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Damn people, tattooing has enough drama with all the reality show bullshit, can we just not bring that crap onto the forums? You don't like each other (or at least one of you doesn't the other), fine, I really don't care. I'm sick of it being brought up all the time. Just ignore each other. This is the best tattoo forum I've found and I don't want it to dissolve into petty fussin' and feudin'. To the OP, if you're even still around (sounds like you didn't like people saying you shouldn't take a shortcut and you ran off), this course sounds like a horrible idea. The best way to learn about tattoos is to get tattooed. Find a shop, hang out there a lot, get a lot of work done there, and maybe you'll get a foothold in the business through an apprenticeship. I can't imagine anyone would want to take on someone who started their career this way, and I think in the long run, it'll just be limiting to you. In the meantime, just work on drawing and studying tattoos. Build up a good portfolio while you're making connections and don't fuck up anyone's skin in the meantime. As for the forum rules, I don't question it. I don't really need to know all the details of the profession. Tattoos are expensive, hurt, and require a lot of time and skill. That's all I need to know as a customer. If you're going to not get tattooed just because a forum won't tell you how much so-and-so charges per hour or how much their backpiece cost, that's just pretty sad. I really think it's unnecessary.

Just booked with Chad Koeplinger for November when he's in DC at Tattoo Paradise. Don't know exactly what I'm getting, but I'm fuckin' stoked about it!!!

Tomorrow I get my first tattoo at Saved in NYC with John Sultana. I'm nervous and excited! ... eeep! (I feel like I'm bragging, saying from where/whom I'm getting my tattoo, but I'm supposed to share that info, right?)

Thought this might be of interest to some of you. All tattoo work by Diego Azaldegui.

Closing thread. Please remember to be respectful and courteous towards each other folks. Let's try to avoid arguments and keep things on a positive note around here. Gracias.

Sounds like I need to get all the tattoos I want before I marry someone, haha.

@Blaue That's not bragging at all, it's what this thread is for. You absolutely do have to post pictures of the tattoo though. Have fun and I can't wait to see what you get!

^ Sweet. I was just tattooed by him at the same shop a couple months ago, didn't think he'd be swinging by again so soon. My tattoo by him is my favorite so far. :) I have lots of tentative plans and I'm debating if I want to try to get in with one (or two) people before the end of the year, or wait until next year. They would be a long drive and I'm not sure I want to risk it in possible winter weather. But I want to get tattooed again really bad...decisions, decisions...

I have enough going on in my life at the moment that I'm not going to waste any effort on morons. Though if the person running the "school" mentioned by the OP suffered some unfortunate calamity that caused severe and permanent damage to his or her hands, I wouldn't be very upset about that.

This forum was started by a professional tattooer, which should give you some insight into certain rules. I appreciate everyone's civil responses in this particular thread.

Hate to break it to you, but that sounds like nothing more than a way for someone to get your money with no guarantees for your future. Spend your money on getting tattooed.

little sum sum from Sheila Marcello @ Electric Tattoo in Asbury Park NJ

Second session with Kelly:

I looked at some other online discussion tattoo forums for a while, and most of them were just filled with negative rude people, online discussion forums are not new to me,I have belonged to computer/home theater/audio video/canine,etc,etc,a couple for 10 years now, so thanks to all here for making this one a friendly,enjoyable,& comfortable place to hangout.

Session 5, just another 3.5 hours, more detail and colour into the octopus...sitting @ 17.5 hours now so far.. Cheers all !

So those memories take a long time to go away, huh? Because while I love this video and the backpiece it made me really glad that I don't have to go through that again.

Since after my perhaps fifth tattoo I've always done it the same way: Leave the wrap until next day morning Semi-warm shower to get rid of the blod, ink and plasma Air dry, apply thin layer of Bephanten, air dry, put on clothes Continue washing with just water 2-3 times a day and apply thin layer of Bephanten On the 4-6 day, depending on how it looks, I stop using bephanten and just let i dry heal out After 10 days I use some organic body lotion, as short list of ingredients as possible and no perfume. Apply this after each shower and every morning until the skin is no longer dry and back to normal again.

I (like most everyone here) am looking forward to seeing what John creates for you. He is an exceptional artist!

always hate to see threads like this originate because the OP always takes off and leave a dust storm of stuff like this behind - its well established here (on this forum) what the focus is - getting tattoos and sharing the awesomeness of it - sure there are off shoots of this general theme but i think when you see a thread like this develop the best thing to do is leave it go all forums have their uniqueness of the forbidden or taboo topics / discussion so this one is no different - i quite like it and to me there are plenty of cool folks on here just sharing all the good stuff about collecting tattoos, etc anyway - lets put this thread to bed go have some fun elsewhere on the site - and if you havent watched every interview twice - then what are you doing :)

I asked him for a panther coming out of a rose, and requested the rose to be pink. I pretty much just let him do whatever otherwise. Hopefully this link works. https://instagram.com/p/54vxv8kMJy/?taken-by=hc_afifan

Welcome Beli. I would suggest looking at tattoos by Ron Henry Wells. He's based in Providence, RI but he travels a fair bit. I have a skull from him that has a path winding its way through the woods in it, and he's done a few tattoos with a similar theme. He's also a great guy. There's a video interview with him on this site too.

Oh grow up for god's sake. Everything is fine and then there is another verbal vomit out of you. I have seen more rudeness out of you than a majority of people here. Let. It. Go. SMH. Let me try again, to everyone here: GET GREAT TATTOOS!!!

I'm slowly chipping away at my newly appointed fiancé to let me start my back. It's not going well, but I have hope. Marriage is about compromise, right?

I'm waiting for @Graeme to step in with his righteous fury, sparks flying and banhammer at the ready

Approval, or grudging permission? Mine lets me get them but doesn't really like them yet. Except for my dolphins and patrol pin.

In the last 3 years I have covered one leg from the knee down, done a full back piece, and a half sleeve on my arm. Now working on the other arm. I was in a job for years that would not allow it. I'm 51 now and feel the need to get all my ideas on skin quick.

Bwhahahahaha..... I'm in the same situation. I just realized that since starting to get tattooed again (after not 17-18 years) I've: -gotten approval from my wife ( a big step to the next 3 things) -gotten 11 new tattoos -gotten tattooed every month since last October (some months twice) -gotten hopelessly addicted to being tattooed :):):):) All good things really but.... I ................... MUST..................... SLOW ................. DOWN ........!

Starting my tennyo hagoromo piece. Finished the outline. Thinking about keeping wings black and grey and coloring the rest. Any thoughts? I was going to put some clouds in the background but I went pretty big with it so I could get some detail in. This subject is usually a back piece. I was kind of concerned about it being too much for the arm, but I'm pretty much in love with the way it turned out.

That gives you an idea how they will fare in the long term. If they feel that nothing else is useful here, even the "biggest complaints" thread for some perspective on artist/client relationships, or http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/2396-what-makes-good-tattoo.html, they are not someone I'd be interested in being tattooed by.

so it does turn out great when you tell the artist to do what they want,this is what Alycia Harr at Classic Tattoo in Grass Valley California did on my upper arm/shoulder.I just got it finished on Monday ,I am very happy with it.. . .

Well, I took it to my artist and he did his thing. Here is a photo of the outline. I'm pretty much in love with it. - - - Updated - - - Here is the photo.

Thanks to you both! I was hoping getting two smaller pieces wouldn't be a big deal, but I just wanted to make sure... Now that I think of it, one probably won't be too much longer than an hr, and the other may be a bit more than 2 hrs, but not much. Like I said, I'd hate for something to be messed up after having to wait! Thanks for the link @SeeSea! I'll look through that to get some opinions from people that have actually used it (not just "testimonials" on the product's own site. haha). I forgot to mention, in addition to the ease of healing, another reason I was looking into it, is because I'm an EMT, and was wondering what to do about wrapping it and such for work... You know, because having a big open wound exposed to the unknown can be kind of a scary thought!

Welcome! You'll find that talking about specific machines or techniques is not tolerated on the boards. Please read the forum rules. But you'll find lots of other great stuff here! Last Sparrow Tattoo - Forum Rules

You were right--this was of interest to me. Beautiful work, but it brought back some painful memories.

So, little update, I've paid my deposit and bought a ticket for the Saturday, yay :-)

One more session on this Martin Hildebrandt tribute, by Rich Hardy. Damn did that lower torso session suck.

Went to the Montreal convention looking to get a walk-up. Jebb Riley was available, and he put this candle in a long space on my right bicep.

From Saturday... Bottom of shin/top of foot Jeff Zuck @ Name Brand Saturday night, went to see Motorhead for probably the last time. Fun and sad at the same time as Lem seems every bit of his hard lived 69 years of age. I've seen them almost 20 times and this was kind of a teary goodbye for me.......

Tomo's new studio, Silk Needle, continues the Yellow Blaze tradition of being somewhat hard to find without GPS / phone map. The sign is 'blink and you'll miss it'. Nagaoka is a morning shinkansen's ride from Tokyo... 1.5 hours. The new studio is super comfy and Tomo seems to be planning a lot of conventions in Europe and Canada soon, he's energised. We did 5 hours, which finished off my front after (I think) 4 years and about six sessions? All in Japan bar one. My bank account is glad that's done. Drank some awesome Echigo beer on the way home and zoned out till I ate a restorative giant ramen. I lived on ramen this trip: All kinds! Soya base, extra fatty pork base, fish base... Cheap, tasty and hydrating. Flying home tomorrow but this morning I had a consult with Shige and, all going well, getting a small piece from him at a convention in Europe in next while.

One half of my haul at the Montreal convention. By Tim Pausinger.

Many years ago I think I may have been particular, but in the end...man, it was just all about the coverage. Power lines, bold, slam the fucker in. A crocodile over the ribs you say? Sounds good to me. A pipe smokin' wizard smacked on the side of the neck? Fuck yeah. But in saying that, after years of being tattooed by the one person, he just knew what suited me as much as I did.

This time next week my torso should be all done. Going up to Nagaoka city to Tomo's new studio, Silk Needle Tattoo. Looking forward to it, insofar as I ever look forward to sessions on my front. I'll be sad to be finished as it gave me a great excuse to visit Japan regularly. Tomo's new site, if anyone's interested: silkneedletattoo | Japanese style tattoosilkneedletattoo | Japanese style tattoo

Some of you have already seen this, but we finished my back yesterday. Some of it is still fresh and angry, so I'll get better pictures when it's healed and settled in. Dave Cummings at PSC Tattoo in Montreal did this. Dave is the man, get tattooed by him.

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

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.

@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"

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.