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Here frands: Feeling pretty tattoo-flu-y, but I have a steak on the way, and then it's time to drink every water and sleep every sleep. So happy that we finished the areas that were the most painful for me during lining, though. Couldn't be happier.

Thank you!! We actually just finished an unplanned second day of color. I would've posted something yesterday, but I figured I'd wait for today. Suppose I oughta crosspost it to the Lowdown, but here you go: To be honest, the pictures just don't do the actual colors any justice at all...they get yellowed out. The blue with the red/orange is so amazingly vibrant. Personally, even though I'm totally wrecked right now, I'm so glad that we powered through it, because the absolute worst spots for me have been the upper back between my shoulderblades, and also just below the nape of my neck. And now they're done! Probably worth the shocky-tattoo-flu feeling I'll have for a few hours tonight. I'll be right as rain again tomorrow, though. :)

got an apt with Tim Hendricks at temple on Wednesday. stoked!

I was staring at this when it came up twice today on instagram, and of course it is on an LST member!!! Awesome, you are very much winning today :)

Hey folks, Okay, so it took a while, but I'm going to try to get this off the ground come November 1. I'm thinking themes, like several of you suggested (Examples: Japanese back piece, daggers, girl heads, fine line b&g etc). How about "fillers" for our first contest. That sound cool? The following is my suggestion for new rules. Please speak up if you have any suggestions for changes. The tattoo picture that gets posted in this thread for "Month/Year" will be submitted for polling of Last Sparrow's Best "(INSERT THEME)" tattoo. This is all in good spirit and fun of course. The submission process opens on the first of the month and ends on the 20th of the month. After that there will be an open poll for one week, which will close on the 27th, and the tattoo with the most votes wins. Your tattoo picture must be posted in this thread (both tattooers and tattoo customers can win) in order to qualify. Include with your photo/post...tattoo artist name & tattoo shop. You MUST be the one who has the tattoo or did the tattoo. It MUST be a finished tattoo It must fit the theme of the contest (obviously)

And here's my tattoo done in the last day of the convention, yesterday, by Florin Orga. My first neo traditional and i love it so much! It's my cat who likes to bite, so we reinforced the theme :D Video also here.

Thanks! I am pretty proud of powering through the end of tonight, for sure.

Stoked to see a return to the TOTM! I agree that fillers might be ambitious as a 'come-back' topic at the moment. We should kick it off proper: PANTHER!

Man, with the start of the school year, coaching xc, training for a marathon, and a million other things, I've been MIA for a bit. So many awesome tattoos in here. From the Noble frog and the Nava spider, to the awesome Japanese work from Brooks and a few others, I'm loving so much awesome stuff. That Chris Stuart chest eagle. That Koeplinger underarm blast. That firey girl head. Good lord. People are killing it. I haven't posted much in this thread in forever. In the last 15 months or so, I've gotten my knees done (well, the left is started) by Grez, as well as a few pieces on my thighs. Once I get that knee finished, I'm going to update the squidpants thread and throw some of them in here.

Had this done yesterday at 454 tattoo in Encinitas by Dave Kruseman. There's a little warble in the line at the top, that was 100% on my twitchy leg, not Dave. I'm super stoked about this tattoo though. Probably my last of 2016 and my last American Traditional for awhile. Hope ya'll like it! If anyone is curious, Dave is a super nice guy, and happy to talk about winning the show/shooting the show, but also about just about anything else. Everyone at 454 was super friendly and helpful. Great little shop.

Tiger, Chris O'Donnell December 2!

Sorry for the bad photo, its a pretty hard spot to photograph haha. Shark done by Ross Ferrie at Marks Of Art in San Jose.

Hahaha, I thought that exact same thing this morning. With as much as everyone tells everyone else to get a panther, that would be a great start. Or sparrows/swallows, since it is Last Sparrow.

@Gingerninja My knee is great. Right now, he just lined it, so not too bad. Minimal swelling and next to no impact on my day to day. Grez isn't the fastest, but those lights hands, man. For painful or sensitive spots, can't beat it.

Thanks @mtlsam. I do a lot of photoshop in my job, and I'm sort of obsessive about it. :-) Originally I just wanted to see what I would look like tattooed, and then it dawned on me that I could test ideas.

@sophistre That is ab-so-lute-ly beautiful! Wear it proudly, because you've got something special there! Congratulations! May I ask how long were the sessions each day?

I have a very small XsXeX on my wrist. It was the first tattoo I got when I was 21, and not only is it a straight edge tattoo, it's a memorial for a friend who broke edge and bad things happened. My gallery also has a Minor Threat "Out of Step" tattoo. Not directly straight edge, I guess, but to me it is. Got it while I was 30 (XXX) years old.

I'll be there Saturday getting tattooed by Ron Wells starting at around noon.

this nice big one wasn't too bad, way better than ribs...

the reggae-heads will appreciate dis one haha but stay tuned for a panther head

Getting tattoos could help keep you from getting sick

Booked an appointment for my first blastover hehe

For those of you attending this weekend, you better flood this place with photos!

Crappy pic, but I did this recently for a friend who had to put down her dog Einar. I used Copic markers (you can see they aren't dry in spots) and pen. I plan on giving her the original after giving her time to mourn.

@sophistre So good!!!!!!!! And post-tattoo steak is always the best.

Although sakura are my favorite, the peoney is a good choice. Horkin's wife's nipples are peoney, and there are allot of old bodysuits with peoney nipples. As you can see, larger slowers are much more typical as it hides more of the aeriola. Awesome photoshoping by the way!

Ha. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with for my thigh. I mentioned chrysanthemums and wind as additional elements. Pretty much leaving it all up to him for size, placement, colors, etc. Something tells me that this is going to me more than one session (which I'm totally with). How's your knee? @suburbanxcore I love the design. So freakin' rad. Those talons...

I stumbled onto this thread and want to bump it because suddenly it is relevant to my plans. I am planning a Japanese style back piece and partial sleeves, with chest panels (I’m a guy, by the way). I recently found some images online of some Japanese chest pieces that incorporate the nipples into the design. I’m now really intrigued with the idea of nipples incorporated into the center of flowers and I would would like to do something like that as part of my piece. I’ve never cared for designs where the nipple is sort of a random hole in the design. In my opinion, incorporating them into the flowers sort of subtly acknowledges their “nipple-ness” while still disguising them and blending it into the design in a way that doesn’t detract. My areolae are light in color and not very big, so I’m thinking that the flower coloring could extend over the areolae and go right up to the base of the nipple so that just the protruding part would be not be colored. I like to play with Photoshop, so i superimposed some images onto a picture of my chest, and adjusted them so the they would fit my body (see below). One pic has a large flowers with the nips in the center, the other has cherry blossoms. They both have pros and cons. I’m leaning toward the cherry blossom version because it is a little more subtle. Has anybody here tried anything like this, or have have any thoughts, opinions, thoughts on aesthetics, or other guidance on this? Am I crazy? I have found posts on LST that suggest that getting tattooed around the nipples is quite an interesting experience. All opinions welcomed!

I bet that could be covered up with a panther. Check out The Cat Book for some ideas.

@Gingerninja thank you! :)

@sophistre It should be noted that your back is coming out very freaking awesomely.

I'd be ok with fillers, as I think it's an interesting idea and lends itself to some cool fucking tattoos. But a broader topic may be a good way to start the new system. Either way, I'm glad the contest is back.

Get a dragon. A big one.

Jesus @Gingerninja. You keep killin it.

Tattoos made for filling small open spaces in between larger tattoos. I'd say smaller than palm size, and usually made in less than a couple hours.

Love the lion!!

Depends on the tattoo, I guess. A skirt would not have worked for me at any of my sessions. When we're working the upper body (waist up) it's alright to wear pants and then roll them down, but anything below that means ditching the pants and undies. And the day we lined my back (neck to knees), I had to be completely naked ALL DAY. Eventually I stopped being able to have feelings about it because I was having too many feelings about the lining going on (mostly 'ow ow ow ow, okay that's better, that's actually not so b--OH MY GOD WHAT FRESH HELL' etc.) for there to be room for anything else. Hahaha. Most shops have screens as far as I can tell, anyway.

Classic and colorful. Love it.

Got this burnin' hot chick from Willem Jansen today. What a nice guy, and a great tattooer! Done at the always fantastic The Sailors Grave in Copenhagen. Picture via Willem's Instagram (@willem666).

Got a call from a recruiter a couple of weeks ago, didn't really think anything would come of it. Now, two phone interviews later they are flying me out to New Hampshire next week for a F2F and likely an offer. Would anyone in their right mind move from Dallas to New Hampshire at the beginning of winter? Oh my, I'm going to have a decision to make soon. Crazy times.

Great meeting you there, and it was cool to hang out with you and Mark!

Chris Anthon put put this Fudo Meow-O on me. I love him. That is all.

Got this rad biker skull guy from @sour_jon Jon Gray at the Moncton Convention yesterday. Turns out its not a german SS skull with a stick grenade through the head, but a biker guy with a piston through the head. Shows what I know about bikes/cars! Still love it. Going back today to knock out a few more.

Second session down! Did want to sit for longer but the heavy shading over the spine did me in for the day. 4 and a half hours here. Definitely feeling better now that the majority of lining is done (although more on the thighs later, but the shoulders are blocked out and it's starting to look more like a backpiece now. Knowing what to expect in what area as far as pain definitely helped make the sit easier and go by quicker.

A couple of weeks back I fell in a Wikipedia spiral reading about immunology. It's crazy how the immune system works; the fact we have it is astounding itself.

@Killercook76 That's comforting, I think. I have a lot of open space on my front :( Haha @polliwog I'll probably post some progress shots if I get permission! But to provide some level of satiation to the curiosity, here's the reference I gave him. Kind of a bad photo because it's an actual painting I own and I took the picture with my phone at night in the living room @Lance Kahlil Rintye :)

Round 1 of my eagle/dragon. Tattoo By Chris Garver (thanks fairgreen) at Invisible NYC

This is where I'm up to with my back piece so far. Got a few more months to wait before I can get some more done.

On the subject of a backpiece in a day... I can't seem to link it as a video, not sure why. It's Dana doing a black and grey dragon backpiece in one sitting. May have been posted before, idk.

Unfortunately I only brought a fixed lens, I'm really kicking myself for not bring a wide angle lens but it is what it is. Here's what I got for those of you that couldn't attend..... Shige tattooing, I heard him say that he worked on this guy for 8-9 hours Tomo tattooing our own Mario Desa tattooing Chad Koeplinger Oliver Peck Chris Trevino Kim Saigh Shawn Barber Henning Jorgensen