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Kim Saigh @ Memoir in L.A. added on to my half-sleeve to match my other arm. Impressed by how seamless she made it look. Healed pics by @TrixieFaux.

Elbow ditch was a surprisingly fast heal for me, only took 1,5 week for it to scab and peel (peal?) Anyway here is a video for the end result: https://www.instagram.com/p/BIsgSswgEFY/?taken-by=chrisvank

Started my Japanese crane arm with Yutaro at Seven Doors in London yesterday. Pic nicked from his instagram as I don't have one and the arm is wrapped atm. There is a second crane on the lower arm and more finger waves. As I don't have to travel and I'm not in a hurry, we decided not to stress it but do the whole thing in a couple of nice short(ish) sessions. Really enjoyed the time at the shop and look forward to going back!

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Everybody knows what you mean when you call somebody a pussy. It may offend you, but that's life. You never hear a guy whining about somebody calling someone else a dick. ;-)

I always dryheal so the amount of flakey goodness i produce can get a bit out of control ;)

@Devious6 junkie in the making

I am closing in on finishing my first-ever computer build, yaaaay. I am quite proud of it, considering all of the things I chose to tackle for my first time building one. I crimped and sleeved my own extension cables, repainted my mobo thermal armor, hand-sawed, champfered, and routed my cooling loop with acrylic tubing, and I installed waterblocks on my CPU and GPUs. Now that I've done it all from top to bottom, I don't think I'll ever be paying anyone else to build my gaming rigs for me again. :) Still got a little distance to go yet, but I can't wait to start using it, not least because my current box is in its death throes (and I've been sitting here staring at my HTC VIVE box for two months without any ability to use it!).

I've had 2 consecutive days with Chris Crooks from White Dragon Tattoo in Belfast. First day he did all the line work (7 hours) and the second day he did background and some shading (6 hours). It was an amazing experience with a phenomenal artist and down to earth great guy. I'm blown away by the quality and speed of his work. He put a video up on his instagram doing the piece more justice. I will be flying back to Belfast in December for the continuation of this piece.

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

Let's see that first one!! I only have one at this point - on my left upper arm. Planning on getting my second next month on the right upper arm...for balance. All this ink on the left keeps making me lean to one side!!!

@bloodsport well I really wanna see that first tattoo :) but upper arms are great spots for beginning tattoos easy spot to get tattooed imo chest and inner bicep are also great tattoo spots though both of those spots are a little more painful to get tattooed - not that this should deter you from hitting those spots myself - i have bounced all over the place with my placements - i kind of like trying to balance out my placements anyway - rooster, monkey dragon! sounds like some cool tattoo imagery to me - throw up some pics partner - let us know if you have questions about artists etc

Welcome to the forum.......but pics are required!!!

I love the color pallet for that. Healed real nice, although it looked funky while flaking.

@ChrisvK that looks amazing. Perfect!

I was lucky enough to be able to see this exhibit at Middlebury last weekend. It closes this weekend and I wanted to encourage any New Englanders who might be reading this to go. The close-ups and life-size photos make it well worth the trip even if you own the catalogue.

Those sleeves look so beautiful together.

Just spotted this on Pinterest. Gotta win a prize for most hipster ideas in one design!

Hit the back up with another session yesterday, and now I can thankfully say that all of the lining of this piece is done, save for some details while colouring. The rest of the background should fill in quite quickly, given that it took Scott three and a half hours to line my thighs and about twenty minutes to blast the massive wave over my ribs. He used a 15 mag, so probably the least sharp pain so far, although that whole area is feeling a little bruised. 12.5 hours total chair time here. We got another sit later this month. Hit it hard!

Steve dig a dagger going thru an eyeball on my calf at the first Pagoda convention. He didn't have any stencils or anything like that so he just drew it on and went from there. Needless to say I had an amazing tattoo after he was done and I couldn't be any happier with it. This was taken after it was completed and since then it has healed up nicely. Your def. in good hands.

The first thing you absolutely need to do is take a few deep breaths and try to relax. Worrying and driving yourself crazy with anxiety over it is only going to lead you to a panic attack. You applying Purrell is a direct result of you over thinking this. After you calm down you should seriously smack your friend upside his head for mentioning to you the absolute worst case scenario. The possibility of contracting MRSA from a gym bench is highly unlikely. A majority of MRSA infections happen in hospital type settings. Gyms are routinely cleaned and offer sanitary wipes to patrons to wipe down equipment before and after each use. In reality the bench that you laid on was most definitely wiped clean at one point or another by someone. It's not like the bench was constantly being used for months without it being cleaned so thinking logically I'd say that your in the clear.

Well...(deep breath) Steve Byrne in less than a month (Sept 1). I don't generally get nervous or "starstruck", but I've definitely got butterflies on this one. Who's been tattooed by Steve?

Worrying isn't going to help anything at this point, but it is going to stress you out so don't worry about it. You're going to need to let the tattoo heal and judge from there what, if anything, needs to be done. If you have any questions about healing the best person to answer them is the person who did the tattoo.

You've said that you're here to learn, but I have seen very little from you that suggests you actually mean that. I recently saw some tattoos that Jack Rudy did in the mid-80s and the way they aged and settled in was incredible. They're perfect. I've seen more recent Jack Rudy tattoos as well; the guy who did my back has some lettering from him he did I think about ten years ago, and again, the way that tattoo is aging is perfect. So beyond being responsible for largely starting and popularising the genre of fine line black and grey tattooing, he's an amazing tattooer, one of the best ever. I don't think it's particularly hard to grasp why people respect him. This place used to be somewhere where actual real world experience mattered, and that maybe if you listened you could pick up all kinds of hard-earned wisdom. If you can't understand that maybe this isn't the place for you.

@Tiresius here's a re-work my bud Scott Rusnak did.. caption: "Was honored to rework this Johnny Two Thumb tattoo today! The original was done in Singapore around 1983. Thank you Bob!! "

Out this morning picking blueberries. This year has been tremendous - we've got about 20 bushes and they have been loaded with berries. We're at the point where we are just picking them to give them to friends and family - way more than we can use or even freeze. Not sure why it's been so good - haven't had a lot of rain until the last two days. Perhaps the 11 hives of honey bees is helping. Wanna come pick some?

Words alone, no matter how they are tattooed, tend to be a waste of real estate. Only you can decide if that's what you want to do. White ink often turns yellow, so I'd avoid a lot of it. Best talk to an artist.

Got in a short session with Jess Yen on my in progress back piece https://www.instagram.com/p/BIbWbdxjxB3/

Hmm weird, lets try again! I can't seem to find the edit post option so i appologize in advance for posting this one again to anyone who has allready seen it ;) The first picture is how it looked 10 minutes after it was done last monday. Now it looks like it does on the second picture and itches like hell.

My kung fu school's Dragon Team did another run at our annual city parade. This is my 11th year in the row! Here's a cool shot of our group and Dragon ...in front of some waves and wind - old mural from a tattoo shop I got my 2nd tatt at 13 years ago!

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 :-)

A couple of months ago my girlfriend told me that if I got into the school I applied for, she would get me a chest piece! After months of hard work I found out today that I got accepted for the school! So I guess a chest piece is on it's way!

my knees, Dave Gibson and Samuel Shaw

Has a client overweight or not for me personally is not important. Tattoos certainly pushing to have a toned body. On some slender body and picture looks nice but only due to the appearance of the type of object on which a pattern. But as said above - a tattoo and of itself is a good decoration for any body. Often heard the opinion that it is necessary first to bring the body into a slender look and people with excess weight does not need to do a tattoo - I think this opinion is wrong and unfair. Fat people also want to wear on his body something beautiful. He also chooses beautiful clothes (Nobody would choose ugly clothes because he has overweight) and wants a beautiful tattoo. And that's fine and good :) Not everyone can be for various reasons slim and toned but that's no reason not to do a tattoo if a person wants to do it.

So I finally got my chest piece. So happy with how it came out. By Valerie Vargas of course.

Thanks for the lecture write up @irezumi! Chris Brand's lecture, woah! Your words ring absolutely true and I don't need to repeat you. I can't wait to re-watch that when they post the video. You are also indeed correct with regards to Junii. She was very nervous and as you said at times struggled, but the emotion that came through was definitely felt by the audience. She absolutely deserved the standing ovation she received. I have much respect for this stand out Lady. Speaking of another nervous speaker, I spoke with Jill after her lecture. We had a good laugh that she was so incredibly nervous, she absolutely could not bring herself to look up from her notes when speaking. At all! She had single minded focus looking down at her 8 1/2" x11" sheets. "There was a crowd in the lecture hall, what?" Ha ha. But her lecture was a good one as well. And an interesting one that worked well as a follow up to Chris Brand's 108 heroes of Los Angeles. Hers was about a Client who's bodysuit looked traditionally Japanese, but upon closer inspection actually held historical Mexican stories and legends. His back piece was a translation of the Mexican flag telling the story of the founding of what would be Mexico City, but rather than depicting an eagle it held a falcon which is a common motif in Japanese tattooing where an eagle was not. Then she translated two Aztec gods as dragons for each sleeve. Quetzalcoatl, a winged serpent, was depicted as a winged dragon and the other was depicted as a floppy eared dog-like dragon (can't remember the god's name) but she used these not to dis-similarly to the pairing of Fujin and Raijin. The whole of it balanced out not too unlike the idea in some Asian cultures for the 4 directions. What's best of all is all of the lecture subjects are also in the catalogue and soon to be online for everyone, I believe. Oh, and the 50 bodysuits on stage were amazing. No picture I've seen online do them the justice deserved. When will you ever see that again I mean? Jill had initially asked me to participate in it but modesty got the best if me and I declined. In hindsight had I asked about the format I could have totally rocked a fundoshi. Strength in numbers ;-) On a last note, one of the best experiences I had at this show was engaging in a conversation with a gentleman who was looking at 3 of Shige's clients back pieces. He had no tattoos and was dumbfounded by Shige's work. He asked me how such a thing could be done. He was so amazed by the quality that when I mentioned Shige works by machine and not by traditional hand tools, he thought Shige input the design into a computer and a machine tattooed the image onto the Client. With all these threads on here about negative experiences from people without tattoos, this is a fantastic show for people with no tattoos to experience and learn about a culture and educate themselves and a great way for people with tattoos to engage them in a friendly dialogue.

5'10", 89kg/196lb As a fat woman: fuck body hate, get tattooed. To elaborate: being both fat and disabled, I've had issues with my body for a long time. The act of getting tattooed (facing a chronic pain and sensitivity problem) and the act of BEING visibly tattooed is, for me, extremely empowering. I'm not the typical "hot tattooed chick", and it is glorious. It's a way to take back this vessel I've been cursed/blessed with, and to feel more comfortable going through life in it. Plus, tattoos are awesome.