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I suppose it's different for everyone. I had a two year period where I blasted through a lot of tattooing. I did wonder if I was going too fast. In the last year I've slowed as other events have taken over from tattooing, but I have to say I am stoked by my tattoos. I love them and never have any serious second thoughts (there are a couple that could use some tweaking) about regrets. After a quiet year, I am looking forward to getting back on the table (or chair or whatever) in the next few months. I've got a back piece that really needs some attention. Warp speed 7, Mr. Worf.

pretty psyched.... Steve Boltz @ Smith St. tomorrow 10/4 and Robert Ryan @ Electric 10/18

I don't know if my input is as helpful as you're looking for, but I have my head tattooed and I shave regularly. By regularly I mean every two or three days. I shaved the day I got tattooed just to speed up the process so my artist didn't have to spend time doing it. After that I waited three weeks just to make sure the tattoo was fully healed before shaving again. As for itching I just dealt with it. It was only bad the first four or five days but the itch goes away. And don't worry about the hair growing through the tattoo, that's just normal. Just let your body heal before shaving again. Any tattoo I have that required more than one session needed to be fully healed before moving onto the next session. Shaving or waxing can really affect your new tattoo in a negative way since it's still a fresh, open wound. And I think that might be a reason you suffer so much pain. 11 hours in one sitting is a lot of trauma to the skin. The longest I went on my lower leg(below the knee) was 3 hours and I had similar effects when I stood up or walked around. So I can only imagine how bad it was with a such a large tattoo. I hope everyone's input was helpful! And good luck on your next leg tattoo!!

At last, a picture with color. The lines are healed and the color is fresh. After it's all healed I'd like to take a photo in better light. This was done by the amazing Gilda Acosta at Fatty's Tattoos in Washington DC, working from photographs of the actual flowers. They are botanically correct! Thinking of adding a bird to the other shoulder blade next. Or continuing the flowers across my arm. Or both...

Welcome Jeff. As far as I can tell from the pictures it looks like your tattoo healed up nicely and those greys look really nice and smooth. Greys always heal up much lighter than they go in so it doesn't look like there's anything either you or your artist did to compromise the tattoo. Welcome to the forum.

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

Hey Fala - Thank you. It's good to see you and good to be back!

So sorry for your loss @Mark Bee. Glad to see you back.

Just catching up. It's good to see you back on here. And I'm sorry for what you are going through.

If you are willing to risk damaging a healing tattoo just so you don't get seen with a little stubble....

Hey my names Jeff and i'm new to the forum i recently got my first "big" tattoo on July 14th, you can see the picture of my tattoo the day i got it and i also attached a recently healed photo from today its been about 3 1/2 months since my first appointment. My question is if the amount of fading that has happened since the last appointment is normal or if it just did not heal properly i understand tattoos fade a lot after you get them but i feel like mine is fading a lot more rapidly than normal. As you know i am new to this so i just want to make sure i'm dong the healing process correctly or if i accidentally screwed it all up so next time i can do it better and get it touched up by my artist. Thanks for the input.

I wouldn't shave while healing, just deal with the itching. I have recently finished a backpiece which extended to above the knees so had to have ass and thighs shaved quite a few times during the process. I don't have an apes ass and thighs but enough to be shaved every time. I drive a fair amount for my job so the sitting sucked but there was no way I wouldn't shave or use Nair etc on a healing tattoo. It might suck for a few weeks dealing with the itching but once healed you have a lifetime of great art once you get through it. I am looking to start my legs in the near future, definitely not looking forward to knee area from what everyone says and you haven't helped with this post. :) In my head the further away from the brain you get the less it should hurt. Is why I did the upper body 1st. Sounds like I really don't have any concept on how the human body works. :)

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!!! ;)

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

My wife worked with a lady that did roller derby... we went to see her a few times and it was a lot of fun.

please impregnate me with your babies. one of the best collections in the planet.

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

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.

reactivating this thread with my Thomas Hooper piece:

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 . . .

@Cork Thanks! I must add to my comment that time is for sure longer with tebori, but you are also certainly aware that what you get there is really unique, for everything, from the trip itself (hey, it's Japan, outside the workshop!), the quality of the design, the intensity of the colors (tebori HIS more vivid and long lasting, this is for sure, I saw 20 years old tattoos done by Horitoshi whith my own eyes and I can tell), the genuiness of everything you will experience... that it is worth it. Really. If you do love irezumi, don't hesitate. Also, you will find that, even if it may take some time before he answers back, Horitoshi sensei is really kind and open minded, so just email him! Good luck!

Thanks for the support @cltattooing you have given me great advise from the start, your words speak volumes to me and I hope I can repay you someday somehow. For me the only way to improve is to keep on drawing and to draw because you really want to not because its something to do or you want to be a tattooist, when you really want to learn for the right reasons you will improve quickly. Feels strange giving out advise as i still have so much to learn myself. Try to make every line cleaner than the last, actually I try to focus on getting every fade as clean as I can, if the end result of one of my paintings doesn't feel right to me I will redraw it and start again, you know yourself inside if your happy with it. Good reference is the best place to start.

Just my observation, but it looks like you are still learning how to draw and paint. Which is fine! But I think in order to properly execute these designs, you should study more and work on your technique. The best way to go about that is to trace and re-paint 100 sheets of flash. Don't take any artistic liberties, copy them exactly as they are so that you can gain insight into the craft and process of those who have a good handle on what they're doing. You will be amazed at what you learn! Start with the basics and the old masters, and work your way forward. Not only will you learn a ton, but you'll have an awesome volume of work to show people.

Adam hays did this on me.