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Getting tattooed right now. Butt and thighs day! Although only one cheek, hahaha

Got this Rollo eagle on Sunday. Done by Steve Goodspeed at Gold Rush Tattoo in Costa Mesa, CA. I'll be going back in a few weeks once it heals for a bit thicker of an outline.

I found this today. Does anyone know about it or have you ever seen it? I want to take it to my artist and have him do his own thing with it. Any thoughts?

I found linework to be quite easy to heal. I mean a bit swollen and bruised for a few days. We didn't even wrap it up at the end of the session. I just threw my shirt and pants on. Went home had a beer and jumped in the shower haha. Shading patches were difficult though to heal. It reduces your mobility a lot while healing those sessions because it is such a large area, you get to thriller-walk around haha. Especially the ones on the spine, in between the shoulder blades. I could handle the itch, but maaaan my back and shoulders were ultra stiff for a good week. Itching would come and go to different areas at different times. I don't know, can't really explain, it is something you just gotta live through and experience it for yourself (if that's your tattoo desire!). Backpiece tattooing IS a heavy experience but the whole process of tattoo and healing is very enlightening and exciting.

The same guy who did the eagle! Steve Goodspeed, he does all my work and kills it everytime

Yeah, that spot is special, isn't it?

give er a tear out

Had some work done Friday 07-17 :cool: Getting there !!

This is what I did yesterday with Jereme Galloway at Time and Tide in Bloomington, IN.

I'm trying to look at that eagle but all I keep seeing is that fucking perfect tiger. Who did that one?

Hm, I don't recall it being painful tbh, maybe because I was a bit more of a chicken and didn't yank it off but slowly peeled it off bit by bit instead...?

My entire back itches like a lied down in a hammock over a cloud of mosquitos. It is the most itchy I have ever been during my healing of a tattoo.

Haha thank you. We went about 4 hours, although I dunno if I could have done it without some chemical relief. I've never taken codeine for getting tattooed, but it was great cause it didn't make me high, just kept me from twitching and made it suck less. I mean it still hurt and sucked but it was doable. Oddly the worst of it was the inside of the lower thigh :confused:

That's a great drawing. My backpiece is based on Horiyoshi 3 reference so I think bringing it to your tattooer is an excellent idea.

This is really the important bit, right here. Work is work, and is where you apply your skills, and get paid for it. If you have an artistic vocation then you're probably expected to inject your personal style into it, but in my line of work it is a distraction to have "too much goin' on" and I prefer to be put together, stylish, clean and appropriate, but anything beyond that could take away from my performance, perhaps. It is not the time or place for it, in other words. I personally don't mind it in others, because I have a very open mind and tend NOT to be distracted by others' expressions of personal style, but many people would be distracted by it, and I prefer to just keep things simple and let my professional skills shine and be the thing that people know about me and remember about me, primarily. In other words, there doesn't have to be any angst about it, it is just business. :)

@TrixieFaux - Sigh...You are right, I am a bit afraid of being judged. :( I'm in my late 50's and I started getting tattooed when I was around 50, and I guess I'm from a generation that still remembers when tattoos were only on people on the fringe of society, and had very negative connotations. Even though I know intellectually that perceptions have changed, and I totally embrace and love my tattoos, and will be getting lots more, there is still this little thing inside of me that fears being viewed negatively. It must have been imprinted in my brain from an early age. I guess its hard to unlearn old lessons. I am in a medium sized town, and actually there are a fair amount of tattooed younger folks around, but it is very rare to see a "conventional" (and yeah, I'm pretty conventional) person my age with tattoos. The few times when I have gone out with my half-sleeves exposed, I've felt uncomfortable, like, "OMG what if I run into my boss?!!" Honestly it is a big mental conflict for me. There are days when I think "Screw em! I want my tattoos to show." But when it comes time to walk out the door I can't bring myself to do it. This probably falls into the category of TMI, but I'm sure there is a need from some sort of psychological intervention here! :) I think the fact that I am totally relaxed and even enthusiastic about showing when I'm on vacation is informative. It's funny - in that setting, showing my tattoos makes me feel really confident and even powerful, its almost like I'm a different person. I feel alive, more like "me." I need to capture that at home. I'm mentally working on it, and I do see the day that I will be able to feel more comfortable showing my tattoos in public. I just need to step off the cliff and do it. But like @LizBee, I don't think I will ever show them at work, because I just like to keep my work image conventional, without distractions. - - - Updated - - - I'm really working to realize the difference between being at work and being on my own time!

Holy hell man, I didn't realize how small that guy was.

I posted here a while back that I had never had a tattoo itch before. Cross that out. My entire back feels like it was attacked by a swarm giant mosquitos. I've never itched this bad even from poison ivy and contact dermatitis.

I typically like them to show. I wear tank tops most of the summer. Bought a couple of racerback tanks after getting my most recent tattoo back/shoulder blade area tattoo from Chris Conn. That lady is too lovely for nobody to see her! My co-workers and the parents of my students can see them when I'm off-duty. So far, I've gotten such a warm reception about them with parents I've become friends with, that I might roll up my sleeves a little more this year at work as well. The students always like them. @soraya, it sounds like maybe you're a little afraid of being judged. If people want to judge you, that's their problem. Then again, where I live I am not really a spectacle for being tattooed, and tattoos aren't shocking. Los Angeles is diverse and there are many of us illustrated types around here. Do you live in a small town?

Fuuuuck, you guys are killin it!!! @hfs40000 @Boiled Dove @oldmansea

Me and my girlfriend got tattooed yesterday by Marcus Kuhn while he's guesting in Paris at Laura Satana's shop!

Laurent for sure. Great dude at a great shop. My wife got his first "on the books for cash-money" tattoo and it rules. Be jealous.

After 7 years of hustling, freelancing, not having my shit together, and then getting my shit together - I GOT A FUCKING JOB YO!!! AND A REALLY COOL GOOD ONE!! AND I'M A GOOD GUY/ WHITE HAT!! Because it's for a large corporation I don't think I should say much more here in a public forum, but guys: I work remotely, full time, full benefits, and a 401fuckingk. I have not had these in my adult life!!! I AM STOKED!!!! You know what this means, right? More money for more tattoos. :D

Too fast? ...tattooing isn't a race Going too fast is when you have a bunch of tattoos lined but none are actually finish. I'm surprised how many people I see and know that don't finish what they start (and not just in tattoos, but in the ins and outs of life). If your arm is only lined in, why are you getting hand and neck tattoos? The ADD generation of tattooing. Focus, commit and get the project done. Take your time to enjoy the experiences and the tattoos. Enjoy watching the tattoos heal and age. But most importantly take the time to enjoy the other things in life aside from tattooing. Balance. I'll pass on the 'too fast' and stick with the tried and true method of the tortoise, 'slow n steady'. That's how I achieved my coverage over a dozen years thus far, the way I've made my pictures and my stories. I like what was said before about "the journey" and about "the larger experience". cheers :)

And perhaps most notably: some of the stuff that I _absolutely_ wanted to get 2 years ago, I am really happy I didn't get. Not that it would be really bad tattoos, they would probably be good, but more so that now I know better, and don't want to waste the space with anything less than optimal. Also goes for changing my taste and finding artists that I like better. For example I have this idea for a lady head and at first I was so sure I wanted to have Sarah Carter do it, but now probably two years has passed since I first got the idea and about 10 tattooers have been considered, and I am still not sure haha

i always tell people to get the tattoo they want, where they want it. don't let friends or others opinions of size/pain/location of tattoo affect your decisions.