Guerillaneedles

I love this. It's so true. Sometimes my mum has commented that if I'm worried about money (I do tend to worry a lot being self employed) maybe I shouldn't have got that last tattoo. I can't take it back to the shop though! I also had to explain to her that even though I was a bit strapped there was no way I could cancel my appointments with Sneaky Mitch or guen Douglas because I'd waited so long for them! (I'd saved enough anyway). Sometimes I do wonder how I afford it, but I guess you just do! I save every month, own my own house and always make sure my mortgage and bills are paid before I buy any luxuries. I do ok but am in no way 'rolling in it' yet I've been able to afford a lot of high quality tattooing. Go figure.

Yes but with Guen is just a touch up I think so not so bad!

Time etc is a bit of a moot point, tattooists are people just like you, we're all different! We work at different rates, and to be honest I think it's pretty impossible to say how long a 'sleeve' would take as it's very dependent on you and how well you sit. I'd say with something like you want you really need to do your research. Look at portfolios, do the artists have experience of doing similar work? Shop A sounds like they put you off because they don't have anyone capable of doing justice to the idea, but instead of pointing you in the right direction (eg. We don't have a realism artist at our shop so we send people who want that to someone we recommend in our city centre) they tried to talk you out of it. I'll reiterate how important I think it is to research and then if you're happy with the artist you have chosen (you trust them to do got a good job) you can usually trust them not to fleece you time /money wise. Large work like that takes as long as it takes! You're question 'what is a tattoo?' I'd guess is a response to what the first shop said. I suspect that they think the first one certainly is photo shopped, which is entirely possible. That being said, it's tattooable by the right person. They might also think, like I tend to do, that a proper 'tattoo' needs black lines in it to hold it together over time. Realism like that can blend/fade into a mush, especially if done poorly. Tattoos need structure, but that's just my opinion,

I might be biased since I have two but I love Danielle Rose's ladyheads. I actually have a proper emotional reaction to her work that I rarely get from the visual arts. The one on the left is from her earlier work, the second one about a year later, I think it's interesting to see the difference. I also love Claudia de Sabe's ladies and Xam.

As a qualified teacher myself I have to agree with this. Sounds like this teacher was a bit too keen to be 'down with the kids' and in doing so has made a huge error in professional judgement. Is he young by any chance? Not that that's an excuse but I've seen people make this mistake before. The Facebook permission is bullshit, there's no way that should ever be construed as due diligence.

No probably not. I think it makes sense that certain personality types are attracted to certain activities /past times. I guess tattooing wouldn't appeal to people who are always changing their minds, or people who struggle with change for example. Of course I'm generalising on a huge scale here!

But I bet there would be some common traits amongst a large amount of us.

Hello! Cool collection. I'm pretty new around here too.

Beautiful. You lucky guy

My first thread. I'd be interested to see what you guys have to say. So I have this theory that heavily tattooed people are more able to accept those things they can't change, and therefore are much more likely to have a positive outlook on life. I think to be tattooed (and I guess I am talking king about proper collectors here, people who seek out specific artists) you need to put your trust entirely in another person to do something permanent on you. It's often incredibly hard to visualise what that will look like exactly (the tattoo is obviously much more than the stencil) and it may or may not have elements in that you expect. I love almost all of my tattoos, but there are things about some of them that I would have done differently (most of the time this has to do with placement but not always). However I have learned to love them for all their imperfections, because I have to. I would say from personal experience this positive attitude definitely influences other parts of my life. This might sound weird but I often repeat to myself how much I love a new tattoo as well, and I think this positive reinforcement helps me to accept a new addition much more quickly. Though to be honest with every new addition I do feel more 'me' so it often has little to do with acceptance and definitely more satisfaction at another piece of the puzzle fitting into place. Anyway I digress. Thoughts?

I like to be inspired by the new spaces created even I get new work. They often give me an idea of what might fit there. A long time ago, when I just had my feet /ankle tattoos I really liked the way they looked with bare legs but then my want to collect and be tattooed took over. I love negative space with tattoos, I have a space on my leg where I crammed them in and I wish I hadn't. I'm more careful now.

IMO neo - traditional has a lot more detail to it than just traditional which very much relies on simple, strong design and often limited colours. New school is much more cartoon like with smooth colour gradients. But really it doesn't matter, if you're into it you're into it. The lines are becoming much more blurred as artists experiment with different techniques.

No, but I guess it's not really comparable. Sailing rarely illicits the same strong emotional reactions as religion!

I've thought about it a lot. After all, isn't a large amount of artists who tattoo 'Japanese' imagery for example not Japanese themselves? And no one seems to get upset about that I think the key here is respect and also an acceptance that some people (especially of religion your image is connected to) might take offence. I'd agree there's no way to know a person's personal connection to an image, but I don't agree with overtly racist hate imagery I'm afraid. - - - Updated - - - True

I always ask for a ball park figure and then take the maximum amount mentioned (plus a little more just in case). I have usually ended up paying the top end however I've been pleasantly surprised more. When I price my own tattoos I do it by size. Pricing art is really very hard but at the stage in at I find it evens out. I usually end up doing my own designs a bit cheaper as I'm happy to do them and I can put them in my portfolio. I will however change the price if a client moves the goalposts, as I think this is only fair. (ie.I'll drop the price if the design is simplified)

I went to Jamaica last year with my sister and heard this ALL the time being hollered at me on the beach. Most people were really nice /intrigued etc but I did feel a bit like a museum piece. Was kind of glad to get away from all the attention (and I'm no wallflower!) but I am super pale and my tattoos are very colourful. Sounds like you had a great time, sadly I wouldn't go back without my partner because as two young women we got a lot of unwanted attention.

I used to ask for them and then I'd do embroideries based on them. I don't ask anymore though. If I do a preparatory painting for a tattoo I usually give it to the customer.

I've just been reminded of when is I'd just had my feet/ankles tattooed with beautiful birds and flowers and some guy walked past and said 'I thought you had mud on your legs' (they're actually super colourful). I just thought cheers mate, some pretty expensive mud!

I said the same thing to my dad many moons ago! When I got my second one he said 'hasn't the first one rubbed off yet.' more recently in a family WhatsApp conversation, after I'd posted my bird of Prey by Emily Wood, he said 'that's nice, but don't got think you've got enough now? My sister started laughing. I put him straight now, fact is I'm not going to stop getting tattooed anytime soon!

Thought I'd wade in with my opinion. I love Stu Pagdin 's tigers, so much so I have 2 already and planning another. I've also got this tiger gurl if that counts? Haha I used to only like bird tattoos now it seems the theme is cat vs. Bird!

I think I'll eventually get my feet reworked as I got them done in Australia and despite using sun block religiously I think the uv was just too strong and it battered them in their most sensitive states. I really love those tattoos but I think I'll wait until I've tattooed every else before doing it again (they hurt).

Thanks I'll guess I'll be doing this quite a lot as I explore the site more. I'm really into it, so nice to find a community of like minded people.

For me it's hands/fingers. It was rank and still very much fresh in my mind. Had my feet done as well, I remember they really hurt but I still sat 4.5hrs for each one! I think there's still a book in a hostel in Sydney with my bite marks in it. But I don't really 'remember' the pain of that makes sense? It was around 6 years ago now. Still got my ribs /full Backpiece to go. Bleurgh