ChaosDani

Maybe they'll all get lasered together when she gets older, so she won't have to feel different then either. I think this is about making the parents feel special, rather than making the child feel accepted. I don't think they had the foresight to think about how the child will feel about it when she gets older. My guess is she won't like it. There are better ways to go about making a person feel accepted and loved. Making a big deal about of their faults, or "blemish" as the article says, is not the way to do it. To me, this is sending the message that how she looks is more important than her other qualities. And since she doesn't "look perfect" the parents are going through great lengths to make sure she doesn't feel bad about it. It doesn't sit well with me that the mother says she was "heartbroken" and that she "sobbed and sobbed knowing my baby was going to permanently marked for the rest of her life." It's just a birthmark! That baby is still beautiful! And beauty isn't everything anyway. I dunno, maybe I'd feel differently if I had a birthmark. Or a child, for that matter.

@SStu That filigree is gorgeous! Congrats to Wifey.

"Traditional american" is theme enough. I think the style lends itself well to having a bunch of random stuff. Because they're so bold, and the color palette is limited, they are going to look cohesive together no matter what the subject matter(s).

Whaaat?! I didn't realize the premier was tonight! Thanks for the heads up!

I love that gorilla! Great stuff!

As a bunch of other people here have already said, breathing really makes a difference. Or at least for me it did. I try to get into a rhythm with slow, deep breaths. I have about 13 hrs worth of work on my ribs/hip, and I kept on telling myself that if I drew a sharp breath, or if I wasn't breathing in a predictable way, it would screw my artist up. I'm not really sure how true that was, but the fear was enough to keep me breathing steadily pretty much the whole time. And when it got pretty painful, that thought kept me concentrating on my breath, which distracted me from the pain. It was less of a "zoning out" and more of a zoning in - thinking about how even I can make my breath, and how smooth I can make the expansion and contraction of my ribs with my breath so that there were no "rough edges" in my breath cycle.

I find mostly whitetails and raccoons here too. I can always use raccoon parts for jewelry. Whitetails I can take or leave. Most of my finds are from walking the dogs along the road or the railroad tracks. I'll only bring em home if they're mostly clean. Being in the suburbs with neighbors fairly close, I'm not set up to do a whole lot of processing myself. I do have a few maceration buckets going in the summer, but nothing that'd work for something as big as an elk. Never tried boiling cause I never find anything that fresh - I don't hunt, and my husband doesn't do small game - and I'm afraid to bring that stuff into my kitchen. So I end up buying skulls from flea markets and such, and while they are clean of fleshy stuff, they usually need some kind of additional processing to degrease/whiten. I've picked up a few on a skull group on facebook as well. Actually I just bought a really nice ram skull from there for a steal. I'm probably going to have to figure out a way to finish cleaning and whitening it. That could be a big challenge, but I'm excited. I hope you get your elk in Colorado!

@Tornado6 I love that first photo. That's a good looking bear. I have a bear skull that I picked up at an estate sale a while back and it is sooo greasy. I have been trying to degrease it for a year and it's still kinda yellow. Yours is so nice and white! Very envious of the wolf and mountain lion, too. And the last photo is cool. I like side-by-side comparisons of different species. Do you find and/or hunt and process them yourself?

Yes, well I was speaking more to the fact that bad tattoo designs are incredibly popular, not necessarily the fact that poorly executed tattoos done in unsafe environments are popular. That's a whole different issue. The things-turning-into-birds thing is a bad tattoo whether it was done in a legit shop by a good artist or not.

Nice! Love that lady head flip!

Voted. And I love the picture! Good luck!

Nice! I'd love to have an elk. You should post up some pics of your collection. Sounds like you've got a lot of cool stuff!

Cool! You teach Wildlife ID, or you were taking a class? I collect skulls too! Is that a whitetail?

I just finished watching the first season of AHS. It was ok. Parts of the story really drew me in, but then other times I was like WTF? It seemed to me like the writers didn't have any plans on how they were going to progress and end the season when they started. And it was kind of abrupt in the end. But overall, I liked the story. My favs of all time are Game of Thrones, True Detective, Breaking Bad, Orange is the New Black, and the Shield.

No love for Riff Raff. But I admit the song you posted isn't that bad. It's not something I would listen to, but it is kinda catchy. The first one that was posted is pretty cringe-worthy though. And the video was just beyond bad.

Is this guy really a millionaire? Say it ain't so. I think people get bad tattoos because most people don't see tattoos as art. They see it as a way to customize their bodies and feel like they are unique. A lot of people just want the self-image that goes along with having a tattoo. It's the same reason shitty mass-produced wall art sells like hotcakes at Ikea. People want to decorate themselves, and they either don't know, or don't care about, the difference between mass-produced garbage and something that an artist has put their time, skill, and heart into. EDIT - And, ya know, there's nothing wrong with Ikea wall art. And there's nothing wrong with unoriginal tattoos, assuming they are executed well. They both serve a purpose to the consumer. Not everyone has to have a refined palate for artwork.

This was really interesting! I didn't know facial tattoos were a tradition in Syria. But I am familiar with the facial tattoos of North Africa and they look very similar. So I figured there had to be a connection. I found this article about how North African facial tattooing might have originated in Iraq. It's a really interesting read. It's amazing that two regions separated by about 3000 miles share a tradition that was probably spread by gypsy nomads. Algeria: Tattoos Provide L(ink) to Iraq*|*Yasmin Bendaas

pics?

Hi, I'm new here too. That's a great question. I've thought about that too - what if the artist is having an off day, or just not feeling it? I'm sure their mood plays into it some. I know it does for me at my job. But part of being a professional is getting out of that head space and focusing on the work. I'm sure tattoo artists feel a lot more responsibility to perform their best work every time. I'd be really interested to see some artists' responses to this question.

I only have one piece so far, but as I keep going, I will be very concerned with balance. For now, I like the idea of keeping the amount of coverage on the left vs. the right around the same, but on different parts of the body. My right side is covered from ribs to hip, so my next move will probably be left hip/thigh. I definitely think about the overall aesthetic and negative space. I am a belly dancer, so I think about how a potential tattoo will look with my costumes, how it might look when I move different ways, how it'll change the way people perceive me as an artist. My overall "look" is important to me. I think in the future, I'll be a lot more heavily covered on my legs- starting with the left, but eventually both, as they are easily covered. I think my no-go zones will be forearms, hands, belly, left ribs, chest. I'd love to have a backpiece someday, so I'm saving that real estate for now.

Ohhhh yeah, I forgot about that! I used to be a huge Harry Potter nerd, so I'm kinda ashamed that I didn't remember that part of the story. I used to re-read the books at least once a year, and I've seen the earlier movies a bunch of times. But when the last book, and then the last movie, came out, I just read/watched it once and I was done with it. I guess because it was just so final. But yeah, that could be great inspiration for a reaper tattoo! I like how you can see his vertebrae sticking out the back of his cloak like spikes.

I like the reaper! I agree with black and gray. It's been a while since I've seen the Harry Potter movies. Refresh my memory on how they handled Death?

Woah! It looks pretty cool, but completely unsettling.

Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed it. I can't believe how young he was. He's barely more than a baby in that photo. As an aside, I think his voice is very soothing.

Thanks!