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i guess i dont get walking into a shop and wanting a price breakdown of how much each artist would charge for a piece - pretty silly if you ask me is money an important topic yes - but i would say first that you pick the artist you would like to work with then discuss your budget - maybe it works out maybe it doesnt but price shopping is poor form imo

Yeah, I came crawling back to the Instagram because of 1) good friends of mine asking me nicely to come back and 2) boredom at the Long Beach Airport because TSA is a breeze and I miscalculated my timing. I told myself "no more tattoos for awhile" and obviously that didn't work out. But I'm going to make another attempt at a sabbatical after June. We'll see how that goes. Just finished this yesterday. And thankfully no one was around to watch me die except Jason.

Tomorrow at Black Heart (Tuesday 5/24) Scott Sylvia is taking walkins (flash only) to benefit one of their employees who's doing the AIDS Lifecycle ride. instagram link

Can't wait...finishing (I hope) my lower leg with Grez on Wednesday.

Here's a couple I've gotten recently: Dagger/rose by Charlie Roberts Greg Irons SNCL skulls by Candi Kinyobi Three wishes by Chuco Moreno Lady head/peacock/rose/name by Freddy Corbin Surfing Mahakala by Eddy Deutsche

@BrianH, maybe I'm just lucky to be pals with my artist. We have lots of discussions. He just sent me a text last night about my tattoo for today. I love everything he does, so it isn't like I tell him what to do. Anyway. To each their own, of course.

i don't think this behavior should be encouraged. sounds exhausting. @BrookR70, i think this shop just wasn't the one for you. nothing wrong with deciding you are not comfortable with the process at particular shop and deciding not to get tattooed that day.

DAMN!!! that's really cool!

Holy moly, this has been a painful heal. When I got the lines done, I had a day or two of discomfort (trouble sleeping first night, flashes of pain putting on a shirt)... but the shading covers a much larger surface area. Showering it was unpleasant, and certain areas didn't like having aquaphor rubbed in. But the killer was this little routine I do to get off the excess aquaphor - where I press a fresh paper towel onto the tattoo and then peel it off, leaving a tiny thin layer of ointment. This just seemed to irritate it badly and was really rough the first two days. Today is Day 3, and most of the pain and swelling has subsided and it looks like it's going to start a nice peel tomorrow... except for the area where my outer armpit meets my chest. Despite frequent washing and reapplication of aquaphor evenly to the whole piece, this little section is just dry and rough looking... and the pain moving my arm in any direction just radiates. Going to follow my usual routine and switch to lotion tomorrow, maybe it will get some relief in there, but I doubt it. I have a feeling this little area is just going to be sore for another 4-5 days when it should be simply itching like the rest of my arm. OUCH! Everyone always wants to know about the pain of tattooing... and people often ask and get answered with a description of the pain of the act of tattooing. No one ever mentions/thinks about the after pain. These last 72 hours have been rough.

lower leg tattoos often heal slower that upper body, so a lot of that is going to be up to how fast your body reacts. Just generally, I would think that non chlorinated water would be ok, unless you're talking about submersion for prolonged periods of time . . .

Going to Tokyo in a couple of weeks! And I booked an appointement with Bunshin Horitoshi. Really look forward to getting some tebori.

Fuck weight loss. Get covered in tattoos. My husband has a beer belly and I am trying to persuade him to get his belly covered ( and i dont mean as a way of hiding. It just looks bad ass and he is a big hairy angry looking bastard) . They look awesome! And who cares if you did lose weight after getting tattooed. Our bodies change over time anyway. Best to get the tattoos you want regardless of how our body may change down the track right? Also. I want photos. I may or may not be a perve. Its the internet. You decide .

Got this good lookin' little guy yesterday from Ron Wells.

Fortune teller by Marina Inoue There is also an image on her IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFpjEQFigYn/

Update May 20.... Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day. Before: After:

Finally (mostly) healed from last month's Houston Convention, done on the wifey and I by Sam Storey who was down from Edmunton = his and hers voodoo dolls:

I wouldn't want to get tattooed at a non-tattoo convention. Not only would the sanitation issue concern me, but it would be weird to me that (presumably) part of the money I'm paying for a tattoo would then go to a business that had nothing to do with tattooing. I don't know much about this issue, though--are there reputable tattooers that do this?

Just got a call that my appointment for tomorrow has to be canceled. UGH. Been waiting for months, but I can wait some more - patience......

Yep, still ribs. Glad I only have two sets of ribs!

What @marley mission said. I read what you wrote, son. I don't get waltzing in and asking about the rates of the artists before you have even scheduled a tattoo. It's odd.

@taaarro those are all super nice! The Eddy work is especially kick ass....

If you have scabs, then they will become soft in the water and that make them really prone to getting scraped off. If you don't have scabs then you will probably be fine. I've taken my tattoos into the ocean after 7 days without worrying a bit about it cause of their healed state.

No, an apprentice won't charge the same as the owner, that would be retarded.. However, the artists (that aren't apprentices) might have the same hourly rate. I don't see what's the real weird thing here? And did you put your name on a waiting list for a specific artist or the shop in general? If the shop, yeah then I think you did the right thing about backing out. You should pick the artist..

We're talking at cross purposes here. I'm not talking about Sailor Jerry flash. But if that's what you want, check Instagram for the artists at a shop before you go in. The internet is the way to go if you want to be sure you're getting a decent artist at a particular shop. At the shop I go to, there isn't an artist there that can't pull a straight line. I guess I've just never encountered the issues you are at the shops I've gone to. Good luck.

You know it. Expect them very soon. :-)

Totally right!! Pics are a must!

I'm going to get started on the rest of my right arm half sleeve tomorrow. It's the inside of my arm/under my arm. WAH. @otisc, your post has made me start thinking about the PAIN of the healing. It's all worth it ... right?

When you're getting tattooed at least you get that endorphin rush. And it's fun. Healing not so much Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome!

@GlaryMilberg i get the concerns - i have had some tattoos that have healed so well and so quickly that 11 days later i would have no concerns - then again - i have tattoos that have scabbed up pretty well and then i might be concerned about the effects of getting it soaked so early on - lower leg tattoos have typically been slow healers for me too - i'm curious what some others might advise - and of course you could always 'suit up' as @Graeme advises :)

you are doing it right

I've always liked these for keeping my tattoos dry:

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.

by Robert Ryan - Electric Tattoo - Asbury Park NJ

Get a haircut and a job you hippies

I don't know how things are where you're from, but where I live, the tattooers who do the best as artists and as business people are the ones who have built a solid clientele over years of hard work and good tattooing. They're giving people great tattoos that age well, they're giving people great experiences while getting those tattoos, those people come back for more tattoos, tell their friends about their tattooer, and with that comes the more artistically interesting tattoos, the sleeves, the backs. Pandering to a fad like this might make a tattooer some money in the short term, but it's unlikely to lead to a long-term viable career. Not such a good "business opportunity" after all, is it?

This is so strange. Do people not realize that you are changing the texture/appearance of your actual skin when you get a tattoo...? Even if you didn't care about tattooing tradition, I mean...it's not like your skin is a whiteboard that you can just erase and re-tattoo over and over again. Unrelated, but I have a plugin for chrome that replaces millennial/millennials with snake person/snake people respectively, and it never fails to entertain me.

Finishing my ribs with Jason Phillips at FTW Tattoo next week! Excited/nervous!

I don't want to go off topic -- but why not use this as motivation to lose the weight? About a year ago I finally decided to just get rid of it, and started doing workouts at home. I can stream YouTube thru my kid's Xbox One, and there are no shortage of amazing free workouts there. I started doing only 25-35 minutes a day, six days a week, and didn't radically change my diet, but cut out a few of the big obvious junky things and tried my best to eat clean... or at least non-processed foods. Oh, and every other Sunday I ate my brains out with junk on a cheat day. For the first 7-8 weeks, I only saw a small change... but somewhere after two months, the weight started falling off me, and I couldn't even believe how easy it was to lose it. I ended up dropping 30+ pounds and was able to do things athletically that I never thought possible for someone like me. If I can do it anyone can do it. Send me a message if you want some links of some YouTube videos to get started. It's really not that hard, and you don't need to dedicate a lot of time, you just have to stick to it.

Walking around with linework only on my arm. The one I got today was, "Hmmmn, is that even going to look good finished? I kinda think you should just leave the lines."

Got this dragon head from Greg Christian when he was at Congress St tattoo! I have always wanted a dragon head from him and I absolutely LOVE this one. This was done on Saturday 4/30. The very next day Jason Scott finished up the background on my left arm. Super happy with the results of that as well and I will post those pics soon. It was super annoying to heal two arms at once, especially considering the Greg Christian piece is almost my whole inner forearm, and Jason Scott's work was from my elbow up to my armpit and shoulder. It was all worth it though in the end. Greg recommended using Tegaderm to heal the dragon head. Jason Scott had a roll of it, and between him, Greg, and Spencer Scott, they managed to get it on really well. I guess the stuff wasn't cooperating at first and it took a few tries (painful tries... put it on, take it off....) and a few different hands to get it on in the end. That stuff seemed to work like a charm. I've included a mostly healed pic as well. I say mostly healed because you can still see a few flakes of the second peel in that pic. I would definitely use it again. I healed Jason's stuff the normal way and that turned out really good as well. Very relieved and extremely happy as I find healing tattoos pretty stressful all around.

by Robert Ryan @ Electric Tattoo in Asbury Park NJ

Got this one yesterday for Friday the 13th. I've always loved the number 13, and I thought it was a bit of fun.

Little Friday the 13th tattoo from Joe Haasch at Elm Street Tattoo, Dallas, TX

Snake sleeve in progress by Yoni Zilber @ NY Adorned

Got this panther from Steve Byrne when he was guesting at invictus in Oslo.

I don't think I've posted this here--Todd Noble made this lady in a rose a couple months ago. I really enjoyed getting this tattoo; he has a good bedside manner and just seems like an all-around good human. I can't get an un-distorted photo of this but you get the idea.

Received my first tattoo "Saint Christopher" on this day 13 years ago from the one-and-only Steve Batt (Edmonton, AB). "Look kid, I'm not going to draw the Last Supper. You want a tattoo today or not?" I can still smell the speedstick scent he used to apply the stencil. And in an ironic twist of fate, with the fresh tattoo of the patron saint of travel on a swollen arm, we got in a car accident 5 minutes after leaving the shop. The tattoo is as rich, bright and colourful as it was the day it was made. In fact it keeps looking better each year as it ages. Dropped in this afternoon to see Sensei Steve and thanked him for 13 years of capital "Q" quality tattoos he has made for me. cheers everyone !

I recently got a large piece done on my thigh, and just when I think I've plundered the depths of misery, we find a new level of pain with every session. First, the butt/leg crease. Then the back of the thigh. Mostly recently during a shading session, he was really grinding into the side of my knee, and bending my leg at a weird angle. That was the first time I ever thought to myself "Holy shit, I don't think I can do this." But I did! I think I went into shock from that spot, I was shaking uncontrollably for a while after the tattoo was finished. That spot in and of itself wasn't SO bad, but as part of a lengthy shading session, and combined with long, grinding motions into my kneecap, AND my leg being bent the wrong way made it a memorable experience.