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Finally I decided to do it :) sorry for my english i know thats not well

I really enjoyed reading this again. So spot on. :-)

It’s fine! I do think you should find a different artist for your next tattoo, though. You can get something really great to compliment what you have started there.

Thanks! I'm located outside Baltimore, MD (Reisterstown) but probably willing to travel up to an hour or two.

Welcome, Ken! I think if you start researching artists in your area, you'll find the right artist for you. They will come up with something that conveys what you want for your tattoo. If you tell us where you are, we can certainly try to help with artist suggestions. There are great resources here! Glad you have joined us!

Hey there and welcome! You have so many creative options. My two cents - first, start researching artists and figure out what style you may like. So many artists would love to do a custom piece based on some general ideas that you already have (just the names alone spark ideas). Instagram will be your friend. Look at tons of photos and styles. Then contact an artist for a consult. Where in MD do you live?

On the countdown for Pagoda. Getting my mermaid finished by Theo, a Dobleman lady head and a skull bead by Kiku.

man i dont know about tattoo commnunity but i do like LST for many reasons primarily i find that in 'real life' discussions about tattoos tend to be awkward at best and generally result in people asking just horrible questions 'how much', 'what does it mean' - ugh

It's hilarious to see ignored posts in this thread. Bless his/her/its heart.

I hadn't seen this before - need to go back and read the whole thread now.

Do not worry about your English. Some people just don't understand others no matter what. Welcome to the forum!

And don't worry abut your English!! You're doing just fine!!

There are lots of places in the Baltimore/DC area. The two I've been to are Reed St. (B'more) and Tattoo Paradise. http://readstreettattoo.net/home.html http://tattooparadisedc.com/home.html

Some great artists in the Philadelphia area, too!! Instagram is definitely your friend - it will really help to narrow down what you might like once you decide on a style. Welcome!!

Kiku is within the top 3 of my list of next artists to get tattooed by right next to Greg Whitehead. So so envious. My hometown Inksmith & Rogers will be up there too.

Ah! I knew that top one looked familiar for some reason. :-)

UNFORTUNATELY (or maybe fortunately!), Since the two names are now *huge* characters in pop culture, you're going to find a lot of "Poison Ivy" and "Archer-Danger Zone!" references. Have you checked out tattoodo.com? I use that to throw my design ideas against, and as luck would have it, I'm able to find a ton of artists, and then I plug those artists into Instagram to learn learn more about them. This is what I pulled up on Google though. ivy plant tattoo

Okay then...I was only trying to be nice and find out more about you based on exactly what you said - what you put out in the forum! That's it. Good luck to you.

I recently traveled 5,000 miles to get my first tattoo– a full sleeve done in just 5 days. I made a blog to chronicle my journey and share some real first-hand advice. Everything you need to know about my experience, my artists, as well as some gnarly pics of what its really like to tattoo for 24 hours. Click here to read my story! Xo Claudia

This ain't a very busy forum any more. It used to be a very busy place.

I don't think it's starting shit to say it's rude to dump on people's new tattoos. It's too late to change anything, why are you gonna make someone feel bad? It happens so much on initiation posts. But anyway doesn't matter, I've realised this forum is not for me. You guys do your thing, I wish lots of awesome tattoos in your futures!

Any forum, even those that are "must be a member to post," is going to have people who are going to make negative comments. And some people are going to be blunt in their honest responses, and maybe sometimes a little too blunt. For example, there are two ways to tell a newbie that traditional tattoos hold up well over the long term: "That watercolor s**t is going to look like dog puke smeared on the carpet in ten years, so if you decide to get something stupid like that, don't come back here whining about it and asking how to fix it. Get a REAL tattoo instead of some trendy impressionistic crap that you saw in some fancy magazine." or... "Tattoos without outlines often don't hold up well over time. The ink fades and the images might become indistinct, expecialliy if you spend time in the sun. Take some time and look at some tattoos that are 20 or 30 years old and see what happens to the colors vs. the line work, and then make a decision." I think the second is a more helpful response. But you are probably going to get some responses like the first one, so you have to have a filter. I have certainly seen some mean spirited responses to sincere questions. For the most part, I think LST is good and supportive environment.

There was a story going around not too long ago about a guy denied entry into Sri Lanka due to his buddha tattoo. The Man with the Buddha Tattoo - Robbie Bulloch I say, if you're a visitor to that country, you need to do a little research and respect their culture, full stop.

When pretty girls come in and give me/us cookies or whatever its pretty much one of the best things of the day.

feelin a little bad about this one. dude came here and innocently posted up some pics of himself and his tattoos and the first two replies he gets basically say his tattoos aren't good and he dresses like a dickhead. how would anyone respond to that "welcome"?

Well first I appreciate your approach toward things. I personally won't hang around this forum anymore but just wanted to say, you're all talking about "the best tattoo artists in the business" or so. I don't think that a tattoo artist should be judged by how famous he is. In Israel there's a studio called Kipod Tattoo which have some of the greatest tattoo artists in the world, you can look them up online. That said, I choose to do my ink works at a different studio by different artist. I can assure you that after exploring the tattoo world for a long time, as far as quality of work on my ink, it's high quality since the artists managed to transfer my wished sketches perfectly on to my body, their technique is high quality and i'm sure my tattoos will age well as an answer to a question of one reply in this thread. At the end of the day I don't care how big is the reputation of the artist I did my works at, as long as I love my ink and how it looks on me, I don't mind tattoo artist or enthusiasts looking at me and saying "that's a lame work". I love how it looks, it all sits together well for me and I will keep doing my tattoos at the same artist which for me is the best, if it because of his attitude, his technique and how he can turn my ideas into fine ink. I'm sure he's not the best, as you said there will be always someone who could do the work better, or should I say different. But bottom line the comments I get on my ink from girls and basically all the surrounding is good, all loving the way it looks, which ofc doesn't matter because what matters is that i'll love it. As to the modeling photos, it's the only thing I had on my computer when I opened my account here and posted the initiation thread. Again, appreciate you calming things down here, however, just seems as if this is not the forum for me. Wish you all best of luck with your future ink. Gal.

I've been tattooed by several people because I liked them, not necessarily because I thought they were the best artist around. Fortunately, they've mostly been great artists, too.

Just wondering how you tattoo artist view your customers? i have always noticed a "im too cool attitude" by every artist that ive been tattooed by, I get the feeling that a customer is just a john or trick if you will, kinda like a prostitute views there clients, ya know with a complete lack of respect for there customers and just wanting to get your money. It seams like all the "artists" that ive encountered sees me as a drawing board with a pocket book, usually the artist is talking to another artist the whole time he is tattooing me and if i participate in the conversation at all I either get ignored or looked at funny and responded to in a curt manor, is this the normal attitude in this industry? (Take this for instance - i made a apointment with a artist earlier in the week for saturday 12:30, i showed up at 1230 sharp, and the helper said oh hes gunna do a tat really quik than get to me, ok i said", if it wasnt for wanting to get tattooed by this man for years, i would have just left right on the spot, but i stayed and about 45mins go by and the helper is going around asking the tattooers if they wanted some coffee or something to eat because she was going out to the coffee shop, I was thinking boy i hope she asks me if i want a cup of coffee, i sure am thirsty, but she just walked right past me like i wasnt there. 30 more min goes by and she gets back and everyone takes a coffee/ lunch break, the artist takes a break and about 20 more mins go by, by than its been two hours ive been waiting and im pretty thirsty, so i ask the helper if there is a coffee shop near by? she says - "oh hes ready to tattoo you know". Im not out to bargin hunt some rinky dink skull or sumething, I dropped 300 on the piece and didnt have any requests or stupid placement of the tat, so i know im not difficult in any way. I am very happy with the tattoo and i even tipped the artist, because i like the piece he did, he was also a nice guy to talk to, and he didnt have the cool guy tude most have. I would get tattooed again by him maybe just not at that shop, i guess he works at other shops so.) Its funny how many times I have felt disrespected in one way or another while at a tattoo shop when i really think back on the experiences ive had in the past. Im almost to the point that id rather get a shitty tattoo but a good experience rather than the other way around, either that or just smack the motherfucker right in his mouth right when i feel disrespected by the "cool guy tude" For the record I am a very easy going guy, i dont judge peolpe, I dont think im better than anyone, and I am willing to talk to anyone no matter how different they are, but i get the feeling alot of tattooers dont think that way? its like they are in this cool guy society and regular people just are not cool enough to respect, almost like a form of racism against non tattooers? If I could get your guys take on how you see customers and the way you think they should be treated please do tell? -

right on, thanks for the responses guys. I guess because I have my own business and I have more than a thimble full of common sense in my head, and I was raised oldschool with this thing called Respect engrained in me that i see things the way that i do, the man with the money is the boss, without the paying customer your rent is not paid, but money doesn't come that easy to me so I appreciate it when I have a customer, shit especially in this economy. At work I get burned and breath in chemicals all day and i'm happy as fuck to do it when someone calls me to do a job, I dont have some punk attitude to my customers because I want to treat people good so I get referals to other customers. Maybe the money is just too easy to make for some tattoo artists and they don't appreciate what they are doing, Ya know easy come easy go. Anyways thought id share my thoughts with you guys, perhaps a customers view for you shop owners to take note and evaluate how you treat the people who pay your bills. I mean damn I thought getting tattooed was suppose to be fun? The fuckin cool guy punk attitude kinda blows the fun out of it, and maybe offer your customers a cup of fucking water for christ sake? especially if they have been waiting for two hours after they made a appointment to get tattooed. How can you be proud of the work you do if your just out to hustle someone? Its called Pride ya know that thing that America was built on.

the guy i used to get tattooed from was kind of a dick. i couldnt finish my first big tattoo in one sitting and he was really rude about it, because he had already poured out all the color and we never got to use it. it was my second tattoo, the first tattoo being really small, taking only 15 mins. the tattoo i couldnt finish ended up taking a total of 4 hours. i could only do 2 hours in the first sitting. i was straight up with the artist telling him i had never gotten a tattoo that large before and yet he still acted like an asshole. its not my fault he poured out the color to early, he was supposed to be the professional. i went back to him for my third tattoo, because even though he was rude i really loved how the tattoo turned out. but the second tattoo he did for me turned out pretty bad, and he still had an attitude so i decided to find another artist i gelled with more. enter Travis McGregor. ive been going to him for all my tattoo needs for a few years now and he is not just a talented artist but also a super cool dude. everyone at the shop he works at, Thrive Studios, is really nice. i dont really know what to say beyond that. i always have an good experience when i go there. they have a mini fridge with beverages that i usually take advantage of, and one time the guys bought me lunch. (i offered to pay for my share but they said they had it covered). a few times during sittings on my full back piece i wasnt the best client, (having to stop early and literally moaning in pain) but they never made me feel bad about it. that being said i wouldnt expect this type of treatment from every artist or shop, but im glad i have a reference point for a good and bad shop experiences.