Leaderboard

So I added this hand and flower while the brilliant and hilarious Nikki Balls was guesting in Toronto at the Pearl. Next to a butterfly lady head by Glennie Whittal

Surfing Mahakala (WIP–lines and shading done) on rib by the inimitable Eddy Deutsche

More badassery for you. Starting to see the finish line on this one. By Dave C., PSC Tattoo.

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

Just got this beauty from Josh Peters at High Tides in Saint John, New Brunswick. So stoked! Im a little paranoid about the healing atm, like I am with every tattoo I get, but We'll see when its healed haha

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.

Here's my submission :) Done by Josh Peters at High Tides Tattoo in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

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

:cool: Thou Shalt Hustle!!!!!!

You said you want to represent your fears. Your first two ideas, the clock and the compass, are good strong images that are positive. And in the case of the compass at least, represent something forward-looking to help you address your fears. For the third fear - being alone - you might want to choose an image that conveys you overcome that fear as well, rather than an image that just conveys that you have that fear. I think that's why the clipper popped into my mind immediately - it shows movement and can represent moving away from your fears. I supposed that's all I would caution - maybe avoid images that would cement those fears in your mind, and choose positive images that help you look beyond the fear to help overcome it. Good luck!

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.

Li'l Horitoshi frog by Junii :) Very hard angle to photo!

I'm not sure what brain bug got me started on tattoos in porn this morning, but somehow I got to thinking about it, and then I thought "well, maybe there are some good tattoos out there" and navigated over to (what looks to be) a well-trafficked porn site, and typed "tattoos" in the search box. Sure enough, I see plenty of tattoos. I'm looking at this girl's thigh piece when all of the sudden: vagina! I blinked and resumed looking at the tattoos, and then: butt hole! This kept happening and annoying me for awhile before I fully realized that I was watching porn and not looking at a tattoo website. Facepalm to the nth degree, because I totally knowingly went to a porn site to look at tattoos, and then got annoyed at all the T & A ruining my tattoo experience, and then realized T & A *was* the experience, and I had just trolled myself. PS - I also read playboy for the articles. ;) <drops mic> Val out.

Before you decide to do 'non-laser' tattoo removal, have a look at this. 2 years after a single treatment and the client is left with pinkish-white scarring. They came to see my yesterday so we could start fading this with FDA approved lasers in hopes they will be able to get it covered up. I don't do 'non-laser' tattoo removal, but if you have questions in general about what I do or how it works, please ask me. This type of scarring is not a fair trade-off in my mind.

@marley mission - oh yeah - I saw that in another thread. Pretty cool little dude. Your tattoos have great character. I didn't realize that was on your back. Good luck on the heal!

Pure Awesomeness @Graeme

.....but clearly dead as fried chicken! C ya non existing people!

2nd frog tattoo started... the first...

Thank you very much. Now I can calm down :D

Next session (4th) coming up this Monday. Imperial Tattoo Company (Jon West). Will also have a consultation with Tony Wayne.

@sophistre PAx is awesome. Lucky you moving to an area where they are home too. Speaking of Pillars, ha. That's one game I played for an hour, and new I would never beat it. I could tell with the depth that I would have to dedicate some serious time to it. I made it to the part about the dead dwarf conversation too. @Pleadco I also treat WoW as though I gave up doing hard drugs.

fresh right inner bicep Thou Shalt Hustle! :cool:

Dragon age is pretty badass. I'm waiting for Witcher 3. Besides that there has been a lot of hearthstone and heroes of the storm. That's about the only way I keep in touch with my old wow buddies (7 years wow free and counting).

Mine put her glasses on, asked if it said "mum", I said "yes", she slightly sighed and hasn't mentioned it since :D

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

color to come Sheila Marcello Electric in Asbury, NJ

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

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.

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

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.

Put another 4 hours into my bakpiece. Went and trained the kung fu class with a bruised back 24 hours later. Then my wife went away for the weekend...and I couldn't reach the tattooed spots. So...dry healing it is lol !

I love doing that. Don't think I posted this on LST, but I am 90 percent done with my left arm now. Filler by Tim McAlary at Port City Tattoo LBC, CA ALL DAY. Great experience getting tattooed by Tim. Highly recommended. Port City has some heavy hitters.

I have a dagger/knife done by Tony Nilsson!

I've been drowning in fiction, so maybe I'll take a look at the non-fiction on this page as a palate cleanser. Horror/weird fic bros: I just finished a pretty fantastic book called Bastards of the Absolute, by Timothy S. Cantwell. It almost doesn't even fit in the 'horror' genre at all, since it's not going to keep anybody awake at night, but the stories are strange and beautiful. So is the book. Pictures do not do it justice. I see myself spending a whole lot of money at Egaeus Press in the future. Bastards of the Absolute Also, on the recommendation of Nathan Ballingrud, I picked up Last Days, by Adam Nevill. Ballingrud says Nevill is the only author who can scare him anymore, and I understand why. There were things I didn't like about it, but it's the first book I can remember giving me the creeps since Matheson's Hell House.

Consider this... If you have a bad cold or flu...your immune system is run down. A tattoo is going to slam your system down even further and yeah you'll have a sweet tattoo but it's going to more painful to receive and your recovery from both the tattoo and the sickness is going to take even longer. Furthermore, you just got your tattooer sick...who then spreads it further to the other clients and tattooers in the shop and/or means he may have to cancel upcoming appointments. If you're sick...stay home, rest and reschedule your appointments. (On the flip side...yeah dayquil/nyquil works great to numb you out from the pain. But it will give you a bad stomach ache afterwards. So be pro-active, keep your body fit and healthy and your golden.)

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

A mermaid spanning from my upper arm into my lower. Positioned such that her belly button is in the inside crook of my elbow and when I bend my arm, she swims.

left Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

a peony and waves, a part of my baby-sleeve.

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

My arm isn't done, and I've only really started on one, but I can actually contribute! So I shall. :) Taking pictures of my own arm is hard, and I suck at it. There are individual pictures of these in my gallery, though, anyway! I was really late in coming to an appreciation of traditional designs (aside from traditional Japanese, which I have always loved). What sold me on traditional sleeves was the interesting way in which individual pieces become more than the sum of each individual tattoo...it becomes this collective aesthetic that I find so fascinating, in addition to being a very cool collection of individual images. I mention this because I have similar feelings about 'masculine' and 'feminine' aesthetics. (I'm also one of those people who thinks a man or woman can wear whatever the hell they want and still be masculine and feminine if they want to be, but that's a discussion of a slightly different variety. For the purposes of this post, I'm just using the generally accepted definitions of those words.) I think whether something reads as 'masculine' or 'feminine' in the traditional sense depends mostly on general presentation. There are tons of pictures out there of women wearing tough, aggressive traditional work, but they dress or present themselves in a way that's still super-girly and feminine. I think this look is amazing. Of course, there'll always be people out there who just find tattoos in general 'unfeminine' or whatever, buuut. That's really more about them, imo.