hogg

Show a little respect; Jonathan Shaw put out some great magazines in the early 90s.

Best first post in history!

My wife and I just booked with Stuart Cripwell. We are stoked!

Every time I see a tattoo by Klem, I end up starting at it for a very long time.

Thanks, Gia and MsRad, for this enlightening thread.

I found the healing to be pretty easy. It's not like healing an elbow or ditch or some other joint, at least in my experience. And Gouge, I feel you on the first 5 or 10 minutes. It always takes me a while to get acclimated. I liken it to getting into a swimming pool: it's freezing at first, and it feels like you'll never acclimate, but within a few minutes, the water's fine and it actually gets worse if you get out and jump back in. Another reason why I don't like taking long breaks during tattoo sessions--then I have to get acclimated all over again! I remember getting birdies tattooed on my chest over 15 years ago and thinking, "Man, there is no WAY I could get a full back piece!" But then 10 minutes went by....

That's because your back is weirdly sensitive. Ever asked someone to rub your shin? Nope. But back rubs are awesome because your back has a million sensitive spots, all of which feel super fucking awesome when getting tattooed, especially the lower back. You already know that tattoos hurt, and you seem to be acutely aware that the back will hurt, too. You also know that you're already on this path (didn't you just get your hand tattooed?) and that the back is the ultimate canvas. you just need to figure out what you're getting and who's gonna do it, although something tells me that you have more than a few ideas in mind. While I did find the process to be painful (and expensive), I have no regrets at all about doing it. It was so exciting to see it come together, session by session. There's something about having a full back piece. It's something that I've always admired, but for years, I didn't think I'd be able to make the physical/financial/mental commitment to go through with it myself. Completing it was a big milestone for me, and I have a beautiful souvenir of the experience that I get to wear for life.

I saw it in person. :)

I was at an offsite work event yesterday and a woman from our LA office saw my sleeves when I rolled up my shirtsleeves. She has a tattoo of upside-down script on her wrist--in all red--so I already knew how this was gonna go. "Can I ask you some questions about your ink? Because I just love ink. I wear some myself--but obviously not as much ink as you do. I only wear about three pieces of ink." Every time she said "ink," I cringed.

Killer! Congrats, man. Yutaro Sakai of Skull & Sword showed me his in-progress back piece a few weeks ago: a giant (and I mean GIANT) Fudo Myo-o head by Grime. Massive cover-up, but man, so nice.

I have a Scott rose right next to a Freddy rose. #luckyguy

Her username isn't Ms. Lame!

I remember trying to count how many dots were going into my ass (just to get my mind off of how horrible that session was). I think I stopped around 300.

Great idea!

I got tattooed there once! Speaking of, where are you getting tattooed, Iwar?

Dammit! Freddy mentioned this a while back, but I never heard when it was. I can't make it (why can't this be on Saturday night?).

The outside of my elbow was the worst for me. If you extend your arm with your palm facing up, I'm talking about the part that faces out (the brachioradialis, if you're keeping score). That took forever to heal. When I was getting my arms tattooed, I cut the collar and sleeve off an old long-sleeved T-shirt and slept with that. It sounds goofy, but I put the shirt collar over my head so that the sleeve would stay on. That way, I didn't have to worry about it rubbing against the sheets (or my wife), and if my fresh tattoo stuck to the sleeve, I'd just run warm water over it and carefully remove it.

Haha, I was there, too. He walked by and my wife and I both did a double take. Great point you make about being at a tattoo convention and having a "Look at that guy! He has tattoos!" moment.

That is awesome, Luca! My favorite renderings of Fudo Myo-o are the ones like that, where the flames form a phoenix. Horiokami does tebori, right?

I don't know how many times I've looked at those legs that Stuart did. That is some of the finest tattooing I've ever seen. The whole thing...it's just so fucking cool.