Mush

finally got the word, i'm starting my turtleback next week.
pretty excited, been trying to align this tattoo for 2 years.
the best part is that the back is really the last major piece of real estate i have open, so it will be cool to see everything start blending together as i enter the bodysuit club booya!

I got my first-ever hand-poked tattoo last night from our own @cltattooing:

It's also my first scorpion. Let's be honest: I needed one.

It's done. It's actually done. The last session was the worst one I've had to endure. Major touch ups to the wind bars/clouds, double lining, basically every soft spot got hit in one day. By the end I was definitely spent, but so stoked. Dana was very pleased with how this came out, and that makes me happy too. He wants me to show up to the Baltimore or Philly conventions and do the back piece contest.
This took a year and a half, and it was an amazing experience.

I'm hanging in there. Little over 6 hours in. Damn spine work. Watching Harry Potter movies. That's about the speed of my brain right now!

Thanks all! It's definitely a large undertaking! Currently into day two, about an hour in.. Here is a photo taken this morning of yesterday's progress.. Excuse the undies & the angle - my friend took this photo when I got out of the shower!
Will add more as I can take them, working on upper back today so can be difficult to get good action shots via selfie!

Okay, we are six hours in of day 1 of 3.. Here are the first few shots. We're doing full back in three days, a third at a time, so we don't have to keep going over fresh ink from previous days :)
Artist: Erin Chance, tattooing at Sacred Tattoo in Auckland, New Zealand

Ouch.
Right in the spine.

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

Here's my progress so far by Diego Azaldegui. Got another session in a few weeks which should hopefully finish it off.

Session five yesterday, lining and shading background on the ribs and love handles. Goddamn the love handles are a shitty fucking spot. Next session we'll shade the background on my other cheek and thigh so we'll be going into the new year with a substantial chunk of the background done. I love how it's coming together.

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

@MrToby Thats going to be awesome! I love the skull

@MrToby Thats going to be awesome! I love the skull

As promised I have now managed to get some pictures of my fully outlined back. I never imagined it would be so many lines when I started but after 5 sessions and 15 hours in total we have completed the first stage. Very happy with it and can't find enough mirrors to look at all the detail.

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

Im in! it would be fun to meet some people, get the ins and outs of the convention.

@Mush @DeathB4Decaf We usually have a LST meet up at the Montreal convention, both of you should come and hang out! I will hopefully have my back done by then so we can have a backpiece party!
@rozone Why would you get tattooed by anybody other than a wizard?

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done

I have two skulls on my right upper arm. One takes up most of my inner arm, the other one is smaller, about the size of a fist, on the outer part of my arm. They look cool because skulls always look cool.

Yes. It's people's personal choice what they do, who are we to judge right? But, let's say not too long ago, when I started getting tattooed in the 80's, ya never heard of anyone seeking anything to manage the pain of getting tattooed. It would never have been a deciding factor. Times were so much more simpler...one either got tattooed, or one didn't, and if one didn't it was because of one of two reasons. They didn't like tattoos or they were too scared of the pain. Simple.
My personal belief is, seeking to mask the pain is kinda cheating. It's like the phrase, no pain no gain. It's like going on a diet of ice cream and cookies, it's like becoming fit by going for a stroll. We all do it at some level, seek the easy way out...every single one of us in some kind of format, it seems to be human nature. There's too many options out there. Slowly wins the race. Take the time, tough it out, the hard experiences in life earns us insight and adds to our knowledge.
Yeah, I've used opiates in the past while under the machine, but not to try mask the pain...a lot more simpler than that, just because I liked to get loaded on drugs and alcohol. That's it. On top of that, I can assure you, it does nothing for pain management. All it does is fucks you up and the local pain is the same...at times even worse because of how fucked up you are, ya can't shift the pain.
By far, I find the best way to pain manage is focus, straight with the good prep we talk about.

I mean, I know that tattoos hurt, sometimes a lot, but I had some medical shit happen to me in the past year that was among the worst pain I have ever experienced, like pain that makes you vomit uncontrollably (for which I was prescribed far LESS in terms of painkillers than what some people are describing in this thread), and it's made me have a low, low tolerance for otherwise healthy people (i.e. without chronic problems that exacerbate what it means to sit for a tattoo!) not being able to grin and bare it through a tattoo. It really sucks sometimes, I am not disputing that, but we all deal with it. And we are doing this voluntarily. We are feeling the pain because of something we want, not because our body is telling us that we are ill. The pain also stops as soon as the needle does. If folks want to use painkillers or muscle relaxants to make the process easier, that's up to them and their tattooers--I have never found it worth the side effects, and I really resist the notion that it is ever "necessary". Like do whatever you want, but let's remember that just because something is really painful, doesn't mean that we can't just... deal with it. We all like to complain about how much tattoos hurt as some kind of bonding exercise, but we wouldn't still be getting tattooed if it really required sedation to survive!

On Saturday I was back in Kincardine to finish up the lines. Starting background Dec 12 I'm booked for the whole day so hopefully get a lot done