nice, I thought.

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!