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So last session today finishing up the dragon and the background on my sleeve. Arm by Daniel Innes at The Pearl Harbour Gift Shop in Toronto

I would not. The laser works the same way on your hair follicles that it works on tattoos...it interacts with the pigment.

that's me 100%

Thanks @Mark Bee and @Devious6! I have emails out to a few folks. I doubt I'll get in with someone that I want but it never hurts to ask, right? I'm there for the entire duration since I'm in Philly the week before and have to be in Virginia the following Monday. Light a candle for me.

Went to Seven Doors Tattoo in London yesterday for a drawing session. Had to bring the little one (their suggestion, as we had trouble finding a good date)... So I haven't actually got a new tattoo yet, but my son got two! A butterfly and a crazy design from Deno. Both put on by Yutaro who was really sweet to him. He's very proud now and thinks they are super cool :-)

Hi, has anybody else had the issue of having to login each time they return to the site? This only started for me in the past few days. I view the site through an Ipad using an old os and safari. Cheers, Sam

@Tiresius I live in Sicily, Italy. Living on an island is sometimes a little frustrating. I'd love to collect tattoos from artists all over the world, but at least at this stage of my life it seems a little complicated. This is not to say that there are no talented local artists, but I guess I tend to gravitate towards styles that are not that well represented here. I totally see myself as pretty much covered in the future. Hopefully with work by multiple artists. It's probably not going to end up looking very cohesive, especially because I'm all for mixing different styles... But at least it will be interesting :)

blastovers when done correctly...awesome look

My brother and I rode our motorcycles from DC to Alaska and back a few weeks ago. We spent a chunk of the time riding across Canada. First of all, the Canadian people are really friendly. I love America, but I'm jealous of that. Second, there wasn't a day that went by that at least one person didn't come up and talk to me about my tattoos. Usually multiple times a day, when we stopped for gas or something to eat. I think my brother (inkless) was starting to get tired of it! Lots of nice people, but I didn't see many people with a lot of tattoos up there, even the people that came up to talk to me. Usually a small tattoo or two. A beautiful country, I encourage everyone to go.

Ha ha! I love your characterisation of the middle one :D The firefly ROCKS! I really like its clean, precise geometry! The curls of the armadillo are amazing too. I'm a fan of Queen - but not enough of a fan to get a tribute tattoo... I love the way the artist managed to get those high cheek bones in. He was a beautiful man! (Freddie, not the artist ;) ) Seems like Sicily has talent!

Thank you for getting me to my appt on time and helping me through that last 1/2 hr!

Yup. Dan nailed it. The sleeve is spectacular.

@Kurgana I would love to see some of your pieces! Are they uploaded somewhere?

@Tiresius I totally get what you're saying. It's a difficult decision when you are trying to make all your tattoos work together. Lots of people succeed, but I ended where I'm now when I realised I didn't want to be limited by a specific style or theme. Still not sure how it's going to work out for the single body parts though - my current tattoos are set apart from each other, but my probable next one (actually it'll be three separate tattoos in the same area) will have to somehow fit on my arm where I already have a really girly little scrollwork tattoo (one of the earliest) and a large blackwork piece taking up pretty much all of my inner forearm.

I'm still wanting my tattoos to be relatively discreet, and I'm also a little hung up regarding coherence. My body is an extension of particles, but I am also a unitary being and I feel the need for there to be a unifying principle behind it all. My first was going to be my only one: I had this idea of the tattoo being 'my motto' or my personal symbol. However, I was in a bad place at the time and some years later I had another on the other ankle to provide a kind of answer to the first. A few months ago someone that meant a lot to me passed away, and I really want to be physically marked by that - if that makes any sense! I also want something really beautiful and larger than my previous ones. I may have it done on my abdomen, however, so it remains discreet. The difficulty is that I feel like it needs to tie in with the other two and I'm not sure quite what that means. I don't want to repeat the exact motifs, and I'm not even sure whether it is unity of style that I am after... I was considering remaining with the theme: so the first was a rose- bud, the second, an anklet of hearts and this third COULD be a swan which would make them all romantic. But...I'm feeling some tooth rot from the saccharine!

I love that piece he did on that guy's back 20 years ago! Much of his own body though seems to have turned into a grey smudge.

This: https://www.facebook.com/curlytattoo66/

Ok, thanks. Guess it's just as well my tattoo appointment is in 10 months. Time for at least 3 or 4 laser sessions before.

@Kurgana NO! You kidding me? Not sure where you are from, but there are artists in the UK, the USA and Europe that have totally bowled me over. As well as those extemely vivid print-types I also LOVE the fine line work of Thieves of Tower and Dr Woo, and check these out, by Asley Malarkey. https://www.tattoodo.com/a/2015/12/the-precious-black-and-grey-tattoos-of-ryan-ashley-malarkey/ There is a Pope mouse, and also an owl there that are fabulous! But I admit to really loving the work at Fallen Heroes - at least the stuff in the online portfolios. Thys ended up being my first choice because of the detail and intensity of his work. However, I find La's stuff really appealing too - and certainly if one wants a fairy-tale quality to it, I think... My other crush is Bryan: for something realist. In fact, I asked when he was next available as I was thinking of two hands holding each other against a night sky/galaxy. However, he is only available in February! (My appointment with Thys is booked for May :o ) So...I'm going to see if La is available earlier and hopefully start with the tree.

I haven't read this whole thread - so apologies if someone gave the answer to this earlier, but can one do lazer hair removal on an area that has been tattooed? I'm just wondering whether it would be better to lazer an area for a few months before having a tattoo there. I wouldn't mind waiting a few months afterwards to ensure its healed BEFORE doing lazer hair removal, but don't want to find out it is no longer an option when its too late!

That's so funny. We're not quite there yet. I think...

AW, thanks polliwog. He's really just a little innocent sweetie and hasn't yet got an idea what cool or tough or anything like that actually means. BTW, today, he drew lots of funky shapes with an ink pen onto his bare legs. Can't help but think that he didn't come up with that idea all by himself...

Check this

I compulsively edit EVERYTHING. Good on you for not doing that. Re birds, it would be a full back, butt included. Probably a long ways off but I sort of accidentally got a tattooer excited about it. And thank you! I am such a fan of your ongoing Diamond Club back and everything else tattoo!

I also really relate to everything you said there.

@omeletta your son is the coolest!

My lips. Hahaha. I tend to lick my lips a lot when I'm getting tattooed (nerves or coping with the pain, I guess—maybe both), and without the lip balm, my lips get really dry. :-)

@HettyKet, who did that incredibly rad stomach tattoo! Love it!!! @polliwog from my experience, every spot that was a bad spot suddenly disappeared once i tattooed over it. It's really strange because i definitely did not start getting tattooed with the idea that I would take control over my body image or whatever. I definitely had this horrible feeling like what the hell was i doing to myself, why wasn't i more mature, how dare I mess up what little beauty has been given to me, blah blah blah - i mean I went through every part of self-recrimination there was (those thoughts are only a little part of it!). In any event, what happened was that though I was terribly nervous about finally getting tattooed, and thought every person in the world would judge me as an uggo trying to be pretty (i do NOT think like this now but I'm just saying I had a really fucked up point of view over a decade ago!!!) (my parents were super judgmental of other people which is why I thought everyone thought that way!! also told my sister and i to lose weight constantly - seriously, if you're parents please be kind to your daughters when they are 10 and under (and over)) - once I started getting tattooed regularly all of that stuff just fell away. (tattoo = jedi mind trick?) (also we are talking about a time period that spans two decades soooo) TL;DR - there are no bad spots once you get them tattooed.

sometimes we forget that getting tattooed involves a little leap of faith in the outcome a little bit of balls if you will shit can happen even with great tattooers lines can blowout some ink might dropout you could scab and scar fall off your skateboard get bit by a dog struck by lightening so in the end - you do your research get your tattoo and move on with your life time, skin, cash permitting you do that shit again and again

Thinking of putting some badass fighting birds on my back, which is my other bad spot.

@HettyKet no tattoo over the area yet... but I hope to have Marie Sena put one of her ladies there next spring. I'm currently using @Fala's healing balm on that arm and it's making the roughness and discoloration look a lot better. (If any of you have some unloved, scabbed-up skin, it's pretty great.)

pretty nice looking tattoo,I like it a lot.and you look great ! wait til you get to my age !(56) my skin is loose and getting wrinkly,but I am still getting tattooed and actually I am wearing more tank tops than I EVER have ! I am having more fun with my tattooes than I ever have as well.my wife and myself might be old,but we are fucking cool old people ! LOL

Oh, but I actually came over here because I'd linked to the thread and wanted to add my post pregnancy belly tattoo. Here

@polliwog I wish I'd seen this last year, have you had any of the areas tattooed now? I hope so. I found exposing my scars really very hard, even though I'd been 'out' with them for years. Same with my knackered belly skin. It'd been years since I'd done any damage but the urge did pop up now and again. I've had not a whiff of an urge since the tattoos. Nada. The actual tattooing, the process, seemed to really help somehow.

I can't figure out what your first tattoo is. Can you explain?

You know those nasty orange slice jellies? Yeah, those. I power munch those. I only eat them when getting tattooed. They are delicious and when they stick in your teeth, it gives you something else to think about.

Who better than Chris Garver to fill a crucial spot on my forearm? I requested his rendition of a phoenix inspired by a line drawing in Ed Hardy's latest book, "Drawings for Tattoos." Aside from that, I told him to do it however he wants. I guess he wanted to make it perfect and pink. "Well... it's more of a coral." Either way, I'm digging it and I feel much more complete!

Kudos.

I think that you would be best served by having a tattooer look at it and give their opinion. Tattoos will certainly hide a lot of scars and imperfections. All of us have issues. We'll love you the same - maybe even more with more great tattoos!

I have a weird question that may or may not apply to anyone here. But, throwing it out there. I'm a compulsive picker (dermatillomania) which is part of what interested me about tattoos in the first place. Has anyone here successfully covered a particularly bad spot (or tattooed over skin that was formerly subjected to picking, even if the urge to pick went away long ago)? My worst area is my upper left arm. The biggest challenge is to let that area heal for a long enough time so that some of the mild discoloration there can fade--fortunately there's no heavy scarring. Good self-care while healing should also help a lot. I do know that I'm not tempted to pick at tattooed skin, mostly because I can't see any imperfections in the skin that might trigger me, but I haven't looked at tattooing my worst areas yet. Part of the problem is just the shame in having to show my scars to someone, after years of avoiding tank tops. I know tattooers are probably well-versed in covering the aftermath of all sorts of self-harm, though. This is a little embarrassing to talk about on here, but I appreciate that this is a pretty nonjudgmental place.

I got my old cutting scars tattooed over. I am very pleased with the result, in effect, I got my arm back! It's still healing, I'll put up a picture in a week or two when I'm past the ridiculous milky skin phase.