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Got this collab from Timmy B and Andres Acosta at the stacked Lake Tahoe convention. Took about 7 hours

i think this is a fair question and I suppose you can call it whatever you want ! full backpiece describes your goals. if you are extending from the chest down the front torso/sides than i think claiming bodysuit is fair. but...my $0.02 you see it a lot on instagram now a days - like fresh sleeves and an empty torso claiming #bodysuit or bodysuit-in-progress. it's pretty lame. it's just a tattoo (and an unfinished one at that). it either is or it isn't. those that feel the need to go around and tell everyone and #describe how tatted up they are...probably aren't. the whole thing and magnitude became very real to me when I went to a tattoo convention and stripped down in public next to checkerboard man to get a photo. the reality set in on where i was at with my years of steady progress. before that moment it was just A LOT of tattoo. and it still is ! that a bodysuit isn't a trivial thing - many people have many tattoo, but there are very few who have and will succeed going the full distance. it is not an undertaking to be taken lightly. and there is no finish line to my tattoo suit, it is and will be ever evolving and will be finished the day I die. it requires a lot of time, money, patience and dedication to complete any larger tattoo, not just a bodysuit. good luck with your plans

by Chris Smith - Neptune Tattoo in Neptune NJ

Interesting. I've seen color on black people, but not enough to know what colors are good or bad to use. I'm definitely going to ask my artist what colors he thinks I should use, and then use them!

Some updates on my sleeve from today. Here's the Jizu and Kannon from a month ago: And the green on the dragon from today - underbelly and flames in July.

arrrgh dont ye mess wit that ol buccaneer just get more tattoos

Limiting it to 2 sessions already? Are you short of adequate funding for a project like this?

@bongsau said: I feel the same way about the term "sleeve." I see on Instagram where people post a pic and say "My new sleeve" and you see a big tattoo on the inside of their forearm. It doesn't even wrap around. Yes, it's big, and it's a beautiful tattoo, but to me, its not a sleeve. I feel that a sleeve has to wrap. I think some people just want to be able to say that they have a sleeve. That's my $0.02!

@MoistTowelette - Looks brilliant!

To me a bodysuit means whole body or near as, whether planned as one big tattoo (Richard Pinch's Leu suit etc) or accumulated smaller pieces. If the lower legs, torso or some other sizeable area are bare then I don't see that the term body suit or even partial suit would apply really? Sent from my G7-L01 using Tapatalk

Great thread bump. I'm slowly chipping away at the blank spots, but they still greatly outnumber the inked ones. I consider my torso and one arm to be "finished". Mainly working upper legs now. I'll say that once I've gone all the way around as well as doing my back, I'd be willing to start throwing around the term suit in progress. I think that you have to have some pretty serious coverage before you get to that point though. Maybe we can adopt some wet-suit style names to best describe our progress. Long John for everything but sleeves... I'm working towards a Springsuit with long sleeves myself. http://www.surfing-waves.com/equipment/wetsuit-types.htm

He's been really great - building this sleeve over the last 3 years has been an excellent experience all around.

Like everybody has said, there's nothing you can do at this point other than wait. I haven't had anything lined in any colour other than black, so I can't comment on this specifically, but especially with colours that aren't completely opaque it's normal for them to be red or reddish for a while after the tattoo is done. One of my arms has a lot of greywash in it and the red didn't properly settle out of it until weeks after the session. Healing tattoos sucks and healing tattoos look weird and it's easy to get impatient about it, but try not to worry about it and let your body do its thing. Anyway, I like the tattoo.

@Graeme touches on such an important point - be it a coverup or any tattoo really its best to start with finding the right artist - doing your research - and then approaching the artist to discuss a tattoo direction for what you desire the whole "internet forum consultation" about design ideas is just backwards imo

Welcome @Kaykay Can I assume from your tattoo that you're in Milwaukee? My recommendation would be to go into a good shop and ask about your options in person. I would recommend either Cornerstone Tattoo because Julio Avila does very good, very solid tattoos, or Solid State tattoo because both Jon Reiter and Josh Howard do excellent work. They'll be far better able to let you know what is or isn't possible for a coverup than strangers on the internet who pretend to know a lot more than they actually do.

That interview is truly great. I think we would all have worse tattoos than we do if it wasn't for Bill.

Check out Massimo Luciani, based in Amsterdam @ Schiffmacher & Veldhoen (https://www.instagram.com/bluetoned/) Also did a Egyptian theme not too long ago..

The Interview with Bill Baker by Tattoo Artist magazine has some really interesting history in it - Bill's been behind some of the great shops and mentored others who have opened great shops in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver. http://tattooartistmagazineblog.com/2013/10/28/bill-baker-interview-part-1/

I have been in phases in my 20s and early 30s where I was really getting a lot done. In the space of about 2.5 years I finished my back and did one sleeve, the other shortly after. I started on my front then. All the way through I was slotting one shots in. Now I'm being slowed down by the very real prospect of "being done". I probably have a good number of spaces for fillers or small one shots left, but nothing like before. From here on out I'm really trying to ration myself and be able to enjoy getting tattooed for as long as possible... so in theory maybe 1 a year going forward. That's one reason I'm rarely on LST now. I disengaged a bit because I feel like I'm just not getting tattooed as much - I'm not as avidly into reading and discussing it so much. Sent from my G7-L01 using Tapatalk

Spotted this weekend partying like maniacs at the Lucky Strike Tatttoo summer slam: From L-R, made-in-Alberta healed backs and butts by Scott Rusnak (on Steve) Lucas Ford (on Scott) Steve Batt (on Budd) ...it isn't a tattoo party until the clothes start coming off and the drop trough happens in unison. cheers

For a while I just took on 1 big tattoo project a year and spread the sessions out monthly over the winter. Now I try to squeeze in a couple fun small tattoos every year October through April or "tattoo season" as we call it - as opportunities present themselves and the crazy and crazier ideas reveal themselves to me. Life's too short to not get the tattoos you want, but on the contrary life's too short to spend all your time wearing long sleeves, avoiding swimming and feeling like a peeling reptile for too many months out of the year! cheers

I actually did several laser treatments on my back before I tattooed the shit out of it. It didn't completely rid all the hair but definately thinned out my Sicilian heritage. A nice strong bold tattoo is no match for body hair. I still have to buzz er down every couple of months to get that fresh clear teenage boy kind of look. Its fun too to shave out parts of tattoos to pop them. Weird? Who cares ! Now if only my wife would ok a tattooed head and so I could solve an opposite problem !

hey just resurrecting this thread my local watering hole Lucky Strike Tattoo has been documenting some of the Edmonton, AB connection to the Canadian tattoo history. They have some articles written up and posted up on their shop walls along with old photos and flash of Pat Martynuik, Zipp, Roy Johnson, Doc Forbes... Rockin' Roy Johnson of Roy & Sandy's Tattoo on 118 Ave ... Kudos to Sam and the Lucky Strike crew for taking the time to put this together. In the past you've had to go get tattooed and hear the stories to try and piece together the oral history so it's nice to have a story written out, to read and enjoy. Especially cool to see the hometown connection. cheers

I've not been getting tattooed for that long, 2 and a half years or so. Had about a year of (mostly) monthly appointments which was lovely, but it's been 4 to 6 months between times since then which feel like huge periods of waiting. So, in an ideal world of unlimited money and free choice of appointments, I'd love another year or two (or three) of monthly sessions outside the summer months. Same here. Feels like it helps them retain their power or something.

this is a great convention. i think i'll be there again this year.

Seek out an artist you like and he/she will be able to draw a good design. Say what you want and maybe find some actual pictures of hieroglyphs. This is not a good tattoo. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This is good advice. Find a different artist you like and don't look back. Unless you want to laser it off and start fresh which I do not recommend. What you have looks good. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi I think you should try adding a pyramid and more Egyptian things with details. Just make sure everything flows so in the future if you want more around it, its eaiser to work with

Got a little spider from Dylan Homer at Tattoo Union in Vancouver Also, how do you embed instagram posts? I can't figure that out...

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!

Who did this? It's fucking killer! I had my back outlined a few weeks ago by Jason Kelly. Stoked to get back on it! There's going to be a lot more background added, and we're probably going to fill up both ribs and armpits too (fml)