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I'm new here and figured I'd post some of my favorite pieces I've gotten over the last ~year or so: Aaron Hodges at Spider Murphy's did both my thighs: George Hernandez at Sacred Tiger did my forearms and bicep: http://i.imgur.com/aksalIN.jpg Jay Watkins (frog) and Laurent Trelaun (ship) at Spider Murphys: And then a couple fun ones from Jeff Rassier and Alex Petty: Hopefully this wasn't too big of a photo dump for everyone! Looking forward to upcoming consults/pieces with Paul Dobleman and Theo Mindell at Spider Murphys as well.

Here ya go: By Jeff Rassier Tattoo Picture | Last Sparrow Tattoo

Hannya with a dragon wrapped around it by George Hernandez. Video in the IG link. https://instagram.com/p/sqwdo2vMab/

Might as well add my recent tattoo to this thread. ;) Done by Steve Byrne at Rock of Ages in Austin.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu I sent an email. :cool:

my right arm,inner bicep, ya ya,I know,but I'm an "old guy" so I get a pass.

I was born in '81, which was a weird time for geeks in general. Like, I was too young to do the 80's punk thing, but Pokemon was after my time. I played a lot of video games. A lot. Basically from the moment I was big enough to work the controllers for my dad's Atari 2600. I still have my original NES, even. Incredibly, it still works. I guess that part hasn't changed much, since I still play an ungodly amount of video games. Not sure what else we had going on in elementary school. Micro machines? Voltron? Oh -- haha. MUDs. AOL used to let you play Gemstone III through it. And there was that BBS game before AOL was even a thing, L.O.R.D.? Oh my god, I am old. I played around with writing little 'choose your own adventure' stories in QBasic. Played all kinds of text adventures (think Zork) -- my dad was into those, too. He also turned me on to science fiction; he gave me his copies of Clarke's 'Rama' series and pushed me to read Greg Bear. He was always into out-there fiction...I saw Eraserhead with him, and Tetsuo: Iron Man with him not much later than that, and this probably explains a lot about me. I guess grunge was a thing when I was in middle school. That's right around the time I discovered comics, which was a brief love affair, irreparably stained by the fact that the local comic book store owner pushed me to only buy series from Image. :/ We played a few card games. Magic, some Star Trek game, I forget what else. My brother was into pogs. Dead serious. Pretty sure my magic cards (which are all Ice Age) are in a shoebox around here somewhere. I was a band nerd too. Played flute for about 11 years, did symphonic, marching, pep, and jazz bands, and went to All State and Solo & Ensemble every year. After I went away to New England for high school, I had to drop that, but it gave me more time to do theater things. That's when I finally got into punk music -- I guess that was more the NOFX/Misfits/etc. punk era than old-school stuff. I eventually got into RPGs through Shadowrun, though I only ever got to play it online, in what is the nerdiest text-based environment you can imagine. (Really.) I wish someone had gotten me into 40kz! There was nothing tabletop-ish, mini or otherwise, near me where I grew up. I have good gaming buddies who regale me with stories about 40k lore and their crazy Necromunda games. They paint figures. I'm always totally fascinated by it. Sadly, my few experiences with 40k nerds who aren't 'them' left something to be desired. Like tact.

I'll throw my hat in again this month with this piece, all healed and new :)

Hello folks. So I will be working in Portland, Oregon May 30th through June 1st and am taking appointments for flash, custom work, and hand-poked tattoos. Would also love to meet some LST peoples while I'm in town. If you are interested in getting tattooed, shoot an email to [email protected] Cheers!

I forgot about pogs! surprised someone hasn't open a pogs bar. seems like a good game to play while enjoying a beer.

I had a couple of little fillers done by Nikki Balls from Tattoo Paradise in D.C. while she was in Toronto at The Pearl. I got a pig and a heart. Filling in them sticks. I met Nikki a couple of years ago when she tattooed an octopus on the inside of my bicep. Good people.

I've been tattooed by dozens of people, and I wouldn't trade those experiences. That said, after seeing this arm by Paul Dobleman, I wish I had given him a full limb:

I have a dagger/knife done by Tony Nilsson!

done by tony hundahl at the oklahoma tattoo convention one shot drawn on

Nice! I love her tattoos, and I can't wait to see it with colour. Is she going to do something crazy? How is the new Electric? I thought the old shop in Bradley Beach was one of the nicest shops I've ever been in and I hope they brought that vibe with them when they moved.

color to come Sheila Marcello Electric in Asbury, NJ

I remember being really young, listening to my dad's old eclectic mix of an 80's weirdo records, and reading comics and d&d books. My brother watched me when I was young so I used to skate with him and when he went to the comic shop to play magic I sat in the front and read whatever I could get my hands on. My parents would never let me buy comics. We actually weren't allowed to go to the comic shop. Weird. Whatever music taste I have independent of my dad's started developing with RATM. That was when I started writing and drawing. I draw less now but still write. Then the ambiguous "they" got worried about me so I got stuck in band which I guess worked out. I started playing trombone and then picked up guitar, started listening to a lot more music. Then in high school I started a pseudo-psychedelic desert jam/cover band with some friends and I've been in that world ever since. Everyone raps now, but. Dust blows forward and dust blows back. Whatever textbook sub-cultures I was into were basically me becoming attached to things my dad remembered from growing up in east LA. Mostly kustom kulture and motorcycle stuff I saw from afar. There were communities of people around everything I was into but I'd hardly call them sub-cultures. More like packs of desert refugee kids. As far as whatever paved the way for the passion... I'm still too young and destructive to care too much. Tattoos have been around my whole life and I always thought they were cool, I dont know if me reading comics, skating, playing magic, liking punk rock, or being into old cars and ed roth had anything to do with that. All those things definitely influenced my taste in art and what exactly is visually appealing to me though. I guess it's a question of correlation and causation.

Heck, I just draw on myself with a marker. The swoop of my first tattoo made my ankle quite fetching, if I do say so myself. I'm pretty sure that the root part of that floral piece is my favorite tattooed thing on my whole body. The tattoo on the other leg is not very shapely, but I love it for entirely different reasons. Placement seems like it is going to be very important, and I'm very sure that if you go to the right artist, you'll come away with the most beautiful ankles in the world!

Great idea, @pidjones. I had completely forgotten this, it was a long time ago, but I did the very same thing - I went to Claire's (a jewelry/accessory store for young girls) and got temporary tattoos of vines/tribal type stuff and walked around with them for a while to see how it would look, or at least give me an idea. It was very helpful! :)

Vanity have anything to do with body art? NO! Really?!? I had a schoolmate in High School that although very thin and attractive otherwise, she had very thick ankles - I thought they were sexy as hell! Just wait, Curvy Girls are the fashion trend now - cankles may be next! If you really want to see what a tattoo would do, let me suggest two options: 1, get someone to take a couple good unobstructed photos of your ankles and then Photoshop some tattoos onto them, or 2, Henna - my tattoo artist also has a henna artist in her shop. It doesn't have to me a traditional Indian or mid-East design to be done in henna. Whatever your idea, have an artist do it for you and judge by your own feeling (and other's comments if you care). But, either way - if you do get it, you MUST post the photos here!

Mine have never gotten itchy, either. Peeling and peeling, then when I think it is done it peels some more, but not itching, thank goodness. I'm allergic to so many things, foods, environmental stuff/pollen/insects, so I feel fortunate I don't get a histamine response to tattoo ink, or whatever causes the itching.

My thigh tattoo was really only a PITA for a couple days, and I'm a slow healer. :D Poke, poke. Seriously, @cltattooing's art keeps blowing me away. It's incredibly impressive to witness someone with talent and drive becoming seriously good at their craft. More so for me because I get discouraged really easily when it comes to anything creative and so am extra impressed by the grit it must take to grow and evolve like that. Hope this isn't too weirdly effusive, it's totally sincere.

Upper thigh? Also you should totally do it.

Thank you for the detailed post, @Graeme ! The lines on my collarbones had me wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, I was practically seeing stars, even after the endorphins kicked in (I was well rested and well fed that day, thank goodness...). Fortunately the shading and color wasn't too terrible. You're right on about the whole body thing, I could feel it in my toes and fingers. The details in your post are a tremendous reminder of what tattooing is physically and how amazing our endocrine and central nervous systems can be. They can make you forget completely those first few minutes under the machine, permanently. Or, at least, until the next time you have to wait for your CNS and pituitary to kick in! It's also a great reminder how important it is to be in a good physical and mental place ideally.

The Division pushed back to 2016... *Darth Vader voice* NOOoooOOOooo!!

Hello Everyone! My name is Josh, I'm a tattooer working out of Third Eye Body art in Mesa, Az. I'm still new to the industry, I've been tattooing professionally for about two years now, so I am eager to learn all that I can! I've been trying to find other artist to share my work with in hopes to get feedback and hopefully some tips as to refine my work. Glad that this forum is here, thank you all for your time! Here are a few tattoos I have done as well. Let me know what you think! [/img]

Grats on starting the process @abees. Have fun with it all!

I'm doing both! One of my arms is all one artist, and the other will be one tattoo from any given artist, though the size of the pieces so far means it'll probably fill up pretty fast, hah. If you decide to do your arm one way, theoretically you always have the other one to do the other way (unless you don't, in which case another limb will hopefully suffice).

I'll take "Things you should never say about your wife" for 200 please.

Laser still seems the best. Lactic acid and dermabrasion by any method would remove skin and all pigment, leaving the scar. Follow the LST slogan: 'Get good tattoos', and you won't need it.

Compromise, just go to Spider Murphys and get tattooed by everyone there. Oh and Stuart Cripwell. Btw, good advice above. Not much needs to be added.

Just finished my left inner arm with Tim McAlary at Port City Tattoo, LBC. My recommendation is to book the appointment, then bounce ideas off your tattooer and something is bound to stick. I definitely wasn't planning on getting a "Boxing Jesus surrounded by 4 eyes, and a flower and a spider and a black drop."

Always wanted to stand out, rebel, or buck the system. As a youngster I tried to be a hippie in the 70's but my older cousin had to explain that the movement was "over." I was sorely disappointed. Teen years I discovered the punk scene (80s) and found my groove. There was a lot of dysfunction, sadness, misery, anger, substance abuse, etc. in that scene, which I didn't really have myself, but the music and lifestyle transformed me. So, so exciting and a wonderful outlet for frustration. Now, my kids see the old pics and there are documentaries and discussion about some of the bands and the culture in general, and my kids think it is SOOOO cool that I was a part of that (East Coast, DC scene) but I have to remind them of what brought most people into that life, and that was feeling alienated by their parents, school, the world, and that we lost a lot of friends to substance abuse, suicide and careless accidents due to the extreme marginal lifestyle. I consider myself lucky. (RIP D. Brockie)

My nerdiness was school related. I got straight As, did Academic Bowl and Spanish Academic Bowl, and got a Golden Ticket out of my crappy home town. I was totally a nerdy red head with braces and glasses. :rolleyes: I still am, I guess. A nerdy red head with glasses and tattoos.

As I mentioned in my intro thread, I've always been fascinated by tattooing, even going so far as to experiment on myself when I was a child. Pokemon was huge in my childhood (and still is, if we're being completely honest). I also got into anime and video games pretty hardcore, which has thankfully dimmed down into a casual interest. But my biggest passion as a child, and indeed now, is wildlife, and exotic pets. I started working with snakes when I was four, and now I have ten snakes, four lizards, two frogs, eighteen spiders, and a centipede, which is a subject for a different thread. There is a huge overlap between the tattoo/piercing community and the reptile/amphibian/invert community. Many, if not most, people in the reptile community have multiple tattoos and piercings, and I distinctly remember a reptile show being held the same weekend as a tattoo show, and most of the people at the reptile show were running back and forth between locations. I think both shows got a lot of extra business like this! Having said that, I grew up around lots of people with tattoos, and my parents never made anything of it. Most of them were super nice, and were more than happy to indulge my interests. I suppose this has contributed a lot to my interest and positive view of tattooed people and the community.

I was a punk rocker in high school (80s). I have always been drawn to creative people. My older sister was a big influence on me growing up. She is an amazing artist and just a cool, smart individual. She helped teach me not to care what others think, especially when it comes to your personal taste & style. I always thought tattoos were cool. :cool:

I've always preferred the darker side of things (though I don't wear full time black). Goth subculture always appealed to me, even as kid and I was very desperately wishing I could do magic ^^. In the early 90's tattoos became interesting. I spent a fortune on temporary and henna tattoo designs as a teen. I was also liking piercings which were getting more popular at the time. At 11 I got into the occult, and then with 15 added metal to my musical taste. The last step to being who I am now was probably adding Medieval Reenactment as a hobby. And I guess you could say my tattoo choices reflect a little bit of everything for the most part, as do my piercings.

Depends on your artists list schedule too!

tell us more about otter fighting :)

I am resurrecting this thread, because I want to know if any LSTers are playing GTA V -- for PC, specifically. Or anything else I play, really. Video games are my poison of choice. I am sad today, though, because I go to PAX every year, and I can't this year, because I will presumably be on top of a dumb mountain on the last week of August. My facebook newsfeed is full of people talking about the badges they bought today, and I am :(.

@UglyButProud, I have to agree with the above comments, though I don't like to pass judgment on your wife. It is based on her fears of losing her credibility at work, I suppose, which is not a small thing these days, and sometimes it is easier to make adjustments to the comfortable and secure world we know (you, her husband) than attempt to buck the system and prove that the image possibly portrayed by her husband does not have a bearing on her own work as a professional woman. I hope she will be brave and proud and show the world a thing or two. It may be easier than she thinks - tattooed people do not bear the stigma they once did, and she may find that many of her colleagues have quite elaborate but hidden tattoos themselves.

Here's my kitsune. Done by Casey O'Leary at Anchor Ink in SLC, UT

Man.... I could write for hours about my relationship/family and tattoos I met my wife when I was 29. We were both in the throes of early-life (as opposed to mid-life) career crisis and met in college. I had already lived a hard, but fun life and she was well traveled, but somewhat sheltered in, ahem, alternative lifestyles. I had already been travelling, getting tattooed for 11 years and had 1 full sleeve and both legs from hip to ankle completely covered. We met in winter and I was fully clothed and not really advertising any ink. She saw the tattoos on my knuckles and peeking out from under my shirt cuffs, but wasn't deterred from getting to know me. Once we started actually dating (and therefore getting nekkid) she told me "as soon as I saw tattoos on your knuckles, I knew you had A LOT of tattoos". To me, that was like receiving her approval, no matter how off handed. I started to notice quickly just how different we were in terms of of our background, and the way we had gotten to this point in our lives. She was Pavorotti, I was a punk...She spoke French, I knew drug-speak...She had friends at the country club , I used a club on some ex-friends....you get the idea. Culinary school and our shared love for cooking was our common denominator. We laughed and loved and became the best of friends and through all of that, tattoos were never an issue. Both of our careers took off wildly and for what little "me" time I had, I wasn't having any desire to get tattooed. Mind you, not "never again". just not at the new, exciting and extremely busy time in my life. At this point the relationship is going well and I find myself accepting of EVERYTHING that I had told myself I would never, ever do....namely, getting married and having kids! It felt good to be settling into, what my parents would call "a normal adult". Normal is a relative term for me, and even though I was getting married and planning a family, I never wanted to give up all the things I held dear. My future bride seemed to be on board too, saying "I would never ask you to give up the things you love (music/tattoos etc.)". We even had many discussions about tattoos and the fact that, even though they weren't for her, she didn't really care what I did. good to know........ Fast forward about 18 years: My wife and I are still in love and have 2 pretty great kids. We've both since changed careers and things are going pretty well. I had always kept a distant eye on tattooing and what was going on with it. I always had in the back of my mind that the itch would come back and I would ride out my "later years" with some new ink. This was all in the back of my mind though and I never really talked about tattoos with my wife. I suspected that she had some growing concerns about the tattoos as my kids reached school age and I started to volunteer there. I was asked, by her, to "not wear shorts" when I volunteered or "can you put a band aid over the bad word" (I have a big Sailor Jerry dagger with the words "death before suck-ass" down my left shin). I understood but never had any idea of what was about to come. One day my wife came to me and said " would you ever consider getting any of your tattoos removed?" I was floored and I asked "which one(s)?" She said "well, from your knees down to your ankles on both legs", and she was serious. I didn't know how to respond except to say "Never!!!" She tried to explain that she thought that my tattoos where somehow hurting our (read:her) status in her job and in the community. I was flabbergasted...the women i had spent 18 years with was now, in my mind, against me and what i believed in. The conversation ended with me angrily saying " I'd rather cut my fucking legs off" to be continued..........

meh - why not?! last jar by jamie sawyer immortal ink clinton nj

My husband has zero piercings or tattoos, and I have both. He's into Jimmy Buffett and I'm into the Dead Kennedys. He accompanies me to punk shows (what's left of them these days) and to the tattoo parlor, and supports whatever I'm into. Our next anniversary will be 25 years! Opposites attract sometimes... P.S. I took him to a Buffett concert last year for his birthday and had to walk out to the parking lot. Could. Not. Take. It. He's a much better spouse than I!

I have a couple of "mini-looks" that I am going for. I want the view from the left side of my body to be the "sweet" tattoos (flowers, butterflies, stars, etc.) and the view from the right side of my body to be the "sassy" tattoos (pin-ups and other sexy stuff). My front and my back views won't necessarily have a theme, but I don't want tattoos to be totally different from each other in one glance.

I've come full circle with my feelings on aesthetics, placements and overall look... When I started 30 years ago, I never had the thought of being completely covered and therefore, didn't have any plan other than WHO to get tattooed by. Once I started travelling to the artists I admired, a lot more thought went into what/where and how it would all work together. At one point I made "tattoo map" of my body. I took a roll of 3ft wide printer paper (used in BIG factory print shops), laid down on it and had someone trace me. I roughly sketched in the work I already had and then put the general idea and name of artist on the spots I wanted to get covered. That "map' hung on the back of my closet door for a few years and I got about 60% of the work I had hoped for (I had an entire body suit mapped out-HA!). At the time I really believed that the total coverage look was the right way and everybody who didn't think in those terms and got random work all over them was an idiot with no planning skills. A bunch of shit changed in my life and I put my map on hold for awhile....which turned out to be A LONG WHILE. Over that last couple years or so leading up to me diving back into this, my attitude towards total coverage has changed somewhat. Now I find looking at people with many tattoos not all tied together and the not-tattooed skin in between them, pretty cool. I still completely appreciate the well planned, total coverage stuff too but I no longer have a "tattoo map" and just plan on getting what I want, when I want and if the mood strikes me, get it all tied together in the end. Overall though, I've never worried about my "look" and how others perceived me. I may have be more aware back when tattooing was not "normal", but now-a-days, lots of neck/hands/face/feet tattoos make me look average..... or at least normal.

Realized I posted in the wrong thread, was aiming for this one haha...

I wrote in this thread not too long ago about how balance in which parts of my body were tattooed was important to me. Now I've had one of my feet tattooed and one side of my ribs tattooed, as well as half my knee tattooed, for quite some month without feeling the need to "even out" the balance by getting the respective side tattooed. I kind of like it, looks spontaneous and organic. But I am still planning to get the whole body (almost) done.

i was 16 or 17. i got a small tattoo on my calve. back then i never wore shoes or socks. as soon as school let out the shoes and socks came off. so the day after i got it done i was in the kitchen and i had socks on(to hide the tattoo) and the conversation went like this mom "so letes see it" me "see what?" mom "the tattoo. dont play dumb" me "i dont know what youre talking about" mom "BS, youre wearing socks. youre hiding something."