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From last Saturday at Great Lakes Tattoo in Chicago Nick Colella -big-ass eagle (chest) Mario Desa - rose of no mans..tribute (ankle) Frank Willian - pocket knife filler (inner arm ditch) It was a good day.... besides getting 3 killer tattoos, I got to hang out and bullshit with Chad Koeplinger and Robert Ryan and the rest of the GLT crew plus it was Robert Ryan's "The Radiant Name" art opening downstairs. GLT is probably the nicest shop I've ever been in and everybody was super nice and fun.....

Oh what the hell. Might as well post my finished back piece. A year long process has come to an end and I can't wait to start another piece! Done by Stacey Martin-Smith at Golden Age in Austin, TX.

I always walk around stark naked, as to not obscure any of my tattoos No but seriously... For me, part of the tattoo magic is that whole tattoos seldom gets seen in the best angle and the best light for a long period of time when you view them on other people. It's part of the charm I think, that they are a bit secret in that way. I love seeing just glimpses of well made tattoos pass by on the street or half a tattoo peek out under somebodys sleeve. Sometime the mood is right to ask them to show the whole tattoo, sometimes that's not the case. In my opinion, my tattoos are for my enjoyment first and foremost anyway. I don't think about how other people will or won't get a good view of them (except for job interviews or formal settings when they could be distracting) Talk to me in a tattoo shop or convention setting and I'd be happy to drop my pants most of the time. Not to be too much of a elitist snob but I think tattoos are for the initiated, who love and respect the art. I don't bother a lot with how my tattoos are viewed by "plainskins" when I'm out and about in every day life. Wear the watch or don't wear it, whatever you feel like that day. And enjoy your tattoos. There enough is time to get naked in front of mirrors in your privacy or with whoever you want to share it with. Just my 2 cents

Done by Greg Woodrow, Taunton Tattoos - Oshawa ON Canada

Hello all, So I haven't put up any progress shots on my back for a couple of months. In all honesty it was a lot of cherry blossoms. Anyway after the weekends session at the Bristol Tattoo Show I thought I better put up a full progress shot. Apologies for the slightly blurry pictures these were taken with my slightly rubbish little compact digital camera. I'm stoked with how it is coming along though now and am super excited to see it coming together with the colour in the dragon over the next few months.

Alright people, random crap is intended for just that. lets keep it clean and respectful tho folks and remember to have a sense of humor too, and don't forget that we all share a common interest which is why we're here in the first place.

I always read it as "Fuck The World" which these days usually means that I read things like "Look at this video of a kitten riding a Roomba FUCK THE WORLD". Everyday surrealism is great.

Chris Conn, done yesterday. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

time to go dry

So now you are just in this thread to quote and specifically highlight any negative comment about @Graeme? That makes you a dick too, LOL,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, People - PSA - if you don't like being here, just go away. Don't ask to banned - if you want to be banned, then go out in a flame of glory. That's much more fun for everyone, otherwise, it just comes off as boring whiny "they are being mean to me" Jr High School drama.

If anyone's ever told you that you'll regret your tattoo, they should listen to these older folks.

Follow The Wizard Forever Two Wheels For The Women Find The Way Free The Weird Or my favorite shop in Oakland :cool:

I am typing this on my phone, so please excuse any mistakes or odd auto corrects. I apologize if I started a bit of a crap storm on this thread. I didn't mean to at all. It is of no relevance to anyone else's tattoo in regards to how long mine is taking and I never intended any. One of the first things that folks seems to ask about my back is how long it has taken so far. I am assuming that is because Chad Koeplinger is notoriously fast and everyone knows that. I put that info in my post because I assumed it would be asked. I wasn't trying to brag or insinuate ANYTHING other than my experience. My back cannot be compared to those with a full back piece or even those with background in a biker back piece. I have a big back tattoo that has so far taken less time than I would have thought. Whatever. Who cares? I guess I do because I am happy with the progress in the time we have spent. I salute all of you. The back is very painful and it takes real dedication and humility to commit to. Please understand that I didn't mean anything negative. I fled odd posting in this thread and even moreso now. All the best to you folks with in progress pieces. They are amazing to watch unfold.

Hello all, I very recently (Thursday, actually) got my first tattoo. I am quite pleased with it, an arrangement of an owl and flowers. It is a scar coverup, with the intention of making my arm something I'm proud of in stead of something to hide away. I've been hiding it for over 8 years, by the way, these are the first pictures featuring my left arm since then :) Added bonus? You can't see the scars at all. They're just gone. La, the tattoo artist, in fact used the deepest and whitest of them as highlights on the feathers and the beak, and many others are now bits of flower. It's amazing, how it feels to take something that you have been hiding for so very long, and to in one day, turn it into something you just want to show everyone. The idea is long in coming, with the owl being a reference to Minerva's little owl (and my love of nature). Sunflowers are my favourite flowers, and cosmos link to traveling along my country's roads. Mostly, though, it's because I find it beautiful. Fine line black and grey, with lots of grey wash that right now just looks dark, but that should lighten with healing (she said two weeks, maybe a bit more, to see the effect). This was taken the next day, so it's very fresh here. Done by the lovely La at Fallen Heroes Tattoo in Johannesburg.

It is a comfy shirt. Great choice in tee.. - - - Updated - - - Do a different design! Keep that shirt LIMITED EDITION. I'm a sucker for LIMITED EDITION. - - - Updated - - - - - - Updated - - - FIND THE WI-FI. And Taro, that Bob Roberts piece is so good.

I got my old cutting scars tattooed over. I am very pleased with the result, in effect, I got my arm back! It's still healing, I'll put up a picture in a week or two when I'm past the ridiculous milky skin phase.

THISSSSSSS!!! I always knew it as "fuck the world". Imagine my confusion for a very long time. Seriously, thought there were some really stuck up people out there. For instance: Them: My child is an honor role student at ___. FTW! Me: Piss off! Are you telling the world to fuck off cuz of your brat?! YOU PIECE OF SHI...!!! Oops.

Fighting Ten Wolves Fire Toasts Witches Frankenstein Telephones Werewolf

I guess 'jealous' begins to describe it...

Some place that makes really excellent tacos should offer a Free Taco Wednesday to anyone willing to get a FTW taco tattoo. And I should live next to that place.

Bob Roberts @misterbobroberts "Find the Wo...Instagram photo | Websta (Webstagram)

I think the aesthetic of tattoos is so interesting - what is done, why, how it will age, and everything in between. It's a whole different media/art form, and has it's own set of rules. I don't know those rules, but also coming a fine arts background, I get the rules intuitively and understand that it must take an immense amount of time to learn how to draw (not even tattoo) well enough to be tattooing what one has drawn. It's pretty cool, and I dig that there is still an apprentice system out there.

It means Free Taco Wednesday to me now.

Just got an appointment with Nathan Kostechko during his guest spot outing at Rock of Ages in August. Boom.

it is cool that she likes her tattoos and is proud of them.

Good for you for working it all out. To be quite honest, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, it looks like you're just starting to figure out some of the basics of drawing for tattoos. I'd spend some time tracing stuff. Seriously. That SJ rose you see on the wall. Trace it 100 times. That way you know it by heart. Repeat. On whatever subject matter you like. Nothing too big. Just things to get your understanding down. I would hesitate to do any of those as tattoos just yet. That whole crawl before you can walk thing. I started in the same place, and not too long ago at that. While I have a fine art background, learning to draw a panther, or oni, or rose, or swallow, or dragon, or whatever...it takes a lot of practice to do so correctly. I'm still figuring it all out...much like the rest of us.

Eagle battling a snake by none other than Chad Koeplinger, finished in 3 sessions, outline in Denver, shading and color in Austin. Sorry about the glare in the photo, my apartment has the worst lighting of all time.

what does it mean? Fuck The World? For The Win? Free Taco Wednesday?

Day 6 of my foot been blasted. lots of itching... Somewhat uncomfortable and still on a bit of pain... Some parts of the gem are turning kind of orange red and seems to be all healing "ok" stop using saniderm today and now back to socks and aquaphore for this one..

Life will damage your tattoo!

Wait a sec. When I said @Graeme was being a dick I meant "conscientiously patrolling this board for the purpose of weeding out inane and useless comments" not that he's a bad guy in any way. We all know he's a sweetheart. Well most of us do...

Muthafuckin' Rose of No Man's Land

Seems legit, no?

Freaky Tattooed Weirdos

Maybe change the name of this subforum to "Don't even fucking think about posting anything"

Glad I brought an umbrella for the shitstorm that is this thread :rolleyes:

All booked for early August. Will be getting a Star Wars tattoo (Darth Vader) with a Giger twist, will be on back of lower left leg, yes the calf. But that'll be it done *starts to mentally prepare herself for the pain that waits*

It was a great experience, what a cool guy Chris is. It was interesting--I left a lot up to him, size/placement/his take on the photo and what he wanted to use from it. But I was imagining it in color (just based on his other work)...even though my arms are all b & g. I hadn't mentioned it, though. So at one point he said something about being psyched to do b & g, since he usually gets asked for color... so I thought, cool then, it'll be b & g! I figured, if he was psyched to do it, and it's what he visualized after seeing my arms, then that was the right choice! - - - Updated - - - Yes, this was her response when I tagged her on facebook this morning: "Whoa! Speechlessly flattered! Love the worshipful gaze, it reminds me of many things...!" <3:)

I'm not trying to run you off here, but you know how you said how you feel about this place sometimes? When I joined up there were a lot of great tattoo artists posting here, serious and experienced collectors, people like me who lacked a lot of experience but we're eager to soak the discussion, the interviews, the stories. Now I feel that this place has lost most of that richness and when I instead see threads about the weather...it's grey paint, man. I've learned a lot about tattoos from here and this place has heavily influenced how I get tattooed and I hope I've managed to contribute something positive to the site in return, so it bums me out to see yet another completely uninspiring post or thread that contributes absolutely nothing to the purpose of this site, which is to educate people about and promote good tattooing.

The other day I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant (I'm kind of a regular, the workers usually make small talk with me). I was wearing a dress, and the lady at the front counter approached me and touched on her arm where my butterfly tattoo is and said "Beautifur! Butterfry?" We had a broken English conversation where she asked where it was done and implied a lot of the tattoos she's seen come into the restaurant are pretty bad. Tattoos transcend all languages. :)

Just had a great weekend at the Bristol Tattoo Convention. Thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in quality tattoos next year. Awesome list of great artists, well organised and everything focused on tattooing without the extra stuff that comes along with some conventions these days. The result of the weekend for me was not only did Ian Flower do another few hours on my back piece, but I also got a cool little gap filler from Duncan X on my shin. Gotta love an Ichthyosaur. We will finish the colour in the Tibetan skull during my next session in July. It's exciting to see more and more colour going in.

Only have one arm tattooed so far, no idea what I want to do with the other one yet.

So Saturday I got asked if I I wanted to do a Geo/B&W Realism Portrait for this upcoming expo in SA. I jumped all over it, When I got the details I found that the portrait is of a woman, I still was ok with it... Well it turns out the wifey is not ok with me getting a woman portrait specially realism and on my thigh. So this AM I had to back out... I suspect the artist was some what suspicious because he did ask me... Are you ok with a woman portrait? Shit... I am ok, Is all good with me! BUT on the mist of discussing the plans for this week end we had the talk of the pieces I am getting up in SA... Than it hits.... Huge argument wish I quickly lost... Than I had to go back and think at one of the things I allways preach about... I am not the only one that is going to look at this for the rest of my life.... So is my wife... So I had to go back to rule number "If the wife is not happy, nobody is" This one was my fuck up... I feel horrible and depress. Not only because I didnt think about my wife but because I possibly fucked up a spot for my artist. I did told him that I am open for anything else just cant do a womans face... :( :( :( - - - Updated - - - Update: We are still a go. We change the subject matter, YAY!!!!

listen if it makes you feel better - i give you permission to get this tattoo... we'll be peanut butter bros yo

Sigh, my hubby just had a lovely portrait of a woman put right over his heart. Never considered a pic of me....Rat bastard.....At least with the placement and his um natural coat, She is the bearded lady.

Made the trip up to Davis to see George Hernandez and came away with this fun one: [/img]

I realized a while ago at work that members of the general public are more likely to talk to me (I work a job that a lot of people think is interesting and that they are curious about) when I have my tattoos covered up than when I'm in short sleeves. If your tattoos don't deter foes then you're doing it all wrong. Time to toughen up, pals.

My just completed full back piece based on the tale of Mimi Nashi Hoichi by Fil Wood at Black Crown Tattoo in Leeds For those who would like to know more of the tale please look here The Story Of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi And you can check out Fil Wood's work here https://instagram.com/fil_wood/

My thoughts are that Internet drama is stupid and if there's a problem between them they should deal with it like grown ups.

I'm glad you like it man! Thanks.