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@Danlovin' yours man, especially the devil and pumpkin! @GingerninjaI suggest we change your name to pinchusion 😉🤣 This was only my second year of getting tattooed, but I was very happy with what I got. The beginning of 2018 was 3 sessions to get this: Fall of 2018 was a family tribute that may not be the very best tattoo in the world, but makes me smile every time I look at it. For the coming year, I already have an email in requesting a consult for a traditional mom/dad tribute piece. Looking forward to that and more!

Happy New Year! Let's see...Tomo, Dan Sinnes, Paul Dobleman, Robert Ryan, DJ Rose, Laurent, Nick Colella, Grez, Mike Rubendall, Austin Maples and Stewart Robson rounded out 2018. 2019 will be a slower year but I hope still rad. ETA: Hendricks and Bryan Kienlen! Thanks to all of you for your support. Wishing you an amazing 2019!

boat was last year - a fair amount done this year though.... Happy New Year!

2018 was my year for small tattoos, one on Maui, one on Friday the 13th, one on Halloween, one at Black Heart in SF, one from Carolyn at FTW in Oakland, and one for Bob & Ziggy.

2018 started out with a Sailor Jerry ship at Leviticus Tattoo's annual Sailor Jerry Birthday bash and then a very small filler sparrow at the Minneapolis tattoo convention- both in January. May brought me a nice fish at Smith Street and the tattoo year finished up with a rocket ship back at Leviticus. 2019 will bring another one from he Sailor Jerry Birthday party and then who knows what? Most of the tattoo budget will go to support my wife in getting a sleeve on her blank arm for her 40th year.

cool idea. this year it was all backpiece all the time: we finished the background and red and started the green. this coming year I hope to finish the whole damn thing!

I thought we could use a thread that shined a little light on some of the artists we love, but aren't necessarily very renowned or getting the recognition we feel they deserve. Lets get the ball rolling.... I've been a fan of the work of James Tex of Deadly Tattoos inc, located in Calgary, Canada, for a few years now. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with his work, and some members here might even know him personally and/or have tattoos from him. Anyways, I stumbled across him a while back in another tattoo forum where a member showed off the progress of a Samurai sleeve he was getting done from Tex. I was blown away by his work, and to my great viewing pleasure he had a fairly large online portfolio on his shops website: Deadly Tattoos inc. I'm not sure if everyone agrees with me in that he's "low key", but I can't say that I have read an article about him or seen any pictures of his tattoo except on his website (and obviously the forum I mentioned). Here's a few samples of his work from his online portfolio:

Hello, Thought it would be fun to start a thread to talk about tattoo's you got this year and what you hope to get next year, I'll start. This year I got 2 new tattoos, a shrunken head (pictures in gallery) and an add on to a Friday the 13th tattoo I already had (pictures to follow, still healing) and my fiance got 1 of a dream catcher on her forearm. I've had a renewed itch to get tattoo'd so hoping to complete my left arm next year. I have two medium sized spots left on that arm, the first being my elbow which I plan on getting covered with a death moth in the beginning of March. The other is my upper half of my upper arm/should area which has a decent amount of space for a larger piece although I am not sure exactly what yet. I also have 3-4 spots I can fit small (2.5 sq in or less) tattoos that I have some plans for as well. Hopefully a few more too but we'll see what the budget allows. What tattoos did you get this year and what do you plan on getting next year?

Fading is usually a result of poor application or too much sun.

2018 was decidedly a slower year from me than 2017 - and purposefully. I did start both of my feet in November and my next appointment for them (possibly finishing?) is Jan 17th.

Oh, and i LOVE seeing flash.

Every time I see a monmon cat (or monmon creature) created by people other than Tomo, the artist always credits Tomo. 🙂

Impressive list in general so all in one year is incredible! Would love to get a Hendricks tattoo eventually as well. I am originally from Fullerton and my parents still live there and I go back often so hopefully sooner than later. Happy New Year everyone!

Tattoos fade eventually. Some faster, some slower; there are a lot of different factors involved. The chances of having a lot of tattoos the exact same shade of brown are practically zero. If that is your expectation you’ll be very disappointed.

So I just got back from a consultation with https://www.instagram.com/tanyatattoos/ for a filler on my right arm for a B&G dragonfly & bee & butterfly. I love her B&G work. I have an appointment 02/25/19 for it. it's real close to home too. her shop in Folsom Ca https://www.instagram.com/rosegoldtattoo/?hl=en and yep ! you can see Folsom Prison from her shop.

Yeah, agree with @Dan...you have to moisturize! That being said, if you have really dry skin, your nutrition isn't great and/or your have mature skin (which you don't), heavy black can always look dry.

what do you have against flash ? IMO flash is great to see on the walls of a shop, flash makes it feel like a tattoo shop instead of some foo foo salon IMO, plus you I get a feel for what the artists there like to do. I especially love to see old flash.

That tattoo is beautiful! There’s nothing to regret there that I can see.

Healing is worse than the tattoo on the hand. I dry healed my hands as I now do for all my tattoos. It was the scariest and most painful healing experience in my 15 years getting tattoo. But I received them from one of the best cats around, so even though it looked like my hand was a candidate for an amputation, by the end of a grueling 6 week period it looked immaculate and no ink was lost. I had faith the entire time in what my tattooist had made for me. This is precisely why one should wait and explore tattooing on other parts of the body that are easier to heal and gain a better understanding of what tattooing is.

I really really like going to my sessions alone. I like being focused on the experience and on connecting with the artist too. I know some artists don't mind having you bring a companion but I also don't want to be worrying about anyone else—if they're okay, are they getting bored, are they hungry—while I'm getting tattooed. (Unless we're both getting tattooed.) My brother went with me one time but that was a really quick session (less than an hour) and the two of us had fun chatting with the artist while she worked. My aunt who was hosting me in Seattle arrived too early to pick me up after my appointment and she soon got bored so she and her husband left to have dinner while I was finishing up (it was a 9-hour session). One time, two travel companions insisted on walking me to the tattoo studio in Denmark. I told them they can say hi to the artist but that they wouldn't be allowed in the tattooing area. So they did that, gushed over his design, and left. Then again it might be a different scenario if you're talking about a person you really really like. Maybe weigh if having her there for the entire five hours would make the experience better for you? Otherwise, maybe you can ask her to drop by when the session is close to being done. :)

I've had tattoos for a very long time now... and it is interesting how a first tattoo choice seems to have crept down to more visible spaces as the years have passed - in olden times first tats would typically be shoulder/upper arm... This is no longer the case - with sleeves these days seemingly proceeding upwards rather than downwards.... it's madness I tell you :-). I am getting old though - I was chatting with my tattooist chap about such things and he is getting more youngsters than ever looking for finger/hand/neck tattoos. I would certainly consider such things but would only have the confidence to do so after my retirement. That said it is very true that the tattoo universe has changed substantially over the last 30 years in it's relationship with the real world - at my place of work we have a dress down Friday - the young 'uns don't seem to mind their ink out on display ....and I've heard no disparaging murmurings from the old guard. Me - I wear long sleeved shirts - but... that's just me. It would be interesting to hear how many others have colleagues at work with no idea re the mileage of their inkage - I'm sure it's not just me (or is it :-) )?

There may come a day when hand tattoos won't limit career choices, but we're not there yet. I have pretty heavy coverage; two sleeves, full back and one leg, but I can cover everything up with pants and a long sleeve shirt. My only comment for people that want to get hand tattoos is to go into it with your eyes wide open. In today's economy, there is no more job security. You may need to switch companies or occupations. Think long and hard. If you decide to do it anyway, go big or go home!

There're really nice tattoos on the pics. I'm not sure yet, if I want one on my hand, but I'm eager to know if it hurts much. Can u tell?I'm having a tiger on my left arm, like here. This is my first tattoo.