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I doubt anyone will beat that tiger/cobra but Zuck it.

My first tattoo, done on Wednesday! Very happy with it, and I'm getting a black widow done on the other arm in about a month!

color to come Sheila Marcello Electric in Asbury, NJ

Sending through a teaser of sorts . . . Just a small portion of my music themed leg-work by Hooper; The 6th and (hopefully) last session is June 1st, so I'll likely be able to post the fully completed leg sometime in July. Lower leg is healing REAL slow.

I haven't got a "mum" tattoo specifically, but the woman with the sewing machine that i have in my gallery was for my mum. She was a seamstress when i was little so i have a lot of memories of being surrounded by sewing machines. She cried when i first showed it to her, which is about the best approval i could have hoped for

Mine. Healed/hairy. By Bert Krak, done at Frith Street.

@TrixieFaux Awesome! Zzzzzzt. ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzt.

I'm not getting tattooed right now but @DJDeepFried is! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No problem, I'll get you an update in about 6-7 weeks when the client comes back in. My work speaks for itself though, as does most professional laser operators. Because I'm not here to promote myself / business but rather as a resource for the community, I rarely post progress photos on here. Take a look at my website / social media profiles in the meantime though.

I'm actually going to be in NY this weekend. I'm going to try to stop by Kings Avenue on Sunday, but I have a lot of stuff going that day. If any LSTers are there, I'm the guy with the beard and tattoos.

Thanks! It's one of my favorites. Jay's done a few of those little frogs partying and smoking too, so fun. He was telling me he's working on a painting with one as a one man band w/ a harmonica and drum set, I'm super stoked to see it when he finishes it.

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

Will BBQ for tattoos!! Beef chuck short ribs 15 pound packer: lamb spare ribs: pork spares:

I saw that Zuck on IG--so freaking good!

Opening my eyes and world via lots of threads here. Great place! Have a few small not really noteworthy tattoo's, but have started to up my game a little with a 4.5 hour lace inspired mandala piece on the back of my calf and wrapping around my ankle. Done in February at The Family Business Tattoo Shop in London (amazing place with amazing artists). Next piece will hopefully be some interlocking/overlapping cluster of mandalas on my upper/outer thigh, which I've enquired about. So I'm by no means one of the serious collectors, but my interest and enthusiasm is still up there - would love to know what people are looking at getting out of this site or indeed what pieces they're thinking of getting next. A big lover of decorative tattoo's, personally. Love the look of so many styles (neo traditional especially), just not sure I could pull them off. *doffs cervical cap*

Most artists are confident in there work and thrive on and get inspired by seeing others work. It's almost a friendly rivalry like "oh they did that awesome piece, watch what I can do". I found in my personal experience, It inspires most artists to step up their game. The only time you would be disloyal to an artist is if you commit to have them design/draw an entire sleeve, start the work, then go to someone else to finish or change or add to it. That wouldn't be an issue if you were getting several pieces to make up a sleeve, as the thread is speaking about.

I think it's common for people to get "problem areas" tattooed to help them like those body parts more. I personally have never thought a tattoo made a certain part of the body look worse, if anything, it's a huge distraction from flaws. If you want it on your foot, go for it.

I don't have thick ankles particularly, but I do have pretty beefy calves. They're just very, very muscular, to the extent that I don't often fit into zip-up knee-high boots (which sucks, because I love themmmmmmm). I used to worry about this kind of thing with shoe choice. Can I wear the boots with the big piece in front? What about booties in general? Won't that make my leg look wide all the way down? I don't really worry about this anymore. If you look happy in what you're wearing, people roll with it. If you look uncomfortable and nervous, they notice. There is no substitute for genuine joy. Plus, I second the person above who said that tattoos can be transformative! Mine made me love my fat upper arm long before I started getting back into shape.

It's also very easy to get custom temporary tattoos done if you already have your basic idea as a computer file. I've used these folks, and I expect there are other similar places around. https://www.straytats.com/

I remember my lower leg tattoos being SUPER itchy. They're also the biggest ones I have, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. All my others are hand/palm sized and I don't remember much itching at all.

@marley mission That's killer...always loved her stuff!

the whole experience was top notch - was never at the other shop to compare but the vibe was top notch - a chilled out music - just mellow - got to sit next to Robert Ryan as he discussed a piece with his customer - seemed like a super cool mellow guy - Sheila was awesome as for the color - this tattoo was from her original artwork that is also on her IG if you scroll back a bit - she has free reign with color choice but we did discuss it and it sounds like she intends to stick close the colors in the original piece her stuff is right up my alley right now

For me it;s a mystery why girls are worried about getting tattooes...girls are beautiful, with more tattooes they can only be...more beautiful?!

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.

This is a great thread and I've loved reading everyone's responses so far. For context, I was born in 1986. When I was 13 I got into pop music and the Internet in a big way...I was on various newsgroups and message boards for bands (and then got invited onto "private" offshoots of those message boards for being chatty). I was an avid Livejournaler and still keep in touch with plenty of folks I met there in the early 2000s. I've always felt like a bit of an uncool nerd because a lot of geek cultural touchstones like Star Wars, Dr. Who, high fantasy, musicals and so on never connected with me. Instead I was the sort of obnoxious teenager who read Georges Bataille and made sure you knew it. I really deserved a punch in the face. When I was 18 I started listening to The Fall, and in keeping with past practices became involved in their online community. A bunch of really amazing people were on their message board; I've met a ton of them over the years and have traveled to the UK multiple times basically to hang out. So many positive connections go back to The Fall. It turns out there's a pretty hardcore group of tapers, etc. in the UK and probably some in the US, too, though who knows if the band will ever play here again since things never end well for them when they do. Replace the mental image of a Deadhead with one of a genial hard-drinking 40-something Yorkshire man and that's who I spent a lot of my early 20s hanging out with. I can understand the resentment some folks might feel towards subcultures in the Internet age (if you can even call them that) vs. before that, but for better or for worse that's the story of my teenage nerdiness. The Internet really can help you to find "your people" if you're growing up in an area where you struggle to make friends...of course it can also keep you inside and alienated, depending on how you use it.

You are worrying too much - tattoos can be transformative how we feel about our bodies. I love the tattoo in the photo and how it doesn't cut off at the ankle. Guy le Tatooer does beautiful feet (okay, he does beautiful everything) http://guyletatooer.com

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

Witcher 3 allmost coming out.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu I sent an email. :cool:

I told myself I wasn't going to start anything on my legs until after August, because I'm deep in training to climb Rainier, and doing that with a healing thigh tattoo sounds uncomfortable. ...My shoulder didn't scab up too much when I had that done on the other side, though... ...yeah. I should totally do it. The linked pictures are too rad. You're a terrible influence! Because of how you twisted my arm without mercy. Obviously.

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

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.

@mmikaoj I haven't been too active on here lately but to come on and see your story. Wow man, I just read your review and it was great. Glad to see how everything worked out.

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

I don't really know how to answer that. I have tattoos over both collarbones and I don't recall them being especially bad, even though I know that collarbone is a notoriously bad spot. I remember during one that there were bits where it seemed that my entire skeleton was vibrating and that was distinctly unpleasant, and I hadn't felt that on any other tattoo until I started my back. The inner arm skull I would rate as the most painful tattoo I've ever had--I would say in all honesty that it was worse than getting my back lined--but that had everything to do with me not being prepared for it. When I got the tattoo I had just finished working a week of twelve-hour long night shifts at a very physically demanding job and I was never in good shape after my work week during the best of circumstances, plus the appointment was at a convention so in addition to being excited about getting tattooed, I was also excited about being at the convention and seeing all the awesome stuff going on, which meant that I got two or three hours of poor-quality daytime sleep prior to the tattoo. And because it was at a convention everything was running behind, and that wasn't great for my physical well-being. Basically you know how during the first few minutes of a tattoo before the endorphins kick in you start to question your sanity and your motives because it turns out that a machine driving needles repeatedly through your skin really really hurts? That's how the entire tattoo was. It was miserable. I've been tattooed a few times by Ron: he also did one of my collarbones, and a good sized tattoo on the side of my lower leg, and I don't find him especially painful to get tattooed by (he's also a tremendous guy, for what it's worth), it was just that I was in bad shape. That tattoo ended up healing pretty badly because I babied it and I was pretty cagey about getting it touched up because of how it felt initially, but at one point he said he was going to do it and I got ready to grit my teeth and get it done...and it was almost painless. So who knows.

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'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).

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

I have a dagger/knife done by Tony Nilsson!

I got a "mom" heart tattooed on my wrist as an ode to the woman that gave me life. I also thought at the time, it would stop her from nagging about all the tattoos i was getting. See, I was inspired (sort of) by my dear mom having a small tattoo on her back a being in awe of how many people complemented her on it.... When I showed her the mom tattoo I got on my wrist "for her", she wasn't impressed and said... "I hope that's the last one" Love you mom!!!

it's 20 years old now,and not "epic",but I got this for my mom when she passed away . it was done by "Charlie",a very old school tattooer at the "World Famous Emporium of Tattoos" in Van Nuys california in 95. . mom and me sometime in 1960

All year round... Mixture of pork shoulders, lamb leg and prime rib here. Low and slow for the former, reverse sear for the latter.

Ok. My guy told me it would take about a week to peel and everything and be ready to start filling in. Does that sound about right?

Linework is generally very easy to heal. At most, if you have itching, a tiny amount of lotion might be helpful. Ointment/lotion is really more for when you have large areas of tattooed skin, and even then, not much is needed. Your body will heal it on it's own if it's clean, anything you put on it is just to keep it comfortable for you, or to keep it from getting overly dry.

I say follow his advice. There are quite a few members on here who prefer dry-healing.