Leaderboard

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of bias against tattoos out there, especially in certain fields and professions. There are a good number of folks who work at my college with visible tattoos. I interview every full-time employee before they are hired - some came to the interview with exposed tattoos, some not. And many of them work in my IT department. For me it isn't an issue at all. I also don't hide the fact that I have tattoos - although I have not made the jump to a below-the short-sleeve shirt level....yet. I find it funny when I'm out somewhere with folks of my age and hear them comment about tattoos. Generally, I don't say anything but, if I'm wearing short sleeves I'll casually make like I have an itch on my upper arm and expose part of a tattoo. The reactions are priceless. I also make a point of wearing sleeveless shirts in the warmer months and my social media pages have pictures of me with my tattoos exposed. Call it my campaign to help eliminate tattoo bias. Of course, I'm 62, have an Army retirement check coming each month and I'm the president of the College. There's not much people can do to me at this point. Still, I will probably wait until I retire in a few years to move to an exposed area. That's my long way of supporting what people have said about focusing on the importance of your job. It's unfortunate, but unless you are willing to wear long-sleeve shirts for work I'd probably forgo an exposed tattoo for now.

So, I'm in Atlanta for a software conference and it let out earlier than I expected and I found myself with an afternoon with nothing to do. Browsed the interwebs for shops close by and didn't see anything promising. Just as I was about to give up and found one that looked good and ran over and got this done. It is a really bad pic but you get the idea. It wraps a bit so I doubt I will ever rally get a good shot. Tattoo by Stenvik Moström @stenviking_libertytat2

I saw the Hungry Eyes tattoo, I wish I had thought of it first. That torso is killer, Tattoo of the Month any month they do birds or chests.

You're hilarious.

too many beers rant LOL

nah, just hope your massage therapist loves dead skin

Mr. Oliver Peck was visiting in Asheville yesterday at Hotstuff and i was able to get in for a quick oneshot.

Done by Bob Roberts at Spotlight Tattoo...

I snagged this from Benny Haft over at Allied last week. I finally finished my torso after five years, done by Ian Dana Camp (formerly of Good Faith in Boston) currently at Adventure Tattoo in Nashville. He was all booked up in Boston before his move, but I luckily caught him doing a guest spot in Philly right after he moved.

Go back to Black Heart in June to continue my Fudo/Dragon sleeve. The more I look at it the more I love it. I'm also gonna talk to Scott about landing an appointment with someone in October. I'd say but I don't want to jinx it. Lately I've been planning a whole lot of tattoos and trying to get a general time frame. I've gotten a lot of work done since last October and I figure I'm in a good position to pay for tattoos now so I might as well keep it rolling.

Starting my 1st side piece with Pauly Lingerfelt tomorrow evening. Ugh.

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!

@oboogie Now, who could have predicted that??? lol

I have a new little friend! Snake and cherry blossoms by Chris Garver. My homage to spring. She fits the space so perfectly. He drew it on, made the stencil and we were tattooing in less than 40 minutes. Boom. (I'm swollen AF but whatever).

Started my back yesterday by Steve Byrne at rock of ages Austin picture from his IG stories

Here is a Fudo/Dragon sleeve I started on April first with Scott Sylvia. Still need to line the scales on the dragon and line the inside of the arm. This took roughly two and a half hours. I go back in early June. Biggest project I've started so far (my right arm I pieced together).

Husband went back to get more work done Wednesday. His artist is now transitioning to doing mainly nipple tattoos in a medical center for breast cancer survivors. He will not be in the shop full time now, it will be more a part time (sounded *very* part time) side job, so my husband was frantic, wondering how he'd get his leg finished and what he would do for continued work in other areas and the artist was like Nah, now I just get to pick and choose what I want to do-and I want to do this, so you'll never have a problem getting in to see me! The dragon will go on the calf and he's going to run it over the front of his leg, like his knee and bottom of his thigh there...I burst out laughing when he came home and told me that.

All finished now ^_^

Went a bit realistic underneath my neotrad bird on Monday. Not finished as yet - quite a dark piece really but I'm coming round to that brown background. Inner bicep skull area a bit nippy with a few expletives muttered...

I got tatt-toad by Scott Rusnak / Lucky Strike Tattoo Edmonton a few days ago. Coins are the size of an actual coin for reference ;)

Done at Mondial du Tatouage (Paris) by Valerie Vargas.

Long time no see ? Got a little one yesterday after a few months' tattoo break (well not counting a smallish walk-in-day thingy from December) I'm totally hyped about! Going back to the insanely talented and super nice Mr. Romeo next month for some more work on that arm, AND getting something else done by one of the other guys at the studio on the other one at the same time. Should be quite interesting Edit: photo pinched from my tattooer's instagram

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.

Ha! Yes, that was a good one. Sometimes the pre-offended newbies are fun conversations. Like the piercer from the place in NJ who admitted her Yelp reviews were fake but was still upset about them. It took quite a while for those bannings to occur. +1 to @AverageJer as well. It gets tiring to have these us-versus-them posts. If anyone has a suggestion, there is a thread about asking questions - go over there and suggest how you think this forum could be improved. <---And THIS is a reason this forum format is cool - how many times has someone asked a question, and someone else comes along with the link to a long thread with tons of good information??? This cannot happen if there is a new thread every other microsecond. But like I'm a masochist or something, I'll still continue to step in and offer the bull-in-the-china-shop analogy until I get just as tired of it as the old timers who are mostly ignoring this thread because they're tired of saying it too. If you don't like the format....there are other forums. This kind of stuff is the reason that many of the tattooers aren't contributing to this forum anymore, and unfortunately, back-and-forths like this are one of the reasons why, and new folks have no idea this is happening. And we are losing valuable resources and informative conversations. Soooo, [bIG SARCASM ALERT BOYS AND GIRLS]I guess makes me a mod-wanna-be. - - - Updated - - - And @polliwog - you've built up street cred with your thoughtfulness and interesting conversation. Start threads when you want. NOT BECAUSE I'M BEING ALL MOD_WANNA_BE :)

I wish people would stop starting new threads to show off their new tattoos. That's what Latest Tattoo Lowdown is for. Otherwise you're just cluttering the feed. If someone wants to ask an actual question that's okay with me even if it's been asked before.