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At the gym getting ready after my workout. I'm putting on my makeup in my jeans and bra. This lady rolls in with her 6 year old daughter. This little girl looks at my tattoos and says directly to me "Mommy says tattoos are stupid and so are the people who get them." I gently kneel in front of her and say "Your Mommy is closed minded and judgmental. You should always try to be kind to people and not jump to conclusions about people you don't know." Lady is horrified. Grabs child and leaves. Kid loved it..she smiled and waved goodbye to me.

I noticed this weekend at the convention that people with tiny tattoos on their wrist or a small black tattoo outline on their ankle consider themselves tattoo experts. I know they are excited, and they feel part of a club, but dude. You are not an expert because you have an infinity symbol on your wrist or your kid's name written on your ankle. They know EVERYTHING because they have a five-minute $50 tattoo of their sorority name on their wrist or inside of their fingers. It was hilarious and also very weird. I like that they refer to people without tiny tattoos on their wrists as plainskins. Um, no. Just no. Also, as an aside, I hate the term "plainskins." I don't judge anyone for not having tattoos. They aren't plainskins. They are just people who don't have tattoos.

My wife and I just had our sleeves finished. Both took 3 sessions. We've been getting all of our ink done at Funhouse Tattoo in Vancouver, BC. If you aren't familiar with that shop, have a look online and read a bit about the founders. They hold some patents on some awesome tattoo machines and have been part of the tattoo scene for decades now. Such an awesome shop atmosphere coupled with wicked artists. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Gingerninja Yeah, I've got plenty! Haha. He'll be doing one of my knees. I actually have to get a picture of the space today and send it up. I have a few ideas that I'm going to bounce off of him and see what he wants to run with.

Welcome! :) Look forward to seeing your art.

I think that's a great point and I wholly agree.

So went to the convention and got another 4.5 hours in, mainly worked on the bottom half of the tattoo. progress wasnt as quick as the 1st session, so its gonna take longer than expected to finish - retraced the dragon black lines, as they turned out a little too fine after it healed - filled out lotus flower with color (worked with purple, blue, white inks) - worked on the smoke cloud Left to do: - color in the orchids - finish the smoke - start and finish the dragon, probably in Black&Grey to contrast with the flowers but not 100% certain yet Pictured arent top quality (colors dont stand out well) and taken a couple of days after it was done so scabbed over in places.

Google for the win! @marley mission (Plus, I was too lazy to type it out.) Ooo...Grez next week? Exciting! Do you have any room left? :) @suburbanxcore And 100% agree that he's on the Top Human's List.

@rufio Lol! I find it adorable that you think I don't know what yolo means. I'm getting old people! XD Tattoos are art that you can never throw away that exist on a ever changing canvas of limited space. If I'm getting a tattoo, I'm at least going to get a decent one I won't hate in 10 years. That's why I'm picking things that aren't trends or could be a phase for me. I have the major details of my left calf piece all planned out. I have a rough idea for my right, but not sure about starting a new thread for it since it will probably be a couple years until I can do it (gotta save up and do my left calf first). I would love to travel. My county is huge and all (US), but I've hardly been out of my home state and I've always wanted to see Italy. It's more of a cost thing with me than anything. @Devious6 Lol! You never know. You could live to 114! Plenty of time left to do all the wonderful regrettable things ;) What part of the army were you in? My papaw survived WWII after his entire platoon was killed off save himself and one other guy who shared the same foxhole. They survived off coconuts and bamboo sprouts for several months until rescue. He somehow survived all of it. His brother (my great uncle) lied about his age and went in the Navy at 15. He was in about 6 years and became a frog man specializing in underwater explosives and underwater welding. He got a tattoo on his right arm before he was old enough to vote. It was never touched up, so it was extremely faded, blurry, and green when he passed away a few years ago (he was in his 80s or 90s), but I still liked it. My dad was a cook in Vietnam. He has funny stories about not taking shit off anyone in his kitchen (including those who were much higher up than him outside it). He had at least 2 recipes put in the army cookbook. He still over estimates how much to cook so there are always leftovers. The place he was wasn't safe. He usually went to sleep to the sound of mortar fire. He had to go out in a helicopter to active battle zones once a week to take food to the men on the ground. Even the cook wasn't exempt from active combat back then. I ran into my sister's sister the other day. I showed her my new tattoo and got the standard "Be careful. They're addictive!" line. She has 3 tattoos and went right into how much she hated the one on her wrist. I asked her if she had looked into getting a cover up. She said no way in hell because she had a cover up on her other piece (it was on her back so I couldn't see it) and it hurt 50 times worse than it did the first time! A quick glance at her two visible pieces and I realized she had scratcher work. I'm not sure if her original piece left a nasty scar underneath her ink, if the person who did the cover up was just terrible with a needle, or what happened, but that crap isn't normal.

Grez is the man, hands down. His tattooing is top notch, and he's an even better dude. Can't wait to get up there in a week and a half.

Oh man. That is fucking awesome. Great shading, great line work, and the artist NAILED bringing that touch of colour into a predominantly black/grey piece. I find that to be a rare thing in tattoos... There are lots of colourful tattoos that are great and lots of black and grey tattoos that are great, but usually when you see a black/grey piece with a bit of colour, it just doesn't "work". With this piece that CLEARLY isn't the case. Great piece man. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for all of the positive feedback!! Last March I was fortunate enough to purchase/finance a brand new Ducati Panigale 1299s... I've been riding since about the time I could walk, and always wanted to have a Duc. So anyways, I took all of the parts that I could represent in a tattoo and got them put into a sleeve. I took all of the "Ducati" branding off of the crankcase cover, and the Ohlins branding off of the shocks... I didn't want to have that on me, in case I decide to go back to Honda or any other brand. But yeah, I am stoked at how it turned out. The one thing I do have that is Ducati specific is the Desmodromic valves, on the inside of my bicep. I digress. Anyways, thanks again everyone! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Definitely wifey winning this one!!!! Her sleeve is the thickest traditional tattoo I've ever seen. Not to mention she can sit longer and stiller than anyone any of the artists have ever seen. She'll sit for 12 hours with only 3 5min breaks... Her artist always says he has to prepare his wrist and rest for a few days after her sessions... Here's a pic of a leg piece she got done IN ONE SITTING!!! But yeah, my sleeve is all parts of my motorcycle mixed up and mashed into a sleeve... I fucking love it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First session on this ROA tattoo done by Grez at King's Ave in NYC, still red and swollen. More pics next month after it's finished.

...and "if ever" ended up being less than a year for you.

Last Saturday I got tattooed by Jill Bonny. No photos as we started background shading on the Warrior Monk piece I started last October, but here's a pic of the outline from then. I don't think I ever posted this. https://www.instagram.com/p/9nIkHlpDV8/ Sunday I also got tattooed by Horitomo. All machine work this time. Finally, I have a skull tattoo and a praying hands tattoo. It's part of a pair but I was a bit under the weather and after lack of sleep, flying, and being tattooed the day before, I could barely lay through the sitting to finish 1 side. https://www.instagram.com/p/BEUlGU-sVLv/

Got one from Adam Hathorn (aka Honkey Kong) yesterday at Guru Tattoo in San Diego. First time getting tattooed in my hometown, Adam made it a really memorable session. The dude is full of stories and a super interesting guy, I'd recommend anybody in So Cal to go check him out if they get the chance

Well, today was the day! What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in Triple Crown Tattoo with Scott Ellis (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign. However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it. Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me: I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck. Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot: It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session. Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

Got a gecko rose morph done this week; waiting for the healing to finish... By Nick Agnew of Kingsland Ink, Auckland, New Zealand https://www.instagram.com/p/BELE1HbCSjf/?taken-by=karliahquinn&hl=en

I feel like this is thread worthy.

Important news via Instagram: Richard Stell cut off his beard braid.