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No I have not died, just been extremely tardy/slack in posting updates to LST. I am finally happy to say my Backpiece is finished. We did the final session last week and it was almost a bitter/sweet session. Still trying to deal with the reality of finishing it. It has taken roughly 18 months(we started in late Feb 2014 and finished late Aug 2015) Initially not only was I booking in tattoo appointments but I was also juggling the laser removal/lightening of 3 seperate pieces on my back/thigh. There were some fun times in the early days planning enough healing days between removal and addition. :) While I am happy not to have to take days off work, travel around 6 hours and spend another week after the session healing, I will miss the sessions. I initially said my Backpiece will be my last tattoo. I then said I will take a year off from tattooing and look into more work. Even after just 1 week of being finished my back I am already developing plans and looking at ideas/designs to continue to the front. I daresay after summer I will be booking a consult to start the front. Whoever said that tattooing is addictive was 150% correct. @Cork I love that post you did of the progress of your back. I am tempted to do the same. Was great to see in 1 post the progression of your back. Cheers, Jason. - - - Updated - - - That's gold, I think he is right. I thought my back was my last piece of work but about 1 week later after finishing my back I am already looking at designs to do on my front. I had always thought I don't have the pain tolerance to do my front. I am now thinking that I got through my whole back, the front can't be much worse. :) Jason.

Added a Kea and peony to my arm over the last few months. Have another session next month for background shading and hopefully it'll be complete. Artist Clare Hampshire.

check out aloha monkey

well you probably wont get alot of responses here on this but i'll bite first tattoo and your going for something on the finger meh - bad idea imo you're better off buying an inspirational piece of jewelry or a bracelet if you're still wanting a tattoo get a real tattoo look through some of the galleries or threads on here think about things you like, images etc and then start searching for artists in your area look at their work, etc and go from there but a word on a finger when you have no other tattoos like i said bad idea imo but good luck either way my opinion is just that just an opinion

Fish Rose morph Becca Genne Bacon End is Near Brooklyn, NY awesome time with Becca - super cool got in early to Brooklyn so I went to Black Gold Records grabbed a coffee and tshirt chatted with Dan Santoro's wife Summer super nice lady - gotta get myself to Smith St. this fall

Here's mine! One more session to go. By Freddy "Mr. Nice Guy" Corbin.

More work on my Marvel theme to start tying the tattoos in together. Still have some more work to do. The pick was taken the morning after, so obvious some swelling, bruising, and seeping. Getting chest tattoos sucks.

Sorry - I gotta double post - this is over in http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/15-latest-tattoo-lowdown-page810.html#post119681 Final healed pics! Finished a photo shoot last month so I FINALLY have great shots. Ready to enter the contest! Many of my underwater photographs designed into this awesome scene by Sean Zee Instagram

There are a lot of good shops in Minneapolis. Most people here will recommend Aloha Monkey which is a great and reputable shop but not located very well for a visitor as it is out of the way and sort of isolated in suburbia. My favorite shop is Leviticus which is in a great neighborhood in south Minneapolis near Minnehaha Falls and lots of great restaurants. Many people also like Uptown Tattoo which is also in a nice visitor friendly location. Have fun. I think you will find that this is a pretty great city with wonderful food and a lot to do. Also, you have picked the perfect time to visit. Hopefully some others will chime in on shops they like as there are quite a few around these days.

Hi Beth, welcome to the forum! If your friend wants you to design this because he particularly likes your style, then just draw an angel with flames as you normally would. Then he can take your art to his chosen tattoo artist who will do the necessary adaptations. If he has asked you because he doesn't really understand that creating the art is a part of what a tattoo artist does (this seems to be commonly misunderstood - many people think they should bring a finished design to their tattooer), then as @Graeme said just pass on the work and recommend he have his tattoo artist do the design.

Welcome Beth. Honestly, the finer points of tattoo design is verging into technical information and we don't talk about things like that here so I'm not sure how much help or advice you're going to recieve. With that said, I would advise you to pass on the work and instead tell your friend to seek out a good tattoo artist with his ideas and get him or her to design and make the tattoo. It will work out much better that way.

Who are you thinking of getting tattooed by? Your best bet with essentially any of those questions is going to be to ask them directly, as different tattooers approach convention work (and work at home you could say) differently. Shoot your tattooer an email or call their shop and see what they say.

When I was planning my left arm I had a lot of reservations about going down to my wrist so I was thinking 3/4s, but I was also thinking of what I could do later to extend that down to my wrist. I ended up going down to my wrist and I'm happy that I did because I ended up with a stronger tattoo than I would have if I'd gone for less coverage initially and then later extended it. I don't have a job where I need to cover my tattoos, and in situations where I do need to cover them, short sleeves still don't work with half sleeves. I know it's slightly different with women's fashion because there are more options, but if you're already tattooed near your elbow, chances are you've already limited yourself in terms of clothing if you need to cover them. How much a tattoo is going to hurt should never be a consideration.

if you're already considering it now, you'll only consider it more once you have two half sleeves. elbow is bearable. gender doesn't matter. light blonde hair doesn't matter. do it! (you're talking to LSTers here). it's a big jump to the forearms, if you don't have any visible tattoos. there are other threads about this that you can find with a quick search. if you get a full sleeve now, the artist can make it more cohesive and have a fuller vision rather than moving down to a full sleeve later and tying it together.

Honestly, I think the apprehension and not-knowing before getting your first one is about 1000x worse than anything you'll experience afterward...because while, yeah, it does hurt, for the most part it's a known quantity and you know sorta what to expect. At least, that's how it has been for me. We were joking last night at Liberty about how we get wussier with every tattoo we get, because the first few you're like 'I'm gonna tank this like a champ! There's no way I'm gonna wuss out! BRING IT ON!' by #6 it's like 'oh god damnit here we go again' and you kinda whine about it a little more. That said, I think the fact that most people who get tattooed go back for more of the same is an indication that it's totally worth it in pretty much every way. :) To stay on-topic: lower leg tattoo presents fresh challenges, like my cats trying to rub on my legs, and one of my cats LICKED IT WITH HIS FILTHY CAT MOUTH EW. Should be fun walking around PAX with this thing healing. Woooo

Getting the back of my thigh by Koeplinger on Saturday. Looking forward a lot!

@CABS Make a thread about personal tattoo rules plzzzz I have some too

Research the tattooer you like and ask them to do a subject matter you know they like. As others have said this might not be the most prominent thing in the portfolio but on instagram a lot of tattooers do point out what they like, and want to do more of. When I'm not getting flash I usually like to have a lot of control over how it's going to look (usually in the terms of a small sketch that the artist can adapt to their style) but I still target an artist that I know is going to love the idea more than any other tattooer I could have pitched it to. Because if they dig it, you're going to get a much better and more lively end product.

Hey :) Well, I have tattoos and I'm also a psychologist. Truth be told, we have an entire chapter to check about how our client looks like, and this of course, includes tattoos. This looks "chapter" is NOT as important as the others, but it is a source of information about our client - and any information we can get is helpful to better understand the client. Some tattoos have meaning, some don't. We are interested in those with a meaning for the client. Imagine a woman coming to your office, and she has a portrait tattoo in memory of her dead son. Maybe that's the reason she's there (the death of her son) and you'll want & need to find out more about it, and even if it's not, nonetheless it was an event that shaped your client one way or another. And what if tattoos could talk? What story would they say? These are very good questions to ask the client once you have established a relation with him. Some people really like to talk about their tattoos! There's also could be the case when a certain tattoo is related to a gang, to a rite of passage or even has a medical purpose (a tattoo which warns others in case of emergency that you have diabetes or certain allergies etc.) and it's important to find out the symbolism of these because it helps us, as I already said, to better understand the client. I could go on and on, but the basic idea is that there's nothing wrong with your psychologist wanting to know more about your tattoos :) P.S. - English is not my native language, so sorry for my mistakes.

Got this from Hector Fong yesterday at Tattoo 13. Always wanted something from him, and walk-in Saturday showed up, when I had some extra cash. I took this photo at BART. Looked like a weirdo, but sunlight makes for easier tattoo photo's, I've found. Rad tattoos, everyone. Keep up the good work.

Just get a Pharaoh's Raptors instead.

So beautiful! @SeeSea one of those pieces where you can find something new each time you look at it. I admire your commitment on this. It couldn't have been easy. Came out superb!

I finally got my fans!

Get a skull.

Got my wife this tattoo from Thad Ritchey @ California Electric. We just had a baby a month ago and she really wanted this tattoo to symbolize that. Really happy with how it came out.

Final healed pics. Amazed and still hard to believe that I get to wear this art. I now travel with over a dozen of my underwater photographs designed into this awesome scene by Sean Zee Instagram

Holy shit. That looks so good. And so fast, well it seemed fast, ha. - - - Updated - - - I'm a shitty forum user. I find I only lurk the backpiece thread(s) with any kind of regularity. I should work on that. Anyways, latest sit after 2 months off for traveling and enjoying summer adventures. Started colour! Super pumped about that. Also, any sit above the waist is a good one. Have an appointment every month from now until December. Hoping to have it done then which would mean it took a year for everything shoulders to knees. Fingers crossed. Sorta off topic, but a guy was at the shop near the end of my sit. Heavily covered (only a patch bare on torso) and kinda shooting the shit. He asked if I was going to do my front. I replied with a fuck no (keep in mind, this is at the end of my sit, ha). He said finishing your back is kind of bittersweet and said he'd put money on it I do my front, ha. We shall see. I can't imagine being sad to be done. But I do plan to finish off my arms, legs, and front of thighs eventually.

Hey guys, third session down, now sitting at 11 hours...second pics a bit blurry sorry...

@idyllsend WOW! that is really beautiful. I can't wait to see that finished. Here are a few pics from my last session with Chad K. We are essentially finished but he does want to do one more session in November for some touch ups and stuff. For all intensive purposes though, here is my finished back! I am so stoked!!! It is so vibrant and bold and I think you can read the image from a few miles away :) Chad put in some really neat little details in this last session. Not sure they will be visible in these "just finished" pics, but I will try to remember to post a healed pic. He did some really cool things with the tongue and the teeth that I am pretty pumped with.. LOVE the eyes as well. I am super grateful. rob attaching pics from gallery as that seems to be the only way for me to edit them from being sideways. If they look sideways at first, just click the pic and it should right itself.

Alright folks, here ya go

There's nothing you could do to that tattoo that wouldn't completely overwhelm it. Cover it with a real tattoo.

Okay, fine. Here's the latest progress.

Finished all of the linework today. 4 hours on the ass and ribs was super cool. u______u But on the plus side it is the most gorgeous tattoo ever and I could not be more thrilled about having gone through with this. Also I met Ed Hardy today and I was pretty much naked except for a drape sheet and my socks so that was awesome haha :rolleyes:

Calling might help lol

Have you called or visited the shop in person?

This always happens to me on whichever side I have worked due to the favoring of the area. Chest, back, arm, each time and it bothers me more than the tattoo. Usually at day 3 I stop favoring it.

"Nattpatruljen", Norways answer to "COPS". This is how Norwegian police handles a drunk, angry man. We of course have police officers that are total dicks over here too, but fortunately, some of them are quite alright.

I think if your parents are willing to travel from CT to AZ just to see you, you've got a good pair and will probably continue loving you no matter how they feel about tattoos/your tattoos. Chin-up and take the plunge. Even if they're not on board yet, they may soften to the idea down the road.