heathenist

This somehow showed up on my notifications as a quote of one of my posts... I have no idea. However, that thing is brilliant. Unbelievable.

My first tattoo was a big thigh piece, and I just got my other thigh done this weekend. Experienced twitching both times. However, the first time was much more painful than this past one. The outline wasn't fun but the shading was a breeze. Here they are, the first one isn't in a style I'm super into anymore, and I'm not too crazy about it anymore, it's not bad it just doesn't fit with what I'm going for anymore. Maybe one day I'll have it covered or reworked or something. I don't regret getting it, because it helped get me into tattoos, and really it's not a bad tattoo, just not what I would get now. Here is my latest one, which I've already posted in 2 other threads in the past couple of days, but whatever, done by Phil Hatchet Yau:

I guess this is probably a bad month to enter given how great the tattoos posted so far are. But I see that as a good thing, it just means more people are out getting great tattoos. Anyways, I've already posted this in he latest tattoo lowdown, but here it is: Phil Hatchet Yau at Tahiti Felix's Master Tattoo, 4 hours, one-shot:

Got this From Phil Hatchet Yau at Tahiti Felix's Master Tattoo while visiting San Diego this weekend. One-shot, 4 hours. Very happy with it. Super cool tattoo shop, with tons of original flash from the 50's and some from even earlier. Phil is super nice and seems like a great dude.

I remember leaving a perfect Sailor Jerry butterfly on the sheets in a hotel in Chicago, with no idea whether they would come out and worried I'd be charged for sheets. So I balled the sheets up to try to hide the stains hahaha.

This entire time I just assumed she was from Charlotte because I was reading her username as CLTtattoing, rather than CLtattooing. - - - Updated - - - I see now that I rarely look at location listed right under the avatar.

Duh, the water pushed the lines out and made them shakey. Science.

A guy I know, right after complimenting my tattoos and saying how good they look. "I was looking at some of the old style American tattoos a few weeks ago, I don't really like those, they look like cartoons."

I'll second his advice, and actually it's almost exactly what I was going to post. I highly recommend stronglifts, but I've heard good things about all of those. Gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time can be pretty tricky. Rather than doing 5ks, look into HIIT training, basically uses intervals of intense cardio (like sprinting), and is much better for burning fat than just doing steady paced 5ks. As far as diet goes, I've never done it and I don't understand it at all, but I've heard good things about carb backloading. This diet probably isn't something that is sustainable long term, but from what I hear it can be good for gaining muscle while losing weight (and still getting to eat junk food). I don't really know, but might at least be worth looking into. - - - Updated - - - I'll never understand pairing shoulders and traps. Shoulders are part of your arms, traps are part of your back, why wouldn't you train them on that day? Maybe I'm missing something.

Dude that tiger is one of my favorite tattoos ever, no kidding you want another from him. I say fuck it and get another one, some other variation naturally, but who gives a fuck, it's going to look awesome.

Not sure I feel comfortable asking him for a photo just yet, but maybe sometime in the future.

This isn't super related to the thread, but kinda. Anyways, a few days ago I noticed a pretty nice looking rose tattoo peaking out of the shirt sleeve of the professor who I'm a TA for, and I asked him about it, something like "Hey I saw you had a tattoo on your bicep earlier, I didn't realize you had any it looks pretty nice." And he tells me that he has that one and another one, a panther on his other arm. So I knew he lived in San Francisco for a while, so naturally being the tattoo nerd I am, I ask him where he got it. Apparently, in the late 90s he just happened to walk into Ed Hardy's Tattoo City and ended up getting a crawling panther from Tim Lehi when he was working there. He said at the time he had no idea who Ed Hardy was or anything. He was also pretty surprised when I started nerding out about how big of a deal Tim Lehi and all those dudes who were at Tattoo City at the time are now (Dan Higgs, Tim Lehi, Jef Whitehead, etc). Anyways, the tattoo is pretty rad and it blows my mind that there are so many people out there who just stumble into getting amazing tattoos with no idea that the artist might be one of the most well known and respected in the world, meanwhile, I (and probably lots of others on this forum) spend hours and hours and hours looking up artists in different cities, traveling 10+ hours in a single day (some of you are flying halfway across the world) just to get tattooed by these very same artists.

Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond the Pines somehow pulls off way oversized, inside-out, ratty t-shirts, and terrible, terrible tattoos.

A few days ago I was walking down the street and passed a guy sitting on some steps eating lunch, and after I was about 20 yards away I hear someone behind me say "Hey", kept walking, "hey you!". Turned around, not because I thought someone was talking to me, but just out of curiosity, and the dude on the steps is like literally yelling "Hey, where did you get your tattoos?!" (yelling because at this point I am a pretty good distance away). I just said Chicago and turned to keep walking, but he was still trying to talk to me and was saying something and pointing at his arm and I just said thanks and kept walking. I felt like an asshole, but come on man, I can't have a conversation with you about tattoos from 30 yards away. Another thing I get a lot recently, is people saying "I like your tattoo" and talking about all of the tattoos on my arm as if they are one. It isn't really a bother, just curious. I guess it's nice that people think they look cohesive but then it gets a bit confusing because I'm like "thanks, which one?"

All the times I've been tattooed at Chicago Tattoo Co. (pre-Great Lakes Tattoo), they had really good music selection, my favorites were Misfits the first time I went and was tattooed by Mario, and Ryan Adams-Heartbreaker the last time I went and was tattooed by Nick.

Man I love that dude's work.

hahahaha

Yeah, it was an odd encounter, like you said, I don't really give a shit and she was actually trying to be nice, she just sucked at it. She was also one of those people who lives vicariously through other people around her, for instance, she kept talking about all the ivy league schools her family went to, how her friend was a famous artist, etc., but never mentioned anything about herself.

Today in the grocery store I ran into an older lady who gave me a backhanded compliment, she asked to look at my tattoos and said "I don't care much for tattoos but I'm an artist so I can appreciate the art." She was trying to be nice I guess. Unrelated to tattoos but she went on to tell me about all of her sons who are all doctors from ivy league schools and when she asked where me and my girlfriend got our master's degrees she says "oh well that's okay, they don't all have to be from the top places" despite the fact that the school is pretty respectable in our fields.

I don't know if I really map things out, or go for a balanced look, but I do think a lot about placement and the way everything will look eventually. I may be unique here in that I am sure that I will eventually be very heavily covered, but I can't help but only want to get work on one body part at a time. For instance, right now I'm working on covering my left arm, they are all separate pieces (though in the same style), and they aren't really planned out in advance, but I started with the top of the arm and have been working my way down. I wouldn't have wanted to get a piece here and there and have them all connect eventually, not really sure why, I guess I just like the way they look close together and seeing how they flow with one another. And I probably won't get any other part of my body tattooed until this arm is done.

Honestly, questions from non-tattooed people don't really bother me that much, it's pretty easy to just say "No, none of them really have any deep meanings other than I thought they looked cool". However, what bothers me more, is when people with bad tattoos try to show them off to me, and I'm supposed to sit there and pretend that their shitty tattoos are cool as they a) start removing clothing to show them to me, or b)start flipping through their phone to show me pictures of them.

I'll jump in. Josh Stephens, Hold It Down (That's my elbow if anyone was curious).

Josh Stephens, Hold It Down Finally making progress on my arm, really just the rest of the forearm left. Also, this is my first tattoo on this arm not done by Mario Desa or Nick Colella. Super happy with how it came out, if you're in RVA area, I definitely suggest checking out Hold It Down, super solid line up and a cool little shop.

All of my tattoos have really deep meaning and symbolism behind them... it just so happens that the deep meaning is that I think they look fucking cool and are symbols of things that I think look fucking cool.

hahahaha perfect.