joakim urma

I don't know, I am a little bit put of by this whole re-wrapping thing now. Got some blow outs on my knee now and being the perfectionst I am I think it really sucks. I did "normal" healing on my other knee and it healed up just fine. Luckily, this time it's mostly on the outline so maybe I can just make the line a bit thicker and it will look less bad.

Doing my first re-wrapping healing now since I'm travelling and only had one pair of jeans (unwashed and a couple months old) going to keep wrapping untill tomorrow and then resume with my normal healing procedure: washing 4-5 times a day, thin layer of bephanten and then normal unperfumed and clean handlotion for day 5-10. I'm a little freaked out by all the moisture and shit coming from my body at this stage but I hope it's allright. edit: tattoo is about 24 hours old now and from tomorrow morning I can use a pair of washed pants that I borrow from my brother, so no more wrap.

Saraswati by Adde Ramstedt, travelling swedish tattooer and great person. Had a lovely time together. The positioning is great on this one, if I bend my knee the face changes but still looks pretty. edit: forgot to include link: http://web.stagram.com/n/adderamstedttattooing/

I work as a care giver at a group home for people with downs syndrome and similar handicaps. One of the inhabitants has a father who must be close to 80 years of age. EVERY time he comes to visit and I am there to greet him he will comment on my tattoos. Every. Time. He is probably senile and not aware of this. Last time was different though.. he usually opens up with saying "those are hard to get rid of..", like it is a question. I usually just say Yes, and smile at him. Then he asks me if it hurts, I tell him Not anymore, and smile some more. But this time he also said that he had tried (to get tattooed), on his hand, but that it had faded over time. And then he told me that (my tattoos) where prydsamma, which is a swedish word that translates to "something thats proper and enhances the beauty of a thing/someone". I was flattered for the first time. I didn't know that he liked my tattoos, just that he would always comment on them.

Getting a tiger claw coming out from circus fire ring in the ditch of my right arm, this saturday, from the recent Circus Tattoo flash sheet. To be put in by Bueno Two days later I'm getting the side of my knee done with Andreas Ramstedt. Some positive Indian god-figure in profile angle. (Going to get a negative god on the other side later by someone else) All in black n gray traditional style, of course.

My aunts man once asked me how much I paid for my elbow/lower arm tattoo. I told him and he was speechless for a while. Then he informed me that I could have gotten a moped for that price. I was 26 years old at the time.

I'm just going to add my own narcissistic ramblings on here too.. As for being a "tattooed person", I don't think I want to be one all the time. In order to be a normal "respectable" person I think I will save neck up and hands (even though I really enjoy seeing good hand tattoos). I like do be able to go undercover and not always be percieved as tattooed. Over the past two years I've gotten 15+ tattoos all in all and just a few weeks ago I visited a public outdoor swiming pool, a rare event for me. I swear it felt like everybody was scrutinizing me (or I am just self centered..) and it was both enjoyable and not, at the same time. Some of you might know that I plan to only get black n gray work, and that I'm not into single needle stuff. So I think my tattoos will harmonize with eachother in a pleasant way (and that I will look awesome in the end, naturally). It has been mentioned that women of this thread tend to care more about balance and harmony when it comes to tattoo placement and shapes. If I would consider not covering my body I am sure I would be HUGE on harmony and balance. But now, since everything will get it's share of ink I just think of the time of imbalance as being a wrong that will be corrected. This autumn I'm getting the first tattoo on my left lower arm and also the back of my left knee, and I know I will feel a little better, in balance. I have both (man) breasts tattooed but I'm finding it hard to start something on the ribs, it will look so empty on the other side! I also think I will have to do both feet in a short time frame. Negative space is very important to me. I really don't like how some people get a bunch of (a bit too small) traditional designs on their arms and then proceed to fill all the empty space between them with tiny fillers, stars, dots and what not. It just looks cluttered. When I first set out to get my arms tattooed I got a pretty dense and detailed tattoo on my outer left upper arm, and then put in another tattoo on the inside which ties together. I think it looks too busy now and I learned my lesson. Some space in between is the way to go. While I do, more and more, begin to enjoy really large tattoos on other people, on me the only big ones will be my front piece (solar plexus down to pubic area) and back (neck to lower ass). Even if big scale japaneese stuff can look amazing it is more important for me to be able to get MANY tattoos. I want to be able to fit as many artists, styles, subjects and concepts as possible on my body. I like the whole story board feel, where each tattoo holds some kind of meaning/association/emotion that can change and vary both for me and whoever else sees my tattoos.

Down in the basement, alone with the hip bones - an introduction to Elliot Smith for the severely handicapped

Hey! Me and my brother are traveling over to London for the convention as well as some touristy stuff. I've got appointments with El Carlo, Deno and Jaclyn Réhe. I've been working far too much this summer, got to put the money some place ;) Would be nice with a LST meet up!

And here I was.. thinking I'd get a Jesus portrait at the top of my inner thigh. It's a perfect spot!

I think this one by Josh Stephens is the bomb!

This has been my favorite episode so far. Some of those back pieces were just to much to take in! Slowly I think I am starting to get and appreciate japanese style. I've seen that Vice part about Horiyoshi III earlier and it was interesting to get more words and insight from this fascinating man. As I was watching I was trying to grasp that this was the same person who liked (on instagram) one of the tattoos I have on me, just a month or so back. This modern world sure is strange.

For someone who only get black and gray work: I have had quite a few nightmares about artists by accident or miscommunication applying a super colorful piece on me. Last time this happened I found my left outer thigh to have a big and multicolored octopus on it, even though it's already covered with tattoos.

For the past two days I have had my friend J visiting me in Stockholm for the first time. I got to know him 10 years ago when we both started to skate. We spent some 8 hours skating this time and I learned and relearned a whole bunch of things. I don't know anything that I did back when I was 15 years old and still enjoy as much, maybe more. Good times! Sadly it ended when I fucked up my ankle so today I spent the whole day indoors. The most productive thing was to scan and upload a bunch of drawings from my notebooks. I put them here: Joakim RMA I'm really happy that I started to draw a lot again since last autumn. It's an awesome thing.

Just let me know! Yeah I think he was at Spider Murphy's for a guest spot (?) If I recall he seldom travels nowadays, except for the scottish convention. He is very cool and the shop is great too!

He's from Scotland, some town. He's got his family and all here in Stockholm so I think he will stay here for a while. You should travel over here and get something from him, I can house you, no problem. He's the only swedish tattooer I always recommend when friends ask me for a good tattooer, no matter what they want to do. And yeah, he is ridiculously fast!

I'd choose Iain Mullen. He's working @ Imperial Tattoo, in Stockholm where I live. He is super versatile and can pull off any style really, yet you can still see that it comes from his own hands and brain. Very funny and nice man to chat with and as far as I can tell we share some ideas about what makes a great tattoo. Also he cares about art in general, not just tattoo art. When I got my elbow done by him he first told me how happy and stoked he was about the sketch, then set up the machine and went out for a cigarette. Came back just 2 minutes later with the words "To excited, man, I can't smoke! Let's do this!". For someone who's has been tattooing for more then 12 years, this is the level of involvement I like too see still.

I'm stoked for sure. Getting a factory/heart on the front of my thigh. I really like his old wonky houses but I hope he will do it more detailed, in his current style. Whatever subject, he does it wonderful!

Planning a (tattoo) trip for this fall. Starting at the London Tattoo convention I'll snatch some pieces from El Carlo, maybe Jaclyn Rehe, a friend in Serbia and near the end of the trip: Rudy Fritsch and Dane Mancini in Trieste. Also booked in with Bueno of Circus Tattoo, Madrid, for Stockholm Inkbash. And there I was.. thinking I'd slow down on getting tattoos during 2013. Well well.. Edit: The Jaclyn Rehe-piece is happening. And hopefully I'm getting an eel done by Deno too, in London. Beyond happy! (And my wallet is the opposite)

Haven't done it YET.. but. Departing on a big trip tomorrow: Iceland for 10 days, boat to the Faroes, two days there and then boat to Denmark, train to Berlin, 4 days there and last 4 days in Prague. Will be traveling with a friend from across seas. With the same friend I just spent 4 days in Paris with (came home yesterday). Also booking London Tattoo Convention trip with my brother for this autumn, and then on to Amsterdam and then I travel alone to Serbia to meet some friends, train past Trieste (Rudy Fritsch, yeah!) and last to Florence to pick olives with my X. Probably going to Chile this winter too. 2013: the year of traveling.

Last time I was getting tattooed one of the other artists in the shop referred to me as "oh, a collector body!" I don't have a problem with the term collector really, but as someone said "nerd" is more descriptive. I care a lot about tattoos and my body has a finite area so I care about what I put on it and who does the work.

I was going to call it quits and postpone tattoos until after summer, but today James McKenna posted up on instagram that he is visiting Stockholm on the 8:th - 10:th of june. So now I am getting an androgynous african shaman with some kind of predator cowl, head only and perhaps a hand, on the inside/front of my thigh. So amazingly stoked that this is happening, one of my absolute favorite tattooers who usually works on the other side of the earth.

I was going through a really rough period of my life when I got my first tattoo. I don't think I would have it now if I was thinking straight back then, but everything was very confusing to me and it must have seemed like a good idea to get ink. After coming down from the chaos I felt "ashamed" of the tattoo and tried really hard to hide it, when changing clothes at the gym and so on. Maybe I would never have started getting into tattoo art and have tattoos if I didn't start like that? So in a way I am happy that I got started, despite the circumstances. It took me a year before I finally had the first tattoo fixed with new outlines and some leaves around it. A year after that I got my second tattoo and this week I got my 22:th. I remember thinking up until quite recently that the tattoos I got was partly to lessen the impact and "stigma" of the first tattoo. I don't know.. I feel narcissistic whenever I talk about my tattoos, but I really like my tattoos now. Looking at them in mirrors whenever I get the chance and looking at my legs in the shower and so on. I follow a great number of tattoo blogs and instagram-accounts, it's a part of my day to day-life to look at great work and think about what I like to get, find new artists and refine my taste. I also have a new way of relating to my body now, I like it much better and some days I even like the attention I get from other people.

Show me some good ones! New interpretations and old school flash are both welcome.

Big Rock of Ages with upside-down cross, tomorrow with Peter Lagergren. Super stoked!