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I didn't know where else to post about it, but this is sorta some newsworthy "lowdown" on tattoos. But Ross Hogg CRUSHED IT with that @livedintattoos Sunday Takeover, holy shit.

Pharaoh's Horses by Sheila Marcello @ Electric Tattoo in Asbury Park they had a traditional flash weekend event @ the shop as I was getting tattooed by Sheila I was a few feet away from Bert Krak and Robert Ryan doing pieces there was many other big names there as well - place was packed seeing Bert up close I couldnt believe how big the guy is - he looks like he could suit up for the NY Giants if he wanted very cool vibe at this shop though I would say I prefer less of a crowd pic is shiny - meh

My standard response to the "what do they all mean" question is....... "it means I REALLY LIKE TATTOOS!

By Franz Stefanik, Okey Doke Tattoo, Toronto.

#breaktheinternet lol haha thx G-man - - - Updated - - - And we loved reading about them! Too often we just see the tattoo and don't often get the chance to hear/share the intimate details behind each tattoo experience. Really appreciated the stories, they put your tattoos in context and makes those tattoos even more powerful!

I don't really get asked this question. I must come across as the unfriendly type, which is exactly the point of visible tattoos.

Hi all, started my back piece yesterday...roughly 5 hours lining..a few rough spots but otherwise not to bad ! Artist is Dan Andersen from Sacred tattoo in New Zealand..Cheers !

my question is, how did we get to post #13 of this thread with no photos or even a single request for a photo. all these words are gettin' me down! i don't have any work from him, but i've admired it for some time. here a few for our viewing pleasure. I'm pretty sure these will all age alright.

This is my latest one, by Marius Meyer (Photo is also taken by Marius Meyer). I am super stoked to get it coloured in later on.

I did much research before deciding to do my coverup. After watching television shows showing what could be done, it was encouraging while at the same time, you don't want to trust just anyone. As great as the internet is, I have seem far too many bad cover ups although many were simply amazing. My first attempt at research was disheartening as after asking several shops, I simply got too much conflicting information, people simply too eager for business, or simply my gut telling me something wasn't right. Finally I saw some coverup work on a tv show mentioning an artist from Dallas. After a quick search I found that he was a few miles from my house. At this point I went to his shop, but he was on the road. Talking to the shop manager and explaining my situation, I mentioned that if possible I would like to do a Captain America tattoo. Once I said that, I was quickly able to set up an appointment with the owner/artist. Although very high in demand, apparently if you are wanting something that they want to do as well, I have found that artists can shift schedules if there is a type of tattoo that they want to do. Fortunately for me, I later found that the artist was a much bigger superhero fan than myself. Over the next month, I spent wakeless nights admiring his work and many of the comic stuff he has done and spend many hours downloading comic images trying to conceptualize what would work for the coverup. My consultation finally came and after asking me what I wanted, I kind of hesitated with questions as to what my limitations were. His response was, not to worry about it, just tell him what I wanted and he would make it happen. So, I gave him my top 3 comics. We set an appointment and I left trusting him to come up with something. It was kind of crazy committing to something without knowing what exactly I was going to get until I showed up, but I trusted my instincts and research. I was straight up blown away with the results and feel I learned quite a bit along the way. - Older tattoos are better candidates for coverups than relatively new ones - Non-recognizable shapes are easier to cover than geometric shapes I don't know why some artists try to just go for the simple black out with no detail, like a panther head. You do not necessarily need to go darker for coverups, blues rock! - You should anticipate going at least 2x the original size. Bigger is better - Detail will help draw attention away from the orginal tattoo, so some slight detail show through - At least for me, the skin where the old tattoo was scarred and bleed a bit more than fresh skin. These area scanned more. Anyway, if anyone has any questions, shoot away. PS.. I was still a little bloody on the yellow lines, but you get the results.

When I tell people that 90% of my tattoos have no meaning, their brains explode.

hogg's guest on livedintattoos had me realize yesterday that I had not been following Matt on Instagram. I fixed that.

i'll be there saturday. hoping to get tattooed by mike wilson, i'm going to call inksmith tomorrow to see if he's taking appointments but i know when he was at cleveland a few years back he was just doing walk ups. also emailed scott sylvia earlier and he said he had some time so i'm going to get a little something from him.

I agree about the meaning-thing. Someone just was admiring mine the middle of last week and she said she just hasn't found anything that means enough to her yet. And everyone wants to know what the meaning is behind mine..."Um..I really like flowers and they make me happy. I love water. And I wish I could fly so...yanno..wind.." Someone did ask me years ago tho why I had Tony the Tiger tattooed on my ankle and I about came unglued. TIGGER. Get it right. And even still, the only "meaning" I can find there is that Tigger makes me happy and speaks to the kid in me who will never grow up.

I wouldn't worry. Four years healed.

"I really want a tattoo, but I don't know anyone that died..." People watch way too much tattoo shows on TV...

The first time I travelled to Asia was in 2008. I was very privileged to have my Sifu (Master, RIP) take me along with his family to Foshan, China to learn about the roots of Wing Chun kung fu and experience Chinese culture. Then we would spend time in Hong Kong to train Ving Tsun with his Master (my Sigung, grandfather teacher). We had some free time and went to explore the street markets one evening. We had been in the area the day before and I noticed the big blue “TATTOO” sign on the busy street. My curiousity had me drawn to it and I wanted to see what it was all about. I would say I was still inexperienced at this time, 5 years after my first piece (maybe 50hrs in?) however tattoo culture was becoming something I had become very fascinated by. If you wanted to see pictures of tattoos you would muster some courage, suffer through the intimidation of ~actually going into~ a tattoo shop; you could see what your punker friends had scratched on each other; you would sneak a peak at the BME website (the internet! Oh my!). I went off on my own at night time to find this mysterious tattoo shop. I had split off on my own, away from my group. My time was limited to explore. I found the building underneath the big blue sign, went up several flights of a dark dingy stairwell. And there it was “JIMMY HO TATTOO”. Just an apartment door framed with classic tattoo flash pasted to the wall. So I rang the buzzer… I thought maybe it would be cool to get a tattoo in China…but I was also very hesitant. Did I have enough time? My group didn't know where I took off too and I had to meet back pretty soon. I was uncertain about the safety of the needles and ink. Healthwise it seemed risky. China isn't exactly the cleanest place in the world. How was I going to heal a new tattoo being in the hot sun all day and then training (contact) the evening? Afterall, my focus in Hong Kong was Ving Tsun. ...I remember being so nervous when I rang the buzzer. Shaky. There was no answer. So I waited for a bit, my curiousity had brought me this far. But what the hell was I doing here? Sketchy. And then a head suddenly appeared through a gap in the flash covered window. This older gentleman opened the door, poked his head into the stairwell to see who else was around and waved me in. I was pretty mesmerized. Here I am a younger, naïve kid, swept up in the energy of Hong Kong at night. Here I was in a sketchy, dimly lit building in an old man’s apartment studio. Old timey flash, certificates, photos, a lot of tattoo history covering every square inch of the 300 sqft apartment. What in the hell was I doing here? “Tattoo?” He said. That was about the only English he knew and would speak to me. He motioned at my long sleeve shirt, I didn’t have any of my tattoos showing. So I took off my shirt and showed him the work I had amassed at that point. Both my arms fully covered. Some leg tattoos. A big dragon on my ribs. He gave an approving half smile and motioned for me to sit down. I think this man knew that I wasn’t there to get a tattoo from him that night. However he made my curiosity feel welcomed in his studio. Looking around the studio it felt like a risky place to get tattooed and I felt I wasn't experienced enough to think otherwise. Not very sanitary by North American standards (but probably cleaner than some of those tattoo conventions haha). The bench pillow was covered in ink and blood stains. I couldn’t see an autoclave. The ink bottles in the corner looked a little crusty. The older tattooer gentleman didn’t have any visible tattoos and there was a serious language barrier. He gave me some his photo albums to flip through. It wasn’t a portfolio. It was more like family photo albums. Very old pictures of some American-classic tattoo designs he had made on people - eagles, panthers, daggers, hearts. There were pictures of him with groups of shirtless Chinese men, dragon and tiger backpieces and sleeves on display. Photos of this older Chinese gentleman with who I would assume to be elder American and European tattooers (I would be to naïve to have named at that time in my tattoo journey…I’m pretty sure there was a pic of him with Hardy, I think Pinky too? I really can’t remember). The whole experience was very surreal, I was nervous and awe-struck. I was going to have an amazing story about meeting Jimmy Ho, but would anybody really believe me? Or care? Afterwards, I did a bit of research (in which there was and still is limited info online). It turns out Jimmy Ho was the son of the late James Ho, who opened up Rose Tattoo, one of the first tattoo shop in Hong Kong back in the 1940s. My mind was blown that I had just had an exchange with a man from tattoo royalty. The next day I was exploring and ended up checking out another tattoo studio “Star Crossed Tattoo”. It was run by two friendly UK ex-pats Ross and Julia. I spent the afternoon talking with them about HK life, punk rock, tattoos, watched Julia tattoo and confirmed a few things. Yes, I had just met Jimmy Ho. He was tattoo royalty in Hong Kong. Hygiene standards were very questionable in Hong Kong/China at that time. Very risky, healthwise. The HK tattoo scene wasn’t regulated by the health board. Later on in the trip I would venture back to the area of Jimmy Ho’s tattoo shop. I didn’t take any pictures inside his shop, I was too distracted by the reality of the interaction - a human exchange about tattoos that happened in spite of a language and cultural barrier - and I didn’t want to be disrespectful towards a man that had let a stranger into his studio apartment. But I wanted to get a picture of the big blue TATTOO sign from the street during daylight. At that time I realized that I must have been a batshit crazy kid (even if I did know some kung fu!) to take a back alley into this area at night time, as there were a bunch of strip clubs, bath houses, massage parlours and gambling going on in the area with Triad looking Chinese (dragon/tiger halfsleeves) working the doors on the block. Not a place a young white tourist would want to find himself alone at night time. No guts, no glory I guess haha. I didn’t get a tattoo on the trip. And I have no regrets about that. But what Jimmy Ho did give me was an incredible memory and experience. Another story to go along with all the pictures I wear on my body. Thank you for reading :) PS If anybody has any further info about Jimmy Ho, James Ho, Hong Kong tattoo history please do share, love to learn more about it. - - - Updated - - - I did find this https://www.facebook.com/jimmy.ho.7127/media_set?set=a.292623604111543.71717.100000917175393&type=3

I never knew a pressure cooker had so many uses!

Can I vote @bongsau for a future takeover?

Thanks @suburbanxcore, @ItsNewport, @polliwog, and @CABS. I had a lot of fun doing that, even though it was kinda weird to just blast two dozen photos of myself all day. It was really nice to revisit all the times I got tattooed and the stories and experiences that went with each piece. And the kind comments from people like you all (and others who I don't even know through LST) really had an impact on me. @Iwar has started something great, and I already have several ideas for people I want him to feature in future takeovers. :) - - - Updated - - - You saw my bedroom tribal post, right? ;) And I didn't show all my tattoos in the takeover, so you can just assume the ones I didn't show are terrible.

The green borneo roses story was my favorite. Like it's helpful to have a reminder that @hogg is a mere mortal.

I know I posted it on one of the photos, but I feel bad for whoever has to follow @hogg's takeover. That was incredible. I had a friend who just kept texting me throughout the day every time a new one came up. Haha. I'd seen a lot of them from the gallery on here, but the stories were great and gave terrific insight.

That account has quickly become the main reason i open instagram, some awesome takeovers from LST'ers and Ross's was one of the best for sure. Credit to @Iwar for getting in so many heavy hitters from the tattoo world.

here is a better pic - one that Sheila took - along with some others she did yesterday

It took me a while to receive it as well, Doug pretty much handles the whole HardyMarks operation himself so I guess a couple bumps in the road are to be expected. I had to call to get it sorted but it all worked out.

I cannot stand when people ask me why. about every single tattoo I have. No there is no sob story behind the rose on my knee, roses just look cool on the knee. It is really the only question I just cant answer anymore. It bugs me. I do try and explain that not everyone needs this contrived emotional meaning to get a tattoo, that getting the tattoo is the meaningful part. Getting a tattoo is the experience I wanted to capture. A good tattoo should be able to stand alone. But of course if you don't have a love for tattoos and the process then you will never understand that. Also I believe once you want more than one tattoo, these thought-up meanings behind them fade for you. The people that ask me "why", are the people with one tattoo for their kids, or no tattoos and have been trying so desperately to think of the perfect image or word to get done for the last 40 years. If I am going for full coverage, each one can mean less in a back story sense, and just be awesome.

I love that @marley mission! I remember seeing Electric tattoo when I went to see the Boss in Jersey, judging by your tattoo I definitely want to take a better look next time I visit!

She'd kill me if I posted a photo of it, but you can see it on Bailey Hunter Robinson's Instagram (it's a totally badass phoenix) :)

Just got my appointment confirmed with Horimitsu in November to extend my peacock sleeve! Super excited to travel to Japan for the first time and to be tattooed by such a great artist. Also really intrigued to experience Tebori, now just got to book some flights!

I do get this kind of thing sometime. I think it goes to the idea that in order to take the step of getting a tattoo it would need to be an image with deep and lasting personal meaning. I admit that I felt that way prior to getting any tattoos myself. Now I would happily pick a cool image off the wall from an artist I trust. Things change.

I feel a little bolder with my thigh eagle showing. The key to confidence is to get more badass animal or mythological creature tattoos on my legs, apparently. For whatever reason I don't really pay attention to whether my arm tattoos are visible.

my thoughts exactly. based on the tiger, he will likely just be strengthening some of the lines and leaving the detailed lines as is. i love when tattoo placement is so good, it looks like the new tattoo was placed there before the others.

My artist actually asked if I could come in so he could do it. I know he was really determined to make the design perfect and I think he just wants to touch it up a tad in some spots, I'll ask him when I go back in what he had in mind exactly. Regardless, I trust him enough based on his other work that whatever he needs to do will look best. Other than that I'll probably end up getting a small filler near my wrist after the touch up.

@stlm It should be someone's responsibility to tell Marius that he needs to take a trip to North America.

My "cat"

Aside from all the monmons, I love this one by Jim Sylvia:

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?

give er a tear out

Hehe. Yeah, man! You've still gotta make that happen!