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got this sacred heart from joe nickley almost 2 weeks ago and this from chris kline at the scranton convention this past weekend andddd yesterday i made an appointment with bert krak for next month while he's at old soul!

Tomorrow morning I have Scott Ellis for a traditional Japanese dragon sleeve in Austin, Texas. First BIG piece and I am so nervous/excited, I can hardly stand it.

I popped in to see my artist Josh last night, and I got this. I've loved Prince since I was a kid, so it seemed appropriate. #musicnerd

My back in progress by Adam Kitamoto @ ten-ten tattoo

I was an RTO (Radio Telephone Operator) for about a year while I was in the Army. We are basically the lieutenant's bitch and so everyone began calling me by my name. (yes I know it's the wrong spelling but when I originally used this name on another forum for some reason rtho was taken so since I've just stuck with this spelling on any forum I join)

I am deciding on my next tattoo which will be on the 25th. I owe the artist a concept by Monday so he can draw something up. I know I want a barn owl. I have an entire forearm open, and alternatively a calf. I have a full day sitting scheduled. I am torn something fierce. Here are the two concepts I need to choose one and possibly refine it. 1) forearm sleeve idea. Barn owl showing its back on a maple branch on inner forearm with maple leaves on both inner and outer. Black/grey maybe hints of orange on leaves. Here is the owl image 2) outer calf piece. Barn owl standing on skull. Black/grey. Any thoughts?

Sounds cool! I used to live about 4 blocks from where Richard Stell's place is. His name sounds familiar, but I doubt he was tattooing 33 years ago when I was there. Maybe he used to watch the hard core and punk bands (N.O.T.A., Husker Du) play at the original Crystal Pistol?

I wish.

This will be my first tattoo and I'm looking at getting a very traditional WW2 tattoo. My grandpa was an infantryman in the Army through WW2 and Korea, my uncle was an Army infantryman in Vietnam and I was an Army infantryman in Afghanistan. Found this US Army infantry tattoo that dudes would get before heading for Europe/The Pacific from a flash tattoo history book and planning on incorporating our three units into it. I'll have them match the font of the unit numbers to the rest, that's the closest I could get just messing around with it. I want it to be pretty original to the design, but I'm totally open to any tweaks or adjustments they'll make to it. For colors, I was originally thinking of having the rifles brown, and the shield and stars a red/"white"/blue combo like the flag. After talking with my buddy that is heavily tattooed, he suggested I do the rifles and shield black, stripes red, and the stars yellow. He has a tattoo with those colors that is similar to what I want and I dig it a lot. So I'm planning to go with that color scheme. What do you guys think? Buddy's tattoo

I love John Lennon, and he sometimes used the name Dr. Winston O'Boogie.

My artist had a trick to help with the plasma. He placed a clean sterile towel over my piece (but he said you could use a paper towel), soaked it in witch hazel, wrapped it tightly with a self adherent wrap, and left it on for 10 to 15 minutes. Some people feel nothing while others will feel it get warm (he said it's normal). It felt soothing to me. After that, he unwrapped it and you could see plasma on it. He said it helps draw some of the plasma out. He wiped and dried it well. Then he added Tegaderm with about an inch or better space all the way around. The plasma I'm getting is no worse than people who waited 10 or so hours to apply and my ink is pure black put on with liners only (so lots of trauma). I'm not having any redness, swelling, or anything close to pain with it. I put a cool pack on it after my shower and at the end of the day and that's it. Perhaps if you wait the 10 recommended hours and then do what my artist did, you won't have as many problems with plasma. Just make sure to leave a good space of uninked skin around it to give it space to pool and run if need be. If it starts running and gets close to the edge, you can always add a piece to where it's headed before it pops open the seal.

My best friend has this awesome chest piece, could help inspire yours.

Let's not forget outhouse tipping....

1959 Ford Custom 300.

Not a big fan of scratchers. Do it properly or not at all.

yeah basically you will need something blackAF and bigAF if you are expecting to cover the triangle mess completely. I don't see a minor touchup correcting the roughness of your triangle tattoo. other options are live with it or laser. or black out that section of your arm and fade into your abstract / optical illusion idea

This is pretty abstract: https://www.instagram.com/p/BEE9VIVocE1/?taken-by=henrylewis77&hl=en

I like to do smart car tipping,similar to cow tipping,but way better.

Of course I'm glad tattoos hurt: I agree it's an integral part of keeping them for the dedicated only... Willing to sit and take it for the lifetime reward of the tattoo. But... I got to admit that I stopped philosophising too earnestly about the educational or self improving nature of the pain the time I got my front lined out. It wasn't a relevatory experience for me ... I just felt like I got carved up! I guess I found my personal tipping point that day. Small tattoos, or decent pieces most places on the body... I can grin and bear it and, yes, I probably learned a thing or two about managing pain mentally. Even my back piece was pretty Ok. But a really long sessions on a sensitive place like the torso or ribs... mostly just makes me miserable end of story. Can't make a purse from a sow's ear.

I have been thinking about this alot lately. It has, over the years, become more and more acceptable for a woman to have tattoos, and to be heavily tattooed... In my community, lots and lots of young women get heavily tattooed (usually with garage garbage starting in high school), or they get visibly tattooed. it is considered normal. But, there still is a stigma to being a tattooed woman, even one as lightly tattooed as myself. With my grand total of three tattoos, when people see my chest, its ooh's and ah's and where did you get that done? but on the flip side, I've had people ask me, what will your children think? How will you look in your wedding dress? What man will find you, obese with tattoos, attractive? I, planning on becoming more and more tattooed (but never heavily tattooed, just not my thing), feel like in the eyes of the world, when we get tattooed, especially in visible places, we are surrendering our femininity in the eyes of our peers. My father and brother both said my chest tattoo was too big... though it only covers the front of my shoulder. Girls who get their chest plate done, a sleeve of tattoos, are all at the mercy of our peers, who degrade us for being "trendy"and not truly feminine. But isn't this decoration of our body seizing and controlling our sexuality and femininity? This has parallels, in my opinion, to the current contraception/abortion debate. Not that they are morally equivalent, but that each appears to be an attack on a woman's autonomy of her body and her own control of her sexuality. I get the impression, especially with my field of interest (Political Science), that tattoos are for people who are ok with being somehow "lesser", and for men. Lesser, in the sense that those who get tattooed come from a pretentious side, and won't amount to anything, or that they are low class. And that tattoos are for men, because a woman with an arm tattoo is a big "dyke", that a woman's tattoo is pretty and small and soft, but never visible. But men can get tattoos with impunity, for they have been the realm of men for a long time. Tattoos are becoming more and more common among the population in general, and more and more acceptable. But we are held back by what a woman is "supposed" to look like. This is one facet of the struggle of the modern American woman. She must be traditionally feminine, want a family, look the part... But with the rise of equality for women, now we are supposed to go out, get high paying careers, make our mark on the world, be as successful and intellectual as men... These are contradictory demands. We have this cult of ultimate womanhood, ultimate motherhood, that has no room for tattoos, no room for ugliness, no room for personal freedom. The ultimate woman in our society is a devoted mother, who is totally involved in every aspect of her children's lives, who looks pretty on the outside, with nothing deviating from the norm. No visible tattoos, a normal hairstyle, clothes that fit the contemporary mold. We are taught by our society we must fit into this womanhood, this being, in order to be a good woman. But now, we must both be what we want to be, and what society wants to perceive us as. It's a complex issue. Tattooing is becoming more acceptable, but, in my opinion, still held back by traditional values and norms for women.