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Yesterday I was lucky enough to take advantage of a cancelled appointment and get this butterfly from Matthew Houston at Seven Doors. He's a really nice guy and I love the combination of colours he chose.

here is the finished tattoo. Still looks swollen. [/img]

I also don't have set date yet, but I'm in with Johan Svahn for his guest trip to NYC in April. I am beyond excited. Would love to get dinner/drinks with you NYC folks whoever you all are. @ironchef @BrianH

Sounds great @Cork!

@Cork I'm Boston folk. Yankees suck! But I am scheduled to be at the Massapequa shop the first weekend of April.

Saw that on Matt's instagram.... loved the colours of that! Congrats

Hey I just booked with Eddy Deutsche he is coming to Tacoma Washington in January 2016. The exact dates aren't ironed out yet but he is going to be at Old Tacoma Tattoo. Beyond excited and was asked to spread the word by Aron Fredriksson! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi all! I have been reading this forum for a while now and the majority of what I know about tattoos is from lurking on the forum and watching the interviews. So firstly thank you for helping to guide me towards getting tattoos which I love and don't regret (as of yet anyway!). Anyway a bit about me - I am lucky to live in London as its full of great tattooers and shops. I got my first tattoo from Chris Hewish at the Family Business Tattoo in August '14 and have since added tattoos from Luke Jinks, Andrea Furci, Mario Desa, Mors, Bradley Tompkins, Marcos Attwood and Dan Crowe. Since I love looking at pictures of everyone else's tattoos I'll try and add some of my little collection to my picture gallery. Thanks for reading

Progress! Here's a couple shots from the trenches. I didn't get many cleaned up photos due to catching my flight home. More to come...

Finished it today !!!

I'm booked for the end of the month to polish out my backpiece and cap my wrist with a good luck dragon before the end of the year. Hooray. Great timing actually - I can focus on work, enjoy Xmas with my family, slam dance and stage dive with my bros on Boxing Day, hit the waterpark on my week off work and then blam spend a holi-day in Steve's secret battcave. Wash the tattoo the next morning and get drunk on New Year's Eve. boosh

Sometimes I wish I could re-tattoo my chest. Not because I would change the design, but because the feeling of empowerment, confidence and euphoria I had after completing the lining session was a pretty significant life moment. So savour the experience @2bacanvas, big vibes to you for a strong sit, enjoy :)

Sandor Jordan finished my Shoki today! It was going to be on my calf, but i decided i wanted to go big and put it on my thigh. He's a kickass dude and an awesome tattooer! Jordanist on Instagram

I know in this case the matter is moot, but as a medical person I would not get tattooed over a bruise, because the skin is disrupted in this location and I don't think the ink would "take" properly (or there is a risk it would not) and there would also be increased risk of infection, possibly.

Finally I got my first tattoo, (sorry for posting similar content in my initiation thread). The tattoo is a moka Bialetti, a pomegranate and a number one made by Luca Font in Milano. At the beginning I had the idea of putting a skull at the base of the moka too. We discussed with the artist and decided that another element such as as skull which is round would overcharge the image and putting two round element at the base of an object resembling a column would create the form of a penis. So he put a little number 1 at the base of the moka. I like this tattoo because it's simple, clean, well-placed, has the power of an advertisement being well balanced and reminds of Russian poster-avantgarde for the geometric aspect. I also like the fact that is not overcharged with colour but colour is placed only when it's needed, to emphasize the shape of an object: the metal glimpse of the light on the Moka and the shade of the pomegranate.

I'll be 50 in a little over a month, and I'm definitely feeling more comfortable getting tattoos now than I was earlier in life. I'm more comfortable with my decisions, and am not so afraid of them affecting my career, etc. I'm just more comfortable with who I am, and am enjoying getting tattooed very much! I'm just getting rolling, in fact. My family is not surprised, because I've always been a "counter culture" type, but honestly, tattooing isn't hardly even counter culture anymore. I also handle the pain much better now, since I've been through more, and know how to take my brain away to another spot. Just had a 6-hour session and though I don't know exactly how much more I could have done, it was doable. There were people around me tapping out for breaks frequently, and we took only one real break. My skin seems to be healing fine, and artists who have worked on me this past year have told me my skin takes ink well, so I'm grateful for that. 50-year-old skin is 50-year-old skin, and there's no insult or ageism in that, it is just a fact, and it is something every tattooer has to deal with. I'm much more careful about protecting my tattoos (investments) from the sun, and keeping them moisturized, etc. I'm not sure I would have considered everything so carefully earlier in life. Plus, like my husband likes to say, when I'm really old (I hope I get really old) my tattoos will still look half decent, because I waited so long to get them.

Finally started my sleeve based off Gustave Dore's Crowned Virgin. Got most of the outline done, still have to add the dragon with the rocks/water. Can't wait to go back in two weeks!

I'll have to check out @support_good_tattooing and @thebesttattooartists. I'll echo what was said about @americanatattoos and some of the neat old history things they post. Really cool. I've said it before, I'm constantly impressed with the collections that @ivarro is finding to post on @livedintattoos. I'm humbled that he even asked me, because every Sunday I'm jealous of the tattoos that people are posting. Whenever I think a collection can't be topped, someone else pops up and crushes it.

I finally got a smart phone, so naturally I downloaded Instagram ASAP. I'm puttablock on there, in case some weirdo by that name starts following you.

(Pardon my overly enthusiastic post but I've just recently started getting tattooed, and I've never been tattooed at a convention - this is all pretty new to me so I'm gushing a bit!) Not great pics, and no good clear ones of the tat yet, but am SO STOKED (and still a bit wonky) from my epic day yesterday with Darcy Nutt at the Richmond VA Tattoo Arts Convention. We emailed about ideas beforehand, but she decided not to draw anything up, wanting to meet me first and collaborate on something after we spoke in person. She had no other appointments, so my simple Japanese koi idea turned into my own freshwater angel fish from pics off my phone, and my beloved peonies. She freehanded it onto my arm, and including that part of it and one potty break, it was 6 hours in the chair. That is why I look a bit cross-eyed strung out by the last pic! I ate an omelet at 9 am and hubby tried to get me to eat along the way, but I could not do it - endorphins from pain suppress the appetite, I guess. I tried to stay hydrated, though, and found my happy place. It is all about breathing. I knew I'd be leaving with something wonderful that I'd enjoy forever, and it would be worth it. She won Tattoo of the Day (I guess I won too, but I didn't do anything but sit there), and that was pretty sweet! She finished at 9:25, the contest was at 9:30, and the pic was taken at about 10, at which point I didn't know my own name, lol. That is definitely a long session, I don't care who you are, but I had an opportunity that was not to be passed up, and Darcy is a genius. When I went up to the judges, they looked at each other, shaking their heads and grinning as they all exclaimed, "Fuckin' Darcy..." cuz they KNEW this tattoo was going to win, lol. Anybody who has the chance to get some work done by this sweet, wonderful, brilliant lady you should definitely do it. She made this design up on the fly, without ever having done this type of fish before. I'll post pics when I get the ones done by the photographer at the show, or the ones she'll post on her IG, showing the fish better towards the back of my arm. From Darcy's IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/-ZQEJVMdTl/

Hello, and welcome. The tattooer will likely have a sketch ready for you once you arrive, and you can sort out any details there before you get tattooed. Remember that not all ideas will necessarily translate into a good tattoo, so your artist may take some liberties in order to give you the best tattoo he/she can. If you have already discussed the concept with the artist, you will probably be fine and end up with a tattoo you both are happy with. Post pictures when it's done - we love pictures!

A reminder, every backpiece is different. Design, subject matter, linework, colours, details, finer details, ink saturation...your stamina, that tattooers stamina, your height/weigh, your skin and health, the tattooers' experience, work flow, skill and speed, the needle clusters used, how many smoke breaks you take, the frequency of sessions...a lot of variables at play.