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Got this tribute to my hometown (this gazebo sits prominently in the town square) from Dave Wah at the Austin Convention this weekend.

Some great tattoos posted on this page! Got this one yesterday from Jan Willem (@janwillemtattoo) at Bont en Blauw tattoo Rotterdam. Asked for a octopus filler and this is what he drew up. immediately said yes to his idea and this is the end result. Edit: all other work except the partially visible black skull is done by Jan Willem as well

Cool. I'll take a look at that IG when I get a chance tonight! Some of Chad's stuff isn't always my style (shhhh, don't let anyone hear me say that too loudly), but that thing freaking rules.

@suburbanxcore White Rose is pretty new, the guys at the shop said they just opened about 4 months ago. They specialize in traditional and there's SO MUCH good flash on the walls, I had a hard time deciding. http://instagram.com/whiterosetattooparlour Wes didn't do the panther, that was done by Chad Koeplinger when he came through DC a couple years ago. Took him about an hour and a half to do. This is a better picture I took of it when it was freshly healed.

Got my somewhat spontaneous dragon tattoo today. Wes Garvick did it and I'm so stoked on it. His shop is literally the only one in town I'd ever go to, if you ever find yourself in York, PA. And what's that you guys always say about everyone needs a panther and dragon? Now I have both and they're friends.

Healed lady I got from Ivan Antonyshev while he was guesting in Leeds last month. Spotted this design on the Mainstay T-shirt and fell in love with it. So stoked to get a piece from him at last.

I'm not great with photos but here are a few progress pictures from this last month with Lehi.

It was great seing you again Gareth! Although I have to admit I felt like a sadist at times too, haha. You're tougher than most!

Here's a little party shark I got from Scott Sylvia recently. I meant to post healed pictures but it's a difficult area of my arm to photograph. Thanks for looking! starting the left sleeve next.

Made another Oslo trip last week to start a cover up on my lower stomach. While i was there i picked up a namakubi from Nicholas at Blue Arms. The cover up is ongoing and i don't mind admitting i'm very apprehensive about the next session! This was not a fun tattoo to get although Marius did his best to keep my spirits up and a visit from LST's own Mr @Iwar definitely kept me distracted from the significant pain!

Got this kitsune from Matt Arriola yesterday.

Ongoing piece. When it's done it will start at my ankle and connect to my chest piece. It's a tiger and samurai on my leg and dragon on my ribs/stomach. Just outline and shading so far on the dragon. We decided to work our way up.

Trying to think of what I can use this ditch and inner arm space for... Would be cool to fill it all with one piece, or I'll have to do two.

Session #6. Had a lot of wind under my sails and sat for 5 and a half hours. 26 hours total and unbelievably stoked on the progress. Finished the lightning and patterned the entire octopus. once this heals down, Capt'n Scott is going to blast over it all with some teal and define all the layers. This was less of a whooping to the kidneys and more of a tedious cookie cuttering.

Put on by Eric Perfect May 6-7, 2017 at the Fillmore in Philadelphia @prestige_tattoo_convention on Instagram Some names so far: Nick Collella Tim Beck Topper Nick Caruso Sailor Eddie Greg Christian Eric Inksmith Bert Krak Tony Hundahl Scott Sylvia Mike Wilson

Welcome!!! Just don't overdo the hustle butter. It needs air to heal.

You don't need to stop. Post wherever you want. Good luck with that tattoo. Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

The artist said my blood actually inspired him to add to the design. As he was shading and I was bleeding, he got the idea to add some pink around the mouth of the skull and the skeletal horse he's riding on, like there was still some tissue left on the bodies.

Hey! just wanted to say thanks. This thread has been a wealth of knowledge for me. finally getting somewhere with a mix of FW acrylics, talents drawing ink, PH Martens, nib pens and brushes. Picked up some arches cold press recently but I'm not 100% sold on it jus to yet. It is VERY rough in comparison to the Langton Prestige paper which I normally use. So far that is the best paper I have used. Works well for me. Here is a recent one I did using the materials above, but with Langton.

@devious6 Condolences. I lost my mom to a very unexpected cancer about five years ago. The administrivia of a person's death is the nastiest part. May the paperwork subside so you can process the grief. Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Got the suggestion to 'work up' to the chest piece I'm getting (gnarling scarring I want to get covered) so I went back to Brittany at Hot Copper for something else I saw and fell in love with. Think I'm going to have to keep adding to the leg, carry on with the outdoors theme I seem to have got going on It's completely round irl, the angle I'm standing at just makes it look a bit thin at the bottom end in the pic.

Sarah did a first pass at correcting the faked line on my forearm that another artist did and I hated. After 3 laser sessions (one a two-pass session), it was ready. She did the lining and some grey shading. Looks thousands of times better. She will add color in early March. This is going to settle nicely, I think - and I'm already real happy with it. Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

@Iwar and @ItsNewport Your photo should be pinned at the top of the "do tattoos hurt" topic. (And your new work is so freaking cool.)

Hahaha thanks for capturing me at my best, @Iwar Hopefully next time i see you it won't be quite so torturous for me!

1) Paul Dolbleman, Spider Murphy's 2013, Dietzel design. 2) Herb Auerbach, California Electric 2013. Both photos taken today. My hound wanted to be in the pic.

Done by Tony Nilsson a couple of years ago! (never mind my hairy and ashy armpit)

I recently got this cute eagle filler by Ruby Quilter at Sang Bleu. It's a different style to my other tattoos but fits perfectly in the gap.

Mike Wilson did this dagger, snake, and roses on me at the SFO convention in 2012. included a #livedintattoos comparison of the day of vs today (wth poor lighting).

Okay, I'm in. Dagger by Grez (Kings Avenue) done at Pagoda 2015.

Got my first leg tattoo by Victor J Webster @ East River Tattoo in NYC yesterday. It's his interpretation of the Bakunawa, the Philippine mythical dragon which devours the moon and causes lunar eclipses.

That's awesome. I especially love the skeletons.

By Franz Stefanik, of Okey Doke Tattoos in Toronto, ON.

Another addition to my tattoo leg quilt ...

I haven't posted anything in a long time but this is a tattoo I got in October by Scott Sylvia. I plan on booking another appointment with him on Thursday. I'll be sure to post pics. I think I attached the pictures correctly. Let me know if you see it! Thank you all for looking.

Got this tonight. Five points go to the person who knows who drew the original tattoo! :-)

Last tattoo I got in Brescia, Italy: Skull, flower and sun by Rafa Decraneo.

baby's first blastover BLACK SCORPIO Started the 2nd layer with tattoo no.42 made by the one and only Shawn Hedley at Champion Tattoo in Edmonton, AB, Canaduh

These are both a year or more old at this point, but I never actually put them in this thread. The death's head moth was done by Oliver Peck when he guested at Kadillac Tattoo Mt. Airy (Philadelphia) last summer. Not the best picture, but he ended up slipping a lot of hot pink in there that wasn't at all what I'd expect from him. In the end, I loved it and was happy with how it came out. Getting tattooed by Oliver is as great as you'd expect. I had just gotten my shin done by Scott the week before and mentioned in our emails; Oliver came barging in yelling, "Lemme see that Scott tat!" right off the bat. After we were done, he actually took his shirt off and showed me a ton of his tattoos from Scott, Trevino, Rassier, Stell, etc. So fucking awesome. The torch moth was done by Keith Reed at X-Treme in West Chester, PA shortly after they moved to their new location. This was a "thank you" tattoo for helping them move. Keith is the best. Just an every day, no-bullshit, hard-working tattooer. Without him, I wouldn't know shit about tattoos. Not the best pic in the world, but @Dan and I were chatting back and forth and I realized I should probably upload em. Once that Grez knee you can see half done gets finished, I'll hit up the squidpants thread.

Brand new today! Traditional anchor with flowers by Chris Collins at Fronter Tattoo, Cardiff

Was stoked to see this pop up on instagram! Very cool to see all the phases.

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).

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.

Hey everyone just got back from the shop a little while ago. Went in for a touch-up, left with some old school sailor jerry dice. This'll be my last tattoo for a while though, taking a little break.

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

You WILL bruise. But that goes away and it's totally worth it pics attached were from my latest from Chad on the inside of the bicep. Taken the day after and under tegaderm.

So, this turned out way better than I could have expected. Got it finished in two sessions with the second one at Allstar Ink in Limerick, Ireland. Chris Stuart was guesting there for a day prior to the London convention so I was lucky enough to grab the spot. A great experience again. I couldn't speak highly enough of Chris and the atmosphere was enhanced with the liked of Nagle, Peck, Topper, Noble, Arment all working there on the same day. Anyway, I'll let the pic do the talking ? Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

Hey --- great topic! So I am exactly in your boat. Getting a Japanese dragon sleeve done here in Austin, Texas. Like you, I estimated this to be about 15 hours/3 sessions. But I am in that far now and we probably have 5-8 more to go. You can read a more detailed update on how it's going here: So, my sleeve is a 7/10th length, almost full. The first session was the linework. I don't know how your artist works, but mine the design was drawn freehand (after a lot of consultation, obviously). This took a few hours of mostly standing up. It was fascinating. He would draw it and be nearly done, then look at it and say -- no, the head needs to be an inch to the right - then wipe it off and start again. He would do multiple layers in multiple colors getting more detailed with each layer, and he erased amazing stuff many times because he wanted it to flow with my body correctly, and had to re-draw it. I think this is really important with your piece, especially with multiple elements. I was planning on tattooing to the wrist, but since I wear a watch, the 7/10ths made more sense. And putting the dragon head on my collarbone just never looked right, despite that being one of the more traditional locations. So as he is drawing it on you - think about how the pieces fit onto your body... and also.... think about what parts you want to look at all the time. If am not at the computer working, I am golfing, so what was on my top/inner forearms was important because that's the area I'll be looking at most. I had fewer flowers put there so I wasn't distracted by the pink that will go in there later. Here are a few pics I didn't put into the other thread: First layer. This was erased. and Re-done. Then the linework. Ouch. We did this in about 3ish hours: A month later we did all the shading in one 5.5 hour session: The healing of the shading was just awful. The Y of my arm got immediately dry and cracked making moving my arm very painful for 4-5 days and mildly painful for another 4-5. Applying Aquaphor those first 3-4 days just inflamed the whole arm it and - just - ouch. I had to really baby it, and luckily I work from home and can work shirtless for a few days and wash/re-ointment frequently. If I had to put on a dress shirt (or any shirt) and go to work and move around I would have been really sorry. If you do this much coverage, wash it a lot, because I had a few areas flare up looking like they were going to get infected, but luckily just got really heavily scabbed. So my artist went to Europe for 10 weeks, and I had to wait all summer for coloring! But like you, I was thinking 15 hours/three sessions. And I felt like one more 5.5 hours session like the shading would be enough to finish up almost entirely. Nope! Last Wednesday we did 5.5 hours (all I could take) and only got in green and red: Takes awhile to get some of that color in, I guess. This part on the shoulder hurt/bled a lot: The ditch was bad. Real bad. Healing the color has been about 60% as bad as the shading. I probably could have shirted up and worked a job with movement had I needed to... but it would have still been really uncomfortable. Healing the ditch is no joke. Those scales are all scabbed now, and I rarely scab on my tattoos. Ouch. So now I'm hoping one more 5 hour run will do it, but I doubt it. Just the flowers - by the numbers, could take a few hours themselves (there are more on the back of the arm). So I'm guessing it will be 5 hrs next month, then another 2-3 after that (fingers crossed). Take lots of pics, especially during if you can. I always wish I had snapped more after. Here is a video of the shading. You can compare that spot to the above pics to see how dark we got it eventually. Takes awhile to lay down those greyish areas on the windbars/clouds: https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-znxv7VN/0/1280/i-znxv7VN-1280.mp4

Update May 20.... Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day. Before: After:

UPDATE: Well, today was the day! What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in the shop with Scott (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign. However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it. Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me: I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck. Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot: It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session. Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

I've been gone for a while. I'm stoked to see so many great tattoos being done. Started my back with Horitomo in December.