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Session # who knows now, but coming to the end. 36 hours to get here. One more sit to finish a tiny bit of colouring we haven't done and to hit a bunch of the background to smooth things out. Scott wanted to darken the big wave over my ribs to something a little closer to the lower one. It's gonna be weird not having this to work on anymore, but at the same time I'm so effing relieved. Gonna be healed for summer and for the crazy shop party--boo yeah!

Started my new sleeve yesterday at la cour des miracles in Toulouse

I had to learn this as well. I'm a perfectionist and I always look for flaws in everything and it drives me nuts. It's a good quality for my work since I'm in construction and my work is mint because of this. It's different with tattoos. little imperfections is what makes a tattoo a tattoo and not a sticker on your body. I had to let go of certain things and eventually your forget about little (mistakes) and you learn to love your tattoos

just about done

I think I found my wall at about 2 hours on the ribs. Thanks Ashley @senslessadornments

Since it's Tattoo Tuesday, here's a sneak peek at a WIP by Grez. The outline is done for the entire piece but only got to finish the dragon kite. In June, we'll finish the rabbit, her kimono, the moon and the background. I know that everyone thinks that their tattoos are cool but I really do think this is super amazing! Grez took my random concept and executed it to perfection. The kite is so freakin' awesome. Love this guy!

So, I got to spend a few hours yesterday with Jack freakin Rudy at Shanghai Kate's shop. Such a wonderful experience. Jack's a very cool guy and we talked throughout most of the tattoo. At the end we all agreed that it looks like an old-school Jack Rudy tattoo.

+1 Not every image is suitable as a tattoo.

Hello all. New to the forum. Figured I would add my two cents. I have three quarter sleeves on both arms. My first tattoo ever was a half sleeve Kintaro done by Jason Lambert of Black Cat Tattoo in Pittsburgh. The sleeve was finished on the one side and the other side was done by Robert Atkinson here in LA. Robert is an overall awesome guy and a great artist. I consider him a friend and am glad to know him. Granted I just have an n of 2, but Robert IMHO is one the best tattoo artists around. I decided to bite the bullet and Robert just started lining my back. I'm doing one of the Horiyoshi 108 heroes, Kaosho Roshishin. Compared to my arms the discomfort at times was more intense, particularly around the love handles, shoulder blades, and top of the buttock. But nothing too bad. To be honestly I thought my elbows were the worst, so the flank wasn't as bad as that for me. Robert is pretty fast, we lined this in about 3 hours. Will go back to add a snake and some peonies to finish the lines and then move to shading. I'm stoked so far. Robert's sleeve is on the right, and Jason's is on the left. Once we do the background we'll even those out and I'll ask Robert to shade the negative space under my pit on the left

Part 3. REALLY getting excited about this:

Session number seven rolled around this Saturday. @bongsau You were definitely right, "in for a whooping" to say the least. Only made it through 2 and a half hours, but still managed to tear up an insane amount of skin. It's sessions like this that definitely teach you about your body and ability to tolerate pain. Felt pretty discouraged immediately after the session, but I'm still stoked on the level of progress. Can't wait to see the patterning brighten up as the blue settles over top. 28.5 hours here.

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

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

finally finished, totally hurt

The thread has definitely taken on more and more meaning as progress on my own back has progress. A back piece is definitely an all consuming thing. After a bit of a hiatus (life happens ka know) we got back at it with a big shading session. Now to bang out the thighs and we can start getting some colour into this thing. Kind of funnily, some tattooer friends of mine joked that Scott was mad at me because so much black ended up going into the butt ha! Was pretty sick with a cold this week, but after not working on it for 3 months I wasn't about to cancel my appointment. Potentially a mistake as the session ended with Scott calling it because I was solid up until about 4 hours when I started shaking uncontrollably. I almost passed out on the way home (pounding in the ears, tunnel vision, and all that jazz). First time I've felt totally wrecked after a session. After looking at it everyday after my session in August, I couldn't be more stoked on the amount of progress. I love seeing how this design gets clearer and clearer as black get put around it. 16.5 hours here.