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

Hey, at least she will have a cool story about getting her first tattoo one day. "I was 17, on a trip to Belize and tricked my teacher into letting me get tattooed. My mom was pissed."

Bongsau means "wing arm" in kung fu...I have cranes tattooed on one of my arms, voila wing arm. I'm sure some people probably first thought of stoner connotations with my user name, and they probably aren't that far off the mark a-o

Thanks for answering the questions nobody here is asking.

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

Signed it. And I know that this has been posted by at least one other member, but it deserves its own thread. Thanks for starting it, @cltattooing.

My name is Joakim and my second name starts with a M too, so it's mmikaoj backwards. I registred somewhere a long time ago, having to add the extra m since just mikaoj was allready taken. It stuck since it's easy to remember and looks like gibberish to any non-scandinavian without a mirror.

Back in the old days of competitive online gaming, everyone I played against had names like Xxsn1per_k1ll3rxX and shit like that, I wanted something as boring as possible so I just chose the first thing I saw, and just kept it forever. Occasionally get called hardon, don't care.

@Shaggy I remember you posting about how difficult the process was, but it was clearly more than worth it because that is a spectacular tattoo. Good luck on getting your torso done. I'm a week away from the final session on my back, and other than a couple of small things, I think my torso will be next also. My chest is looking really bare these days.

You are a cool mom.

Thanks @Cork and @Patrick Bateman I love how it has turned out. When I 1st went to Kian it was only for a 1/2 sleeve + chest piece. Pretty sure now it will end in a bodysuit by him. :)

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.

I think this approach may work better for people who already have a number of tattoos, because the tattooer can kinda have a gauge of what you're into. Otherwise just find an artist you like and look through their flash or line drawings. Like others have said, originality is overrated. I can't imagine being an tattooer and having to constantly try to flex the creative juices all the time with people who want something original but aren't creative themselves. And don't get me wrong, I'm completely guilty of this as a collector. When I got tattooed by Matt Arriola I think I said "I want a trippy Jesus head". This was on a day's notice. Though, to be fair I did say I'd be happy with a traditional one too. It worked out and I got a great tattoo, but I know if I were him I'd just be like "okay, wtf is a 'trippy jesus head' supposed to look like?" Also, really glad to see @Valerie Vargas pop in with some wisdom.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Yes, another topic about absolutely nothing but it helps me to get some rest in my head. Like the title, how did you come up with your username and does it have any meaning? For instance, for a couple of months i thought Moisttowelette was a girl/woman untill he posted a link of an interview of him. Needless to say, mind was blown. Or whenever I see the name Marleymission I am picturing some rastafarian guy. This is where my username comes from

@heathenist I think "a trippy Jesus head" sounds pretty good as a request. Way better than "I want something to represent my family, my place in the world and how I developed as a person. Please also include a shark"

@marley mission wow that is exceptional, one of my new favorite morphs to date.

Please everyone take a moment to read and sign the petition. https://www.change.org/p/andrew-cuomo-david-carlucci-kenneth-zebrowski-new-york-state-department-of-health-change-nys-bill-s1421-2015-to-allow-the-use-of-disposable-ink-caps-in-tattooing

A lot of people probably have stories like this about their first tattoo, and so yes, in some ways it is probably not horrible. BUT...It's one thing if you are underage and you are able to pass yourself off as being 18, or the tattoo artist just doesn't care about age. The only only participants in the deception are the customer and the artist. What bothers me is the complicity of the teacher. Their involvement was way over the line. It doesn't matter if the tattoo is good or bad. It doesn't matter if a 17 year old getting a tattoo is a big deal or not. We expect teachers to take care of our kids and adhere to a higher standard of care that the kid might exercise on herself. The FaceBook permission scheme was incredibly naive, and then he didn't even follow through with that, instead taking the girl's word that her mom approved, which was shockingly poor judgement. Doesn't matter to me. The teacher should be following the rules/norms of the home country, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, the expectations of the minor child's parent. This person should be fired or severely reprimanded by the school.

Read this & thought of you all: I Can't Stop Reading One-Star Yelp Reviews of National Parks

Noooo!! - - - Updated - - - Yikes, this would make me angry at everyone involved- daughter included. I'm sure you as a tattooed parent had spoken to her about getting responsible tattoos as she ages into adulthood. Best of luck with the blood work. The tattoo itself looks to me like it can be turned into a decent tattoo without much trouble- but what do I know. I'll let your artist deal with that. Fingers crossed all around.

That's pretty jacked. Also, if it is where I think it is, I double down on my outrage at the teacher's poor judgement. Intimate area for a minor to be getting work. You should really talk to the principal.

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

The health risks of tattooing is something many people take for granted as tattoos become more popular and accessible. Perhaps even more serious collectors can get too comfortable getting their tattoos made. I have a buddy who gets tattooed regularly in Cuba where it is still somewhat illegal. That's risky business, however he's experienced and a grown-ass man, understands, accept and can identify risky conditions. Like how bad of a tattoo? Buddy's portfolio looks fairly generic but not kitchen-scratcher quality. A shitty tattoo does not need to be fixed...I say let your 17yo live with the visible reminder of a bad decision and let her deal with the consequences in the future i.e. let her deal with a cover-up or laser of a dumb teenage mistake. Does she like the tattoo The Belize shop (from website and facebook photos) looks fairly clean and legit, cleaner than getting tattooed at a tattoo convention. Does your kid have the Hep A/B TwinRx vaccination? If they do (which they should if they are travelling), likely nothing to worry about. But if you want to turn this into a teaching moment, put the kid through the process of getting a blood test (is that expensive in the US?). It will smarten her up for the future and teach her about the health risks of tattooing and other risky behaviours. You'd think though with the quality work her mom wears she wouldn't have been a dumb teenager...but hey I'm sure we've all got caught in the moment about the youth. That is bizarre about the teacher though and pretty poor leadership on his part. Not sure what to comment about that.

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

@mmikaoj awesome! Have fun, stoked to see what you get.

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.

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.

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.

@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.

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.

Pictures from my second and third sittings. My tattooist thinks we'll have it done in 7. Thank dog. The itchiness is killing me! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's official. Jill Bonny is back and tattooing at Tuesday Tattoo in SF https://instagram.com/p/6aylW0pDc-/

This!! Best tattoo experience. Don't sleep!!! I (WEAR A) BACK (PIECE BY) EDDY!!!!

When removing any of the -derms, pull it in line with the skin, not away from the skin, kind of like when you remove those 3M "Command" hooks adhesive from the wall. If you pull it straight in line down with the wall it pulls off without damage, but if you try to pull it AWAY from the wall you'll damage the drywall. The -derm film is similar to that, and if possible grasp both sides of the film and pull apart, like stretching a rubber band, and it will lift off the skin, just like the wall hook adhesive. My problem this time was that it was on my arm, so I needed someone to do it for me in the parts that weren't already starting to peel. Where it wanted to stick I used coconut oil and worked it into the skin and it slid off. I use this stuff at work so that's how I know a few tricks!

Okay, fine. Here's the latest progress.

Tegaderm worked great on my calf tattoos. The final dead skin peel on some parts of the manta rays took a long time, but that had nothing to do with tegaderm. I think in general the skin in between the calf and ankle tends to shed slower, plus some heavy black areas in the tattoo.

I still can't get a handle on what a Hipster is. Maybe the generation gap lets me down. Are we talking motherfuckers who change their style depending what the current trend is? In Australia we have a simple term for them types. "Wankers".

uhhhhh....

"Well, I finally got my period. I just wish my breasts weren't so sore and tender..." (I was going to make a comment like "Only I can prevent Breast Cancer"... but then thought it may be slightly on the not cool side... but y'all can make up your own minds ;) )

He's all "well shit, I know I left my cock somewhere ... "

I didn't really understand much about yelp until I opened my shop & a month or so ago a girl who'd gotten tattooed (also a business owner on my block) made a yelp profile for my shop, which I was happy about. She wrote a nice review, then I found the page, and began to customize it as the owner of the business (which involved several steps, one of which was getting called by a robot & entering a special code to verify I was actually at the shop). I encouraged customers to write a review, most of them had never heard of yelp; just trying to stay apace with all the other shops, most of which in the area have about 20-60 reviews. Soon I had maybe 7 or 8 reviews, and I was pleased. Then I noticed they started to vanish. Upon looking further I found that they had been "filtered" by yelp, supposedly in the name of fairness. Yelp tends to filter people who it deems "not totally trustworthy" users, mostly new users, or people who join yelp to write about a single experience or business. Might sound strange, but yelp is also a social networking site, like facebook or myspace, where people make profiles, upload photos of themselves, make friends etc. So while it seems normal to most of us to review a business or two and be done with it, there are people with thousands of yelp friends and hundreds of reviews. these are the "trusted" yelpers now out of 12 reviews that people who've been to our shop took the effort to write (and time spent participating in yelp's own money making endeavor), 9 are filtered, including the review from Felicia who created my yelp page. Someone who reviewed later is now labeled as the "first to review", and I'm not really interested in participating anymore. BUT, and this is why I think it IS relevant to tattoo shops as well, at this point if you DON'T have dozens of non filtered reviews, and a score of 5 stars, you're below average in your city. Almost every shop in LA has 5 stars, as do most businesses. If you've got 3 or 4 stars, people who don't know better might assume there must be something wrong with your shop (when maybe someone just didn't like you, or the price). I found a low star review on the page of the shop I used to work at because someone came by for a walk in and we didn't have time, so they gave us I think a 2 star review? They're not even a customer! Also, I'm not sure most people know that businesses CAN NOT opt out of yelp. So, a hardwood floor refinisher in LA might be the best at his craft in town, but perhaps he's a little grumpy; suddenly there's 20 people on yelp, who may have tried to reach him on the phone and couldn't, or didn't like the fact that he was quiet or reserved while giving a bid, giving this guy a bad review, when they may have never even done business with him. I had a window replaced in the front of my shop for an amazing price, they did a great, quick job, everything was great about my experience with Superior Glass Co. On yelp, all kinds of people who merely called are talking about what assholes they are there. Today I was having coffee at a diner that's been open for 30+ years. After joking around with my waitress about some kids that wanted their check broken up into $5 pieces on different credit cards, she came back to me and said "look what that guy wrote". This shitty kid had written "$2.75 is too expensive for coffee, I'm telling yelp!" on his check. what a fucking dork! A tattooer friend of mine yesterday made a very good point when we were talking about all the online things tattooers do today just to keep up, something I've never even thought of, though I think is very true. He said these days, no one goes to shops to look at photo albums to decide who to get tattoos from, they do it all online. Why would young people get in the car, waste time and gas, look for parking, deal with walking into an intimidating environment, where they might be ignored, when they can do it all on facebook, myspace, blogs, tumblr, websites etc? Then once they find an artist they like, they can go to yelp and read about what an asshole they are. It's a necessary evil, but unlike facebook or twitter, if you own a business, you're forced to participate! I remember being at Spotlight when I got "the call" so many articles about yelp talk about. They told me that for $300, they'd make it so that when people searched "los angeles, tattoo" or something similar, our shop would "come up first". How they do this for multiple people paying, I have no idea. If you search for businesses on yelp though, you'll noticed they are placed in a numbered order (#1, #2...) I do know that businesses that pay get placement at the top of other people's pages (when I view my page, sometimes it'll say "check out this tattoo shop" with a link to another local shop). I've check those pages, and paying doesn't un-filter their reviews, get rid of low reviews, or seem to let them arrange the reviews themselves. A local shop I know pays still has over 50% of their reviews filtered. My opinion is that this is a bullshit racket that should be banned. I'm sure their lawyers cry 1st Amendment when pressured, but where're the rights of people who's reviews are filtered out? (After a prior lawsuit, you can now read filtered reviews, but you have to enter a code, and they're hard to find, as is any contact info for yelp itself). Some robot, or asshole behind a desk shouldn't get to randomly decide who gets a say and who doesn't. The website touts itself as some kind of grass roots "for the people" consumer advocate, when in reality it's a money making machine created by a former corporate officer at Paypal.