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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.

Just booked in for a return to Oslo. Marius Meyer is going to cover up a shitty tattoo on my stomach. No idea what i'll be getting yet but i'm really excited for this one. Appointment is in January so i'll be sure to share with you guys when it's done

....whoops. Guess the towel I was sleeping on didn't stay where it was supposed to. I wonder what the hotel will make of all of those blue scales..?

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).

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.

We choose to get tattooed. We are not born with it. All choices have consequences good or bad.

After doing a bunch of searching I can't believe there aren't any other threads like this! I was hoping that there would be a thread similar to the back piece thread for arms. Would like to see more pictures of cohesive sleeves that work as one piece of art. I've got a collection of images I've saved for my own reference, but it would be great to see what the LST community can put forward. To help things along.... here's some images from my collection!

@Kracov Have you ever wondered why most private businesses have a prominently displayed sign reading "we reserve the right to refuse service to ANYONE"? Hint: there is a word for forcing someone to provide goods, services and labor against their will...

Spent a long weekend on a trip down to The Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. About 7 years ago we signed up to be Maker's Mark Ambassadors - costs nothing and they send you a present each year at Christmas. They also put your name on a barrel plate and, when the barrel matures - 6 to 7 years later - you get invited to the distillery for a free tour, tasting and you can buy bottles from your batch. They put a special label on the bottle(s) and you get to hand-dip it in the traditional red wax and seal it with the Ambassador's seal. It was a blast - and we hit several other distilleries and great restaurants along the way. The weather was warm and, since we took the Z3, we enjoyed some top-down days. Here are our bottles and Lynn watching while I dipped mine. And Lynn dipping her bottle.

I identify with this post today, haha. I think the most brutal session for me was when we lined my back, since we did the whole thing in one shot. I've discovered that my endorphins tend to fail on me at about four hours in, and everything after that is a test of will. Somehow, we wound up lining the worst spot on back last that day (up between the shoulder blades and just below the nape of the neck) and I was basically biting leather and hiding my face in my bunched up hoodie because I didn't want my tattooer to feel bad. Something about that spot made me burst into tears. Not like 'oh, this hurts, I'm so sad' -- almost like a nervous system response, like shock. Poor guy asked 'you sure you don't want me to stop?' and I'm like 'YES I'M SURE BLOOOOOO' because at that point the only thing in the entire world that sounded worse than what was happening was having to do it again later.

I actually found my artist telling me, "almost done!" or "just another 10 minutes..." to be less helpful than intended, because it never wound up being what I interpreted to be the predicted amount of time. If nothing was said at all I would have much preferred it, and would have been less cranky, lol. I also agree with @Synesthesia, and prefer as few breaks as possible. Fortunately, the artists I have worked with thus far have required remarkably few breaks, if any, and I didn't, so the starting back up again after a break was minimized. Just power through, please....

My tattoo and a story: I got the Minor Threat sheep when I was 18. I was straight edge from 14 - 24, when I broke edge for alcohol (the only substance I use, and even then I'm pretty much just a beer snob ). I still have a lot of the same beliefs and thought processes I used to have about substance use and abuse, so I don't regret getting it and I'm not one of those embarrassing people that gets wasted every weekend with a straight edge tattoo on full display. I might have one (craft) beer after a tough day at work, but that's about the extent of it. For me personally, I just started to have more of an "in moderation" type viewpoint with everything as I got older and trying to remain straight edge felt forced and like it wasn't right for me anymore. I was having a lot of problems with depression and anxiety and it was one of the contributing factors; I was trying to be be something I didn't necessarily believe in anymore and the very idea of having all these limitations was stressful. Now I choose to abstain more often than not, but it's on my terms so it's almost more empowering in a way. Still love the people involved in the scene and the music, but yeah, trying to label myself straight edge when I didn't have my heart in it anymore was just doing me more harm than good.

Every session of my thigh piece got worse somehow. I did about 7 hours for lining and that sucked, but things were just downhill from there. The last session we did was some more background and touching up and was only maybe 2 or 3 hours, but I was spent by the end. I'm sure some of it was psychological from all the other painful sessions and some of it was just being in bad physical shape (not eating enough, not enough sleep, etc). I find there isn't really a "trick" to getting past the wall, you just have to make yourself do it and do your best to prolong the wall by being prepared...because with a long enough session, it will come, it's inevitable. About the only advice I can offer (it's true for me, anyway) is to try not to take a lot of breaks because it's always worse coming back into it after the adrenaline wears off and your skin has some more time to process all the irritation it's going through.

Booked an appointment for my first blastover hehe

I had this made for me...you could say that I like fall.

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

From 19:th of september, by TomasTomas at Into You. That was a beautiful and special day. Maybe 2 hours of tattooing and in total 8 hours with all the talking, planning design, preparing, listening to music, watching videos, sharing stories and experience. Tomas is fantastic.

Not on me (I wish!) but I couldn't resist posting this here. https://instagram.com/p/2XMZmTnXSj/

Super bold indeed, very happy with how it came out. No I have very thick hair actually. For now I keep it short but I plan to let it grow long again. Had it down to my nipples before the tattoo.

@Dan i wish this place was more than it is but it aint - lets be honest - now - if you remember the last month of the contest - there were only 4 tattoos entered - no categories mind you - and that was the reason that it was cancelled - because even then - when we had way more solid contributions and participation than we do now - even then - there wasnt enough interest in the contest to actually warrant continuing it - jus sayin

I knew about some of this stuff because Richard Stell told me a lot about the show and its process. He railed on Clint for a crazy long time about his shitty American traditional, and he said they only showed a tiny bit of it. Made me laugh. Arguing with Richard Stell about American Traditional means you are stupid or an asshole. Probably both. I always liked Kruseman. Glad to hear he's nice and genuine. I thought Duffy was great on the recent Redemption episode. She was graceful in the face of a truly crazy pair of bitches.

I have a XXX in my wrist, done 10 years ago, I am still Straight Edge, so I think my next tattoo will be a SXE theme design. Large, where I can fit it between the other stuff.

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.

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.

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.

Noted. Lets try to start with a broader category, and see how submissions turn out.

As a strategy to keep the wall at bay for as long as possible, I have found that getting a good nights sleep (the night before), eat a solid grounding meal (slow burn) before the session starts and of course bring some sugary snacks when you need a quick bump somewhere near the end helps (sugar immediately gets me back up for a short stint under the needle)- and of course bring your phycological tough face, grrrr... lol. (basically the opposite of a torture session) Sleeping the night before a mega-session is difficult sometimes, so I take good old valerian root to knock me out. When you align your stars it amazing what we can endure. I have seen a lot over the years, but they are not my stories, so I will leave it to them to tell. I think the wall stories are a personal share on the receiving end. Thank you to all who have shared so far and I look forward to more. You are not alone... lol.

Tiger, Chris O'Donnell December 2!

Don't quite get all the hate. Not all tattoos are there for someone else to look at them. The above one is ridiculous tho

I've wanted to tap out about 30 seconds into each session on my back. I didn't of course, but the want was there

@JasonTO I wouldn't worry about it at all. Tattooing is cyclical and even if that is the first time you have seen or come across that type of placement for that idea I assure you that it has been done before many times over. The challenge here is for the artist to take the same idea/placement and make it fresh and new without utilizing or biting off of the work that he has done on previous clients. In all honesty it's what makes tattoos so special. You can come across the same idea and even placement of a tattoo on a person and it will still be 100% different and unique.

That is just so badass

I am dreaming about getting sleeve inmehndi style, but real tattoo. Like this

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

Heather Bailey did this one for me a few months ago. Inside the upper arm is a fun area.

Japanese dragon sleeve by Scott Ellis is finished!

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.

Recieved this from Dave Cummings at the Montreal convention. He did an amazing job.

Totally spontaneous addition today. Had the day off so I stopped into Royal Tiger in Austin to drool over BHR's new flash sheets. Bailey was there with nothing to do sooooo about two hours later, I walked out with this beauty.

Haven't posted in quite a while so i'll update you all on a couple of new(ish) additions. First up is from the Bristol tattoo convention in June, done by Stewart Robson: And this one i got a couple of days ago from Marcos Attwood at Broad Street Studio, in Bath Not particularly great photos of either one but i'm sure you get the idea

Session two with Horitomo! Almost done with the lining and am looking forward to the shading.

I have always liked both. i really like the "flash style" with some unique filler. but nothing that takes away from the individual pieces. this is a cool idea with like fishscale filler. (not my tattoo)

The black harpy

His / Hers eagle tattoos by Chris David - Government Street Tattoo (Victoria, BC) hers: "could you make my eagle more feminine please" his: "just make mine a good ol U S of Eh screamin' eagle"

Percy Waters crane/lady by Tony Nilsson at Blue Arms Tattoo

Sorry for the filters, the picture isn't from my instagram. These are my sleeves!