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Got a new one yesterday, done by Valerie Vargas at Modern Classic from some Ed Hardy flash.

I went in last night to fill in the last building on spidey, and the small empty gap on top of my shoulder was getting to him so we decided to put Wasp, Antman's wife, in the gap. Sorry for the redness.

For reasons that some of you may be aware of, it looks like I won't be attending the convention after all and I'm not going to be able to organize the customary LST meetup. Hope to see you folks next year.

Here's a pic. Left fresh, right healed. [/img]

Freshly done by Matt Kerley - Hot Stuff Tattoo

To be honest, I like your tattoos more than I like that Cripwell body suit. Your arms are fantastic, there are so many good pieces on them from great artists, everything sits really well, the stars and dots filler is great, and they're these perfect traditional arms that don't feel forced or overly deliberate. Maybe part of it is because I've seen your arms mainly through spending time with you instead of seeing pictures of them on the Internet, but I feel that I get a sense of you from them. I guess it all comes down to different ways of getting tattooed and people wanting different thing out of tattoos. For me, how I get tattooed has been this fairly gradual process of learning through experience. What I wanted before I first got tattooed is very different than what I want now both in terms of extent of coverage, and what styles and designs I want, and I think that while this inevitably means that I'm going to reach a point where I'll wish that I did things differently, left more spaces open, got fewer little things until I'd gotten more large pieces down, or the thousand other ways I might have done things if only I had the knowledge or foresight, I think there's something cool about tattoos being this record of a process of learning and understanding, even if the results are sometimes less than something that looks incredible in a photo. Japanese tattooing aside, I guess I don't really understand the motivation of somebody who goes from no tattoos to a deliberately planned out (and kind of anachronistic) bodysuit, it almost seems like a fashion statement. Anyway, different strokes and all.

Hi, My name is Ben. I'm 31 years old and am an Australian born and living in Adelaide, South Australia. I'm married with two kids and have 2 dogs. I have travelled through parts of Europe & UK, the USA, Thailand and numerous parts of my own country Australia. I first got tattooed at the age of 19 at 3am in the morning drunk after walking out of a strip club. The end result was terrible. I have since had laser treatment on it and plan to cover it up with a traditional panther head. I love traditional Americana tattoo style. Bright and Bold! On my left forearm I have a traditional women's face in side portrait with a rose at the bottom on my wrist. On my right forearm I have the traditional dagger going through a snakes head also with a flower at the bottom on my wrist. The work on my arms is quality and is done by the same artist here in Adelaide. He will be doing all my future work too. I also have both my kids names proudly on my chest. I'm an enthusiast of style & tradition in a lot of facets of life and along with health feel that balance is of the highest importance. I love music and sports. Glad to be a part of LST to learn and contribute. Cheers, Ben

Same here. My right leg sleeve is starting to take shape, but my left leg currently has only one and I'm looking to collect various tattoos there that I've always wanted. The negative space is part of the plan and this thread enforces how good that can work. The addiction grows stronger every day!

Love this thread! The only thing it's short of is loads more pictures... Get posting man..

Anything ICP related. And death dates. Sent from my SCH-S968C using Tapatalk

I'm in Richmond as well and you've got your choice - this town has a number of wonderful artists! Also check out Salvation (https://instagram.com/salvationtattoo/?hl=en) where they do a great job with traditional pieces. The Richmond Tattoo Arts Festival is in November, so keep that in mind as well, there's a great lineup of artists: Artists - Richmond Tattoo Arts Festival

I really, really don't enjoy being asked to participate in conversations that begin with "so I just bought a tattoo gun online."

If I was in RVA, I would see Mike Rennie for American Traditional. He would knock that out of the park.

I don't think I ever posted a photo of my back in here. Its not entirely finished but we don't get to work on it too much. Done by my boss Jedidia Reid here in San Antonio Texas. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, now that PAX is over and I've had two days to sleep it off, I can get around to doing internet stuff. @beez and I had a super fun time hanging out at Liberty a bit ago, because we decided we should probably go and get tattoos. Here is mine, by Christopher Ayalin: Good times! Spent PAX wandering around the exhibition hall feeling like the leg of my jeans on that side was full of mosquitoes, though. Ha.

I second @pidjones on this one. There are some that look like cargo pants. We've used them when we had to pack very lightly or wanted to convert from pants on the plane to shorts on arrival somewhere ridiculously hot. Of course, with some, you will look like you are on safari.

There are very light-weight nylon pants made for hikers that have zip-off legs so they can turn into shorts. Plenty of pockets and they will rinse out in a hotel sink or a stream and be dry by morning. I have about a half-dozen pair that I wear under my armored mesh gear on the motorcycle in hot summer weather. Still good looking enough to wear while teaching. Best prices I've found is at Academy sporting goods, but Bass Pro has them on sale sometimes.

if you use the word "trousers" i think you've given up on being cool :) i've used an ace bandage to cover a new tattoo when wearing shorts in warm sunny weather, worked pretty well and didn't interfere with healing

Nearly a year ago I moved away from the City to start a new job in quite a small Town in a fairly rural area, there are a few shops around here but most are pretty poor quality and most of the work you see is black and grey "Footballer Sleeves", Tribal and really tacky "girly" tattoo's with little to no Colourful Traditional or Japanese work on show. Anyway since starting my new job and until last month I've managed to keep my arms covered up by wearing long sleeves, not that I am hiding anything but it's generally how I dress when I work. I also like to keep my private life to myself at work and knuckle down at so getting Tattooed had never really came up in conversation. Recently though the weather has improved a lot so a few weeks ago I went to work with a short sleeve shirt and some of the reactions and questions were priceless. "Do you keep getting them touched up? My cousin got Tattooed a few weeks ago and the colour has already faded and your Tattoo's are older and still so bright!" "Those snakes and wolf are they some sort of Hells Angel thing?" "That Indian Girl on your arm what does she represent?" Then came the awkward moment when one guy showed me his really shitty tattoo on his leg telling me I should go see his Tattooer and that he would do me a good price If I mentioned him, as usual I politely told him I'd check him out and that his Tattoo's were real nice.

I had visited family I had not seen in about 7 years or so and around that time I did not have any tattoos. It was a bit of a shock to say the least for them and to which my Uncle belted out this gem " You do know that you are not japanese, right?"

A crazy old dude came up to me in the street a few weeks ago, he was pointing out his wrist to me. He had a tattoo on the top of his arm and so do I, so I started showing mine thinking he was looking to talk tattoos. Turns out he was just trying to do the universal signifier for 'do you have the time'. I guess Decoratedskins say the darndest things too. Haha.

I have encountered this attitude about lasering. My friends asked what I will do if I don't want my tattoos anymore and before I could answer they said "Oh I forgot they can can be lasered off much better these days."...To which I responded I would never ever let a laser near my tattoos...(OR take out piercings). Is it so weird wanting to look this way as a senior too? People think that with (more) age I must automatically not want it anymore :P.

rofl. I love this thread. You guys have had some horrrrrifying experiences, though. I must just be lucky. Maybe it's because I live in the PNW, where people are either a) pretty laid back and progressive or b) too pass-agg to tell you what they think directly...? The other week I did have someone grab me without asking to look at my arm. It was a little old Japanese man working at the post office. I went in to buy stamps and reached out to pay him, and he grabbed my wrist and said 'let's see what you've got.' First time for everything, I guess. Mostly, I just get people telling me they really like my tattoos, and asking me where I got them. Sometimes I get asked if they mean anything. The cutest was this weekend at my family reunion, when my cousin reached out to touch the one on my forearm (second one I got, well healed by now) and then yanked her hand back quickly with big eyes and said, 'Oh sorry, does it hurt?' She is 30. haha. I told her they all cause me perpetual agony and she hit me with her napkin. ...I wasn't sure how my extended family would react to the tattoos -- they are all Talbots people. Boat shoes and sweaters around the neck. It all went better than expected, though! Most of them were just curious. It was kind of nice.

I totally agree with this and posted elsewhere that it is ironic that she accused him of sexism, because to me this smacks of classism, i.e. "how dare YOU, a lowly tattooer, give ME advice". I think normals might be getting tattooed these days, but they still see tattooers as some sort of savages who are beneath them, and certainly wouldn't have years of training and expertise that might just be worth listening to. But mostly I feel annoyed that I got sucked into commenting on this at all, because it is indeed total clickbait, and so we are playing right into these idiots' hands. GAH.

Yup. I never really planned how it would all turn out and placement would have been different if I did. When I started I just wanted to be able to get tattooed by my favourite artists (and didn't want to go below the elbow) I do plan getting some backgrounds added though. Sorry for the crappy picture quality.

That Cripwell suit is beautiful and so perfectly executed, but I find it a little too perfect for my tastes. Looking at those tattoos, I don't know if I get much of a sense of the person who has them. I guess aesthetically I prefer a more organic mish mash of tattoos where you get tattoos of different ages complimenting and clashing with each other and you get a whole that transcends any individual tattoo.

It's been true summer for a week now in Stockholm and I've been in t-shirt and shorts most of the time. I am starting to grow tired of talking about tattoos with people with no tattoos/really bad tattoos. I think during this time I have talked about tattoos with most people that I work with, many of my friends (that I do really love by the way) and a few random folks. And I don't see the point… or rather, it gets very tiring. Maybe because many people don't know jack about tattooing, only from what they have seen on tv and they ask you the most rude and stupid questions. And then proceed to show you some horrible work on "a buddy" by making you browse this persons instagram feed. Normally I am a very polite and patient guy but after a week of this.. I don't really think I care about talking tattoos with people who are not deeply into it. I feel like an elitist for saying this but, I guess right now, that's me. I think one of the problems has to do with how tattooing became a mainstream and "cool" thing. Much like skateboarding right about that time when Adidas and Nike decided there was money to be made. Skateboarders used to be the weird smelly kids, the outcasts of the school. It used to be something the general public had no understanding for. I wrote this to a friend recently who thought that my skateboarding hobby was cool "I don't think skateboarding is so cool, obectivly speaking. Same with tattoos. Or, I don't want it to be cool and hyped and a lot of attention and money into it. I prefer when things are underground, wierd/repulsive to the general public and only cool to the people involved and active. Outsiders and tourists destroy everything genuine (especially as soon as money is involved) It's cultural gentrification." /End of angry rant. Back to trying to be a nice person and talk reasonable and in a friendly tone to people who wants to talk tattoos with me. Shit, I did not get these to be a conversation piece. One of the rudest things that I've had to respond to in a number of occasions is about the cost of tattoos.. like "Woow, dude that's a lot of money on your legs right there!". Few people would talk about the cost of the paintings on the walls of a friends place the first time they get invited over for dinner, am I right? ps. I am a really nice guy in real life

Was recently at a party uptown in NY and had trust fund / rich / spoilt girls genuinely ask me how i support myself / live whilst having tattoos. No joke.. When i asked why they hadn't got tattoos themselves they simply said, because ' father would cut me off and not pay my rent' i looked blankly for a second then walked off.... They lived a 20 minute train ride to Brooklyn and had never been, even though they had lived in NY their entire life. Blew my mind for a couple of minutes then just thought how lucky I was to not be them.

I get a lot of "I never would've guessed you have tattoos!" often followed by something along the lines of "but you look so nice!!"

My 9 year old daughter, after learning how much her grandmother hates tattoos, told me, "well, that's her problem then." :)

I am on the fence about whether or not to fill in negative space in a traditional American sleeve or set of tattoos. I love those Cripwell legs, but I also love stars and dots as filler. Also, little tiny daggers, flowers, hearts, eagles, etc. work really well as filler. I'd like to know what y'all think about large scale Japanese work and backgrounds/filler, though. Personally, I think Japanese work needs a background to look its absolute best. Still a tough decision. Some examples: Not sure who the tattooer is on these two (any help would be appreciated): vs Horiharu: Horitoshi I: Horiyoshi III: