RoryQ

Shige then Filip Leu... No one can fault your taste!

- PRECIOUS TATTOO Hexa is in Tampere in Finland, think it's inland and in the south. Always liked his stuff.

What, and there wasn't even a concealed stiletto in it? Honey Comb : Cold Steel (High Performance Knives)

@Jennifer Stell Cool - I like the rose in particular. I spent most of a tattoo session recently looking at a huge framed sheet of flash by Richard hanging on the wall in the studio... Dozens of little designs: Insects, reapers, cat heads etc. Made the time pass alot easier!

I think it's fine too. At the end of the day it's going to be one of many tattoos you are going to collect - no point in obsessing over it now. With that said, I guess you learned a tough lesson in terms of not speaking up and trying to get closer to what you knew you wanted. When I was in Toronto last week I ended up going to quite a few studios with my GF, who was on the hunt for a competent piercer. We called into the Pearl Harbour Gift Shop in Kensington Market at one point. Super place - IMO if I were in driving distance of Toronto I'd be hitting that place up for sure. Tim Pausinger from Germany should still be there at the moment - not sure if it's a guest spot or a full time move but I think there's been there for months.

@David Flores We were in town at the same time... Passing like ships in the night (that was meant to sound less gay than it did).

When I got my knee done last week I think both of us were surprised that there wasn't more trauma / swelling / jumping of the leg. I jumped more getting some flames grazing my knee on my left leg, whereas this time was the whole kneecap and surrounding... And yet it didn't seem as bad. I spent the next 2 days walking around on vacation as normal - very little swelling. Overall I would say my back and chest were still more painful. Yet more proof that mileage varies when it comes to parts of the body and pain.

I'd be really curious to hear how you get on - in a few ways. I guess the economic climate for tattooers is pretty tough in Greece at the moment, given that people must have, on average, far less disposable income. Wonder if guys like your artist are really depending on out-of-town customers? My brother was there recently for work. He said there were some ridiculously cheap hotel rooms and meals on offer because the people are so desperate to try and at least preserve their tourist trade. It would feel a bit mercenary to capitalise on it, but on the other hand the greeks are really suffering because a lot of their clientele, particularly the Germans, are staying away. They need people to travel as if it's business as usual.

I (randomly) ended up looking at some Yelp tattoo reviews of a studio this morning - it just popped up in my search results and I read them. Amazing how many reviews involved people saying they had a 'bad' or at least 'less than ideal' experience because they didn't "connect" with their tattooer. One even commented that if she was going to have to spend 3-4 hours with them then it was important to her that she be able to relate to them as a person. A couple make reference only to the 'personality free zone' that was their tattooer. It makes me think of someone rejecting their architect on the basis of their personality (not necessarily their customer service). "Hmm, the plans look great and it's got all the features incorporated I asked for... But Tom is just a personality-free zone in our meetings, and I can't identify with him on a deep enough emotional level."

Without claiming to be one of the experts:- I am bringing one arm down in a few months, and I thought the same as you: If it's visible when I'm wearing a shirt and tie at work then that's a problem for me. To be honest I figure better fractionally shorter than I could have got away with than fractionally too long, meaning I might be flashing it when I'm reaching across a table or pointing, gesturing etc. Even if there were a 'traditional' line on the forearm or wrist then to be honest I would disregard it if it didn't suit my circumstances. I haven't really looked into it yet but I guess I will have to put on a shirt some day and fool around and see how low I can go. Add least you can still add if you want to. If you'd gone overboard the first time you might be regretting something that's harder to change.

OK guys, I'm going to chuck this in here since it seems to fit best. I would have fallen into the 'don't re-wrap after the initial period' school of thought, and I've had excellent results just using bepanthen and interfering with healing tattoos fairly minimally. When I was in Chicago last week Christ Smith gave me a few sheets of Nexacare Tegaderm dressings and recommended I try them out. Now, it may have been because the tattoo was on my knee (an awkward spot to look after), but I get the impression he's using this as his aftercare across the board.. This was the first time I've seen this product but it's kind of what I always though should be used if the 'keep it wrapped' school of though was brought to its logical conclusion. It's adhesive, sterile, available in any Walgrens pharmacy and can be cut to size. My understanding is that it's used for burns in hospitals and probably you guys in the U.S have heard of it before, but it was a new one on me. Over here anyone I know who is keeping their tattoos wrapped for long periods is just using clingfilm, which gets kind of gnarly very quickly. I guess the difference is that the Tegaderm (a) adheres more closely to the surface of the skin so less pockets of air and gunk (b) comes sterile and © is supposed to be breathable and allow air out while simultaenously being waterproof and stop germs and whatnot getting in. At any rate, I did it for three days as recommended, changing the dressing every 8-12 hours or so. The pros: This stuff sticks great and stays in place. You almost forget you've got a healing tattoo to worry about, in that it's not riding out of place or whatever. It appears to offer good protection against abrasion. Ultimately each time when I took the dressing off I was cleaning out fair amounts of gunk (lymph, coagulents?) but it never smelled too funky, which might lend some credence to the idea that it is breathable to some degree. The cons: It's expensive (Nine dollars for 4 small sheets, which I had to use most of to cover my knee each time). Ultimately I also remained concerned about what exactly was happening under there. Although my knee looks to be healing OK the skin appeared a little soft / chalky (like when you've just gotten out of the bath and are a bit wrinkled) this morning. i'm glad it was the last day I was applying it- I'm not sure I'd want to continue for another day. The all-over adhesive nature of the Tegaderm means pulling the dressing off is a bit harsh on the skin too, not sure about that. Seems odd to try to avoid abrasions / suface knocks, and then be sucking the skin off when you're removing the Tegaderm? Overall: Well, it protected the tattoo and allowed me a *lot* of free movement on my last few days in Chicago. It really stays in place and could be awesome for tattoos in awkward places (feet maybe?). I think I would certainly think it is a better, more sterile, option than just cling-film. Am I ready to entirely give up on my old bepanthen method for the future? Hmm, not sure about that just yet.

I think Abelive's last post summed it up for me: Basically I don't expect to be sitting down and discovering a friend for life when I get tattooed, or be treated to some kind of therapy or show-and-tell as well as getting the tattoo ... But I expect to be met halfway in terms of civility and customer-service. I don't mind someone being gruff or not particularly wanting to talk, but if someone is actively being a dick then for me personally it doesn't matter how good a tattooer they are, I would probably prefer to go to another competent tattooer (and luckily there are a lot out there and I can swing traveling etc. if necessary) rather than give my money to someone who treats me badly. As for people's personal private lives (their beliefs, addictions or lack thereof, whatever), I don't think I would consider it relevant unless it impacted on their delivery of the tattoo and the way they treated me as a customer.

Well, I'm just back from Chicago after an overnight flight. Went to bed for a few hours but feeling pretty wrecked. But probably not as wrecked as the couple who were sitting a row away from me on the plane and were traveling with a 2 year old. This kid must have made a pact with himself at the beginning of the flight, and been like 'dude, this is my first time on the aeroplane, I ain't going to sleep - hell no!'. Which was grand for the first five or six hours but by the end of the flight he was so hysterical with tiredness that he's gone completely apeshit. I think if he were an adult he would have been tied up with seatbelts. He went full on exorcist, getting sick, throwing milk bottles, slapping his mom and flipping a tray of food over his sister. It was awesome in that (1) I wasn't trying to sleep (2) he wasn't my kid (3) he didn't target me with any thrown objects. Seriously though, I felt sorry for his parents- you can see how people get worn down and end up doing something counterproductive out of frustration in that situation. Anyway, babbling slightly here. The tattoo-related news is that my right knee is all done by Chris Smith at Deluxe Tattoo. It's trad style, it looks to be healing well and I'll get the obligatory pic up in a couple of days when it's settled down (it was done on Friday). This is a bit random, but they've got one of the coolest signs hanging outside of any shop I've been in:- I'm going to post up in one of the aftercare threads also, about an aftercare approach based on a product that was new to me- tegaderm. Pretty interesting stuff.

I'm on my way to a Toronto airport in a couple of hours and someone forwarded me this as a joke:- http://info.publicintelligence.net/CBSA-TattooHandbook.pdf The link to it came from this Guardian article:- Tattoos: the hidden meanings | Fashion | The Guardian

I'm in Toronto until this Wednesday, then flying down to Chicago to get my knee done by Chris Smith at Deluxe. Considering trying to get a walk in with Tim Pausinger at the Pearl Gift Shop while I'm here, but we'll see...

Agreed on CaptCanada's point that pain shouldn't be a deciding factor in placement or extent of tattooing. OK, sure- it's a painful and it's a big committment to get any large-scale work, but ultimately I don't think anyone has died on the table yet (or at least, not as a direct result of being in pain from tattooing). When I read the backpiece thread before I got mine I went through a period of second-guessing myself and imagining that maybe I would just get some easier spots done first... I'm glad in hindsight that I manned up and just got on with it. When all's said and done the end product is all that matters.

My backpiece goes down about halfway onto my ass but it's not as densely tattooed as the full back-and-thighs pieces I've seen. When I was getting it done I kept thinking about how Valerie Vargas or someone had said something to the effect that it was a horrendous area ... It wasn't great, there was a lot of involuntary tensing up. But personally I found around my hips sorer. People's mileage always seems to vary with these things. One other thing: Sometimes people say things like "it felt like someone was slicing into me with a scalpel" or something to that effect. Well.... Probably best not to turn this over in your mind when you can't see what the tattooist is doing to your back, because it really doesn't help at all. :)

Django looks awesome... Watched a movie called 'Wake Wood' from then newish Hammer Horror reboot studio yesterday. It's got Aidan Gillien in it (you may remember him as the young mayor from 'The Wire' or Littlefinger from 'Game of Thrones'). Set and filmed in Donegal, where I'm originally from, which is a really rural part of Ireland. You're not so much talking hillbillies as neolithic hillforts. Anyway, the movie was pretty good. Not dissimilar to 'Pet Semetary' in concept.

I've been eagle-rly awaiting to see what this would look like since it was mentioned.... Great stuff.

I should qualify what I posted earlier and mention that I have (and still do) keep a wrap on for up to 24 hours after getting work done - particularly if, as is often the case, I've travelled and have a plane to catch home. Besides, hotel staff don't like it when you leak ink onto their bedsheets during the night.

I followed that method for an early tattoo (because I was told to). My take on it is that, thinking about it rationally, I do not want to create a warm, moist, non-breathable barrier over my healing tattoo for days on end: I think that would, indeed, equal 'bacteria death trap'. It's been suggested that this approach reduces the chance of a hard scab forming. To be honest, though, since I've started using a light application of Bepanthen I don't think I have had scabbing with any of my recent tattooing in any case... They've all healed with some peeling, but more like as if I had a bit of sunburn rather than scabbing. I know there is an argument that individual tattooists know best about aftercare for their own methods, but it would take a lot of convincing to get me to try this again.

Oops - never mind... Thought my links above were dead, but it's my retarded computer.

I really like that Lenhard article because I can almost guess some of the sources he has drawn his conclusions from, but he has applied it beautifully to the specifics of his own situation. I'm interested in how the ergonomics of your work set-up can affect your health (I spend 60+ hours a week either driving a car or sitting in a chair mostly), but I'm wary of trying to stick my oar in here because - as the Lenhard article points out - tattooing has its own specific characteristics as a practice, and maybe it's not such a good idea to try and shoehorn in ideas about posture etc. which are more relevant to other professions... ...That said, I think there are some universals that come into play. After all, we're all people, we've all got spines, and none of those spines like compression, shear forces or torsion... With that in mind, one line in the Lenhard article caught my eye:- What he is alluding to here is very much in line with the work of Stuart McGill and others in the physiotheraphy and sports performance community who have been arguing in recent years that the answer to back and neck pain is to pursue a strong, supportive musculature around the spine. McGill calls this concept 'superstiffness' and it is also variously referred to as 'bracing'. A lot of people actually have bulging discs or even partial herniations but are asymptiomatic in the sense that they have no pain. It's though that this may be because if your back musculature is sufficiently developed it alleviates the symptoms. I'm a layman but my thinking is that also that a stronger back is one better able to handle the shear, compression and torsion that poor posture or awkward positions puts the back in. As a result, McGill and others will promote an approach to addressing back (and, insofar as it relates to the cervical spine, neck) pain which is based on (1) correct posture but also (2) building a strong core and back through spine-friendly exercises such as the plank, 'bird-dog', curl-up etc. In a general sense something else I'd venture to suggest may be of interest to anyone who is experiencing aches and pains, whether muscular or joint-related, is that they consider looking at some of the various 'active mobility' programmes out there which are used by some athletes as "dynamic warm-ups" these days. If you're going to be hunched over a desk or sitting in a chair for hours on end then the odd five to ten minutes spent on these movements could be well worth your while. Some examples- The Essential 8 Mobility Drills everyone should do Mark's Daily Apple on joint mobility drills One last thing, I guess... I have a bulging disc in my neck (discovered it before Christmas). Partially it likely came about as a result of trauma - getting my neck cranked - but there's no doubt that poor posture was also a factor. I developed a very 'forward head' posture over the past few years, where my head would sit slightly out in front of my shoulders. If you look around you a lot of people have this, and there are a variety of likely causes. Either way, it's a recipe for disaster, in that there are a lot of shear forces applied to the c-spine. Now I make an effort to 'pack' my neck backwards - basically correctly aligning the cervical spine. This is sometimes called 'neck retrusion' and that, coupled with a lot of neck strengthening exercises, means I'm pain free. I think even if you are in a profession where you need to hunch or bend over it's worth noting that you can still practice this 'neck packing'. Although it is not a very intuitive movement I think it is an important one to get the hang of.

@Iwar If you've already read some Hitchens and are looking for more of the same then maybe try Sam Harris' 'The End of Faith'. Dawkins possibly lays out his reasoning a little more neatly ('The God Delusion' could be on a reading list for undergraduate philosophy of religion) but Harris is the better polemicist. I can understand why people sometimes feel alienated by so-called 'militant' atheists like Dawkins and Harris, although it sometimes seems to me that people usually dislike their tone , which can feel a little mean-spirited, as opposed to being able to point to flaws in their arguments. Personally I think some of the best writing on this topic was by Carl Sagan (RIP). His 'The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark' is one of the best books I've ever read, and many of the essays it contains have a bearing on some of the topics discussed in this thread.

Great post man ... It's funny that Eli was like "no pressure then" when he saw some of your other tattoos. Guess even the Smith St. guys don't rest on their laurels... Always a good sign... This series of blog posts really makes me want to get to NYC. Not just for the tattooing, but for the food, the buildings, the whole atmosphere. I'm going to be in Chicago in about a week and a half, which is a city I love... But NYC is one-of-a-kind, if that's not too trite a thing to say. Plus I have never explored Brooklyn - just Manhattan and Queens. Good work.