RoryQ

If you read earlier in the thread, and other specific threads, you'll see it's not uncommon to do two day sessions - especially if you're travelling a long way. They suck- especially the second day, when you're already tired and inflamed from day one. But it's a good way to make progress quickly, and the mortality rate is pretty low. ;)

So many people have bulging discs, and report such varying degrees of discomfort, that there's no way to know. There's a big mental component when it comes to back and neck injuries IMO. Some people with a bulging disc take months off work sick and really struggle when someone else with a full blown herniation might be still doing everything they were doing before. For what it's worth I have a couple of bulging discs and never felt them to be an issue getting my back done other than to experience some added stiffness from needing to sit still so long. Objectively speaking I can't see why the tattoo process would reach deep enough to interfere with anything going on at the level of the spine.

I don't know about Berlin, but I've sometimes wondered the same about Dublin. It's probably the worst city in Ireland to get tattooed in- even though it's the largest. I need to caveat that heavily by saying it's just my opinion...

I'll post it up! Conspiracy Inc were really straightforward / cool by any standard- I said I was only in Berlin for two days, and they still managed to fit me in. Can't ask better than that.

I think I am getting a little tattoo by Uncle Allan in December... Just waiting to finalise it but all looks good. Actually a pretty accessible guy, as is often the case despite perceptions about endless waiting lists etc. Thinking of asking him to do some of the flash from Halloween just gone...

Hi Paddy- Conspiracy Inc. is an option- home of Uncle Allan and others...

I was excited to read that Marcus Kuhn (of Gypsy Gentleman) fame is tattooing out of Dragon Tattoo in Eindhoven now. I visit the Netherlands quite a bit for work, and it's not so far on a train from where I tend to be. Maybe I can do a bus-man's holiday and get tattooed. Could be wrong and maybe it's just a guest spot, but I got the impression he was going to be sticking around there for a while.

It's not a big deal where you post- but you'll probably get better feedback if you keep it in one thread. I would suggest figuring out what style you want first... Japanese? Traditional American? Then narrow down the subject matter. Something classic / iconic is hard to go wrong with. A tattoo the size of a watch face is pretty small though: might be worth going Palm-sized at least. Bigger is better to a certain extent.

Johnny, Sometimes artists will only work in full day appointments (Yellow Blaze, King Carlos), or just prefer to book full days if it is for a large tattoo that needs a lot of work. A smaller tattoo might only require a few hours or half a day. It's also true that there is a question of how long the person being tattooed can tolerate it. If the tattoo is in a painful place like the back or on the chest it's possible to sit for a full day, but it is quite painful. Being tattooed for a shorter period is much easier to handle.

Welcome to LST! Depending on the kind of tattoo design you're thinking of, it's also worth looking at some of the longer threads that already exist on particular designs (dragons, koi etc).

I have sometimes taken a prescription anti-inflammatory in conjunction with some over the counter pain relief medication, but in my view it's not necessary except if you are really pushing the boat out: A very very long single day's tattooing (6+ hours), or if you are getting tattooed many days back-to-back, and need to get as much done as possible. I have never bothered for a 'normal' single day's tattooing, or if the place being tattooed is an arm or a leg - somewhere where the pain level is simply not comparable to the back, ribs, belly, sternum etc. My experience is that, particularly when I was doing 2 days of tattooing back to back (or in one case, 3 sessions in 2 days back to back on my back piece) taking something can allow you to go that extra 2-3 hours when otherwise you might have to stop. It can slightly blunt the edge of getting tattooed somewhere very unpleasant. It's definitely not some kind of silver bullet or ticket to a pain-free tattooing experience. I feel like the healing process has never been affected. In fact, anecdotally I would say that the dramatically reduced swelling and discomfort from the anti-inflammatories might actually help the aftercare process overall. It's certainly easier on travelling afterwards. In addition to remembering that it's not going to make the whole process a walk in the park, I'd also echo @Pugilist when she says that prescription drugs aren't something to take a gamble on if you're already stressed out about being tattooed in a tough spot. It could result in nausea, disorientation etc. I have a friend who is a doctor and I ran things by him first. The final thing is the question of whether this interferes with some 'authentic tattoo experience'. I can only say that, having been tattooed for long sessions both with and without, at the end of the day there is not such a big difference. In my book, when I travel to get big work done, I want to get as *much* done as I reasonably can during my visit. This is a way to do that.

Yeah, I was trying to order from the U.S when the first re-release was done. Maybe an xmas present! @CultExciter

I really want to get the Tattootime set, but I've had trouble getting someone to ship to me. It's probably sorted since I tried to order last time but haven't got around to it yet.

I'm waiting on bookcases for our front room so in the meantime things are mostly piled in the attic room. Tattoo-book wise this is it... 'Stab City' is the most recent. 'Eleven Fourteen' and the 'Spider Murphys' book are cool but from a collectors point of view my favourites are Shige's book, 'Underway is the only way' and 'Tattooing from Japan to the West'. Amazing interviews.

It's an imperfect series, but great all the same. Enjoy! Probably the ultimate in farmboy-hero-coming-of-age epic fantasy. I think one of the reasons it catches so much flak is that people do care about it (or did, because it's done and dusted now). If no one was bothered then there wouldn't have been so much complaining about Jordan taking it down a cul de sac for 3-4 books towards the end. It's not even that he wrote anything crazy... It just slowed to a crawl. The last few books, which were written by Sanderson, actually tie it up better than I expected, although there's a fairly noticeable transition in writing style and a sense of urgency ("I've been paid to wrap this up in 1000 pages, here goes").

Reading Glen Cook's The Black Company series (I got a 3 book omnibus). Considering it was written in 1984 it has aged perfectly... It feels like it could have been written this year! The protagonists are a mercenary company who are contracted to serve the kind of dark overlord that most fantasy series use as their stock villain. I'm 50 pages in and they've been involved in several massacres, murders etc. I'm expecting a redemption is on the cards down the line but so far no one is looking very heroic. Steven Erikson heaped praise on it as fantasy with a dark, gritty feel that changed the genre slowly. Got to agree that I can see the impact it had on Erikson's work at least... Although Cook's work is much darker so far.

It's good, enjoy!

Bulmers is the famous international owned cider producer here in Ireland. It's crap compared to some of the new small indie cider makers like Stonewell, McIvors and Llewellyns.... But the little guys have much bigger costs, even more than craft beer Brewers I hear, so they're pricey in comparison. Oddly in the UK Bulmers is not Bulmers.. It's Magners. And what is sold as Bulmers is a different thing altogether... Confusing to us. My favourite cider is probably from the UK: Aspalls. They do a draught, organic and a grand cru. Runner up is Old Rosie cloudy.

Ungodly amounts of money? It might be worth the grief. Heard about an acquaintance who is in the process of being moved from his current role. Seems like they gave him reasons to do with decisions on his part, which he will struggle to find fault with. But I heard that another issue not directly put to him is that he got a neck tattoo (some black and grey thing). Still frowned upon by the old boys and it didn't go down well. Some guys who know I have a lot of work have been pointing out that I did it "right" because I can still pass in a suit and tie. I guess I have 'normalised' heavy coverage in at least their minds.

I'm just reading this now- really great!

Been doing aikido recently in a really nice dojo. Having two-and-fro'd from Japan over the past few years I wanted to practice a Japanese budo again... Something that I could tie in with my last few visits over there. Judo was too similar to BJJ. Karate too different to the boxing and MT I did, so I settled on aikido. It's not really the sort of martial art you do if practicality is your first concern, but it's aesthetically very pleasing and relatively easy on the broken-down ex BJJ player (like me). There's a really big focus on posture, which is good for me. I feel like I already did a lot of 'hard' training in the past and don't really think about things like self defence anymore, so it's been quite enjoyable. Next time I'm in Japan I plan to hit up the HQ morning classes.

How did the tebori feel compared to machine work- is it true it's markedly less painful?

@mmikaoj - thanks for kicking off a good thread, with a lot going on in it. I would think most of us can get behind the OP's premise that sometimes big name culture can be a poor guide to who to get tattooed by. If the reason someone is chosen as an artist is because they HAVE that big name, not because of what earned it for them, then that's, as @Pugilist said, something like starfucking. It's not even the same as people who get tattooed by Ami James because he's on TV... It's actually different because it's masquerading as something more like connoisseurship, even though it isn't. I've been in a couple of shops where I think, objectively speaking (if such s thing is possible) the newer tattooers that were being brought along were clearly going to outstrip their teachers eventually. Jondix and Horiyoshi III must have been rookies and then journeymen too at some stage. There must have been a tipping point somewhere where people getting work from them knew that they were lucky to be in the seat at that time. Where this thread falls into controversy is when Eddie and Horiyoshi III were somewhat roughly evaluated. I don't agree that Eddie Deutsche has even remotely lost it, FWIW, and in the case of Horiyoshi III I don't know enough to comment. I concluded a while back that his instagram photos were not a good guide, full stop, but a tattooer whose opinion I trust told me he thought that health problems were taking their toll on his tattooing. I would get tattooed by him because of who he is, but I wouldn't go in there expecting it to be like a tattoo done in his prime. On the whole taking offence / smack talking thing... I don't think anything in this thread has crossed that line yet. So far all I see are honestly held opinions, misguided or subjective perhaps, but no full-blown smack-talking. I DO want to know where the local shop with tattooers as good as Shige, Horiyoshi III etc is... I'm guessing Rock of Ages or something [emoji12]

@MrToby Yes, that was me with the kindle. I think I saw that white rabbit on Instagram? Nice. Although it was hot in the dock I almost think that was better than it being chilly if you were getting tattooed, but I guess it's a fine line.

Couple more thoughts about London:- One of the people I saw at the London Con that I really thought "got to get tattooed by that guy" was Mike The Athens, incidentally... Been looking at his stuff since I came home. His black and grey japanese stuff in particular, and the little script and brushwork tattoos.