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Hey folks, I'm Samantha. Everyone calls me Sam, so that's my default. I've browsed this forum before, usually to look at insight about different methods of healing. Got my first ink on my 25th birthday in 1989. But most of what I now wear happened after my 50th birthday a few years ago. I call my current count 21 tattoos. I tat around. I like that artists refer to someone like myself who wears various artists work as a Tattoo Collector. I love conventions. I'm not ashamed of the fact that Ink Master is one of my favorite tv indulgences. I'm in the South Jersey area, Philadelphia adjacent.

Finished off this eagle/snake with Grez a few weeks ago. Hard to get a good photo by myself! Also got this weird reaper from Chad around the same time. For the first time I'm having trouble healing red ink but it's getting there!

Got this all-seeing eye a week or so ago from my friend/artist Josh Henderson. Just something from some flash he'd been drawing. Currently saving up to finish up the sleeve on my right arm, but I was having withdrawal. Hahaha.

it looks fine IMO,it will NEVER look like it did the day you had it done. stop looking at it with a magnifying glass. keep it out of the sun,lotion up with a good lotion(everyday forever) love it,live it,enjoy it,show it off with pride. and start planning & researching your next great tattoo.

Wizard World convention in Philadelphia this past June. Her reaction was fantastic. The photo op people and her handler all moved in to take pictures. It was put on her social media promptly. It was a much better reaction than I had gotten two weeks before when I showed Mel Brooks my tattoo of him. He was just polite about it, called it "beyooteeful", hurried me along. Nichelle Nichols and I held hands while I told her why I'd chosen her for my first portrait tattoo and declared that she wished she was that beautiful. She also treated me to an autographed publicity pic back at her table. I'd only paid for a photo op, hoping that that might parlay into getting an autograph once I showed her my proud piece. She was lovely, gracious.

@Mr_Spaghetti I saw your Grez piece on the interwebs. Damn, it's soooo good.

Welcome to the forum!! I wholly agree with Dan. And, remember that it takes months for a tattoo to fully heal - and no tattoo will ever be perfect. Each is an individual piece of art and each of our bodies reacts differently to the ink, pressure of the needles and the approach of the artist. We all have a tendency to overthink our tattoos - me included. Let this one fully heal and plan for the next!

Yep, looks totally normal! Remember that it can take a couple of months before you fully heal. Don't pick at it and let your body do it's healing thing. As long as it's not red and hot (i.e., infected) you should be good to go!

Bumping this for others to re-up their latest tattoos. Here's one on me by Jeff P. at Art Work Rebels from earlier this summer:

finished down the left side, shoulder, neck area, and started down the right side. fun times!

Where did the latest tattoo lowdown thread go? Anyway, this past weekend was Ocktoberfest at Old Soul in Canonsburg, PA. It's a cool event where the shop invites a whole bunch of artists (like 60'ish) for the weekend. Some by appointment, some by walk-in. The trick is that everyone is queued up for a table/space to work since the shop has maybe 12 stations. The Old Souls guys have it running like clockwork...superiorly organized. You still have to wait but with the festival outside in the street and karaoke going on inside, the time flies by in no time. Nate Hudak made this for me on Saturday. He has a super light hand and is fast. Back of the left thigh.

not unusual from my perspective. I've got about 75% coverage but none on my forearms.

Great photo. Welcome! (Ink Master is my guilty pleasure, too.)

Aw, what a lovely story! Thank you for sharing. I love stuff like this. :)

Very nice, @oboogie! I'm surprised it isn't wearing a pair of rad glasses. :)

Welcome to the forum!!! And that is one, awesome tattoo and picture memory!! I'm still a newbie to tattooing - have only two, both last year at age 61. I, too, must admit to enjoying Ink Master! I live in northeast PA - just north of Scranton and only about 25 miles from the home of Ryan Ashley Malarkey.

you are tough as nails man, I love the piece!

Hello and welcome!

It looks fine to me. I think you are focusing on it because the lines are so thin.

OUCH. True, but OUCH. In all seriousness, don't do death by a thousand pin pricks. Get it lasered and find someone else to fix it right. Putting a big splotch of black on your leg is not how a coverup is supposed to work. That thing is like a panther in a cave eating a chocolate bar. Good luck, the idea is actually kind of cool, just not well executed.

or make a big, black band around your leg. Is an actual shop doing that to you?

Either leave it or get it lasered off and start all over. Nothing is going to make it not look like a giant spot of black ink.

my advice is to stop adding to it

I've had an enormous half sleeve done in six hours, so there is no way on earth that will take that long unless you have the world's slowest tattoo artist. I'd think less than two hours.

It's rather unlikely to take that long...might actually take less than half that time. But as zetroc said, it'll depend on a number of factors. Enjoy!

Time depends on a combination of factors like how fast the artist works, how well you sit and how big the design is. If you're trying to guess how much money to bring, maybe your artist can give you a ballpark estimate (and always bring more than you think you'll need.)

Craig can do american traditional. Check out the owl here: http://heartofgoldtattoo.com/craig-secrist/ Austin Jones is another of my favorites, but he's more neo-traditional https://www.instagram.com/austinxjones/?hl=en

Hey there! Welcome to the forum. Quick question - do you plan on staying with one artist or collecting pieces from a bunch of people? Both traditional and Japanese have a ton of common imagery (re: daggers, panthers, roses, tigers, shishsi, peonies, demons). I suggest finding a few artists from each style then start looking at what they are doing. Look at the people that THEY are following. Go to tattoo conventions. If you see pieces that resonate with you, ask who did the piece. You'll need to decide for yourself if you like negative space between the different pieces. The cool thing with Japanese style is that fingerwaves, clouds and rocks always are the perfect fillers. Where do you live?

I have an appointment with Chad Koeplinger on Sunday. Pretty stoked.

Thou shalt not take ye self so seriously, they are just F***ing tattoos, maan.

Thou shalt not give advice on tattoos when ye have none.