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Hi from North East England, I came in search for this forum as I have a lot of questions for you all to get some good tips and tricks. I look forward to speaking with you. :)

A few of my friends have 'tour' tattoos of the places they've been. My one buddy has two amazing sleeves pieced together of the places he's been with the iconic city/country symbols, flags, and the like (what @scottyg said).

Don't let your artist off the hook to easily. It is not the artists job to just take any picture you hand them and put it on your skin. Their job is also to let you know if something isn't going to work well and make suggestions on alternatives. If you then say do it anyway, it's on you. I don't think my artist has ever just put something I gave him on my skin. He ALWAYS has suggestions for improving my ideas. I've always taken his advice and I've always been glad.

welcome,sit and stay a while

Hello. Finally decided to join this board after lurking for a little while. I was never much of a forum guy, but I figured I'll give this a shot. I look forward to joining the discussion and posting some of my pieces.

So, I've done two. Both had plenty of "Irish pennants" after laundering, but they were a LOT easier to trim than the initial sleeve-removal. Might wear one to the convention next weekend. Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

Hey guys, Pleased to have found this forum, seems lik the right spot for any tattoo enthusiast. I've got about 8 going on at the moment, and, as I'm sure most if not all can identify with here, I'm always in the process of planning my next one :). Looking forward to discussing and exchanging thoughts and ideas.

And post some pictures!!

It's best to talk with a quality laser removal tech to see what's possible. You can certainly lighten it...and perhaps get it to the point where it can be covered. You'll never get it to the point where you'll have natural skin tone that would permit unconnected individual pieces...but perhaps a competent artist could create a cohesive look of blended designs. The key is to also find a competent artist. Why do you want to remove this one?

Welcome to the forum...and ask away!

Welcome!

I'm debating asking telling my fiance to buy my next tattoo as my birthday or Christmas present, but I'm also not sure if I want to start on my right arm until after the (over a year away) wedding. If I don't get it now, it'll be my first Christmas gift as a married woman. I want a snake basically draped over my right shoulder and winding down my arm.

a tattoo like that even after MANY painful and expensive laser procedures will never be gone 100%,the best you can expect with laser is to lighten the old one up enough to cover it up with a better/different tattoo. the right artist can sometimes "re-work" a tattoo to make it look better.

I have a 13 day old tattoo that looks the same way even with a little lotion. :) All normal...

looks like it wants some Aveeno,but other wise for 11 days it looks perfectly normal,remember tattoos take several months to fully heal. that hazy milky look and flakiness will go away. in 6 months after it's healed see then if it needs any touchups. PS,stop looking at it with a magnifying glass.

Woppy - I don't want to make the smokey stuff more defined but I think you're right - maybe add some flowers? I emailed my tattoo artist that did this to see what he suggests as well. Thanks!!

I'd just let your artist do his thing at this point! Nice!

I live in Windsor Ontario. I had it done at a tattoo shop called advanced tattoo and the artists name is Arron. And ty ty for the compliments! The whole half sleeve cost about 800$

I'd find an artist and talk to them about what would look best. They should be able to give you direction!

Welcome! What type of tattoos do you have? I'd love to see some of your work. Congrats on your PhD!

Neither has a whole lot of geometric stuff on their instragrams, but both do illustrative blackwork real well and lean in the direction you're looking for, I think. Check out Kelly Severtson and Jacob Kearney, both in Chicago.

Agreed...shading would help. @Hogrider said it great (and the others as well!).

That was really confusing until I looked closely. If you hadn't told me it was a key I doubt I would have noticed. If you don't want the key colored, color the parts that aren't the key. The best thing though is to take your concerns to a qualified tattoo artist and get suggestions. It's not a bad tattoo, there is just nothing that differentiates the key from the other elements.

It looks like you got what you were looking for. I'm glad you like it.

Of course I'm happy. The artist did an awesome job. More than I expected. I'm going back to him when I get another one.

@Groundzero112 it looks like a mix of a few pacific islander styles ,I have 2 in the Marquesas style from Sam Shaw on kauai,and 3 other polynesian pieces too, nice tattoo you got there.

Front Side Back Hello all, I just got back from my trip and got my first tattoo. This was freehand representing "Family & Strength." Hope you guys like it. Leave honest feedback.

I'm one of those who like a good theme. You have some kinda masculine stuff in that piece, snake, tigerhead with a dagger through it etc. How about neutralizing it a bit? First thing I thought was adding some floral or something.

Same. Some people find my legs confusing, but I love them. It's OK NOT to have a theme! :-)

mine too like @oboogie said ,but my entire body is made up of non themed random tattoos some color some B&G different styles by different artists that make up sleeves and I am just fine with that,but also I am an old guy that started getting tattooed in the 80's when we just went in and picked flash off the wall,unlike these huge themed pieces that are done now,nothing wrong with that though. and there is nothing wrong with a cohesive themed sleeve,that's just not what I did.

My legs are the same. Lots of unrelated tattoos in black and gray and color. You can definitely build a sleeve that way. I've seen lots of beautiful sleeves built like that. :-)

Welcome!

Welcome to the forum! Tell us more or better yet, show us some photos. :)

Thanks everyone! My artist and I have talked about it before with each other, now it's just up to me to make the decision, i just like to hear people's opinions/perspectives what can I say! Thanks for all your insight again - k

Jeff Rassier does the best little fillers https://www.instagram.com/jeffrassier/

I like what you have going. Get some small fill-in tattoos. If you want to use fillers, get stars and dots. Don't add some weird background. A "graywash" won't look good.

#1 - put your artist on speed dial. #2 - google "tattoo filler american traditional"

Welcome. Honestly, I'm not sure that I'd opt for any kind of background. It looks like there are still a few places for some filler (bugs, flowers, abstract whatnots), but outside of stars and dots I'd probably just leave the skin open. If you have an artist in mind who you trust, his or her view is definitely worth hearing.