zetroc

I think the placement is good. If it was higher, the beak would move onto your neck and the angle would make it appear bent.

That looks great! Welcome to the club!

Topper is leaving Philadelphia Eddie's for the True Hand Society.

I like the sacred heart idea. Might not have to be all black, either. Or there's always the tried and true panther.

I'm sure that if anyone laughs, their laughter will be about the joke of the Darwin fish itself, not at you for getting it tattooed on your shoulder. No self-respecting artist would laugh someone out of their shop like that.

SF is the best! I had a whole big post written up but my laptop crashed and I lost it, so here are some of my favorites. Food: Tommy's Joynt, House of Nanking, Miller's Deli, Taqueria Pancho Villa, Taqueria San Jose, El Toro, El Farolito, La Corneta, Los Coyotes, R&G Lounge, Nopa, House of Prime Rib, Tony's Pizza, Halu, Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, The Cliff House, Suppenkuche, Swan Oyster Depot, Tadich Grill, Park Tavern, Alfred's Steakhouse, the Pinecrest Diner, and Buffalo Burger. Drinks (some of which have very good food): Mikkeller Bar, Giordano Bros, Zeitgeist, Bender's, Lucky 13, Smuggler's Cove, Whitechapel, The Old Ship Saloon, Aub Zam Zam, Molotov's, 540 Club, The Plough & Stars, Edinburgh Castle, Vesuvio, 15 Romolo, Mr. Bing's, Emperor Norton's Boozeland, The Pied Piper, House of Shields, Li Po, Buddha Lounge, 21st Amendment, Schroeder's, Alembic, Elixir, Delirium, Whiskey Thieves, Thieves Tavern, Toronado, Noc Noc, The Buena Vista Cafe, Gino & Carlo, Hemlock, Tempest, Trad'r Sam, and many many others. Have fun!

I'm sorry that you had such a rough entry into the world of tattoos. It sounds like you're giving yourself a hard time about it based on the nature of your relationship with your mother. I would, quite frankly, recommend that you talk to a professional to work it out. Feelings about it aside, that tattoo looks perfectly fine. Try not to make any decisions about removal or modification until you've lived with it for a while.

Got an appointment with Erik Rieth when he's here in late March at War Horse Tattoo in Berkeley. Thinking something panther-related.

That's not what a blowout looks like. Give it time, keep it clean, and try not to stare at it too much. Ten days is not that much time.

I'd feel a little bit bad for the person with the stolen design tattooed on them, since they likely have a worse version than the original, but that's about it. Another type of theft in tattooing that I do have a major problem with is when someone uses a photo of another artist's work and claims it as their own. A few days ago Valerie Vargas posted a photo of a backpiece that some instagram-famous "artist" stole from Stewart Robson's portfolio and posted as his own work - extremely lame, since it's basically false advertising. That guy is getting customers who think he's legitimately talented, and it's pretty pathetic.

Check out Snake River Tattoo in Boise. They do both color and black and gray very well.

It's fine. Don't attempt to have it "fixed."

Loooove the frogs he does. Nice one!

Man, these are all amazing. Theo does the best demons for sure and I love that scorpion. Alex is back at Idle Hand next weekend and I'm sorely tempted to get something.

I might be there for one of the weekend days but my tat fund is pretty low so i'll likely only be buying books and whatnot.

Try submitting it to http://hanzismatter.blogspot.com/

Scott Sylvia is making the first Sunday of the month a walkin-only day, starting this weekend, February 5th. Go get a snake for the contest!

Congratulations @Gingerninja! That's a great dagger and a great spot for it.

Henrietta is a spammer.

You can handle it! Script doesn't necessarily take longer than a shaded, colored image, but you don't want to walk in 10 minutes before closing either. Good tattoos take time, and good script is worth a lot more than bad script.

Anyone going to this? Seems like a cool event, special-trip-worthy for sure. Artists so far:

Have any of you played "The Most Dangerous Game" yet? Seems like a fun way to get an interesting tattoo, as long as you're into his style.

I got a tracking number yesterday too! Very excited for it.

A very good question, and probably one that deserves its own thread. Looking at the Yelp reviews for various shops in my area, one might think that every single shop around produces nothing but gold-plated, award-winning work on a daily basis. Looking at the tattoos they all do might convince one otherwise. My line of thinking is that once people get a tattoo, they feel a huge amount of pressure to feel great about it and tell everyone how great of a job their chosen artist did. There are a bunch of 5-star Yelp-reviewed shops here that aren't in the tattooing mainstream, and produce OK to mediocre work, but have tons of customers who leave 5-star reviews, perpetuating the cycle. Bottom line, nobody likes to admit a mistake, but doing your homework is always worth it in the end.

Very cool, thanks for posting that!