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(sorry for the bad photos) got this today from Simon Erl so many details in it that i love, he also probably had the lightest hand of anyone ive been tattooed by, would love to get more work from him and got this lil sentimental thorn with rose from my mentor curtis pettigrove on friday. he's returning to the other side of the world in a month so im getting them in whilst i can, that and he's got mad style and is such a chill dude to get tattooed by aswell as a great friend, so if youre in the london area you should catch him before he returns to aus

A bit amusing...I'm reading my lengthy post above from 18 months ago...now I've got tattoos creeping the cuff and onto the hands. Things change, tattooing is fluid! here's my newish dragon fist: and here's a an artsy selfie of my dragon fist - dragon fly and dragon eyes ! for your viewing pleasure see guys! i got lots of space left...maybe squinch in some tudor roses on the hands in the future

Just got my first proper custom tattoo finished, my first one with colour too.

just go to the bahamas and have a vacation! then you don't have to worry about sketchy tourist trap tattoo studios, being a vampire hiding from the sun or uncomfortable on the plane ride home. go enjoy the holiday, worry-free. there is more to life than tattoo. and there are likely way more cool spots to get tattooed back home ;)

You'll probably have to go fairly large, but otherwise should have good options. Subject matter is something you'll have to figure out. Possibilities are infinite. Agreed = where are you, so we can recommend good shops/artists?

Latest tattoos from Guen Douglas done at Magnum Opus in Brighton. Really pleased with them but damn the heal is so tough. Usually heal very quickly with minimum issues. First time using vasocaine so don't know if this is affecting the heal? Anyway can't wait for them to be settled in. Got an appointment with Sneaky Mitch on Wednesday, way to soon but you just don't say no, not even when you've been waiting as long as I have to be tattooed by him!

Hello, I'm obviously new here, & I've heard a lot of great things about this forum so I figured I'd give it a shot. My main reason for joining is because I am in desperate need of advice for a cover-up of the tat I got when I turned 18. As you can see it's fantastic. On top of it being a bright green square its also slightly crooked (The way I'm standing trying to take the pic myself makes it look a lot worse) I've got a rib cage piece of black & grey roses and a compass, so I'd like to stay away from more roses. Ideally i'd like to use as little color as possible as well, but I'm open to whatever needs to be done to save me from the "Yea I think your tractor's sexy" comments every time I go to the beach. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you

great collection!

love this idea of dragon eyes. never seen it before.

Thanks for uploading photos of your tattoos--you have a lot of fantastic ones.

Well mine is super exciting. I like the Inked magazines, and I have tattoos and I'm a Mum... so yeah... InkedMumma it is. Like I said, super exciting. could be worse. My first Instagram name was AngryVagina purely because every real combo of my real name was taken and I was just plain pissed off by the end.

Where are you located? A shop/artist recommendation is the best advice we can give you, then you can sit down with a professional and go over your options.

@InkedMumma I wore a button up shirt, which I had open enough for the artist to get the work done, while being strategically taped around the boobs so as to not show through. I wasn't totally cool with the idea of just being topless with pasties, but if you're comfortable with that, it's probably the best/easiest option. As for the healing, i just wore really loose and unrestricting bralettes. Of course they aren't super supportive on their own, but I found that pairing them with a tighter tank top added another layer of support which made up for it. Maybe something like that works for you?

Gee, tape, drape, nipple petals, pasties? So many options for this. Lots more than the healing, I'd think.

I'd definitely recommend Tegaderm/Saniderm for this kind of area. I think it would make the healing process a heck of a lot cleaner and simpler. While you're healing go with a sports bra or just anything without an underwire. As for the tattoo process there are definitely ways to go about it so you're not flashing the entire place. I've seen creative taping of drape material utilized for this area. Tattoo artists are accustomed to using paper drapes and tape a lot, so they know what to do - any professional shop with quality artists are going to make sure you feel comfortable, and that ought not to be an issue, though you will have some skin showing, naturally!

Hello and welcome! Good to have you here. The hand tattoos you posted look great!

Quick one from Nate Hudak while he was visiting my friends shop down the road.

30 days of healing. This thing was full thick scabs, cracking and bleeding for 2 weeks. I can't wrap my head around how nothing fell out. The tattoo gods have watched over me and blessed me with the masterful tattooing of Steve Batt. (lo fi filter on instagram)

Got to be a reckless kid one more time and got tattooed by Valerie again, this time in London. They're peeling and unsightly now, but here they are in their fresh glory: The warrior: https://www.instagram.com/p/BAvLzMPDKFR/ The priestess: https://www.instagram.com/p/BAvLqtnDKFD/ Bonus video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BAvLTr3EHRy/

@CultExciter - finally downloaded the Drug Church lp this weekend. It's awesome. I like it way more than Paul Walker.

A name that a Senior Chief called me back when I was a youngster in the Navy...due to my uncanny mutant like ability to evaporate into thin air when working parties we're in progress! Lol

Christian & surname. Thought I'd go for something trippy.

I'm about 3 months into my apprenticeship. Last week my mentor says "Set up a machine and draw up some small designs right now, I have someone coming in for you to tattoo in about 30 minutes." "Are you sure this is a good idea? Who is coming in?" I asked. "Just some big biker guy I know." I was shaking so bad that I could hardly get the machine set up. Hell I hadn't yet been taught how to use a machine. I wasn't sure if this was for real or a joke, but this is definitely the kind of thing he would line up just for the sake of fucking with me. I imagined some gnarly big dude he met at the local dive bar. I'm sitting at my station frantically drawing a spider and a skull and I hear the back door ring and my mentor say "Hey man come on in, he's just finishing up your drawing." I walk over to the station shaking and see a grapefruit sitting on the chair.

Remember how we were talking about Eagles earlier? BAM! I got an eagle fighting a dragon the other day. If y'all didn't see it in the latest tattoo lowdown thread, here it is! From flash originally drawn by Tom Berg. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It doesn't matter how he meant it - it's a shitty, patronizing, objectifying thing to say and has no place on a board where people are meant to behave respectfully towards each other.

I had a tattoo healing nightmare the night after the first session on my back piece. I was being chased by a really slow-moving mob, but I couldn't run because every few steps my shirt would adhere to my back and I'd have to stop and very very gently pry it off before I could run again. Even in my sleep my priorities are fucked.

Ok lastnight I had a nasty dream! I dreamt that my tattoos starting fading and slipping of my skin. Worried I went and searched for Dmitriy to tell him what was happening to my sleeve. I kept saying to him how can I save the tattoo but he doesn't speak English so we hunted for his wife who does lol Found his wife and she said Dmitriy would try and redo the tattoo but it would never be the same as the original. Then my other tattoos started doing the same, I am in panic in my dream now, so for some reason I go and find Robert Hernandez and Victor Portugal sitting in some weird round house. I ask them why the fuck my tattoos are disappearing and they say to me the pigment used in the ink was too small as I was quite big and the ink was seeping through and being taken away by my body. They said I have to find ink with bigger pigments lol I woke up panicked, had to check my tattoos and was SO happy my ink was all intact lol Is this a sign of my obsession or do others dream about their tattoos ?

Buying one of those waterbrushes that Valerie mentioned earlier in this thread was one of the best moves I've ever made! haha. Alexander Grimm also suggested getting them and his paintings are fucking excellent. Takes sooooo much stress out of painting tattooy type images. I just apply paint/ink with a normal brush as usual) and a pentell water brush to blend out. Just start to blend out with the water brush, quickly dab the end of it to get rid of paint that has now come on to it, then blend out some more with it. Real easy. Make sure to only use a smallish sized water brush so not too much water is coming out. Also, one other thing I noticed don't fill up the water brush fully with water when refilling it. Only fill it around 1/3 of the way maximum. I've found that if it's completely full then the pressure of the water causes too much of it to rush out when you're using it which makes the blends harder to do. Anyway, hope that helps someone :P I did this quick rose painting with the water bursh and this longer girl head in a rose one with a water brush too. Definitely saving me a lot of time :)

i'm going for space around all my tattoos with just smaller filler tattoos in the bigger gaps. Also want it to looked unplanned, not into sleeves, symmetry etc.

Wow, you fuckers are strange. LOL. j/k. I had one the other night. Long story short, I was tattooing flames on this guy, I got done, went to bandage the tattoo and noticed the flames were real. The fucking guy was on fire and instead of trying to put him out, I screamed and ran, but there was no door to the shop, so the guy just chased me around until I woke up. I actually woke up, and jumped out of bed trying to find the door. Then I started laughing my ass off.

Finishing off a 'homeward bound' piece by Chris Smith (Deluxe Tattoo) in Chicago next Thursday....

Dr. Pogue sounds like a very big deal. Im guessing he has many leather bound books and his office smells of rich mahogany.