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Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo. Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look. Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j

Got the colour started on this on Tuesday, can't wait to see the finished product. Going to be amazing.

Here is Alien's Ripley, all healed up :) Done by Zaed at Radical Ink Tattoo, Bucharest. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.

@Cameron Jose Cute frog. Had this done today by Grant Gebbie, owner of Cuba Street Tattoo in Wellington NZ - @ggtattooer on IG. Very stoked. Bought my girlfriend a birthday present too... a Cheeky Thigh-Leopard she fell in love with last time we were at the shop together, rarely seen this side of the Pacific. Done by Joe @jj_doom. Shame you can't see his other paw here 'cause it looks like he's 'holding' her kneecap on both sides, cool placement.

The only thing you could possibly do is have them go over the lines again and thicken them to try to hide some mistakes. But then you lose all the delicateness of the swirls and risk making the font too hard to read. Leave it alone, all tattoos have mistakes if you look close enough and it looks great from a distance.

cool tattoo for sure ! and I just watched Alien and Aliens the other night again,I love those movies.

Got this frog on Sunday from Jay Watkins at Spider Murphys. I won my work's fantasy football league this year so I figured putting the pot towards a relevant tattoo would be fun. Super stoked on how this one turned out, Jay's great and always fun to talk to:

Wow. Sorry, but "professional" only means that they get paid.

Haha thanks. Yeah, i also recently rewatched all four Alien movies + AVP, but definitely the first two are my favourites. The other two are cool in their own rights, completely different but still did some stuff right. And AVP is, well, AVP. Cool alien designs though. Also, the Ripley in panties would make a great pin-up girl i think :D

Well, good news... The crazy worrisome burn is finally gone. You may have been right about infection ...I got worried enough myself that I went to the pharmacy earlier and bought some purell antibacterial gel with staph killer and aloe...a few liberal dousings with that this evening fixed the problem right away. The sting, the swelling and redness are all gone... it was miraculous. :) I dry healed all my other tattoos before this one, and never had a problem before ... never even really got that sunburned feel before. I'm definitely curious to see if I get the same reaction in a couple weeks when I start shading that area. Unusual reaction for me ... still curious to know if inks can be incompatible.

Hi everyone! My full back piece tattoo adventure has just begun! I met with a tattoo artist last night. I'm looking to get a tattoo which symbolises calm and resilience in the face of great danger - I also love Japanese mythology, so it's going to be a Ronin/Samurai facing off against a dragon from oriental physiology (serpentine look, rather than winged godzilla). It'll be in black and grey realism - I'm super excited! I paid £40 (I live in the UK, Scotland) to have the custom design made. I'll post it on here if I remember (the artist said it'll take 2 months). I actually have a lot of questions in a thread on made on the initiation page, if anyone wants to hold a newbies hand through all of this :p The thread is here. I'm gonna have fun reading through this thread now - I'm happy I found it. :D

Thankyou little fox for your reply ..i have suggested this to her and after 2 different people have let her down its trying to reassure her there are artist out there who take pride in what they produce..white on black is getting more popular and I think it looks amazing..thankyou again [emoji4] Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

:( I would be very disappointed also ... oh my ... and to add insult to injury, that tattoo that was covered up will show clearly through once healed. To dwell on a solution rather than an irreversable deed ... you might consider seeking out a white on black professional rather than lasering out. Just a thought. Here are a couple examples for you.

Nice cover up Dan, and thanks for sharing your experience. :) Yes ... I certainly do feel 'em more now, lol. The problem with that theory though, is that I did one in my palm friday night, and another one on my forearm just below the cover up on saturday night, and they are both healing beautifully ... neither one burned like this one does. I don't think it's infected perse ... because the burning comes and goes, there's no major swelling or lumps or bumps etc. Have you ever heard of incompatibility of inks? Is it possible this present ink is reacting with the old ink somehow? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? ... Maybe it was just too much trauma for this old girl, lol.

stop looking at it with a microscope and enjoy it. I'm sure your mom loves it. wear it with pride and move on to the next tattoo.

That's a nice bright green. Looks great man!

Started my back with Marius Meyer yesterday. This is as far as we got.

Returned last week from two weeks in South India. In one of the villages that I visited, a young man approached me with a photo. He said "My name is Paul - you named me." In the photo taken in 2002 I am praying for a baby. The mother had brought the baby to me and asked me to give her son a "Christian name". Pretty awesome to meet him 15 years later. Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

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.

Got this kitsune from Matt Arriola yesterday.

Personally I prefer to dry-heal everything if I can. However, since moving to Washington from California I've found that there's something with the air that keeps me from dry-healing well. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

You know those nasty orange slice jellies? Yeah, those. I power munch those. I only eat them when getting tattooed. They are delicious and when they stick in your teeth, it gives you something else to think about.

my appointment essentials are this: 1)sleep good the night before 2)pre-hydrate the day & night before 3)eat good full healthy meal before tattoo (day of) *bring with to shop* 1)small ice chest with at least 3 cold water bottles 2)ziplock baggie with skittles & M&M mix(keep sugars up) 3)nice ripe banana(instant potassium*keeps those electrolytes up*) 4) turn off ringer on phone 5)relax and enjoy the experience 6)*and most important*have close bar or at least cold beers waiting for me when finished ( I always get tattooed 100% sober),(but after tattoo,3 or 4 cold ones takes the edge off) LOL

Obviously it's down to what you prefer, but personally I'm not into shading "around" a tattoo in general. I think it ends up looking like a blob on the skin. A crisp, clean line is attractive and looks better from far away. So I'd get it touched up darker but leave the edges alone. My 2¢

*raises hand* I heal great and can afford awesome tattoos. Life is good!

As a 60 year old male, I can tell you that some of mine heal slower, especially in the bendy areas. Is the pain worse than it used to be? Probably, but I can put up with it better. I can say that I am a slave t the lotion because I am prone to dry skin and nothing looks worse than a scaly tattoo. And since everything I own is paid off, I am accelerating the program. They say that you can't take it with you, but I damn sure am going out very decorated! :cool:

To each is own, I say.

I was as nervous on my first tattoo as i was when i lost my virginity, once i penetrated i was no longer nervous. And it was a short session.......

I thought it went without saying that I was in no way advocating irresponsibility to the trade/craft or disregarding tradition. So I will go ahead and say it, though it is now redundant. "I am not advocating irresponsibility to tattooing or disregarding tattooing tradition." And if one can't express an opinion in a discussion forum then where? My point is people will find a way to be who they are. No lack of formal tutelage nor apprenticeship is going to keep them from it. So many great tattooists come about having never had an 'apprenticeship'. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A college degree wasnt required to start Microsoft nor Facebook. You think the world really cares about Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg's academic credentials? Let each individual deal with (or not) the guilt and bear the burden of how he got there. If you need an apprenticeship -- get one. If you learn better from youtube and the web -- go for it. If you think you need a PhD in tattooing -- seek it out. If you learn better through exposure to the world -- get out in it! There is no one way. Not for tattooing, not for anything.

One of the worlds best tattoo artists is Shige from Yokohama, Japan"....."and has never done an apprenticeship, Shige is simply self-taught. In 2000 Shige and his wife Chisato opened their first studio in Yokahama, Yellow Blaze Tattoo, also called ”Ouen” in Japanese, where Shige still works today" This man is one of the best tattoo artist of the traditional neo japanese era. If he listened to people like you, we wouldnt have him. Most people should get apprenticeships because that is what this kind of artform/culture makes it interesting. Others will make it on their own because it means more than some words to not do it from an anonymous poster/person on a forum. If you are serious, if you live to tattoo, if you have talent why not? He did. Tatto artists and others like to protect themselves like magicians, but people are very capable, complex and amazing. With time and dedication you can make it so. I dont like 80% of tatto art i see, does that mean they should not Tattoo? Does that mean the people who have been tattooed feel that way, i dont know and it doesnt matter. If someone is treated professionally, free from hazard and comes away with what they thought or better. Opinions on how good someone is are meaningless. I dont like your stuff, you might not like mine. guess what as everyone else puts it we are both still plugging away. I hope this helps people who care to do what they love, its not a lifestyle you start or stop, its culture and something you live for. smarter people get on with it and dont ask forums.