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On the bright side, it is now more likely than ever that your daughter is going to get a panther tattoo, so it's not all bad.

1-shot from Nathan Kostechko during his visit to ROA last week . . .

This is the opinion I've always held: if you aren't a tattoo artist, then you shouldn't be designing tattoos for your friends. Especially if you don't know a thing about tattoos or tattooing to begin with. While there is nothing wrong with your art, it isn't really well suited to be applied as a tattoo, and any decent tattooer will redraw it. It blows my mind that people trust their non-tattooer friends to design tattoos for them (this shit happens sooooo often) but not the fucking people who have been tattooing for years and get paid to do that for a living. - - - Updated - - - Oh, yeah, and BHR rules. This fat line trend is bound to end soon enough anyways. Don't get me wrong I have some tattoos with pretty fat lines, and I'm sure they will hold up just fine. But I kinda think it's a little overboard sometimes, so much so that at a certain point you have to worry about how the fat line tattoos are going to age once the lines start to spread. BHR does really nice looking tattoos, I wouldn't worry at all about how they will age, in fact, I'd be surprised if his stuff doesn't age better than a lot of the overly fat lined tattoos.

Yeah, this is the point I was trying to make. Sure, the teacher leading the trip should have known better, but the tattooer isn't really at fault here. And don't get me wrong, I wouldn't get tattooed by that dude, but I was expecting scratcher quality, when really it's just standard lower-tier shop work.

So this morning I put on a plain short-sleeved white T-shirt, and my upper arm piece barely peeks out from the edge of the sleeve. My husband, who has no tattoos but supports my own interest in them (he seems to be completely ambivalent about them - take them or leave them, to each his or her own, etc.) said to me, "Now that's bad-ass." I didn't know what he was talking about and asked what he meant, and he pointed to my arm, explaining that the tiny bit of tattoo showing at the bottom of my t-shirt sleeve made me look like a bad ass chick, and he seemed quite delighted! He typically doesn't remark on my tattoos much, whether they're showing or not showing, etc., so this was new for him. So, sometimes, just like clothing can do for the female form, just the suggestion of what might be underneath is just as intriguing as showing off the full tattoo. Interesting!

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.

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

From an artists perspective, i'd say go in at least with an idea of the tattoos the artist youve chosen has done that you like and explain why you like them (colours, layout,subject etc) and at best say youd like something along those lines. dont go in saying 'do what you want', no one ever really means that and if they explain something they'd be stoked to do and you say, yeah but not that. well, then you will have a deflated and slightly annoyed artist in your hands, vague guidance is great. the artist puts out there work theyve enjoyed or that shows their ability, all within the realm of what that customer asked for, however, so just cos you like what you see them posting doesnt mean it's what they want to do, it might be something entirely different that they simply havent gotten a chance to tattoo ever before.

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.

Is getting bad tattoos how kids rebel against parents with great tattoos?

That really sucks. Shame on the guy who did it and on the teacher for allowing and enabling it. But unless you're willing to fly down to Belize and kick the guy's ass yourself there isn't really a whole lot to be done about the tattoo right now. The bigger issue is the breach of trust - if the teacher asked for permission via text/FB message and got it from somebody, who is the person who falsely provided it? Good luck. I'd be willing to bet that your kid will regret it sooner than not, and that may serve as punishment enough.

punish her by not letting her cover it or fix it.

I love this thread so much that this is my first post (after my obligatory intro post of course). Although I've had a few tattoos for many years, just this year I have gotten a floral chest piece (across my collar bone from shoulder to shoulder), an ambigram on my lower leg, a tiger on my thigh, another tiger on my upper arm, have a half-sleeve being designed for the other arm, and starting on a lower back to upper thigh monstrosity this weekend. So, in short, I have become obsessed. And now as a direct result, I believe, at 44 years old I have become so much more comfortable in my skin that I bought four sundresses yesterday for the express purpose of being able to show off my art. I previously owned zero dresses or skirts (I even wear pants with my dress uniform instead of the skirt!). My husband, of course, loves this development, but it really about ME. I don't know exactly why, but showing ink instead of bare skin makes me MORE confident instead of less. Wildcat

I really like Clark North's work - I believe he is located in Las Vegas. He's certainly done more than a few dragon tattoos (Japanese style).

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.

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

Full backpiece Shige Sept 5th

thanks guys! becca is super cool and she did an amazing job - you look through her IG and her stuff is so clean and consistent

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.

@Sick, I think it's okay to ask an artist if there's something they'd like to tattoo. Some will go for it but others will want something more concrete to work from to start with. Ask them and they'll let you know. If an artist agrees to do this though and draws something up but you don't like it at all, then you've wasted his/her time. You may end up with a panther, an exploding feather, or a tanuki w/ giant testicles (minus the tanuki) but you asked for it because they felt like tattooing it. You may get a watercolor artist draw a traditional eagle because you're giving them an opportunity to switch things up. Worse case, you then feel pressured to get a tattoo on you that you dislike and the artist tattoos you none the wiser. Which you shouldn't get obviously. Or everything could turn out absolutely amazing and you get a tattoo that makes you do a happy dance. Personally I have never started completely blank. I have always given an artist something to start with cuz that's just me. It doesn't limit their creativity though. In the case with my back piece Jill Bonny completely changed what we had discussed at my consult. The subject was the same but after some thought she felt the idea we discussed was stronger carried out in a different composition. I was so blown away by the new image, I couldn't even begin to fuck with her head by making some wise ass comment. And I love me my wise ass-isms.

my whole back piece i had no idea what i was getting until i got to the shop on the day of the appointment. same goes with one of my leg sleeves.

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

I guess I'll join in on the sharing fun (even though most of you have already seen this on Mike's instagram). Progress from my session at Pagoda City Tattoo Fest: About 31 hours total so far. So maybe we are about 1/2 done?

Alright folks, here ya go

This weekend's brisket.

Single-needle rose from Mr. Downtown Oakland in a week in a half! Very excited. Very, very nervous.

I wouldn't worry. Four years healed.

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.

But there IS a correlation between income and ability to actually get tattoos. Demand isn't just wanting something, it's that 'want' being acted upon by offering something (money) in exchange for it. When talking about tattoos, I think we do have to distinguish between different types: Scratcher/DIY/"free" tattoos are an inferior good - That is, people will want less of them as their income increases. Professionally done tattoos are a luxury good - as our income increases we (meaning people who purchase tattoos) will spend proportionally more of our income on tattoos. For example, if at a given yearly salary we may purchase 1 tattoo per year at a cost of $x. Given a $10,000 raise/bonus, we will now purchase a larger tattoo worth $2x, or two perhaps two or more tattoos. So we've at least doubled our spending on tattoos despite our income not doubling. Tattoos run into problems that other luxury goods do not though. If one's income increases high enough, there's really no limit to demand on something like boats or shoes or watches. Even if you have bought the most expensive/luxurious one available, you can always buy another one. No matter how much we like tattoos, we really only get one chance to buy a full back piece or body suit (smaller areas can be covered up or blasted over, but you know what I mean). Looking into this area gave me the chance to learn about Veblen goods too - items whereby the demand increases because the price is higher. I think that this is possible with tattoos - this one being the one that comes to mind. Would Ms. Johansson have chosen that tattoo if it were done for $60 by somebody's friend's bro? Probably not.

Shao Lin Monk backpiece made by Steve Batt in his private studio in Edmonton, Alberta 32 hours, Dec 2014-Jun 2015

a buddy of mine shared this short little documentary with me. pretty good stuff.