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started today...finish next month... can't go wrong w/snake and rose right? didn't have either...ScottSylvia's the best :)

So... not been on to post anything in a little while. I had to miss a session last month for medical reasons. I would absolutely have preferred being tattooed for 3 hours compared to going to the doctors. Anyway I made up for the missed session yesterday. We did the blue on the back of the left leg and then started to put some green in the leaves around the blossoms. I have another session in a couple of weeks time which will complete the scales. We talked about maybe slowly fading the blue towards the tail so that it ends up super pale, almost white, which I think could look amazing. We are then definitely going to be on the home stretch. After 45 hours it is really coming to life and I am incredibly happy with it.

I can't explain why this one had such an impact, but it really struck me. By Troy Trujillo

My mind was properly blown when I first saw these: Female warrior by Chris O'Donnell: Female warrior for Nicole Punk Virgin Mary by Valerie Vargas: Professional Tattoo Blog | Kings Avenue Tattoo in NYC | valerie vargas This backpiece by Thomas Hooper: https://thomashooper.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/made-by-thomas-hooper-texas-2012_62.jpg

don't sweat it too much. You've been to some great artists, and gotten some great tattoos. At your next appointment with Dobleman, bounce your ideas off him. Any artist of his caliber can do a lot with all the space you have, or any other weird space for that matter. Also, welcome.

Speaking of Gordon Combs...

piss poor excuse for a picture of the actual tattoo, I'll get you guys a better one when it's healed and not completely crusty. Freddy Corbin, Temple Tattoo Oakland

I have never seen a thread for this anywhere on the forums, but sometimes I see a tattoo somewhere and it makes me go OH MY GOD THAT IS SO AMAZING and I want to share it with you guys, but since it isn't mine, I can't put it in the Lowdown thread. So, I thought I would make a thread for posting pictures of killer tattoos that don't belong to us, just to share them and 'oooooh, ahhhhh' over them. ...As I type this I'm realizing that probably 6 out of 10 rad tattoos I see on instagram turn out to belong to somebody here, so maybe this is redundant, but oh well! If it dies, it dies. :) And I'm going to contribute something, because my regular tattooer just did a thing that made my eyeballs pop out of my head, and inspired me to make the thread in the first place, because I needed people to squee about it with. Picture on greggletron's instagram and, video: And here's a video.

A really awesome piece about reviving traditional tattoo methods in Alaskan Inuit communities. It's only 4 minutes long, I highly recommend you all listen to it :) A Return To Native Roots, Traced In Ink : NPR

That's on Travis who used to work at KA, and at Ed Hardy weekend, him, Chuck, Frankie, and one guy who is a regular client/friend there took a pic with their backs from O'Donnell, Boltz, Roper, and Rubendall, respectively. The pic is floating around out on the internet, and it's insane. Found it: https://instagram.com/p/2xAecHsNc9/?taken-by=chuckdtattoos

No collection is complete without at least one, IMO. Next week I am having a barred owl in flight just below this piece and my left sleeve will be almost complete!:cool:

@MrToby - this is amazing - the blue is so piercing and the fade to white is a great idea. Your back is really shaping up. I'm enjoying following your progress.

Maybe you'll feel better with a nice big tattoo on that empty inner bicep? :) I'm not a tattooer and am no expert at placement, but it jumped out to me; there's so much you could do with a space that size. Alternately: I had an awkward spot on the back of my arm, so I got tattooed elsewhere, stopped thinking about that spot, and came back to it later. It helped.

Oh thanks so much guys, I feel better now! My artist does..ugh I don't know how to spell it. Mai Thai. Mui Thai? One I think is a drink tho..shoot, it's some sort of martial arts he does anyway, so he should have some input for me too. And I will ask my instructor-she's really laid back about that stuff and I know she sees how hard I try so I think she'd let me sit out part of class for a couple days. What really makes me sweat is when we do combination kicks. (part of it I admit is "brain sweat"..crap what two kicks are we doing? which way am I turning first?) I had a laser peel done on my face a couple times-the first time was after I'd just started so she and I stood in the back by the fan and watched the class, and worked one on one w/some techniques. I've got three forms to do for test, Dan Gun and Palgwe 1 and 2, so I could work on those for a while I bet. And I've got one step sparring I could work on as well if she gives me a higher color belt to work with. I'd saran wrap it for sure b/c the top is heavy and thick. It would be nice if I could leave it uncovered and wear a tank top but take one shoulder off..but that might be pushing my luck into disrespect and I don't want to do that. For the first class she lets you wear whatever b/c that's when she works w/you and you decide if you're going to like it or not, then you get your uniform your next class if you come back. I know you're not supposed to wear things on your feet but she had told me for my plantar fasciitis if I needed to wear an arch support around my feet she would allow that. (I've not had to so far) But I don't want to push the boundaries either.. I probably could work on basic techniques and things too, trying to tighten and clean them up, work on my pivoting for kicks. It's hard for me to rotate/pivot my feet. Haha tattooed ninja, I like that.

I'm probably biased because he's a friend, but man, damn Dave Regan has been making stuff lately that makes me sit back and smile and then kicks me in the rear very hard because I feel so untalented. Also, Gordon Combs. So good. Showstoppers for sure.

I would agree except the bickering gets higher ratings. I read the Facebook comments. "I love her work but she's so FAT. I hope she loses soon" "His tattoos may not be good but he's a dreamboat, I'd kill for one of his pieces." And on and on. They're the same crowd who watches Real Housewives of Wherever. I wish I had a dime for every time someone typed the word "jacked", or used a direct judge's quote for criticizing something they truly do not understand. People who may or may not have a single tattoo going on and on like they're real experts. Follow their comment to their own FB page (Stalk) and if they have a tattoo, it's generally something dismal. Nary a one understands the complex simplicity of American Traditional. And Japanese? Forget about it. I have a group of a half dozen close friends who are tattoo artists and they are sick of folks coming in and acting like they're Toothpick Peck or I Hate Everyone Nunez. "Yeah, I want a Block "O" college logo but we need to discuss line weight and negative space." "Do you know Mystical Mike? I heard he was in Columbus once." The episode where the "flash challenge" was nailing drywall finally did it for me. Call Fonzie, this turd has definitely jumped the shark.

I don't know but kudos to whoever got this one!

If you don't have anything nice to say…

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.

If you have read this thread, you know that I am very hesitant to display my ink in public for fear of reactions of others. This thread made me more willing to give it a try, so I thought I’d give you an update. A couple of weeks ago I decided to test the waters at the local farm market. Normally in that situation I wear a long or 3/4 length sleeve and push it up just above my elbow. Since my half sleeve tattoos stop slightly above my elbows, nothing shows. But that day I picked out a longish short sleeve tee so about 1/3 of my tattoos showed. Not just peaking out, but about 3” of tattoo showing very clearly. As I was leaving the house I almost grabbed a sweater in case I chickened out, but then I thought “No, I'm going to do this without a safety net." I got to the market and it was pretty crowded. I was a little nervous. I started shopping, talking to vendors, checking out produce and flowers, and started to fall into my usual routine. Since I had tattoos on my mind, I noticed a few other ladies with tattoos, so I felt a little more at ease with my “sisters.” I got more comfortable and at one point I thought a lady next to me at stand was checking me out so I politely said “excuse me” and reached in front of her to pick up an item so my arm was right in front of her to see if she reacted. No reaction! Since she was a perfect stranger, I sort of secretly hoped she was shocked! That is a weird aspect of my reluctance to show pattern - I sort of like to shock strangers, but fear shocking people I know! As I paid one of the vendors for a purchase — a woman I often buy from, and who has a tattoo herself — she said, “I never noticed your tattoos before. Very pretty!” I thanked her and said that I usually don’t let them show. She said “Oh, just let ‘em show!”. That was a good feeling. All in all the whole situation went without incident. I really felt good, felt very free and alive, as if I was letting myself be me. A great first step for me. The big test would be being somewhere where I see people I know. That could have happened at the farm market — I sometimes see friends and colleagues there. I saw a few “familiar” people who I know enough to say “Hi” to, but I don’t know their names, but no one whose judgement I fear. I’m still not sure how I’m going to feel when I see one of my co-workers or bosses.

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...

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...

Second session with Kelly:

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.

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

I just wrote this whole long rant but then I reread the thread and realized I couldn't say it any more simple or eloquent than this. If we're being honest, aren't all our tattoos a form of narcissism to some extent? Also, if we're talking "famous," how many tattooers can the average person name? Kat Von D, Ami James, maybe Bang Bang (who's famous mostly because he tattoos famous people)? Totally agree with the idea of seeing tattoos in person vs. tiny closeups on Instagram. Seeing Shige and Jeff Gogue tattoos up close and personal at the Perseverance opening blew my mind – like I had no idea how powerful a tattoo could be. It's like looking at pictures of paintings in books vs. the real thing.

I don't know how many times I've looked at those legs that Stuart did. That is some of the finest tattooing I've ever seen. The whole thing...it's just so fucking cool.

While in New Orleans it was Southern Decadence and these gentleman showed up definitely unwanted. I approached this latino gentleman with a throat rocker and hand tattoos and asked him how can he discriminate individuals while I'm sure he's experienced discrimination for the above mentioned two reasons. He had nothing to say. So I let him know people like him give people with tattoos a bad reputation. He still had nothing to say. Enjoy the lack of spell check on their signs because I know many of us did!