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Session two with Dave C. Got a lot done in about 2 1/2 hours. I was nervous going into this sitting as we had just done the outline last week. I was a little worried my psych wouldn't be there, but in the end it went pretty well. Glad not to have more ribs after this though.

Session 6 done, just the shark mouth, some more detail in the shark itself and dropping lower down my ass to go...hopefully be wrapped up in one more session. Photos not as flash this time sorry folks...

My confirmed schedule is as follows: October 17th Luke Wessman October 21st and 22nd Rich Pineda December 12th Timothy Hoyer Excited as hell!!!!

Been ages since I posted on this forum, don't really know why since I have been lurking every now and then. Guess i've been more into real life outside world thingies and started university again. Anyway a friend of mine put this on my leg. Just to get some panties in a twist: this was not done in a shop, but in a bedroom. edit: It's about 2 months healed

I got a horror short story published in a collection by female horror writers. Not been around much, as have been concentrating a lot on my writing.

Dan Higgs black heart done by Josh Brown (Josh changed the color scheme some). Forgive the wonky photos; I realized this wasn't the easiest spot to photograph.

Finally got some half-way decent healed photos of my Hooper musician leg. On the other hand, trying to paste together such a single photo is near impossible, at least for an old geezer like me. I'll reactivate the squidpants thread by putting this there, too . . .

Here's mine from Friday at the London convention, done by Tony Hundahl. So unbelievably happy with this one! Nicked the picture from Tony's instagram as my camera is broken

Finally got to visit State of Grace and get my Molly Monmon Cat from Horitomo! He did an amazing job. Just spectacular. I sent several pictures of her and some descriptions of her favorite things, her personality and her character. She *loved* shrimp sushi and got an entire order for her 16th birthday, right before we lost her to cancer. Horitomo created a picture of her in heaven with a halo and surrounded by her favorite things - including that she is surrounded by catnip! The face is perfect. I gave him a decent size square footage and told him he could expand beyond the cat and add other elements. Her face is perfect. When he showed me the sketch, my eyes just teared up. It was neat to be tattooed on the platform in the shop. It is a little sanctuary with neat drawings, books and items on shelves. He is a quiet gentle soul. I tried tebori for the whites and I probably would not do it again. For many areas, I didn't even feel the first 4-5 pokes. It just felt like a shoving pressure but there was *no* pain. Then the last several shoves were painful. But around my hip was bad all around. I'm glad I did it, though. Crashing out now holed up in the hotel with mom. <3 <3 <3

Sure! Here's my latest tattoo made by my dear firend here in Slovenia, Dejan. He recently won a "Best of show" on the biggest tattoo show on earth, Las Vegas!!! ;)

The snake's element is water though so if you're doing tiger v. snake it would work thematically. In any case, I've seen tiger tattoos by Japanese masters that have water in them so I don't know how strict the rule is about what animal should be paired with what kind of background, or when/how it is appropriate to bend rules and conventions. But, like I said before, I'm not an expert on any of this. Agreed about it being difficult if you want to do things right though, and my advice to you is to take your time, do your research, and learn as much as you can and don't rush into getting the tattoo until you're ready. It's worth spending the time and effort into deepening your knowledge and you will get better tattoos as a result.

welcome! Read a lot of the older threads in this forum - they could be a wealth of information for a new person making sure mistakes are avoided!

a belated reply...so awesome @SeeSea, saw this on instagram...glad I peeked in over here to see the full story, a wonderful tribute!

Yeah, I see what you mean about the streaks in the orange. But I don't see what is missing or needs to be finished. I think it looks great. Not much you can do about the areas in orange unless you wanted to make some big changes, or get in there with some accents in a darker color to distract from them. Although that could make the overall tattoo design look worse. It doesn't sound like you've had it for very long - I'd suggest giving it some time to heal and see how it turns out. It could settle in better, who knows. But I do like it!

Your best bet is to do a lot of research on different artists and once you've chosen one, ask him or her about it. Generally speaking you can't cover darker with lighter, but there are a lot of factors involved in this, and the skill and experience of the artist is paramount here. - - - Updated - - - Here's an example of why skill and experience matters. Jason Minauro who tattoos in the Tampa area in Florida put this on his Instagram over a year ago and it's nothing short of spectacular. Before: After:

Got more ideas then space, can't go fast enough...3 appointments left and finish my bodysuit in a little bit less than 4 years.

I also have not been here much recently, but decided to cruise on by and say hiiiii guys! I'm super busy and kicking ass at my new gig and stoked to be doing something I enjoy that fits my lifestyle so well. Stoked to be getting tattooed by Shad in two weeks and then who knows what else is going to get done in October! I'll be back in SF for Halloween and Convention fun. :))) Miss you, LST, and think of you often. (I'm on my work computer all the time now and *alarmingly* focused, so I never think to make it over here because who wants to be on another computer AFTER work? but truly.)

Online campaign wants 95-year-old Wang-Od to be recognized as a National Artist | Kicker Daily News "A campaign pushing for Wang-Od (Fang-Od) to be recognized as a National Artist has been circulating on social media sites. "Alongside Wang-Od’s portrait is a text which reads: “Whang-Od is the last Ancient Kalinga Tattoo artist. In the past years, the silence of this ancient art was broken because people from around the globe pay homage to this remaining artist and take pride that they were tattooed by her. “'It is my personal advocacy to let the Filipino community realize that it is now time to recognize her world-class contribution to the art of tattoo-making that is genuinely Filipino.' “'She deserves to be one of our National Artist,' it said with a hashtag #WangOdNationalArtist."

Not to interrupt your "keeping it real" moment, but you are missing the principle reason, admitted or not, that most 'artists' sign up for this contest. It is not because they have hopes of winning it; win, lose or get laughed off, I bet you their business goes through the roof (at least in the short term) because every chump with no clue wants a sweet-tatty from "that guy from the TV". They can now forever scrawl those magic words "as seen on season xxxx of...." which all the rubes will eat up from now until forever. That's the real shame of these shit-shows, IMO.

My right leg is starting to look like something, with two semi-big tattoos by Rudy Fritsch and Iain Mullen. Now let's pray to the internet gods I will manage to post the two pictures I want this time... edit: the juzu around my ankle by Bunshin Horimatsu too! #tebori

Finished up this thigh piece about 2months ago. Healed shot lifted from Tim Lehi's Instagram. If you go back in the thread you can see the beginnings/line work. That leg is really coming together...only problem is now I've got this pesky knee-gap.

FaceTime'd with the granddaughters and watched them blow out birthday candles from 250 miles away. How awesome is technology?

Yes, hips...They don't lie, 1 more to go..

reactivating this thread with my Thomas Hooper piece:

As long as you choose your artists well, you really can't go wrong either way. Both my arms are sleeved by one artist each (continuous pieces, not individual tattoos put together). One is color/neotraditional, one is black/dotwork. Sometimes I'm envious of people who have piecewise sleeves because it gives them a chance to get tattooed by more artists, and sometimes I'm envious of people with bodysuits done by one person. All that said, I love both my sleeves and have enjoyed each session I've had for different reasons. I really wouldn't trade them. So go in, get your first tattoo done and see where that takes you. It'll be sick either way.

Awesome weekend at the London Convention. There were some awesome tattoos walking around and being created, not least on some LSTers. Congratulations to everyone that got some work. Everything I have seen so far looks great. I didn't get anything big or dramatic this weekend. Just this little guy by Len Leye at Clan of Tusk in Belgium. Really nice guy and fun time getting tattooed. It you don't know his work then check out his instagram.

Got this Shishi Lion from Alix Ge at the London convention yesterday (pic nicked from her instagram): When I arrived, Alix was still drawing. She told me we couldn't put the tattoo on the side of my thigh like I had asked for because for that I would have to lie down and she only had a chair. Well, alright then. When I came back from a short tour around the convention she had obviously done another drawing which was much bigger than the first. She thought the animal had to be rather large to be nice, good with me. But she didn't think we could fit peonies as well, would I be happy with cherry blossoms instead...? Bummer...what? Noooo...! Oh well, so we agreed to put on the lion stencil and see then. Stencil went on, peonies were added freehand. No problem, all fitted on there nicely....but...that was gonna be a looong session. If I was a strong woman, she asked. Ermmmmm, well, I bl**dy hoped so...what else could I say? She looked at me particularly sceptical after she found out it was only my second tattoo.... Obviously, we made it, yippie!!! Six hours on a folding chair with two breaks. Even though I got some odd looks and remarks for running around with a pillow under my arm, I was well glad I had brought it because it made the chair way more comfortable! Apart from that, getting tattooed at the convention was actually surprisingly good as there was so much to watch and get distracted by. I could openly stare at all the tattoos walking by and quite a few people gave me encouraging smiles and words. That was really cool. Alix is super lovely and I kinda felt a little bad for her having to sit on her small suitcase for hours. Towards the end she told me that she wouldn't be able to do what I did and that she'd never get a tattoo that takes more than one hour herself. I doubt that's actually true, but it was a sweet thing to say anyway. Suffice to say I'm super chuffed but also glad it's over! And this morning my 3 1/2 year old greeted me excitedly with "Mummy, I have a tattoo, too!". Turns out the entire family has tattoos now, some of them of the temporary type, some rather not ;-)

well, got some bug tattoos and made the paper: photo by Shaughn Butts, Edmonton Journal

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 :)

Already some tough stuff this month, but I'll give it a shot. Here's my arm from Grez at Kings Avenue. All healed up.

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

Should really have thrown this in over the last couple of months but i'm a lazy fucker, so here it is now. By Marius Meyer, completed in May of this year (started in December of last).

Jeff Rassier flying Cobra. Done at Blackheart in January. Pics taken Yesterday. Tough to photo...wraps around the arm a lot.