bongsau

Gustave Dore inspired piece, wow, heavy shit man, can't wait to see how that turns out!

Thought I would also upload and share this dope action shot. Plus you can catch a peak at my backpiece that's about 5 months settled in as well as Len's great hair lol ;) Another reminder that it is the tattoo experience as whole - that truly makes the tattoo. that's what matters. Tattooing is a very powerful, deliberate and permanent act and series of events. Last Wednesday was an incredible day. My work in the morning. Popping into the tattoo shop to just to say what's up and casually flipping through Len's book - I have 3 tattoos from Len now and each one was a spontaneous act with permanent results. Going and getting a dope haircut so I didn't get a cheap $25cent razor fade (found a new barber, an older black gentleman, he shared his cool snake tattoo on his dark skin, he got in 1967!). My tai chi practice in the park. An encouraging doctor's appointment. The boys keeping the shop open into the evening to accommodate me (shout out to Champion Tattoo Edmonton). The stencil and re-stencil to get the placement just right. The first 30 seconds when I thought holy shit man, this is brutal have I gone too far? Bishops Green on the stereo. Tattoo talk with the boys. Sweating through the table. Feeling my nose about to get crushed sideways on the table. the post-tattoo newport smoke, the vulnerability and the satisfaction with the end result. The morning after when the shower water hit the back of my raw tattooed skin. Even today walking down the street, walking proud and tall with this new tattoo. Hearing the lady behind me in the crosswalk whispering out loud 'damn that's a nice tattoo' to herself. Seriously, I am really buzzing off how this one turned out. The butterfly symbolism is pretty obvious. But also this: I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering about, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly. Soon I awakened, and there I was, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. -Master Zhuang I became aware of this taoist quote the morning after receiving my tattoo, and I too had the butterfly dream leading up to this spontaneous tattoo. I found it very fitting, not just in the context of the rest of my tattoos, but in terms of some personal growth I have been making over the last few months. And here comes this profound tattoo experience from a simple design that carries some complex symbolism to me, providing enlightenment when I needed it the most. Thank you LST for providing a medium to share the tattoo experience together !

shake rattle n roll baby!

"Yknow what's awesome about this budd?...you have a whole bodysuit of tattoo and MY tattoo is going to be the one everyone is gonna ask about haha" Keepin' it real w/ King Len, guest spot at Champion Tattoo in Edmonton, AB Deadly placement, deadly evening, deadly tattoo. But holy fack did this one sizzle and rattle.

@The Tig ...yknow I think I actually met the Mung bass dude in Nelson, BC at a hippy houseparty like 13 years ago! He gave me a Mung demo tape, we got super stoned and we played air bass to Mr. Krinkle by Primus. It was totally bizarro. If you do go to Cuba, check out Santa Clara, Sancti Spiritus in the central part and Trinidad on the south coast. When my old band played a gig in Sancti Spiritus it was a young gals 16th birthday. And I butchered happy birthday in spanglish on the mic to her. Meidy turned 18 and wrote me a letter, thanking me for the happy birthday song, which she still remembered. She said I inspired her an her friends to get tattoos, and she got her first one on her 18th birthday...of spongebob squarepants lol ! VIVA CUBA! - - - Updated - - - small world

Women with lower back tattoos are tough as shit...that spot was one of the worst and on par with the back of the knee.

Long before pinterest and instagram, we went to libraries, museums, flipped through art magazines. Hell I found a reference for my dragonfly tattoo from a magnet on my mom's fridge. I've found inspiration from old church stainglass, science/biology text book illustrations, art books from asian bookstores, logos, paintings, album covers, etc etc. Used bookstores are great. There is so much in this world that can inspire a new tattoo aside from other peoples tattoos. We need to remember tattooers aren't mind readers. I think you need to have a better understanding yourself as to what you want tattooed on you and define it for the tattooer...aside from the vagueness "i just want something beautiful". That conveys the message that you just want the tattoo for the sake of having a tattoo. What do you really want? Flowers? A skull? Hot Stuff riding a unicorn? A shunga demon? These can all be beautiful tattoos...it sounds like the tattooer you've chosen truly wants to personalize a tattoo for you. Which is great! There are other tattooers that will slap on whatever off the wall and do a great job, and that's fine to if that's what you're looking for. You've got 6 months to really understand yourself what you want and figure out how to express, articulate and communicate that to your tattooer. Good luck!

Last weekend... I recorded 8 songs by Arrabio and Adictox in my Canadian basement, two incredible punk bands from Cuba! They are putting out an Eskoria tribute LP with the help of Solidarity Rock it was an insanely hectic day trying to keep 12 people speaking spanish focused and keep the day on schedule, keep things moving. we had to get it done, it was the only opportunity. 8 songs...by 2 bands...3 drummers...4 line-ups...microphonic guitars, amps on the fritz, gang vocals in spanish, 3 x 26oz of rum and a couple cases of beer, someone with really stinky feet, a drunk bassplayer, and my wifes 6 saltwater fishies almost died in the process. But we did it! we had one shot to this, as Adictox and Arrabio spent the past couple weeks touring Canada east coast to the west coast. They played with the legendary DOA in Edmonton last weekend. I split my head holding down the pit, it was awesome (how old am I again? not too old to slam!). My old band Slates played with the legendary Eskoria in Santa Clara when we toured Cuba in 2010.. William Fabian was the og punk icon for the punkies cubanos. He was killed 4 days after we said goodbye and left for home. So this project hits close to home for both myself and my Cuban hermanos. download the old Eskoria demo here it is a piece of history and with consideration of the conditions, climate and context this old recording was made in, it is one of the punkest things you will hear. Eskoria - Al Fin Por Fin

between @mtlsam and @Graeme 's PSC Dave tattoos, I think that a whirlwind trip to Montreal is needed for me, to fill out one of my remaining choice spots. And to get bagels..

recent glamour shots of our hell raisers: the shy one: the mischief maker: the turd burglar

<delete, inane comment, bad mojo>

eh welcome @obeymexican sounds like a good plan take your time save your money finish school travel to egypt experience the history get inspired come back and bang out the tattoo...

I can relate...I've been training kung fu - 3x a week, 2hr classes + solo training - since I started getting major work over 10 years ago. I've trained the day after getting a knee tattoo (wasn't very fun jumping and running), done sticky hands sparring within days of getting sleeve work (just trained my good arm). Gone to class the day after I got major shading done on my back. Trained all through stomach and chest tattoos. I had my first exam 1 week after getting a dragon on my ribs. Big tattoos, small tattoos. I'd say I'm pretty experienced at the tattooed ninja game by now, so I know where my limits are both with healing a tattoo and how to slow things down to not disrupt my healing or training regiment. Everything healed fine and I've never gone for any touchups. I'm pretty hands off and dry heal for the most part and i don't really baby my fresh tattoos anymore. I just dial down the intensity of my training in the week following. I don't skip class, I just modify my workout. My formula is I need to maintain my training so my body stays in shaolin-power-mode, it speeds up my healing. I'll dab a small amount of lotion on the tattoo right before class to make sure i don't crack any scabs when I stretch and jump. I'm cautious to avoid skin contact/rubbing/grips and certain types of drills and sparring with my training buddies. I'll wear those wick-away long sleeve sport shirts underneath my jacket for added peace of mind. Just make sure you dry off the tattoo afterwards, maybe take a rinse off. Just be protective of the tattoo and don't let somebody round house kick you in the fresh spot. It will suck! My homeboy has a bodysuit in progress by Paul Jeffries...he got his ass cheeks tattooed (with a 6hr round trip driving) and was in class the next morning, running, doing floor stretches, jumping, kicking and mooning us in the changeroom. My other buddy got tattooed on his arm in the afternoon and was in class that evening with a squishy saniderm bandage. He just beat everyone up with one hand that day lol. Everyone's different, but kung fu guys would rather risk a touchup than miss training lol. - - - Updated - - - I concur...we can learn a lot by watching. Just sit out a drill or sparring and take the opportunity to watch. You're still in class. You will still pickup on details. Good luck on your exam !

Gakkin and Guy Le Tatooer...the heavy black bodysuits are blowing my mind. Especially the recent one that Guy Le Tattooer is working on that French gal, with the dots, ornaments and big peonies. The layering is crazy, the results are beautiful.

interesting, but bizarre discussion. sounds a bit like signing up for life insurance...

Welcome and thank you @ChuckJ , interesting. Yknow I've thought about preserving my skin in the future, but didn't know there were new ventures that actually did this. I'm not sure how I feel though about having my tattoos on a wall and framed. Tattoos cease to become 3D living art when you take them off the body in my opinion. And I guess that's what I like about tattoos, they move, they are alive, they are part of you. "Lived In" art. Maybe one day I'll be able to compile all the stencils, photos, stories and anecdotes about my tattoos in a book for the purpose of passing on to my future generations. I'm still planning on living to 101 years old, so I have lots of time to figure it out.

yeeesh...I will remember the scent of this thread, smells like some bullshit

Yeah, I'm with Graeme on this method...keep it clean and let your body do its thang. Keep it simple. All these fancy tattoo aftercare products...lol...the best results I've received is when my tattooer slapped a depends diaper over the fresh tattoo, leave the bandage on for a few hours or overnight, and told me leave it alone. Maybe use a pea-drop of lubriderm after a few days of letting it air dry which worked great for a few years and then it started giving more burning/itchiness, likely from the lanolin, so I switched to other generic brands with least amount of ingredients. I've come to understand from my experiences that tattoo healing results are a function of how the tattoo was put into the skin, not what you put on the tattoo afterwards. Aftercare products are irritants in my opinion. I started doing your survey but further down into the questions really alienated me as someone who has "more than 5 tattoos"...not really any 'none of the above' choices. Do people really think this far into their tattoo aftercare? Hmm I wish this tattoo-goop had a nicer flowery scent! Have we all turned into a bunch of wimps? Promoting dry healing doesn't really do much for the aftercare product industry ;) Welcome anyway @tattooscience hope you find what you're looking for but moreso find some stuff you're not actively looking for. That is the great thing about this forum.

Welcome @Ronald. Congrats on cheating the reaper. May your journey down the tattoo-rabbit hole be exciting, knowledgeable and humbling. peace

Hi Jeff, welcome. Your tattoo looks great! I echo what Graeme said above...greys always look darker and red right after they are put into the skin and then lighten and soften up during the healing. I always found that part of healing that tattoo really fun to experience. If you were expecting or wanting a high contrast or harder lines with your black n grey tattoo I would recommend talking to your tattooer. They probably would want to see it healed anyway (well any artist on the neverending quest to improve would) so they can see the results of the grey-wash ratios they are using. Probably could darken spots up but then you may lose the portrait effect. But again, the lion looks great, classy tattoo bro, don't overthink it. Onto the next big one !

i`ll tell ya, after a decade worth of different pieces all over my body, getting a couple small bangers on the rib cage and love handle was a friggin sunny-beach-vacation. oh yeah...don`t tattoo the front or back of your knee. it is as painful and dumb an idea as it sounds!

I guess I deleted the original pic from my IG, so here is the mighty kung fu mantis again by Bryan J Turnbull (from my LST gallery). I just got him touched up last week, so he's lookin crisp and crunchy like a bug should. This pic is is pre-touchup at the 2 year mark. ...and a couple new ones to buzz some life back into this thread: "BUZZ OFF" by Jonny Murdoch "ZEN SPIDER" by Jonny Murdoch - - - Updated - - - And I wanted to give this special lil guy his own write-up: I call this one "TESSERACT ANT" It is tattoo #36 and now is the smallest tattoo on my body (about the size of a quarter)...so small in fact that it isn't readable until you get close enough and squint ...this is a concept tattoo I've been planning on getting for some 'time'... You may recognize the black n grey tattoo on the peripheral as the Escher dragon on my ribs, which happened to be the first "big" tattoo I got in 2005. The Escher Dragon is a 2-dimensional piece of art that tricks the eye into seeing 3-dimensions by manipulating depth and perception. Now, did you ever read the book 'Wrinkle in Time' by Madelaine L'Engle when you were a kid? So...herein lies the concept...I got this time-travellin' ant tattoo, in 2015...that has found it's way INSIDE the Escher Dragon that was made 10 years ago. So now, I've gone and made this a 4-dimensional tattoo...by adding "time" as a new variable... I know some of you are thinking...geez Bongsau, trippy, that's some interstellar shit maan...maybe wanna lay of the shrooms... It was made by Bryan Turnbull at the Edmonton Expo (comic con). Edmonton Journal newspaper showed up and took our picture for the paper: The photo is actually pretty funny...it probably looks like I'm getting work on an epic backpiece to the uninformed public, but in reality it was the big man Bryan putting on my smallest tattoo LOL "Only in our imagination do we live in more than two dimensions, and with its help we attempt to enliven the flatness of our image with depth. All of a sudden it may dawn on us how foolish we are, we faddists of the two-dimensional picture with our constant urge to achieve unobtainable depth." -M.C. Escher, 1947[1]: - - - Updated - - - ...now to take this concept one step further...the ant is so small it may eventually fade and blow out...in which case in 10~20 years I will probably black it over, erasing the ant from the future and leaving it as a wrinke in time from the past...far out maan..