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I'm a sucker for a well-executed munewari, and no one does them better than Horitoshi: And my jaw hits the floor pretty much every time Brian Kaneko posts anything. Example: Same goes for Drew Flores. The head he's working on is also a nice reminder that tattoos can still be shocking:

Everyone already knows this but Marius Meyer seems to melt brains on the daily ( well, mine at least… ):

If you don't have anything nice to say…

This O'Donnell back piece is still mind blowing in my eyes

First time I realised japanese/oriental doesn't have to be traditional

This is the first tattoo I saw that made me go "Holy hell I need my torso tattooed right now". It blew my fragile little mind.

recently found this local artist in my area, his name is Andre i dont know his last name but i will definitely be getting a tattoo off him after seeing these legs he did, Fucking mind blown!! also i believe they are based off a Rob Roskopp pro deck designed by Jim Phillips.

I hope this keeps going well for you, @soraya! Little steps, staying comfortable. Nothing wrong with that. Keep it up and some day you will wear a spaghetti strap top to church!

The first tattoo I ever saw that had that effect on me was this incredible hannya by Mike Rubendall. It still amazes me. It's probably the first tattoo that made me realize the possibilities within tattooing. Also that Viking head is incredible. I saw it on instagram the other day and it definitely made me stop and put my eyes back in my head.

That shit is REAL.

I saw that Julian Seibert front piece of the cowelled skull and cat being tattooed at the London Convention this year. I was astounded by both the client and the tattoo. The guy sat for 3 days straight to get it finished. Totally incredible...

I ran across some of Julian Siebert's work today.

I'm going to stick to things I've seen in person, but tattoos by the following have always been astonishing when I've seen them: Filip Leu Chris Trevino Henning Mike Roper Plenty of others too, but those four really stand out as being especially memorable. Instagram is cool and all that but for large scale stuff you need to see it in person to get the full impact. - - - Updated - - - I'm going to add Matt Arriola to that list thanks to @Avery Taylor and his wife Kim. They both have staggering work from him that they were nice enough to show me.

I think, while there are of course many people who dislike tattoos, for the most part--people don't care what you do with your own skin. As you shouldn't and probably don't care what they do with theirs!

I don't want to single anybody out, but we have a few fellow posters with insane backpieces from Chad Koeplinger. His large scale work is so amazing that I start to get delusions of the process of acquiring one from him being worth it. Who am I kidding, it's more than worth it!

I know a few ladies posted about getting tattooed before/around having their period and I have to say that it DOES make a difference! If you can, I recommend NOT getting tattooed the day before your period is due... Will be a much more pleasant experience if you are mid-cycle.

My guess would be Carl Gustafsson who went by Kalle the tattooist (1888-1975) who started tattooing at age 13, which could add up. He was from Gothenburg, sweden. If you own the book Nordic tattooing by jon nordstrom you can find more info and pictures of high flash and preserved line drawings. The lay out of designs seems to be consistend with what you posted edit: didnt read that you allready figured it out, ill have a look at that name! Thanks for the piece of history!

if you worry about what people think of your tattoo's. you probably made the wrong decision to get tattooed.

Gakkin and Guy Le Tatooer...the heavy black bodysuits are blowing my mind. Especially the recent one that Guy Le Tattooer is working on that French gal, with the dots, ornaments and big peonies. The layering is crazy, the results are beautiful.

I bring a neck pillow with me, otherwise I'll be very uncomfortable in the chair. Some shops have pillows around and I've used them at times to get more comfy. I wear sweat pants and take my shoes off too.

I'd like my skin to be used to bind a photo album for my family. That'd be cool. Especially if I get more Lovecraft-inspired tattoos.

I would actually consider a venture for something like this, especially for some of my pieces - but I'm pretty sure that neither of my girls would be themselves interested in "hanging flesh" up in their homes. I, on the other hand, wouldn't mind that aspect of it at all . . .

meh ok here is a pic :) from the amazing Steve Boltz totally good time talking mostly golf turns out Steve is an avid golfer and pretty good I'm neither but I love stogies and beer with friends and lets face it - thats more important than a decent backswing ;) anyway - funky fish on my bicep...

Do you do lampshades?

Sorry, but I don't see this as "preserving the art". I see it as another commercial venture that came about because of the recent popularity of tattoos. Preserving the art can be done photographically.

@ChuckJ Thank you for being forthright about answering our questions. I think the "least morbid as possible" approach is what doesn't sit right with me about this. On the one hand I completely understand why if somebody wanted to preserve their tattoos to give to their children, spouse, or whoever, that hanging what is obviously a piece of preserved human skin on the wall wouldn't be to every taste and disposition, but when it comes down to it, that's still what it is. The attempt to take the morbidity out of something that is intrinsically morbid just seems kind of weird, even if the reasons why you would want to do that are apparent. A corollary to that is that a tattoo isn't the same thing as a painted canvas in that it only has meaning as a tattoo once it's in the skin and is subject to the bodily processes of aging and decay, and to take the tattoo out of that context makes it not a tattoo. I prefer those wet Japanese bodysuits, or the preserved skin that still looks like skin with pores and nipples and all that in the Wellcome Collection. Those exist for very different reasons though, and again, nobody is putting those on a wall. Anyway, thanks again for answering our questions and welcome.

So I went for my appointment with Tomas Tomas today. Trying some different styles :) Had me toes done lol, wasnt a lot we could do really with just toes but I think once it settles down and its the same colour as the snake, should fit in great. He showed me a vid and said this pattern is from some tribe from the Amazon. Now all I need is some animal skin leather pants ;p Hes a fucking awesome crack :)

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...

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.

Welcome Chuck. I gotta say that looking at some of the supposed examples of preserved skin on the savemyink.com website that they don't look like any tattoos I've ever seen but they do look an awful lot like coloured pencil on paper. I'm thinking especially of that "new school" flower. What do you say to a skeptic?

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet but i found out this weekend that sailors in the 14th century believed if you have a tattoo of a rooster or a pig on your foot it would keep you from drowning.