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just for reference, pics off the whole thing

I got a Sailor Jerry dragon tattoo today on my right arm and it feels fine. I was thinking about getting one for a while but I just got it on a whim today after lunch! It was fun and I will have to get something for my left arm to balance out, wouldn't want the dragon to get lonely.

when people come here and ask for comments on my new first tattoo,what do they expect ? we are all adults here,this isn't a "Hallmark" forum, if it's a crappy tattoo, should we lie to sugar coat it so people feel better ? NO ! IMO . "It's too late to change anything, why are you gonna make someone feel bad?" nobody here is trying to make anyone feel bad about their tattoo,if it's a crappy design or applied badly,as hard as that is to hear,the biggest thing is hopefully we can help people get a better tattoo on their next tattoo. it's that simple, and yes,our types of replies will vary just as us humans are all different. there are rules in place here and most people adhere to them pretty well.the moderators do a pretty good job here.compared to many online discussion forums this place stays very civil and friendly.

Its very difficult to be sensitive when you know exactly why the question is being asked. Most people come here to have their ego stroked about their design, their ideas or their tattoo, and its plainly obvious. They ask for opinions on their ideas, or they ask you to critique the design they made or had someone else make, and when they recieve answers they dont like, it becomes apparent why they were asking. If they truly cared about the questions they ask, they will be receptive of any response. If I have a question about healing a tattoo, I want to be told off for asking if its cool to let my dogs lick my leg. If they get offended or sensitive about the responses that they're given, its just an indicator that you're wasting your time answering them, and being sensitive about it will only encourage them. This forum is an amazing resource filled with heavily tattooed people, with years and years of experience. If you want some of that knowledge, you're going to have to put on your big kid pants and realize you're not going to have your hand held here, or anywhere in tattooing. "Make tattooing scary again."

This. Seriously. Don't be a big fucking baby. BYEEEEEEE. I am still giggling that some people are sad flowers because we think their tattoo is shit. GET. OVER. IT. We don't have to like it because you do. If it is shitty, it is shitty. I'm not going to treat you like a delicate flower.

This forum is mild compared to others, I've seen. In the end, we are only providing an opinion, granted many of you can provide a much more experienced opinion. Don't want the truth - or someone's version of the truth ? Don't ask the question. Don't agree with the opinion, ignore it. In the end, it's all about how you feel about your work.

Welcome and we look forward to seeing pictures!

http://sailorjerry.com/assets/Uploads/_resampled/SetWidth1200-Dragons.jpg It is that one.

You have to have a certain number of posts under your belt before you can post anywhere else. Introduce yourself and ask your question here.

Welcome. You can ask your question here

i'm a month in on my last tattoo on my forearm - slow heal - but what makes it harder is its just there staring at me all day - forearm tattoos are just the worst like that - meanwhile - the one i got on my stomach basically healed right away - hardly peeled - forearms i think - especially a 45 year old forearm - that skin is just beat up from years of sun exposure etc - so i think it just takes longer with certain types of skin on your body

there are so many cool threads here about tattoos - so much to sink your teeth into - and people want to come on and hyper focus on their feelings being hurt - its just not what this place is about - and for real - nobody gets slammed here - i'll be the first to tell you i love 99% of peoples tattoos - i may not prefer them on me - but you're not gonna catch heat for a tattoo not being my style of tattoo - but yeah - people coming here wanting to beat this dead horse of the forum members being rude - please - go away and stay away

I don't think it's starting shit to say it's rude to dump on people's new tattoos. It's too late to change anything, why are you gonna make someone feel bad? It happens so much on initiation posts. But anyway doesn't matter, I've realised this forum is not for me. You guys do your thing, I wish lots of awesome tattoos in your futures!

Hell yeah! Photos?

doing it right

the blunt honesty is a good thing, even if a bit jarring for the recipient. i mean, bad tattoos are for life, might as well tell them if they are getting junk...but then again there are always lasers or just blasting over the stuff... on the other hand, some stuff people just have to figure out.

I totally ripped part of this off from someone else on here who responded similarly when asked how long to use lotion on a new tattoo. All credit goes to that long-ago clever person.

The good thing about flowers is they go with everything. I have 30+ flowers on me and theyre all associated with different images. So yeah. Get a fuckin' panther.

This ain't a very busy forum any more. It used to be a very busy place.

Welcome to the forum and ask away. Your responses here will build your post count and get you to where you can post on the rest of the forum.

I think I am just too anxious for it to be healed, too. I really love it and want to show it off...but the cold weather is approaching here in the northeast so sleeveless shirts will soon go away for the late fall and winter. And, I don't want to use any sunscreen on it for at least another week, anyway. Oh well. I'll just need to deal with it.

Same. I'm all over the map. Tattoos don't have to match or have a theme. Get what you like!

Welcome! Love Sailor Jerry. Look forward to seeing it.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!! Of course, I am totally biased but who cares?

@Devious6 its looking good :) dig that tattoo so much

Here's a quick pic - the strong sunlight makes it look worse than it is, but you can see 3 of the larger scabs on tops of the smaller feathers in the center of the eagle's right wing.

I agree with this. You don't have to make someone feel stupid for not knowing as much as you. This is not always true. Telling someone their brand new tattoo is shit, or even that you think it's ugly, is never helpful and is pretty rude.

I was thinking Bert or Spider Murphy but they are just guesses.

This is always the right answer. Also dragon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My big piece was finished last night. Sooo now becomes the deliberation of what I want to do next, where I want to do it. I'm stumped. Was going to talk to my artist last night but I was so focused on pretending it didn't hurt.. Husband has put his leather armor on hold and went w/a new artist, starting this tiger. He loves the new artist so that's great. A dragon is going on the back of the calf there and everything will be in color.

Never! Your posts are always awesome. I hate healing tattoos. Tegaderm makes it a little better cause you don't really have to do anything. But the day you have to take the tegaderm off is stressful as can be. It hurts, ya gotta go really slow, and honestly you just have no idea what the heck it's gonna look like under there. You just cross your fingers and hope that the 3M company comes through and doesn't let you down.

Hope my jokes didn't come across as mean spirited, by the way--they were certainly meant in a spirit of silliness. I'm in the middle of a difficult heal myself.

Why not ask to be a moderator?

A panther is a panther. Pink or black you'll never go back.

Well it came out great! @Devious6

Most likely from a Bert Grimm sheet.

Well, I was thinking of getting this next - not sure if it would look best across my chest or my back. Thoughts? It is a panther that everyone talks about.

I should add that my approach appears to be akin to a giant flash sheet. I have a mix of traditional, neo-traditional and Japanese. Once I had my "core" pieces, I'm filling in the spaces with what I love! It's like landscaping. :)

3 roses on the inside of the forearm could go along with pretty anything on the outside of the forearm. just get a big black panther and call 'er a day !

crawling panther

@DJDeepFried and @sighthound: I was half joking when I said I was embarrassed that my attraction to Japanese tattooing was aesthetic. However articles and TV have sort of conditioned us to think that every tattoo has a beautiful and deeply personal story, and really hasn’t left room for those of us who just like tattoos and their aesthetics. In a way, they have made it seem shallow to get tattooed simply because you think that tattoos are beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, I have been sincerely and deeply touched by the stories and meanings behind some tattoos, Memorializing a departed loved one, covering scars of surgery, celebrating a victory over disease — wow! Those are powerful reasons to get a tattoo, and that is part of the power of tattooing, that it is perhaps the ultimate way to mark these kinds of experiences. I sometimes wish that my planned tattoo had some meaning, but it doesn’t. But I’m not really embarrassed about it. Tattooing serves a lot of purposes. It is enough meaning for me to say that I want a beautiful piece of art to be a part of my body forever. For me, that is pretty powerful.

So I will post this pic here as my start point - about 24 hours post finish. I slept in an old t-shirt last night and had no plasma or ink leak that I noticed. Showered this morning using antibacterial soap and am using a light Aquaphor application in place of the A&D my artist gave me (I used Aquaphor on my first tattoo also). This one seems much more sensitive than my first - perhaps because of the amount of shading on this one versus my first?). It is tender - like a brush burn. Most of the redness is gone, it just is uncomfortable to have a shirt sleeve rubbing it. I was out this afternoon and as I got in the car Lynn mentioned that it looked like I had some plasma leak - never had that with my first. When I got home I washed it again and reapplied a very light cover of Aquaphor. I noticed when I pat it dry with a clean paper towel, I am getting a small amount of ink but that seems to lessen with each washing. So, we'll see how this one goes. My guess is that it's not going to be as easy as my first.

Very new here and I have to say I find the honesty refreshing. There's too much BS in the world as it is. I'm here for quality advice and insight, not hand-holding. I've been cruising the initiation threads the last few days (got to page 71...geez) and I've seen a few threads where people just seem to be fishing for some kind of therapeutic approval. I'm all for supporting each other, but I'm glad to see this isn't a place for coddling the attention-grabbers. I like the honesty of LST. Keep it real. Just my two cents.

Any forum, even those that are "must be a member to post," is going to have people who are going to make negative comments. And some people are going to be blunt in their honest responses, and maybe sometimes a little too blunt. For example, there are two ways to tell a newbie that traditional tattoos hold up well over the long term: "That watercolor s**t is going to look like dog puke smeared on the carpet in ten years, so if you decide to get something stupid like that, don't come back here whining about it and asking how to fix it. Get a REAL tattoo instead of some trendy impressionistic crap that you saw in some fancy magazine." or... "Tattoos without outlines often don't hold up well over time. The ink fades and the images might become indistinct, expecialliy if you spend time in the sun. Take some time and look at some tattoos that are 20 or 30 years old and see what happens to the colors vs. the line work, and then make a decision." I think the second is a more helpful response. But you are probably going to get some responses like the first one, so you have to have a filter. I have certainly seen some mean spirited responses to sincere questions. For the most part, I think LST is good and supportive environment.

I actually find this community very negative. I used to come on a lot but definitely feel like if you don't have the "right" style or aesthetic you are not welcome

I like the idea of a tattoo community,here and in the real world,I do feel a brotherhood/sisterhood connection with other tattooed people,I am an outgoing person and I enjoy interacting with other tattooed people in the real world,some tattooed people are open and receptive to conversation,some aren't. either way,yes,I believe there is a connection here and in the real world amongst tattooed people.But at the same time I do welcome questions from and conversation with plainskins as well. and in the real world I enjoy the stares and attention I get from being "different" because of my tattoos.

Its strange. I admire the opposite. Theres something so appealing to me about the "modest" bodysuit design. By modest I mean full back, full front with the "river" down the front, just above the knee and just before the elbow, with one main image on the back and one accompaning images on each thigh and each shoulder. I think in the west, tattoos have become sortof trite because we wear tattoos so boldly and outwordly. It looses that speacial something. I like the idea of being in control of your situation at all times, to be a tattooed person when you decide to reveal yourself. You can carry this secret side to yourself that not many people would know about. Not only that but I find it fits the body so much more naturally. Theres something about the suit stoppingvat the hands feet and neck that looks unatural to me. Not sure how I can describe it. If I could start all over id go with the modest bodysuit design for sure, as apposed to the American one-point style bodysuit Im heading towards at thr moment. I still love my tattoos, but I appreciatethe Japanese philosophy much more.

ya,that swelling thing,when I had the top of my hand done,it puffed up pretty good.I have tattoos all over my body and this is the first one that has swelled up. you can clearly see the swelling in this pic of it.the day it was done. . . and today long after the swelling is gone,5 months later

Look at a lot of bad tattoos. The internet is full of them, and, unfortunately, most of the tattoos you see out and about are going to be bad, lol.' Once you have a keen eye for what is bad, you'll spot the exemplary work of the best artists a mile away. This is what worked for me, anyway.

This thread is excellent. I hope I can squeeze my next pimple into a full rib panel of Japanese tigers. What a time-saver it would be! I'll goop up my side with some vaseline and crappy Dove skin cream and tape on a printout of @hogg's Lehi tigers for reference.