tertia

Let's see...starting from the bottom left and working clockwise: lily of the valley, belladonna (kind of hard to see in the photos I posted, but they just look like black round berries), foxglove, poppy bud, yellow oleander, two morning glories, pokeberry, autumn crocus, more lily of the valley, and a big poppy in the middle. Thank you for the warm welcome everyone!

I love Christian Lanouette's work. He's out of Montreal. https://www.instagram.com/christianlanouette/ My tattoo artist, Myra Oh, out of Jacksonville, FL: https://www.instagram.com/myraoh/ I don't know if these artists are under-recognized, but I'm pretty intrigued by all of the work coming out of Wonderland Tattoo in Portalnd. I don't know that I will every try to get a piece done there since I prefer more traditional tattoos on me, but their work sure is pretty. Alice Carrier, Alice Kendall, and Kirsten Holliday: https://www.instagram.com/alicerules/ https://www.instagram.com/alicestattoos/ https://www.instagram.com/onholliday/ Another one I'm not sure is under-recognized or that I'd want to be tattooed by, but whose work I really admire is David Hale. His whole approach to tattooing is interesting, though he's taking a sabbatical right now unfortunately. I have a print of his on my desk. http://davidhale.org/flesh/

On a somewhat related note, I do gymnastics and aerial silks, and I'm worried about how the intense friction/frequent bruising/silk burns that come with these sports (especially the latter) might affect the integrity of my tattoos long-term, even after they've healed. For example, my new tattoo is on the back of my calf, and when we climb the silks for warm up, we descend back to the ground by wrapping the fabric tightly around one leg and sliding to the ground, which causes a lot of friction where the silk is wrapped, including against the back of my leg where the tattoo is. I have two questions: 1) Could this kind of repetitive friction damage (e.g. cause accelerated fading) the work over time? What about repetitive bruising? 2) This is a little moot now that I'm three weeks healed, but for future work, how long should I wait to subject new pieces to this kind of friction? To foam block gymnastics pits? There's plenty of info here and elsewhere online about the potential risks of going to a germy gym/sweating on a new tattoo, but I'm specifically concerned with exposing it to abrasive surfaces like gymnastics floor carpet, beam suede, pit foam, and aerial silks. For the record, I am aware that I worry too much. This forum has already done wonders in easing my mind about many other tattoo-related worries, so I figured I throw this out there. Thanks! :)

Hey everyone! My name is Emily. I'm 26 years old, originally from Michigan, currently living in Florida. After a solid year of researching and reflecting, I finally got my first tattoo three weeks ago! You can imagine I sifted through a lot of shit information on tattoos and tattooing during that time, so I'm happy to have landed here at last. I've been lurking for the past few weeks and the trove of solid advice I've found here has done wonders for easing my numerous healing process anxieties. I'm also excited to have found a community of tattoo enthusiasts since my husband and most of my friends are completely uninterested in tattoo culture. I'm looking forward to joining the community, continuing to learn about the craft, and continuing to collect tattoos. Here's my new tattoo by Myra Oh out of Jacksonville, Florida. fresh: three weeks healed: close up (also three weeks healed; forgive my leg hair, I have no idea when it's okay for me to shave again): I'm a pharmacist currently pursuing advanced training in toxicology, so all of the plants in the tattoo are toxic.