joakim urma

Currently reading Richard Dawkins "The Ancestor's Tale". The layout of the book is that he starts with homo sapiens sapiens and goes backwards in time, stopping everytime there is a significant break in our evolution so to speak. I think it's like 30 steps in the end, from us to the very first bacteria. Each stop concerns one specific animal but while he talks about it you also learn a shit tonne of evolutionary theory and general science and biology. Really well put together book and super interesting. Was a bit slow for the first 1/3 but now I'm so in it and enjoying every page. Also reading a volume of the collected short stories of Amy Hempel. Amazing writer and imagination. I can see that she has been really influential on later writers and her stories are so full of clever humor, anecdotes and insight on the human experience. Much recommended!

Have a look at my friend Iain Mullen who works at Imperial Tattoo. He's been tattooing for something like 17 years, can tackle anything really and is really good at listening to his clients (but without making compromises that will make the tattoo worse) and traditional japanese is what he does best. He did my back piece with Rudy Fritsch and probably about 7-8 other tattoos on me. Highly recommended and say hello from me! @iainmullen on instagram

@Sergiozoolander Yes :) Only vaguely: bonji with smoke and sakura, (finger)waves, eternal knot (or maybe something else) I find the more I leave to the artist, the better tattoo I will get. Just a vague idea and I let them take it from there.

Since after my perhaps fifth tattoo I've always done it the same way: Leave the wrap until next day morning Semi-warm shower to get rid of the blod, ink and plasma Air dry, apply thin layer of Bephanten, air dry, put on clothes Continue washing with just water 2-3 times a day and apply thin layer of Bephanten On the 4-6 day, depending on how it looks, I stop using bephanten and just let i dry heal out After 10 days I use some organic body lotion, as short list of ingredients as possible and no perfume. Apply this after each shower and every morning until the skin is no longer dry and back to normal again.

I'm waiting for @Graeme to step in with his righteous fury, sparks flying and banhammer at the ready

Planning a trip: London (Tattoo Convention) -> Bristol (visiting two dear friends) -> Paris (visiting new friend) -> Amsterdam (meeting up a friend since 13 years back) -> Bruxelles (visiting a close friend since 10 years) -> Berlin (new and old friends) It's going to be more than three weeks of travelling and I am really looking forward to all the new impressions, thoughts, experiences, ideas and input that I know will pass my way.

Top of thighs, outside of upper arms

Ah damn! I arrive to London on the Friday but get tattooed Saturday 5pm and Sunday after lunch. Would have been fun to meet up, but I won't go there on Friday. Monday evening I get tattooed by Alex Reinke in his studio.

Flight booked and all three artists confirmed (Rico Daruma , Mike Rubendall, Horikitsune) Time to buy convention tickets :)

@Wilhell Yeah man, pretty heft price. But a lot cheaper than going to the states for that tattoo. Whatever, hope he's fast haha :) @jimmyirish Gonna send you a PM right now, thanks again! It's so fun to have special stories like that with friends, like how you two met! Agree, being able to host strangers through couchsurfing for example is so fulfilling. I've never had a bad experience using that site so far. Actually I made three really close friends thanks to the site, and a bunch of people I keep in contact with. Only problem is when you befriend someone from Chile and you can't be sure if you ever going to see the person again in your life...

@jimmyirish Wow that sounds like a great plan! Thank you so much for thinking about me :) Sounds like a good place! I've been living in a shared house with my four friends now almost three years in Stockholm. Are your friends on lastsparrow? Otherwise they can find me on couchsurfing, or facebook: Joakim Mathiasson. Thanks man, appriciate it! (Just about to send the deposit to Kings Ave!)

@Willhel All right! I think I'll try to couchsurf with this indian guy I know a bit out in the suburbs. Just got confirmed with Mike Rubendall by the way, super stoked!

@Margarita Yaschenko It works different for everybody I suppose. I always tell people looking for their first tattoo to not put it in a place where it will be visible for you (and others) all the time. Size is a different matter, I think about palm or hand sized is good for a first. But I have also seen people get their a whole sleeve or even back as a first tattoo, and make great choices on that both with artist and motif. I think it's hard to make rules like this but the reason I advice people to not get their first tattoo on the lower arm (as many who has asked me about it tend to gravitate towards) is only because over time, and after getting more tattoos, most people go through a development when it comes to taste, understanding and appriciation of tattoos. I know I did, and still do, change my opinions and I got my first tattoo in 2009. If you put your first idea on your lower arm, chances are it will not look so cool to you in a few years and you'd wish you still had that spot open for something that you learned to enjoy over time. (Always exceptions of course, some people make great choices from the get go but these are in minority by far if you ask me. Not to say everybodys first tattoo(s) always sucks, but most people evolve in their taste to a great extent in the first 3 years, and would thank themself to leave the "prime estate" open for the future) Tattoo snob and ink fundamentalist preacher signing off for today, Peace

@kvaz This is easy to google... Laser removes ink from the original tattoo. Normally you'll still see traces of the tattoo though. Blastover is just putting a new tattoo on top of it. The old tattoo will be visible in places. Cover up is sort of like a blastover but is done to obscure the original tattoo as much as possible. It's better if you done a few laser sessions before so the ink from the first tattoo is not so visible.

@Wilhell + @Iwar + others Is anybody renting an appartment close by during the convention? Would be nice to split it and geek out on tattoos to the max !

Never thought of it this way. I've had 9 sessions on conventions in total. Reputable artists will make sure everything is in order so don't worry about anything else than chosing the right artist for your tattoo

@rufio Yeah man :/ I moved to her place in April. Too early for that I guess, a lot of things came to the surface while living together. Aswell as some external stress factors and other difficult issues we had to face. In the end the bad was outweighting the good, on several levels. Too much negative energy and not enough time to reconnect inbetween arguments, it spiralled down a hole. Anyhow, I feel shocked still but life moves on. Not crying anymore, as I imagined I'd be, but the whole thing is very sad and I wish it was not true.

I'm sure it's a very real thing @cltattooing! Today Chad Koeplinger braved the intense spectacle that is Stockholm Inkbash, filled to the brim of the worst side of tattoo culture, + a failing lamp that couldn't stay put on the table. And all thanks to looking at my bloody thigh being transformed to the image of a hopi indian in meditation posture, inside a hypnotic energy haze/lightning crash/I don't even comprehend. It was fun :)

I broke up with my girlfriend (or honestly: mostly she broke up with me) and then moved out of her 2 room central flat. Now I'm back into my friends' two stories, half-makeshift comune house, 30 minutes from the city by train. On the plus side I love this house, I like the neighbourhood and it's super great to live with four people again, two of them friends since roughly 10 years back. Live takes, and life gives.

@cltattooing Hahaha yes it's true, a lot of grimdark coming from this guy. A body suit would push me to suicide, I'm sure.

I don't think Sway is doing quite the same stuff as Erl but both are really good. Bailey H Robinson is a good comparision though. Actually I think Simon Erl does this type of style and subjects the best, it's him I measure other against. If given the right requests he pulls out amazing stuff, within this pretty narrow style. I love his level of contrast and ways of putting in shading, the whips are cool too. Even if he makes more detailed stuff it's always readable. I mean, how great is this one? (recent example) He tattooed me in 2013 in Stockholm, and is a nice guy to talk too also.

@heathenist I think "a trippy Jesus head" sounds pretty good as a request. Way better than "I want something to represent my family, my place in the world and how I developed as a person. Please also include a shark"

My name is Joakim and my second name starts with a M too, so it's mmikaoj backwards. I registred somewhere a long time ago, having to add the extra m since just mikaoj was allready taken. It stuck since it's easy to remember and looks like gibberish to any non-scandinavian without a mirror.

Getting the back of my thigh by Koeplinger on Saturday. Looking forward a lot!

I think they were really trendy about 5 years ago. Now they are starting to get neutral again