Pugilist

Whatever dude, you are playing a video game in the room where I am trying to GRADE, so screw you. And that is why in retaliation I read all the spoilers and am taunting you with them.

Yeah, since I've started re-wrapping overnight, I find I avoid the worst of the sticking. After that I just try to wear loose-ish clothes for a couple of days.

Yay! Hello!!!

Awesome.

We met him at Perseverance. He was really cool and chatted with @DJDeepFried about possibly tattooing him. Not sure if/when that will happen, but, yes, his peonies are amazing.

Great minds think alike!

Only position you have to be in is in tattoo shop with some money. Hand, finger and palm tattoos are not nearly as taboo outside the community as before, and many reputable tattooers will tattoo them too. Just make sure you don't visit a hack, and you can get a great tattoo, there's no special club anymore, regardless of what some may think or say.

I would say this is the worst advice ever posted on this board, but then there was your advice re: sexual harassment the other day, so...

(No seriously, to any lurkers stumbling upon this thread: hand tattoos are not socially acceptable and reputable tattooers don't just hand them out like candy.)

By intense you mean AWESOME right?

Yeah, this is my skepticism of healing discussions on the internet; tattoos are finicky, our skin is finicky, they're just not all going to heal perfectly. C'est la vie and it's part of the medium. But if there was something really really wrong with it, you'd know!

I've had that on one tattoo (that actually did end up healing very badly), but I wouldn't worry about infection or anything at this point. It's just angry at you, keep it clean and wait it out! I did find those areas took FOREVER to finally heal.

Looooooooooooooooooooooove!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!! I am so thrilled for you and love when peer pressure works out so well! The kitsune design is also adorable/awesome and I fully approve of it. Where are you getting it?

@growltiger - I really think having something you can put on backwards, like a button down shirt or a hoodie, really helps with the awkwardness of back tattoos.

I will reiterate that in my experience, wearing my most comfortable and least digg-y, but still regular, bra did not impact healing my back at all. But we all heal differently so that is probably not universal. If your tattooer is female, she can definitely give you some advice on this too. If they are male but thoughtful, they may also have some idea of what past female clients have found helpful!

@HaydenRose - thanks for the rec! I had no idea they made bandeaus that could in any way hold up big boobs. I am going to be on the lookout!

@HaydenRose, would love recs for bandeaus that work for well-endowed ladies. I find the bra thing very tricky when going without is not an option. When I did my back, I just wore bras that didn't dig much (I have a couple of VS ones that are very soft and don't really have seams) and found it did not affect healing at all, thank goodness.

The other thing I think is worth sharing on this topic are strategies for what to wear to appointments when getting particular spots worked on. For my back I always wore a button down shirt that I could put on backwards (often with a halter bikini top that we could untie) - this was Stephanie's recommendation and is brilliant. For my thighs (particularly upper when shorts may be obstructive), a friend once recommended wearing a skirt with men's briefs, which give you just a bit more coverage while still allowing the person to get all up in there!

Who do you hope to do your peonies, @Pugilist? I can think of a couple of east coasters I'd loooove some peonies from!

Brian Kaneko. Who is decidedly NOT on the East Coast, although I know he guests in New York regularly. Hence the need for patience!

YES!!! I don't have any peonies yet but I know where I want them and from whom and the wait for all of that to line up is kind of killing me (it'll probably be a couple of years).

I am totally pro last hurrah and you cannot have too many roses, so I am going to peer pressure you into going for it!

Love this idea! I am not sure I've ever been tattooed while in the crampy/painful part of my period, thank goodness, so no insight on that. I did get tattooed a few months back while having other kinds of lady problems (but during the tail end of it) and I think I did take it harder, but it was a quick tattoo in an ok spot, so it wasn't particularly difficult.

As I just spent like, 20 minutes trying to find tights opaque enough to cover my leg tattoos for work, I think that is a worthy topic for discussion too, as ladies' clothing tends to cover up less tattoo-wise. For those of you who don't show tattoos as work, strategies for making sure backs, legs, etc. are covered are helpful! (For example, my collection of shrugs has massively expanded since I did my back.)

First of all, I love the join or die imagery even if I am not American nor patriotic. :)

Second, I know people always say this here, but I promise it's not a throwaway line - if you find a tattooer you trust who you want to work on this with, this is exactly the kind of question they should be able to help you with. I always remind myself that tattooers are the pros at design, and give them my ideas and then trust their judgment on how to make it work!

It's a good thing Rosa Parks and MLK didn't think the same as you guys. It's a good thing the founding fathers of the US didn't think this way.

Always speak up.

I promise you that you are not on the side of Rosa Parks and MLK in this conversation, and that it's genuinely one of the most offensive things I have ever read on this message board to see you make this comparison. Rosa Parks and MLK were tireless in their articulation of the power imbalances that exist in our society, and the ways in which dominant groups silence marginalized ones. Pretending that their resistance is equated with "always speak up" with no analysis of power asymmetry, structural misogyny, and the fact that women HAVE SCARY FUCKING EXPERIENCES TALKING BACK TO CREEPY MEN is both painfully stupid and morally appalling. And that is the last thing I will say here, because I gave up internet arguments as a new year's resolution two years ago. But I just could not let this go.

PS it gives me faith in this board to see so many like-minded folks calling this out, and not just women. <3 you guys.

There is a pretty huge difference between engaging in off-colour humour in general and making uninvited sexual comments specifically about one's client, while you are quite literally controlling their movement (or lack thereof).

I beg to differ.

You're sweet. And I appreciate your world if in it "crazy cat lady" qualifies as cool. :)

And yes, Seven Doors strikes me as a pretty fucking awesome place!

I LOVE the ear piercings they do at Adorned! That was part of what inspired me to get my second set of lobes done.

Way too lazy to deal with piercings. Every time I go to wear earrings I wind up re-piercing my ears (ouch) because of weeks/months of wearing nothing.

Haha I feel you on this because I was so delinquent re: my ears that I recently went and got them properly repierced as it had become almost impossible to get an earring into one of them. I got a second set of holes in my lobes just for fun. Beyond that, it's not really my thing, and definitely more work to care for than tattoos. But I was lucky to go to a really fantastic and reputable shop in my 'hood and learn a lot about hygiene/standards/etc. from the very friendly and serious piercer there. It's interesting to see the parallel concerns in the two worlds, however different they are.

Wow! Feeling the Claudia love :D Okay, you've convinced me, I'm going to consider her my 'dream' artist. I'm not sure people like me get tattooed by people like her though. I imagine there's some sort of invisible force field that would bounce boring middle of the road people like myself back into the street on their arses if they tried to enter the shop :p

I know you're joking, but seriously, never ever let yourself think this. I am the world's most uncool square and I would never think twice about contacting a "big name" artist for a piece of work if that's what I wanted/had the means to do (Claudia being one of the people I hope to get work from some day!). You do not have to be a "certain kind of person" to qualify to get tattooed by someone that good. You just have to decide to go for it, and get in touch.

Reasons I love getting tattooed as a "bigger" person:

1) More space! Man, I can fit SO MANY MORE awesome big tattoos on my thighs than skinnier girls!

2) A reminder that I gain nothing by feeling as though I am "at odds with" my body; tattoos reconnect me to this imperfect skin I live in and close the mind/body gap a bit.

3) I often think about how some fat activist feminist critics comment that women, in particular, feel guilty for being fat because we "take up more space" in a society where women are expected to take up as little space as possible. I am constantly trying, in my life, to feel more at easy taking up space, being present, and not hiding - tattoos and their incredible presence obviously helps a lot with that.

4) Tattoos are like an awesome treat/adornment for my body - a reminder that it deserves to be treated kindly.

5) As others have said, tattoos have totally changed how I feel about parts of my body I am most insecure about; cellulite seems pretty insignificant when there's a huge colourful dragon over it.

6) Basically, we all deserve to feel like we have agency over our bodies. Tattoos remind me of this. Some extra fat is like, only a small part of what my body is - it's a whole lot more than that, both physically and aesthetically, and it's mine to do what I please with.

I have been really slowing down on getting tattooed recently, but I am very stoked to be getting an adaptation of this cute little nautical star/butterfly design by Robert Johnson flash (from the 1950s, found in the always amazing Flash from the Past) so that I may always keep moving in the right direction. Appointment in a couple of weeks.

I am really, really sorry that happened to you. It's unacceptable, and I think an asshole like that is explicitly taking advantage of the fact that he knows you can't really do/say anything in that situation to be inappropriate and harassing. Unacceptable.

I feel super lucky that anyone who has ever tattooed me has been a total class act. Getting tattooed can put one in a fairly vulnerable position - often half-naked in busy shops, not really able to move - and it's so, so important to me to be doing so in chill, respectful places. I try not to take that for granted!