gougetheeyes

I recently expressed the desire to get a small traditional style crystal tattooed on my chest, pretty much right in between the 'girls' to my boyfriend, and he scrunched his face up at the idea. When we met I already had two on my thigh, and recently got another above my ankle that I had planned since before we started dating. I have always planned to keep getting tattooed, and never really considered his opinion before when it came to getting them (it is a relatively new relationship and I have only recently begun to discuss ideas with him). I feel the way that others who have posted on the subject do, that while I retain ownership of my body if its something he's going to hate looking at I don't want to cause a rift, but at the same time its something I really wanted to di, even before I met him.

My girlfriend is pretty great about my tattoos. She's not tattooed, nor will she ever be, and I feel as though I can say that with the utmost certainty, though things can always change. She gets genuinely excited for me and encourages me, which is really nice. I think it's been a bit of a transformation for her, because she's never had any kind of interest in tattoos before me.
It's great to be able to show her awesome tattoos on LST and instagram, and hear her appreciation for them (even if she sometimes doesn't particularly like them). Her family loves me, but I know that they aren't fans of tattoos. Her parents have intimated before that they'd be pissed if she got one, so it does cross my mind that the more I get covered, they might have negative opinions. Unfortunate, but not the end of the world.

I'm in a really good place with my girlfriend. We've been together for almost 5 years. When we first met I only had one quite small tattoo on my foot, and I wasn't into the culture and tattoos like I am now.
Over the last 1,5 year I've almost covered my arm and some on my thigh. My girlfriend has one tiny tattoo and is not into tattoos like I am. She doesn't have any plans to get any tattoos either. She's always supportive of my interests and the stuff I like. I show her tattoos all the times and she's always honest with her opinions. Even though she doesn't like tattoos the same way I do, she gets the whole thing. She can spot a quality tattoo from a bad one and she respects the culture. As long as my girlfriend respects me for me and is okay with my tattoos and the fact that I will be more covered than I am, I'm happy!

I've been in a relationship with one woman who had a single tattoo (quite big skull wearing a crown, and snake or dagger, on her lower leg) and I've been with some women who really liked my tattoos a lot (fascination, more or less of sexual nature) and wanted to talk about them and about how they percieved me because of them, that it was a turn of for them and so on.
Honestly, I don't care for being some object of fetishism for a person that I care about and who knows me well (for a one night stand it can be a fun game to play though) And I don't really like talking at length about (my) tattoos with people without their own, and with little understanding, taste and knowledge of the art (usually goes hand in hand)
My girlfriend as of a few months back has a really good approach to it, which makes me feel very comfortable. In the meantime I've been chipping away on my backpiece and gotten four other tattoos. It took a long time before we said anything more about my tattoos than the fact that they are all over my body. She knows that tattoos are important for me (and as with anything I'm passioned about she is encouraging) but since it's not an interest we have in common we seldom speak about it. She is mildly positive towards tattoos, but has none herself (she was going to get the logo of her punk band tattooed but it's been postponed indefinitely) She likes my tattoos and she doesn't think it's a big deal whenever I talk about the next one. I can show her tattoos on instagram and I can feel that she is starting to "get it" more and more, but she is not doing it to please me, she's honest. She is also very well rounded when it comes to taste in culture in general and appriciates different art forms, I think it helps.
I don't know if this was such a good explination of how tattoos sits in our relationship, but for a plainskin I must say she has an amazing attitude.
As for myself, I'm turning more and more into a snob when it comes to tattoos and I would much rather be with someone with no tattoos than someone with bad tattoos. It's not often that I come across a woman with really great tattoos and a lot of coverage, but when I do see someone like that : god damn, it's hot!

I know that @MrsGougeTheEyes has one on her forearm that I believe she got from Cody Miller and I'll vouch for it being super rad. Also @polliwog won a Tattoo of the a Month contest with a big rad fuck off Chad eagle. I think Chad's eagles are the best, they're so powerful. I don't know how much my opinion counts for here, but I'm going to say that eagles on women (or on men) are pretty fucking badass.

I'm thinking about sweet eagle tats, and possibly having one, or three, on me. Are there any ladies out there with some good strong eagles on them? I do think of eagles as more of a masculine back piece/ chest piece, and I'm no tougher than a geriatric miniature poodle. To be clear, I'm not asking for opinions of what to do with my body. I'm wanting to get feedback/pics regarding eagles on chicks, from chicks with eagles, or dudes that love chicks with sweet eagle tats. I'm also not opposed to finding out whose eagles are so good that they make you mad.

Yes it's definitely worth it, and that's what I had to keep telling myself when I wanted to tap out. Suck it up, girl. You stop now and *something* won't look as good. That really helped get me through.
It was so strange - when I knew we were at the home stretch that evening, it stopped hurting. We'd grinded a place near my neck where the nerves are really messed up and we knew the second pass on that was coming. And I literally had to prepare by holding on to the table and putting one song on my iPod to play repeatedly and crying and muttering "don't move don't move don't move" for about 15 minutes as tears streamed down my face. Worst pain ever by far. There's something wrong with the nerves in my neck/shoulder right there. After that was over, I felt like I could sit there for hours. Soooo strange coming out the other side of that. The body is such a strange sack of oddness. But a really pretty one now :)

Got my next appointment all set up for the second week in January. Looking forward to more work being done, not looking forward to *getting* it done :D Got the right side peonies worked on last time, they'll have brown added to the leaves in the future, and some lines on the petals.

Now that's what I'm talking about @beez!
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I'm not to proud to say I lived in bikini tops and going braless while home while healing my back. I've only had line work done, but damn, healing it wasn't all that fun. I wear multiple layers at work daily (including thick coveralls) so healing blew. But bikini tops- I love you.
Oh, and ladies, I haven't posted a photo here. But here's the start to my shoulders to knees backpiece. Weee. Next sit in three weeks to finish lining my butt and thighs.

Remember how we were talking about Eagles earlier? BAM! I got an eagle fighting a dragon the other day. If y'all didn't see it in the latest tattoo lowdown thread, here it is! From flash originally drawn by Tom Berg.

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Ha! Murder She Wrote was filmed in Mendocino, CA. Which has kind of a Maine vibe, minus the feet of snow.

Five star dinner to anyone that can land us a job! ;)
Thanks for the rec's everyone!

Myself and the lovely @MrsGougeTheEyes visited Maine over the summer and we're heading back this month.
And possibly this spring.. possibly full time.
So: tattoo shops in Portland?! What goes on up there? I popped into one (the name of which I can't even remember) and the work looked prettaaay prettayyy... prettayy.. not good. So get at me about Portland and also Maine in general if you know anything!

I recommend this place: https://www.facebook.com/ElRayoTaqueria
and i have memories of eating a gigantic delicious pork chop at this place: The Grill Room & Bar | Steakhouse-Seafood-Pizza | Portland, Maine

A good friend of mine lives about 30-40 min from Portland and has a bunch of tattoos from John Biswell that are rock solid.
He also has tattoos from a girl named Gemma who used to work there and now opened a shop called Gemstone Tattoo. Don't know as much about that.

I have a friend who is an AMAZING massage therapist up that way, check him out: About

My buddies from California moved there a few years ago and opened this place: https://www.facebook.com/hellagoodtacos
SUPER nice people: a couple with four (!) kids. I wish I could go sample their food, so let me live vicariously.

Myself and the lovely @MrsGougeTheEyes visited Maine over the summer and we're heading back this month.
And possibly this spring.. possibly full time.
So: tattoo shops in Portland?! What goes on up there? I popped into one (the name of which I can't even remember) and the work looked prettaaay prettayyy... prettayy.. not good. So get at me about Portland and also Maine in general if you know anything!

Myself and the lovely @MrsGougeTheEyes visited Maine over the summer and we're heading back this month.
And possibly this spring.. possibly full time.
So: tattoo shops in Portland?! What goes on up there? I popped into one (the name of which I can't even remember) and the work looked prettaaay prettayyy... prettayy.. not good. So get at me about Portland and also Maine in general if you know anything!

done by Chris O'Donnell at his private studio
happy new year to all

Welllllllll....if it makes you happy get another one, right?! Went and saw Paul Dobleman at Spider Murphy's last week...please excuse the inflammation


Hope everyone is having a great New Year so far!

Whoa, with all the awesome tattoos posted in the Lowdown thread recently I'm surprised no one's posted here yet. I'll kick it off! Here's my thigh by Seth Wood, started at Temple and finished at Saved.

Happy New Year LSTers!!!
The rules:
The tattoo picture that gets posted in this thread for January 2015 with the most 'likes' for the month wins! The contest starts on the first of the month and ends on the last day of the month.

Your tattoo picture must be posted in this thread (both tattooers and tattoo customers can win) in order to qualify.
Include with your photo/post...tattoo artist name & tattoo shop.
You MUST be the one who has the tattoo or did the tattoo.
You can 'like' as many tattoos as you want.
It can be a finished or in progress tattoo.
You cannot enter the same tattoo in more than one contest.

Sorry for posting this a day late you guys!

According to Google, Portsmouth NH is less than a hour's drive from Portland and you have Jason Scott and Hobo's and Congress Street. Jason Scott rules, Jeb Riley tattoos there and he rules, and Chad Koeplinger guests there regularly. Portsmouth is a really nice town too.

You've got at least 2 world class artists really close to you . . .
CHAD LENJER
the drown town
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Ha. you beat me by 3 minutes . . . :)