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Pagoda was good... Peony by Rubendall, fall botanicals by Grez, Sailor Jerry swallows by Scott and filler peacock feather by Virginia Elwood. Sorry that the color saturations are all over the place (the peony and feather look pretty normal). Butt tattoos hurt!!

Ive gotten a few sinse my last post on here. Chest and skull/dagger are by Josh Peters. Kingyo is by Daryl Hart. Tiger by Shaun Martinson. Heart and flies are by Pat Mcfarlane. (pardon the saniderm)

So after my trip to Berlin a couple of weeks ago my new chrysanthemum is pretty much healed. Super happy with how it came out, and it was a great experience getting tattooed by Toshihide.

Bl**dy hell@Gingerninja, you were busy there... Tattoo hopping queen :-) All awesome, happy healing!

My first ever tattoo! Done by Pedro Soos at Frontier Tattoo, Cardiff.

I've looked at LST for a long time and have always been interested in tattoos/tattoo culture in general. I only recently took the plunge (at 30) and got started on my first tattoo. So far I've only got an outline done, I'm going in for shading in a couple of weeks. Look forward to getting more and being involved with the community here. Work was done / will be done by http://www.utilitytattoo.com/kaitlyn.html

@a_beukeveld I've used tegaderm twice and have been really happy. Mine have filled up with fluid as well and I was advised to just leave it alone. one of them filled up so much that it busted a leak out the bottom. Then it stopped seeping altogether and dried out like the poster mentioned above. Once it finished leaking it sealed back up again. Yours looks no different than mine have. I've left both on for 5 days. Seemed to work out fine.

Ha. Thanks @omeletta and @Devious6. It was my own tattoo Olympics. Other than being a little tender, it was easy.

why wont the fox face work?

Crewed for a hot air balloon flight again last night (also crewed on Sunday evening - a wedding flight) and got to fly. The pilots cycle us in as "pay" for crewing when they can based on whether the paying customers have scheduled a private flight or not and weight. You never know when it will be your turn until the pilot say "Mark, want to fly?" Of course, the answer is always "Yes!!!!!" We launched from Nicholson, PA in the shadow of the famous and majestic Nicholson train bridge. It was a beautiful, warm evening and even though initial test balloons and the weather forecast reflected very slow winds, we got a nice push and a smooth, amazing flight. The pilot set us down gently in a field of recently cut hay surrounded by woods - and we were greeted by friendly land owners - perfect.

@Gingerninja Wow!!! Did you spend the entire weekend on the table??!! Gorgeous work!! You are a true Warrior!!

Progress with Chelsea Kotzur... color next.

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!

i usually just bring the body part thats getting tattooed

@marley mission this is what it should/will hopefully look like healed. an combination of a lot of my faverite anime

This page is amazing. That Grez stuff is so pretty it hurts, and that Shaun Martinson tiger is also killing me. You guys are champions.

Start with this:

Going to be going to the Montreal show in September. Already booked a spot with Dave Cummings for a hannya on my arm, and im waiting an email confirmation for an oni on my knee from Stace Forand. If I have time left I want to get something from either Ryan Halter or Lucas Ford, also. In a few days Im going to be getting a giesha demon/hannya on my inner thigh from Jeremy Lamos. After the Montreal con will be the Hub City Moncton con. Dont know what Ill get there. Probably a Stinky from Sailor Jerry. :) Its going to be a fun next few months haha

Of course it will, but not by just anybody . . .

@a_beukeveld That looks pretty much like my two 'dermed tattoos were on day 3. Mine dried up within the following day or two. Once it starts to dry up it does it pretty quickly, and it'll seem like the 'derm gets hard and you will probably see some fun looking cracks appearing underneath the 'derm. Mine also started to itch during this process. I personally found it better to remove the 'derm shortly after the fluid dried up - with the first one I waited until day 5 if I recall correctly (a couple of days after it had started drying in any case), and it wasn't fun taking it off, and the tattoo was extremely dry to the point that I probably should have filled the tub with lotion and kept it submerged for a day or two... The second one I removed as soon as the 'derm hardened, and continued with lotion from that point on. If you're going for a "full" derm heal you'll want to be sure to remove the 'derm only when the tattoo is done peeling - and no, I have no idea how to know when that is :).

I definitely agree with the previous two replies, do get it checked out by someone asap. It looks a lot like the beginnings of a cellulitis (a family member of mine once had it), and it's not something I'd personally want to delay getting treatment for. Hopefully it's just an allergic reaction though.

See a doctor. Or go to an Emergency Room. Now. Might just be an allergic reaction....but better safe than sorry.

hmmm - i'll be honest - thats an interesting reaction that your leg is showing - i might wanna see the doc on this one to be on the safe side anyone else have a thought on this pic good luck of course fingers crossed for ya would like to see a healed up / better view / pic of this tattoo later on looks like its an interesting one

No, I'm using Chrome on a Mac.

PREACHER!! Can't wait for season 2.

I'm sure that none of those things work. You'll just have to keep covered and in the shade for a few months. Give it until next march or so and you'll be good.

Thanks guys! I'm really happy with it. Pedro's a really cool guy and somehow got into my head to design the perfect tat for me. I was lucky, about 2 weeks ago he said he had a cancellation, so that was time for me to swoop in and steal that slot. I'm lucky I live by a few great tattooists, my next is booked for October with Chris Collins at Frontier.

@sophistre - I clearly have not looked inside of a state-of-the-art gaming box lately. I thought you were building a 3D printer or something. Awesome. Can't wait to hear how it operates!!

that is beautiful ! very nice job,I would love to see more pics of it.

So my first tattoo is on my right upper arm. Would it be better to add my second and third tattoos on the same arm, or would it be better to do them on my other (left) upper arm? Thanks

I noticed that I appear to be logged out when visiting the home page. But as soon as I continue to any sub page, I'm signed in as myself again (without actively signing in!). Odd, but means that I don't actually have to sign in, just click anywhere. Does this work for anyone else with the sign out problem, too? On a sidenote, it just so happens that right now, instead of being signed out, I appear to be Graeme on the homepage. Back to omeletta on any other page. I can even go back and forth. Funny that.

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!).

Those sleeves look so beautiful together.

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.

@Lance, @TrixieFaux & I caught the opening of the Tatau exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in L.A.'s Little Tokyo last weekend that Taki from State of Grace put together. Saw some live tattooing which was very cool. Takes three people – one to tap, tap, tap and two to stretch the skin. Beautiful traditional Polynesian style tattooing that flows with the body. Definitely not your '90s tribal. Highly recommended. Here's a pic of Chris Nunez introducing the tattoo models.

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.

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!

Isn't it great when one's ideas are met with enthusiasm? The artist I saw was also stoked with my idea - but he only had an appointment available in a year and really, I will probably change my mind two dozen times before then! I'm thinking 6 weeks though is a pretty good waiting period - as well as the date being so significant to you.

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

went to Seattle and got crabs by Jake Whitson @ Liberty Tattoo Seattle my lady also got a really nice wrist tattoo from Jake. She liked it so much we went back into downtown on Friday nite and she got a midnite walk-in to get something matching on the opposite wrist. one of the coolest tattoo shops I've been in and really nice folks, great hospitality. can't wait to go back Seattle was an awesome city.

Hasn't this question already been asked several times in the past, with lots of advice already given???

great feedback - i guess thinking about it i do have some specific feedback first i like @Graeme line of thinking with the poll i think once the month ends - you put up the poll and allowing a voting to occur - makes the whole process much more like a contest - i know myself there were probably plenty of months when I 'liked' all the tattoos posted - which kinda made it like i didnt vote at all i guess second - i wouldnt worry about themes and categories - when the contest was stopped one of the main issues was lack of posting particpation i do think it should be opened up to all tattoos though - clean slate - of course from that point a tattoo should only be allowed to be entered one time also i think that each member should be limited to one post / entry per month i do think its ok to post the tattooer - hey - we are gonna know who did it anyway as most people also post in the lowdown where it is customary to post the artist name now - are large pieces gonna have an advantage - maybe are pieces from favored tattooers gonna have an advantage - maybe but who cares - its all in good fun let the games begin :)

I would suggest changing how the voting works, if possible. There was always an advantage to the people who posted their tattoos first. If you posted a tattoo towards the middle or end of the month you basically didn't have much of a chance regardless of the tattoo. If it wouldn't be a complete pain in the ass to implement and administrate, what about something like a ranked ballot where, at the end of the month, people can choose their first, second, third favorite tattoos and assign, say 5 points to first, 3 to second, and 1 to third and tabulate that to decide a winner. Could also be fun to run contests around themes like skulls, birds, flowers, or whatever. Healed up and settled in stuff would be cool too.

Please do not generalize this forum and try to play off your ignorance as other people's malice. There has been some very productive advice in this thread. I just don't think you want to hear it or else you would have already shut up by now and went about learning things the proper way. Your statement that "tattooing can look after itself, it was here long before you or I, it will be here long after, and it needs neither of us to survive" is downright disgraceful and you should be ashamed for having such an apathetic attitude.

I thought I did answer the original question. Almost every thread you've started here didn't need to be posted. 5 minutes of thought would have answered your own question. There's an 'old' saying regarding people who constantly make 'controversial' threads and posts on internet forums. "Do not feed the trolls" Do you realise that one of the founders of this site makes some of the best tattoo machines available? Do you realise that many forum members and interviewees also make the highest quality machines and other equipment? It's not about you making money, nobody cares. It's about respect and acting professional while asking professionals (and serious enthusiasts) for advice. People come here to discuss topics in an informative and hopefully positive way. It's hard to do that when people ask if a dvd is a good place to learn anything to do with tattooing. Here's an honest tip: There is NO Bob Ross of tattooing. It's also not like Popular Mechanics or Model Engineering where everybody shares their tips and advice to everyone. You can complain all you like about people being smart asses or dicks, but we've all been in the same position. Really, we have. We found our own way, often with help, but we had to earn that help, usually face-to-face. The journey and the self-discovery is what makes the outcome more valuable. I didn't always tattoo in a shop but I found that pretty much anything I could buy from someone who didn't care where I worked wasn't worth buying. I've said too much. I'm going back to not feeding trolls...

Tuning and building tattoo machines is totally easy. Anybody can do it. I have a drawer full of machines and every singe one of them was made or tuned by someone who did it according to a manual, on their day off from a real job. I learned everything I know (tattooing and otherwise) from a dvd too.