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had a 3 hour session on Saturday and we are almost done, only 3-4 more hours of details remaining and maybe some touchup. will post pictures next month when it is 100% complete. also i fell really far behind on updating my blog...

CJ Fishburn. Knee ditch

I've been lazy as all hell and haven't posted any new bangers in a while....... Right BUTT cheek - Alex Boyko - December MOM Cover up on the wrist AND LEMMY tribute- Jon Larson - January ©Ankle - Jon Larson - February Wrist banger - Jon Larson - March Left SWELLbow - Chad Koeplinger - March

Hi :) I've been tattooing for 1,5 year and yesterday I did my first portrait of a child. Would love to hear your opinions and what to do better/different next time :)

Evening everybody, Jared here from the California Central Valley! I got my first tattoo in '07 at 17 years old in my buddy's kitchen, four stars up the side of my ribs... living the dream! Later that year my high school buds and I all pitched in to buy our "artsy" friend a tattoo gun and supplies. He did a few on each of us and that fizzled out. Fast forward to 2014 and I began looking at some of the big names in B&G... Jun Cha, Lil B, Noah Minuskin, Carlos Torres, etc and fantasized about having a piece from one of them. Sat on my hands for a year and finally sent an inquiry out May of last year. I got two replies but they were either booked too far out or too expensive when factoring added travel costs. I kept my head in the game but didn't send out any more inquiries. Finally in September I got an unexpected email and we worked out some details and scheduled two sessions back to back for April of 2016. Luckily, I was able to squeeze in 2 sessions in December and March from last minute cancellations! The first session we did 10 hours of pure tattoo time and we did a little over 11 on my second. I'm hoping we can do just as much over these next two days (this week) as we did in our previous sessions, although 20+ hours in a 48 hour period is going to be rough! If I thought I had the bug at 17... sheesh do I have it now. I'm traveling to Buenos Aires in May and will be getting a smaller 10 hour Japanese piece (lower body), and in December/January I have 4 full day sessions booked for a realism chest piece... though I might change my mind to a sleeve if I have the dough for 5th-6th session. Wish I could post pics but until then anyone interested can follow me on Insta or Snap @jrayr90 , I will be posting a lot come tuesday/wednesday :) Looks like maybe I can post pics! This is two passes and this portion of the sleeve is pretty much complete. Last session was 5-6 weeks ago

Hi Everyone! I thought I'd introduce myself - probably a little different than your normal newbie. I just got my first tattoo about 10 days ago so I'm still in the healing process. I guess you could say it took me a long time to decide..I will turn 61 at the end of this month. :) My initial inspiration was my father, a WWII and Korean Conflict Marine who sported a killer skull with a snake intertwined in the eyes and mouth. I never did anything about it and later, as an officer in the U.S. Army, tattoos were not generally accepted in the officer corps. After retiring from the Army, I began to consider doing it but, again, time and life just got in the way. Recently, as I watched the rash of famous musicians and others of my generation pass on, I decided it was time to knock this item off my bucket list. The design I picked is probably not what others might have chosen. But, in the end, I went with something that speaks to me and has personal meaning - I'm far to old to worry if others don't like what I do. :) The symbol of the wolf as a warrior, as fierce, cunning, intelligent and loyal to the pack harkens back to my military career. The fact that my last name is Russian for wolf helped, too. The tribal designs just added to the relationship to the warrior spirit and loyalty. I found an example on-line and took it to my artist and asked him to create something like it for me. Personally, I'm thrilled with how it came out - it is healing really well. I plan on going back in a few months to add some shading around the lines. Here it is - this picture was taken 7 days after getting it done. So, now that I've lost my virginity, I am already thinking of what to do on my right shoulder. I want to do something that relates to my military career - perhaps an eagle, a US flag, some combination.... I'm also unsure if I should stick with black/gray, go to color or some combination. I have lots of time to figure it out since I won't do anything until after the summer - don't want to miss chances to hit the pool!! I look forward to getting to know people and gaining knowledge and insights as I move down this new path for me. Mark

Not workplace, but.... I plan to travel to India next January to visit friends and maybe speak in several gatherings about my faith. Since the last time I was there, I seem to have acquired a few tattoos. We normally wear long-sleeved shirts there anyway, and leave them for native preachers when we leave. I'll be sure to wear only long-sleeves this time. Not for my hosts, as I believe they will understand and accept the ink, but I don't want to cause other disturbance in fairly simple remote farming villages.

Tomorrow I get my back finished by Shane O'Neill at Infamous Tattoo. On the 8 hour drive to Delaware today my friend barfed all over the dash of my car not once, not twice, but three times. Now the car is going to reek for the rest of the trip.

I'll be there all day.

Wow. That collab sounds wild. I'm so curious. I'll probably try to book with Scott again. It's so hard for me to have him on the east coast and not try to get in.

Henning will not be at Pagoda...I have an apt with him in October when he's stateside. I'm stoked!!!

It was always in the back of my mind that I had to be able to cover my tattoo work when I wanted to. So I stayed away from my hands, neck areas. I never wanted it to be a barrier to me feeding my family.

Just booked my room for the weekend. I didn't get an apt with Valerie (you lucky dog) but working on getting Hendrick's confirmed. I'll be starting on a collaborative piece with Grez/Rubendall/Henning that weekend!

Something a bit different than your badass pieces :) done by Bumpkin Tattoo, Trnava, Slovakia. It was a free design that really spoke to my booklover soul. Photo from the artists' Facebook. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Don't have a fresher/better pic at the moment but the Morrison and Baphomet are new. Done by Mikko Lekkerimäki @ Sick Boy Tattoo here in Kokkola. Young dude, been tattooing about 5 years. The Morrison is fresh in the pic, it was done little over a month ago. They will continue as sleeves, cover-ups to be done on both arms.

Still chipping away at the front. Here's the latest on the right thigh. https://www.instagram.com/p/BDjFMyVMVH7/?taken-by=horitomo_stateofgrace

Henning requested pics of my healed back with a black background. Believe it or not, it was tough finding large enough black material like a curtain or spool of cloth but luckily my local dry cleaner had something I could borrow. I had to email him LARGE files because he may publish the photos in something. Fun looking at all the details. Maximize your browser!

There's charming shitty tattoos for sure, but a lot of shitty tattoos are not that exciting to look at. I don't even know what you'd call the style I see at sports bars in the Boston suburbs.

BAM

One tiny little touch up/detail session left next month!