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Don't post very often, but with @Graeme showing progress on his badass backpiece and the overload of cool stuff here to look at the past week, thought I's show what I've been up to the past year or so. Progress on the front side of me. Working on finishing it out and tying it all together with the back. It will be a shirt soon! October 2012 - April 2015 (chest/stomach). Got Angus Young put on me by Mr. Bob Tyrrell at the Full Moon Convention in Nashville on May 8th. I'm still blown away that this is on me. It's also the easiest tattoo to heal I've ever had. P.S. It is really hard to get a good pic of this one.

Got this done by Steve Byrne at Rock of Ages the other night.

Jack Rudy on Tattoos' Stigma and Why It's Good They Hurt | OC Weekly

Are you hoping for something photo realistic or something more avant-garde? If more avant-garde, I'd go with Razvan - he might be able do to something photo realistic for you without the avant-garde marks. There is a great thread on black and grey tattoos somewhere on the forum, and their aging. I highly recommend checking it out for artist references and ideas, thoughts, considerations, opinions, etc... http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/2654-aging-realism-what-lasts.html Marisa Kakoulas of needlesandsins.com covers a lot of artist from all over the globe, you might want to check her site out for additional ideas. Another big thing for picking the right artist is that you must go to the shop where the tattoo artist works, and look at their portfolio, feel the vibe of the shop and the staff working there. DO NOT ask for a quote for how much the tattoo would cost whilst visiting. When looking at the tattoo artist's portfolio... do they have nice photos? Are the photos of fresh tattoos, or healed tattoos? Is the portfolio itself decent (as an artist, a poorly photographed portfolio and sloppily put together portfolio sends red flags up for me), does the shop have a good vibe to you? If all is okay for you, then book a consult with your artist. You are not obligated to book a session or place a deposit with a consult (well, some uber busy artists do have consult booking fees that go towards the cost of the tattoo) - with the consult you'll see if you are a good match or not. A big indicator for me has always been: look at everyone's work, then make a shortlist of whose work you keep returning to look at more and more, then go visit those shops and a few others that didn't make the shortlist. After that, you can go with the tattoo artist's work that feels the most right for you. I spent a lot of time learning what a good tattoo was (placement, linework, shading, etc) just by looking at a lot of tattoos - good, bad, in between - and it made a difference in helping me figure out what kind of tattoo I wanted. I changed subject matter ideas so many times, then I decided to focus on finding a tattoo artist who made my heart pitter-patter, then I worked on sussing out subject matter. It was better for me, but may not be that way for you or others here. I feel like this response was a big long ramble, sorry about that.

I picked this one up today from a relatively new artist...Dakota Parker from American Classic Tattoo. I couldn't be happier with my experience or how it turned out. The lining was done with an electric and the fill was done with a rotary.

Sneaked this cheeky filler in today with Nicholas from Blue Arms, Oslo. Nice little warm up for the back piece session tomorrow!

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

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

I don't think it's awkward to ask that at all. Definitely good to just straight up ask the hourly and the amount of time expected, which imo is a bit more graceful than asking for a $ amount. If someone can't answer that for you, they are probably extremely stuck up or shady. The "if you have to ask then you can't afford me" attitude is bullshit, tattooers need to understand that tattoos are a luxury and there are lots of other expenses in life that take priority to getting tattooed. Also how are you supposed to build a returning clientele if your clients leave feeling like their business wasn't handled with full transparency?

Dear Dream Tattooer, why you no respond to my emails. We exchanged a couple and now nothing. I need to know if I'm getting an appointment with him or not... Deets will be revealed IF HE EVER ANSWERS AGAIN. (It's only been a couple days, but I'm antsy)

Further to what @cltattooing said: It's incredibly important to discuss price beforehand. Many people have a specific budget and cannot afford more at that time, maybe ever. We are professionals, offering a professional service. Payment is one aspect of that service. Part of the consultation for any tattoo, be it a backpiece or a small walk-in design, is to discuss the price. Then you can decide if you will get the tattoo today, or at a later date. If you are not told a price for your tattoo, you should ask. (at my shop we make sure that every client knows the maximum amount they will be expected to pay for their tattoo session, before they book an appointment or agree to get tattooed - sometimes it works out to be less) Yes, we're also in London. Not mentioning the cost of goods and services is certainly not a cultural thing here.

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.

The best way to do this is to see tattoos in person. I would recommend going to the tattoo convention you mentioned above to see tattoos in real life. You'll learn a lot more that way because, like you said, most pictures of tattoos are just pictures of tattoos and don't give much information about flow and placement. Seeing tattoos in real life is also going to help you to find out what you like because you'll see them healed and aged and you'll again get a much better idea of what they look like than you would just from pictures.

So Greg had to reschedule my appointment for this Wednesday, and that gave me time to book with @cltattooing while she's in Portland. I shifted my hotel stay over to the 29th-31st: YAY BUT, then I get a message today from Greg's assistant that he had a cancellation, so now he can get me in on the 27th. Now, I have to ask myself if I want to take a mini-vacation to Portland and get two tattoos, driving down the morning after we hike Mt. Walker, or just tell Greg I can't make it and do the sane thing instead. I never use hashtags...but in this case I think one is probably warranted. #tattooproblems

Grez just told me that June will be the last sitting for my arm. Three weeks! I'm so excited to wrap it up.

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

Dave is amazing. There was a guy in the shop when I was there who was getting tattooed by Will and he had an almost complete Dave backpiece of a Tengu fighting a Nue and it was amazing. You should really make the trip sometime to get something from Dave, he's such a good tattooer and it's been the best experience.

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

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.

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

Heres another sick one along with a painting I did a little while back.

I looked and couldn't find a thread on this topic, admins feel free to delete or merge this thread with an existing one if there is one. I love tattoos of frogs and toads. I'm not sure exactly why that is, because they aren't an animal that I think about that much in real life, but I think there are few tattoos that have as much folky charm as frogs and toads. I saw something on Instagram the other day, I can't remember where, but somebody was commenting on how toads, especially Japanese toads, can also have this real sense of menace. I think it's super cool that they work so well as a subject in both kinds of tattooing: Western traditional and Japanese. I know that a bunch of you here have frog tattoos, so let's see them, and post some of your favorites. Here's mine, done by El Monga at Aloha Tattoo, Barcelona. Monga does some of my favorite tattoos, they're so fun and playful and have a real magical feel to them. The tattoo is obviously healed.

Dan Sinnes

xD, Im rewatching dragonball at the moment. Oh those were the days

session 2 on the back with Sheila Marcello on 6/3 @ Electric in Asbury Park and now 8/23 with Becca Genne-Bacon @ End is Near in Brooklyn going onto the lower arm for the first time with a rose and horseshoe combo

Probably reaching under my bike to grab the tube of Loctite I had dropped and contacting the hot muffler with part of the tattoo is not good for it? Still healing but not looking too damaged. Suiren, I slept in a tee shirt the first night and it stuck, so I just wore it into the shower and soaked it loose. No harm to shirt or ink.

Just landed a "normal" position at my work! I've never had a stable job in my life (except for a 5 week career as a co-chef last year). For the past three years I've had the type of contract where I'd work anywhere from 0 - 150% of full time, depending on how much staff is needed and how much they would call me. After summer I'll finally have a fixed schedule for 67%, about 100 hours a month. So very, very nice to be able to plan my life the way I want it (around my working hours) instead of being at their mercy and let sudden phone calls reschedule whatever else is at hand. I had a meeting with my boss about two hours ago and now it's begining to sink in how this will change my day to day life. (Bonus: most probably I'll be able to switch up to a full time position and a better schedule too, in october)

@exume So envious! Due to changes in my work situation it seems like I will HAVE to go to the states in august and get some tattoos. Fuck yeah

Soo good, @Graeme!! I've yet to see something from Dave C that I haven't totally loved.

Portland is a much better place to explore with extra time on your hands. For the sake of getting your money's worth, ya know. Just sayin.

Killer submissions this month! I dig it!

I need to amend my upcoming list: Yoni Zilber for a skull/dagger-knife thing, and Brian Kaneko for peonies and another bird - all in the fall because I like swimming too much in the summer. Inching towards what I wanted to do on my body tattoo-wise.

@Graeme - I ditto the leaves - It really does something to the design. Which is pure awesomeness in itself. Home stretch, baby, home stretch.

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

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

Not sure how realistic you like your realistic tattoos. Myself, the hyper-realism, and even most of the photo-realistic stuff is not my cup of tea. They look really cool, but not my style. My personal preference is toward the realism built upon a traditional "framework", for lack of a better term. Darcy Nutt is really good at tattooing what I described above - because pictures are worth way more than my crappy descriptions. One of my personal favorite artists, and a super chill lady - I hope to get more work from her one day. I think a black and grey realistic owl would be cool. Have any idea what kind of owl you want?

Here is my submission. 2nd session:

My husband always points out when he sees women w/sleeves or half sleeves-he likes it and he knows I do too. It's very..I don't know, I find it sensual and beautiful. This is what I have so far. The cherry blossom side is going to be added to-more flowers and wind bars. It will go around the upper arm and then up across my upper back to meet the water piece on the other side. Frog will be redone and incorporated into everything. Maybe add another frog in there someplace, who knows. If I thought the school district could handle them down to my elbow I would go that far at least. And it's not that much farther, but still, better to not push it. If my husband's business takes off and I can quit-full sleeves!

Rib toad

warrior frogs on my arm by Ryudaibori, June 2009

I believe it is a Japanese tradition to soak for a short time in a hot bath after a tattoo session. And many LSTers have shared that their post tattoo routine includes a hot bath. "excessive" is the key bad word. Light application of lotion works for most and is usually part of the recommended aftercare instructions from most shops.

I'm almost tempted to disagree with #1 too. Maybe this guy was just pulling my leg, though I don't think so, but I know a local tattooer who says that swimming in salt water is great for a healing tattoo and that he learned this when he was tattooing in the Marquesas. He recently went down to Austin and got this incredible reaper with flames from Chris Trevino on the side of his stomach going up into his armpit and he said he went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico three or four days after getting tattooed, the scabs all washed off, and the thing healed up beautifully. I've seen it, the tattoo is bright, solid, an all-around exceptional tattoo. I wouldn't do it personally, but it seems to have worked for him.

There's a reason we come back to dragons, panthers and the like. They're timeless, and well..just fuckin cool. Just done a quick count of 9 dragons, but not 1 panther. Thanks guys. Panthers head to be slammed back of neck next tattoo! - - - Updated - - - Fkn how cool. Just texted tattooer about slamming panther head back of neck. Locked in for next week. Fuck this forums awesome.

Possibly the greatest advice ever given, in the history of anything.

No matter what you want you should instead get two animals fighting. Unless you want three animals fighting.

i have a theory that some of the new users are really just @Pugilist in disguise posting about endless text/no outline/watercolor tattoos just to push @Graeme 's buttons. and then he angrily scrubs the dishes and cleans the house.

I think a dragon and/or tiger would look better without being incorporated into a scroll. Do you have any artists in mind yet?

Moops?