The Tig

Here is our mutt at 1.5 years. The first photo is her at 7 weeks.

Hi there,
I'm John. 16 hours deep on this back piece in progress! This is my first piece and I have been thinking about this decision for the last 4-5 years. I am 24 next week. It took a long time finding the right artist, artwork, symbolic and spiritual reasoning, and maturity before I pulled the trigger to be on the wait-list. I wanted to be at an age where I could be okay to make large decisions such as this knowing it'll be with me forever.
I am just so ecstatic with how things are coming together. Everything I envisioned and more. This back piece will be completed by the end of 2015. I might start a sleeve or chest plate thereafter...
Progress: Currently 15-16 hours with another 10-12 hours to go. Final back piece will total between 25-30 hours.
Cheers!
J.

I ran across some of Julian Siebert's work today.

@SeeSea, I was on a 5 person mixed team for a 24 hour mountain bike race once...
Wow, it was both rewarding and beyond difficult thanks to the mud we had. You would think you could get a decent amount of rest with 5 people, but it didn't work out so well. Maybe in nicer weather it would have been better.
Looking back, I'm glad I did it. There is a never quit in my makeup. Throw in challenging conditions that make others quit, and I get even more determined.
It really builds character and inner strength, so go for it if you're up for it.

Each first time I see this Jeff Srsic snake & peonies back piece, my jaw stays dropped.

Each first time I see this Jeff Srsic snake & peonies back piece, my jaw stays dropped.

Welcome Hassan!
Never heard anything about tattooing in Pakistan. Would be very interested to hear about how common it is and what kind of attitude people have towards it over there. What kind of styles and motifs are popular? Are people doing tattoo adaptation of traditional Pakistani folk art? Do you as an artist, and people with tattoos, face discrimination? I have a lot of questions. Any info and stories would be very interesting.

bongsau, have you ever heard of a Canadian punk band, Mung? My long time internet buddy Peeker plays bass in the group.
I'll try the solidarity rock website from home since it is blocked at work.
My wife and I have been wanting to visit Cuba for years and will try to get there before McDonalds and Starbucks show up after everything opens up for U.S. travel.
We were in Jamaica and Grand Cayman last week and sailed past Cuba on the way home.

Each first time I see this Jeff Srsic snake & peonies back piece, my jaw stays dropped.

Each first time I see this Jeff Srsic snake & peonies back piece, my jaw stays dropped.

Meet "Odie", AKA: Odie Capote AKA: Poh-poh
Odie was found as a puppy with his sister in a trash bag in a dumpster by my step daughter. He's mostly a terrier mix and was born with only a nub of a tail. He's super affectionate and loves Ziggy dog like a brother.
He's on the left awaiting some turkey scraps:

On hind legs:



The other curly white dog is Maggie the poodle. She was a confiscated puppy mill breeder that we adopted from the city pound. We knew that no one else would pick her so we took a chance. She's turned out to be a very sweet dog who adores me. She's quite a hunter that loves to wrestle with the other dogs.
Here's the before photo when we got her home. It took several hours of hand clipping to clean her up. Beast!

After, with a new toy.



And "Lucky Pete" the parakeet that landed in our back yard to eat the seeds we put out for the wild birds. He's lucky I was there to prevent the dogs from eating him since he was not afraid. He obviously got out or was released. I put my hand down and he jumped up on it! We looked in the local CL and for signs, but no one was looking for him.

dude - lion on your chest - you're good
tattoo regret is normal when its your first
plus you look at thing with magnifying glass dont you?
now that you got the first outta the way
lets talk about your next tattoo :) and the one after that...:)

wow seriously?
Thanks for the feedback, you can't imagine the hell I went through with tattoo regret...I guess different people have different opinions...if anyone else has any opinions positive or negative please share.
You are right though, at the end of the day its all about what I think.

Meet "Odie", AKA: Odie Capote AKA: Poh-poh
Odie was found as a puppy with his sister in a trash bag in a dumpster by my step daughter. He's mostly a terrier mix and was born with only a nub of a tail. He's super affectionate and loves Ziggy dog like a brother.
He's on the left awaiting some turkey scraps:

On hind legs:



The other curly white dog is Maggie the poodle. She was a confiscated puppy mill breeder that we adopted from the city pound. We knew that no one else would pick her so we took a chance. She's turned out to be a very sweet dog who adores me. She's quite a hunter that loves to wrestle with the other dogs.
Here's the before photo when we got her home. It took several hours of hand clipping to clean her up. Beast!

After, with a new toy.



And "Lucky Pete" the parakeet that landed in our back yard to eat the seeds we put out for the wild birds. He's lucky I was there to prevent the dogs from eating him since he was not afraid. He obviously got out or was released. I put my hand down and he jumped up on it! We looked in the local CL and for signs, but no one was looking for him.

I have a couple of "mini-looks" that I am going for. I want the view from the left side of my body to be the "sweet" tattoos (flowers, butterflies, stars, etc.) and the view from the right side of my body to be the "sassy" tattoos (pin-ups and other sexy stuff). My front and my back views won't necessarily have a theme, but I don't want tattoos to be totally different from each other in one glance.

I've come full circle with my feelings on aesthetics, placements and overall look...
When I started 30 years ago, I never had the thought of being completely covered and therefore, didn't have any plan other than WHO to get tattooed by. Once I started travelling to the artists I admired, a lot more thought went into what/where and how it would all work together. At one point I made "tattoo map" of my body. I took a roll of 3ft wide printer paper (used in BIG factory print shops), laid down on it and had someone trace me. I roughly sketched in the work I already had and then put the general idea and name of artist on the spots I wanted to get covered. That "map' hung on the back of my closet door for a few years and I got about 60% of the work I had hoped for (I had an entire body suit mapped out-HA!). At the time I really believed that the total coverage look was the right way and everybody who didn't think in those terms and got random work all over them was an idiot with no planning skills.
A bunch of shit changed in my life and I put my map on hold for awhile....which turned out to be A LONG WHILE. Over that last couple years or so leading up to me diving back into this, my attitude towards total coverage has changed somewhat. Now I find looking at people with many tattoos not all tied together and the not-tattooed skin in between them, pretty cool. I still completely appreciate the well planned, total coverage stuff too but I no longer have a "tattoo map" and just plan on getting what I want, when I want and if the mood strikes me, get it all tied together in the end.
Overall though, I've never worried about my "look" and how others perceived me. I may have be more aware back when tattooing was not "normal", but now-a-days, lots of neck/hands/face/feet tattoos make me look average..... or at least normal.

When I was growing up, tattoos were always something bikers had. I dated a guy who didn't like them, and when I got my third tattoo, he was not thrilled, and joked about calling me "biker bitch"...that third tattoo happened to be Tigger holding three daisies. That's really what all the Biker Bitches are getting, right?? Then I dated another guy who tried to force me to not get my 4th, a tree frog. I told him I wasn't living my life according to his sense of beauty. Now I'm married to a guy who digs the shit out of tattoos and encourages me to get more...and some of what I want are things he doesn't like and guess what? I don't care. I want him to find me attractive, obviously, but at the end of the day, if I think it's pretty, and I want it on me, I'ma git it.
I like looking at tattoos on women. I probably look like some weird stalker or something, but I find them very feminine, and I like to admire, say, the curve of a shoulder that is tattooed. It's beautiful.

@Synesthesia
As a woman who just got a traditional tiger tattoo, which I guess is more on the masculine end of the spectrum, I understand your trepidation. We are who we are: Masculine, feminine, androgynous. Tattoos don't change the execution of your gender, or more importantly, YOU.
Keep in mind that subject matter is all about artistic liberty and has a great impact on how masculine or feminine it looks. (I kind of think my tiger looks like a big old queen, but that's cool. I like him.)
Your family is right. Your body will ruin. It will age, eat itself, cells will stop degenerating, and your skin isn't going to look like you're 23 forever. Guess what? Happens to the people without tattoos, too. Don't base opinions about your body on what others think, because you're going to have a lot of people in your life who care about you for you, not for the ink or lack of.

Girls with tough tattoos are my favorite thing.

When you get to the point where you don't rely on other people for your self esteem, it's a very liberating feeling. It took me more years than I'd care to admit.

I understand where you're coming from, but you've got to do things (like get tattooed) for yourself and not for other people, or worry about your decision's affect on other people. I used to care about what others thought about me, everyone does, but then I decided to do what felt right to me and now I love myself SO much more with tattoos than without.

Find an artist. Discuss your ideas. Get a tattoo. Then more. Oh, and start an intro thread of your own. We like pictures!

Our youngest and the "granddog" Rocky at church Wednesday evening. Yes, Rocky goes to Bible study and pays close attention!

Hey! @Pugilist I love your "sick ink"!! XXOO

There can only be two explanations
1. You need to take some glamour shots.
2. You don't spend enough time in parking garages