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Here's a great shot of Lynn and me while we were at Epcot last week. During our time at Disney Studios there were several Star Wars characters there that you could have pictures taken with. My son and his family wanted to see Chewbacca so Lynn and I sat outside for a few minutes since there was a 25 minute wait to get through the line. As we sat there, we saw that the wait time for Kylo Ren was only 10 minutes....so Lynn said let's go get our picture taken. They bring you into a room with the person who is totally in character. Kylo Ren, one of the key villains in The Force Awakens, watched as we walked into the room and immediately confronted Lynn leaning into her and telling her he could sense her thoughts and that she was supportive of the rebellion. Lynn played right along and stood toe to toe with him. We got a bunch of great pics of the two of them - here are two.

Polls are closed, and the winner of Tattoo of the month February is @9Years with this awesome snake tattoo by El Monga. Congrats!!

SF is the best! I had a whole big post written up but my laptop crashed and I lost it, so here are some of my favorites. Food: Tommy's Joynt, House of Nanking, Miller's Deli, Taqueria Pancho Villa, Taqueria San Jose, El Toro, El Farolito, La Corneta, Los Coyotes, R&G Lounge, Nopa, House of Prime Rib, Tony's Pizza, Halu, Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, The Cliff House, Suppenkuche, Swan Oyster Depot, Tadich Grill, Park Tavern, Alfred's Steakhouse, the Pinecrest Diner, and Buffalo Burger. Drinks (some of which have very good food): Mikkeller Bar, Giordano Bros, Zeitgeist, Bender's, Lucky 13, Smuggler's Cove, Whitechapel, The Old Ship Saloon, Aub Zam Zam, Molotov's, 540 Club, The Plough & Stars, Edinburgh Castle, Vesuvio, 15 Romolo, Mr. Bing's, Emperor Norton's Boozeland, The Pied Piper, House of Shields, Li Po, Buddha Lounge, 21st Amendment, Schroeder's, Alembic, Elixir, Delirium, Whiskey Thieves, Thieves Tavern, Toronado, Noc Noc, The Buena Vista Cafe, Gino & Carlo, Hemlock, Tempest, Trad'r Sam, and many many others. Have fun!

Per the forum guidelines: Do not start threads asking about specific tattooing equipment or techniques, LST is not here to teach anyone how to tattoo. Ask your own tattooer, the next time you are getting tattooed. Maybe they'll answer you, maybe they won't.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ink-master-star-clint-cummings-144127802.html RIP, it's a loss to the tattoo community. way too young cancer sucks

Hello Great site! I am a 47 year old collector. Started over almost 30 years ago with the small pieces most kids got back then, and started getting serious a few years ago. Call it an early midlife crisis. Came across this site looking for ideas for my second sleeve, hope to get inspired here!

@Devious6 Mark, your photos are awesome. Don't mess with momma! Too funny. We're homebasing out of Fisherman's Wharf, so you are a great (and psychic) tour guide.

HAHAHA! That's awesome, @Devious6!

I haven't been to SF since 1992 so I'm not much of a guide - of course you need to spend time at Fisherman's Wharf. Tons of places to shop and great food abounds. Have a great time!!!!

From my perspective, I think it looks fine. Any tattoo will lose definition the farther you are away from it. Scale is important - which is why you'll many times hear the recommendation Go Large or Go Home. I would not try to "fix" again when you've already twice gotten what you'd asked for. Move on. Decide what you want to do next and find an artist who will talk you through placement and scale - not just do what you ask him/her to do. A solid artist will understand how size and placement fit into your body type and will make recommendations accordingly.

You are welcome here. Just don't give advice and represent yourself like you are a tattoo artist. Because you aren't.

Just leave it. It's OK as is.

Thank you so much @zetroc! I'm going to print off the list for my travel book. I've heard of a few of these places but you've listed a bunch that weren't on my radar. Gracias!!

@Gingerninja Very awesome tiger! On the subject of untrained people doing tattoos, everyone has different opinions and I'm a relative new-jack but for me I see tattooing as being almost on the level of dentistry or cosmetic surgery or something in a "you really wanna get that done by a fully trained practitioner" kinda way. If someone told me they were going to learn how to do a face-lift on themselves by looking on the internet for odd half-pieces of information, buying scalpels on eBay and having a crack in the mirror I'd for sure be concerned about that person, right after puking on his/her shoes at the thought of it. Hardly finger-painting is it.

Ah, one week to go until we leave for a week in San Francisco. I've been to SF a bunch for work and some fun but never a week of full-on tourist stuff. We are going to eat, drink and be very merry. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

really depends on how good the tattooist is as to whether or not the saturation is going to last

I used to do the hot bath actually. I've been told that's a pretty traditional Japanese method. To be honest, I don't know why I ever really stopped, other than it hurt like hell and it's not always convenient, particularly when I was traveling to NYC for tattoos often.

I had this conversation with my local artist today, who wants to get tattooed by Scott at the Prestige Convention in Philly. It's always such a great experience. I've been tattooed by a lot of people and will likely be tattooed by plenty more, but if for some reason I only ever got tattooed by Scott, Grez, and my local artist Keith, I'd be more than happy.

Why thank you! The apple was my first visible tattoo and when my grandma finally saw it she said "That's so spooky! Why did you get something so spooky?!" which I thought was the best reaction. Especially now that there's a little ladybug hanging around the apple it makes it less spooky at least :P I'm hoping my next one is even more cheerful, gonna go back to an artist for the first time ever and I know she'll knock it out of the park.

If you don't know what a scratcher is then I can't really help you.

April 1st I start outlining my second sleeve with Scott Sylvia. Going Japanese this time. I had a lot of different artists in mind for this project but Scott is such a cool dude that I decided I'd just continue going to see him. I'd still like to get work done by a few other people but I just don't when that'll happen.

This is beautiful, Gingerninja :) I love the color saturation in the tiger!

Tigress by Chris O'Donnell. There's no way that this photo does it justice! It wraps all the way around my thigh both front and back then up to my butt (and OMG, I love the tiger tail on my butt!). The photo looks a little distorted due to my inability to take a photo of it myself. Way up high, he tied in my existing peony with rocks and fngerwaves. It looks sweet.

I wonder how thats going to look settled in, be sure to show us

Ok, the last one in my whirlwind of 3 appointments in 3 weeks. Finished up this one from Chauncey "CK" Kochel.

My parents still don't know about my first tattoo. I got it with my best friend on a whim one night when we were 19 and it's on my hip so there's no chance of anyone seeing it unless I actively want them to see it. It's terrible, blown out lines and the artist didn't listen to what I wanted, just yesed us to death and then did whatever he wanted, so I'm glad it's completely hidden. They think the next tattoo I got after I'd already moved out was my first and I may keep it that way if only to avoid having to show them my embarrassingly terrible first tattoo. My [Jewish] parents always said "once you move out and pay your own bills, do what you want, but not under our roof", so I moved out in June and got my "first" tattoo in October that same year.

Well then, obviously I must oblige. The heart is what I just had done Sunday. Sadly, I'm a bleeder, so fresh pictures rarely come out instagram-worthy. Hopefully my attachments worked, I'm used to embedding pictures with html on forums, so please let me know if I should do something differently next time. I have a few other tattoos, but these are the ones I have pictures for right now.

pictures or it didn't happen!

A few day after photos. Sorry for the poor quality.

8 hours x 150/hour = $1200 MAX Your budget of 500~$1200 will get you a nice, well done, detailed tattoo. But it's on you to do your research *go to a shop and talk to buddy-tattooer* and find the right person for the job. but all in all...I've never re-considered a tattoo because of the cost. The cost has always been an afterthought in my experience. Keep putting $20 in your underwear drawer and start saving now. With all these 'superstar' tattooists booking years in advance you've got lots of time to save up!

Meh, messy tattoo I'd rather look at a tattoo than read a paragraph. Too much text. A picture is worth 1000 words.

If you have someone in mind, maybe stop by the shop and talk to them, bring those pictures along for reference. When we're in getting work done people stop by all the time to ask, and the artists will talk to them for a minute, look at reference material, check out the spot they're wanting to have it done and guesstimate "Ohh around 3-4, four hour sessions give or take" or whatever, and the shop charges 120/hour so then you just go from there.

Don't let price be the deciding factor. If it is too much now, save up. Yes, you could probably get in the door for the top of your range. A little more money now is nothing compared to a lifetime of a tattoo you dislike or have to rework. This is going to be a very visible tattoo.

Have an appt set up for the beginning of May for...something. No clue what yet exactly. Currently we're discussing continuing the wind on the left, water on the right, so I'm thinking a sea turtle above my right knee or a bee or dragonfly for the wind side above my left knee.

Went last night to have a peony recolored. It was done by a different artist a few years ago and everything else sort of grew up around it. Now it feels more like a part of the whole shebang and I love the purple. Husband had more work done on his tiger. We were supposed to go before Christmas and ended up w/another blizzard so we had to reschedule..just like last winter argh! Also spent some discussion time w/my artist about continuing the wind/water theme elsewhere so I'm kinda excited about that.

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.

Getting the colour started on this one on Tuesday. Another 6 hour session, can't wait!

Going in tomorrow to get my first forearm tattoo! A traditonal cross. This is something I've always wanted, but waited till I had enough tats elsewhere before getting something that visible.

Just got it today:

That's the best way to do it! The more control you give the artist, the better. Also, the site was down for maintenance.