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Hey guys, long time no post. I just realized I never posted my two latest because I wanted to wait until they were both healed. Not the best pics, but you get the idea. Cobra by Scott Sylvia done at Pagoda City Convention. Drawn on in 15 minutes, outlined in about an hour. Scott is the absolute best. We had originally talked about him doing all of the black in Reading then the color in the fall, but he had the time so we just powered through. It was another great experience being tattooed by him, and I can't say enough great things. Death's head moth by Oliver Peck while guesting in Philadelphia at Kadillac Mt. Airy. Another pleasure. Oliver was so down to earth and easy to talk to, just like you'd expect. He only did three or four tattoos that day, and I was lucky it happened to be the last week before school started and I could squeeze in after cross country practice (the only heavily tattooed coach in the world, I think). He checked out a ton of my tattoos and even took his shirt off to show me his stomach from Scott, his side from Rassier, and his back from Trevino. So awesome. Not the best photos, but it's what I have. Also, I was not expecting to have nearly this much pink on my legs, particularly from Scott and Oliver, but here we are.

Decided to post here instead of my intro thread. My first trip to Japan for 10 days. The arm was a coverup and was all done by tebori. Also started on the chest piece. And boy does it hurt! I thought I had a pretty good pain threshold. But the middle of the pecs is a different level altogether! Back to my country and I am already missing the pain though.

Had to cancel our trip to the montreal convention pretty last minute due to a number of reasons and was pretty bummed to miss out this year. I didn't have any appts lined up but was hoping to score a quick walk up. To make sure the weekend wasn't a total bust, my wife and I spent Friday night in portsmouth, nh (one of my favorite places in new england). I was able to get a walk in with Billy Rocha, at one of Jason Scott's fabulous shops, Hobo's. I was hoping to get either a cross or dagger in the weird spot between my snake and dragon on my left arm. We found a cool piece of higgs flash that was both. Billy added a bit to it and made it really cool. Had a great time getting a nice little small tattoo and Billy is an excellent tattooer and a great dude. I hope to get another from him. First time being tattooed at hobo's which is pretty funny since I've been tattooed at their sister shop, Congress St Tattoo, soooooooooo many times now. They are literally 3 blocks away from each other on the same street. this tattoo covers a really nasty scar, so if the skin looks a bit weird in certain areas in the pic, that is why.

Session 1 of 2 with Brian Kaneko completed last night, leaving in a half hour for session 2! I'm nervous, have never done 2 back-to-back sessions before - and I am SUPER exhausted from sleeping like crap last night. That said, the lining and first bits of shading look phenomenal, and I can't wait to share photos!!!

Every username I tried with my name was taken, so in frustration I ended up literally being OutOfIdeas

Second session with Kelly:

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.......

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

I had a two month wait to get this by Chris Partain at Star Tattoo,Alb. nM

i continued a tattoo on hip. it was hard :/ I waited this session two year and very happy now ) It will be one tattoo in next time we connect these birds =)

Hey all, I'm a tattooist in Shoreditch London. Graduated my apprenticeship at the start of 2013. Work in mainly neo-traditional and japanese influenced styles. You can see what I'm about / up to here instagram.com/stewartoctattoo First saw Last Sparrow through the great interviews, no here to read, learn more and extend networks for work/travel.

Welcome! I would start by finding a good artist in your area. If you let us know where you're located we can recommend some people. As far as representing the bond between you two, you're completely wide open in terms of your choices. That you're both going to get the same tattoo, presumably together, speaks volumes about that bond and so I don't think it's necessary to try to force additional meaning into the tattoo. I tend to lean towards classic tattoo imagery so I could see something like a Homeward Bound clipper ship being a nice idea, but what appeals to you and your dad is really entirely up to you. If you have a shop nearby or within travelling distance that has nice, hand painted flash on the walls, you could pick something from the wall together. Lots of tattooers have sketchbooks full of designs they'd like to do, you both could go through one of those and find something you both like. The possibilities are nearly endless.

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

The high speed face twitching was fantastic.

@Piha wicked ! what makes your piece even more exciting is the momentum of your progress, keep it going, can't wait to see what's going to go on inside the hammerhead outline

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

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?)

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!!!

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

Had this done today, red raw, should look great healed once the different tones can be seen Tha finishes that leg off now apart from the foot :)

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.

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.

Sunday Funday ! It started out as a planned group skydiving adventure. The weather, unfortunately, did not permit. BOO ! So my friend and I decided a quick, unplanned and for no particular reason, trip to Toronto was in order and we ended up at The Pearl Harbor Gift Shop. YAY ! I spent my skydiving money. Maybe next year lol Unlike my friend, I had no real intentions of getting tattooed today but it was kinda like 'when in Rome...' . Glad I went with it. I have wanted a panther head for a while and now I have one. Stoked ! And it's from Bill Baker flash which is really fucking cool to me. Done by Franklin Reeves. Franklin is a super nice dude. Lots of positive energy and laughs. Good times. And getting tattooed is way less dangerous than jumping out of a fucking plane ;)

Here's my Tim Beck iris. He's super tall, so this is a little wonky angle maybe, but he filled that weird spot just perfectly. Freedom Ink is a super cool shop, very chill, very neat, and we listened to Bowie all day. Oh, modesty napkin ;)

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.

Freshly done by Matt Kerley - Hot Stuff Tattoo

Got this Greg Irons wizard on my calf a couple of months ago by Andre Cleary

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.

session 4 completed, another 3 hours putting detail and some colour into the octopus, sitting at 14 hours now...stoked !

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.

My new pieces by Victor over last 2 days, he is bored shitless with faces, eyes etc so we tried some dotwrok and a little towards bio. He made the girl/demon face light to try and contrast Robert Hernandez's far too dark skull. He worked super fast, first day 5 hours, today 6 hours. :) We also had a funny convo about my back piece. He said when I had the Jesus done he had no clue I wanted my whole back done, nor did I. He said he would have done things a lot differntly had he known that, so we have now booked 2 more sessions as he wants to go rght over my back and change as much stuff as is possible to flow better and improve it, to me its fine lol Pics taken on my phone with my arse red raw lol Anyhow sorry for the arse shot again and I also covered the hanging penis nudity part :P

I want two babes in it, one helping the other. Still toying with the ROA idea for my back, but that isn't going to happen for awhile.

My latest from Mike Aul from when I was in Michigan a few weeks ago.

Got a few more hours in on my custom dragon chest piece! So close to being finished but so stoked on how it's come together. London Reese is a pleasure to get tattooed by. Very easy going and cool to talk to. The shop is great, everyone there is a really friendly, cool, and talented as hell. After this last session, I now understand why some people say the chest sucks. 15hrs down so far, only a little bit more to go.

As others have said, the quality artist you choose will be just as safe and clean no matter where they're tattooing you. There has to be a slightly (tiny) increased risk of an infection, just because you're getting tattooed around hundreds of other people instead of 5-10 people in a shop, but your own aftercare is infinitely more important a factor. The reason not to get a tattoo at a convention has nothing to do with safety, it's about the atmosphere. I found getting a tattoo at last years Montreal convention to be WAY too loud and hectic for my taste. It was very difficult to have a conversation with my tattooer - essentially we were shouting half the time (booth quite close to stage). Afterwards I told myself I'd never get tattooed at a convention again... ...I'm getting my next tattoo in a couple weeks at the Montreal Convention.

Had a whirlwind trip to Demnmark this weekend for my second session with Henning Jørgensen. I am extremely happy with how it's turning out.

Right? Where's my castle at?

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.

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!

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