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Great call out @jaimilyn

Looks fine to me, and ditto to the others on moisturizing, but with one caveat - don't forget to take into account your local weather. I live in the desert, and when it's only 5% humidity, it's a little different than say east coast humidity. I plan on the morning and night application of moisturizer, but bring a travel sized bottle of Aveeno around with me all day, so that if it does get tight and itchy, I can add a very thin(!) layer of moisturizer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@gingerninja St.Lucia is one of the most beautiful places I've been. Great food and friendly locals. It's also quite expensive. We didn't get up to the Northern end of the island at all. That's where all the cruise ships tie up.

@Gingerninja - I think the most we've ever ended up bidding was $950 - and that is split in half since we got two trips out of it. It's a tremendous way to go and still help out a not-for-profit.

@Gingerninja and @SStu We love to go to Antigua - will be making our 5th trip to Galley Bay Resort in November. It's an all-inclusive, under 100 rooms, amazing food and secluded beach, 3 great restaurants and bars with a Rum Shack and walk-up sandwich shack, no kids and no casino. They have a band every night, a movie on the beach night and several other evening events each week. It's an amazing place just to relax and enjoy the beautiful beach. If you want to hit other night spots they are close at hand by taxi. This is a pano I took last year on our trip - that's Lynn with the camera. This was taken after we ate breakfast - the restaurant is to the left of Lynn, open to the ocean. Notice the lack of people - the resort was full yet there are many times when you feel totally alone. Even when there are people on the beach, you never feel crushed in like many other resorts/beaches. We've also found a great way to reduce the costs, as well. Most of the resorts provide reduced cost vacations to their resorts for not-for-profits to use in auctions. You can find them many times through your local PBS stations and on a site called Bidding For Good. You bid for the package and that money gets paid to the not-for-profit. Generally, you bid on a 7 day stay for up to two rooms. Then there is typically a per-person, per-day up charge you pay to the resort. For Galley Bay, we pay between $140 to $180/person, per/day depending on level of room to cover your food and drink costs. We stay in one of the luxury beachfront room - walk out the back door and into the sand; into the surf in 30 yards so we're in the 180 price range. That rate turns out to be approximately 40% of the normal cost and even with what we pay to the not for profit and airfare we are under 50% of the retail cost. Here's the really cool thing we finally realized we could do - split the weeks between two different years. If you watch the "must use" dates on the packages, you can many times find one that spans a year+. The one we got last Fall covered both our trip last November and this November so our bid price was spread over two trips. Elite Island Resorts operates out of Florida and has several properties on Antigua and St. Lucia as well as others. Galley Bay is now one of the more exclusive...wasn't that way when we started going there back in 1999 - we just love the local and the level of service. Check out the auctions! It's a great way to help out a NFP and still save a tremendous amount on a dream vacation.

What @Dan and @Gingerninja said!! LIGHT moisturizing is crucial - and some here go for a totally dry approach with no moisturizer. I prefer a very light application twice a day - it seems to help control the itch for me. In any case, remember you are healing an open wound and your skin needs air to heal itself. Over moisturizing it will be counterproductive.

For me, the thighs (outer and front) were pretty light in terms of pain. Not as painless as the shoulder or outer bicep but very, very manageable. Now, if you are doing the BACK of the thigh, that sucks. Where on your thigh? Outer thigh or in the middle? How long is your appointment?

So I go in 6 days to get my thight tattoo which i will post for everyone to see i am exited yet nervous. I have one tattoo on my shoulder and i didnt feel anything but the vibration reallyand i have a really high pain tolerance but i enjoy to feel pain as awkward as that sounds. Anyways i have heard the thigh is one of the most painful spots to get a tattoo. So please share stories and experiences id love to here what everyone has to say..and dont be rude i just wanna get a general idea of what i should be looking forward to. Thanks darlings

Hi, welcome. I wouldn't include the thigh in my "list of most painful spots" unless it's the inside, higher up. The outside of the thigh is not that bad. I'd say the shoulder is a little easier but it'll probably come down to how gentle or not your artist is. What are you getting?

Great idea @Gingerninja!! @pphilly - I'm not too far away from you - live in the Scranton, PA area.

Here's an idea for you. There's a cool little tattoo convention in two weeks in Reading, PA. There will be some great artists there from all over in attendance. You may not be able to get in with anyone BUT it may be an idea to go to the show just to get inspiration, explore options/styles and talk to people.

Well, I do need to have working turn signals in my car, so I'd have to go with the Kia I think...

looks normal for what it is IMO. there will be peeling,flaking,and various other weird shit that will happen. if it gets red and swollen and generally looking fucked up,it could be infected. but from your not that great pics,it looks fine IMO. and remember to not keep looking at it with a microscope.

Recently returning from our son's destination wedding in St. Lucia. Pretty surreal place insomuch as you couldn't look in any direction without being astounded at how gorgeous it is. And almost every day we'd get these light drizzels for about 2-3 minutes, and they would create these incredible rainbows that were literally just a 100 yards away or less. Here's me viewing one on the porch of our room at the resort: