Graeme

I could not disagree more on the font thing above. Above all, take your tattooer's advice about what is going to work best. That said, fonts are for the screen and the printed page. I'm not saying you necessarily need something super ornate and fancy but you should at least be looking at some nice hand-drawn script. Text tattoos are still tattoos and should follow the same principles as good non-text tattoos in terms of placement and flow and you won't get that from something printed from a computer.

It was another artist.

I really like Cole Dunn's tattoos from there and it looks like the rest of them do really good work as well, I'm sure whoever tattoos you is going to do a great job. Welcome.

When it comes down to it, every tattoo is unique because even when you get beyond things like design, placement, application, the tattoo itself is just an indelible mark that means much more than what it appears to be: that tattoo is going to be associated with the process of getting it, the conversations you had with your tattooer, the stories and jokes that were told; that tattoo is now part of your life, it's going to age with you and become part of your story. That's why tattoos are one of the coolest things in the world. I met a guy a little while ago who has been around tattooing for a good long while and has collected a lot of wisdom over the years and while he was telling stories, he made the observation that one of the things about tattooing is that it can mean all sorts of different things to different people. I guess that's what it comes down to: while the idea for that particular tattoo isn't in itself original--the idea is directly and shamelessly lifted from Ed Hardy and has gone through various moments of popularity since it was originally conceived--I came to the idea through trying to learn about tattoo history and draw inspiration from it, and I got the tattoo from a tattooer who does tattoos that I feel capture that looseness and power of Ed Hardy's tattoos and art, and I think that makes my tattoo totally different than somebody who wanted a copy of a picture of a tattoo they saw on the Internet, even if the tattoos look similar.

I had my Chad rose morph copied, maybe not line for line, but very substantially, by somebody on here (I'm not going to name names) and it really bummed me out. It wasn't even so much that it was copied--and to be clear here, I'm not talking about the handful of people on here who have gotten rose morphs from Chad or from other tattooers, I'm talking about one specific tattoo--because having tattoos copied is pretty much inevitable in this day and age when so much is available online. What really bummed me out about it is that it was on somebody from here. I don't know the interaction this person had with their tattooer: did they bring in a picture of my tattoo, did they say they wanted that sort of design and the tattooer found a photo of my tattoo? This is the sort of thing that happens all the time and it is what it is, but I guess there are a couple of things that really bother me about it, one being that this forum should be educating people and giving them knowledge so that they aren't doing things like bringing in photos of other tattoos and wanting more or less exact copies of them and that this happened just underlines the fact that a lot of people are here not because they want to learn and get better tattoos, they just want to take from here; that somebody thought it was okay to copy the tattoo of somebody they interacted with. It's not just taking a picture from instagram and handing it to your tattooer. Plenty of you people here have tattoos that I am jealous of because they're so rad and I wish they were on me, but the right thing to do in that case is draw inspiration from that, not straight-up copy it.

I hope that's because you were thinking, rightly, that it would be a much better backpiece.

Hahaha, I like you. I saw Neurosis and Godspeed You Black Emperor in January--I've seen Godspeed many times, though never Neurosis even though I've been into them for a long, long time--and the people at the show kind of ruined it for me. The thing with Godspeed locally is that for a lot of people they're a band who's shows you want to be seen at to establish some kind of douchebag credibility so a ton of people there were there for seemingly no good reason, which meant that when Neurosis was playing I got stuck behind a guy who was completely wasted and taking pictures of the band through the bottom of his empty plastic beer glass, and then when he finally staggered away, he was replaced by a dirty, dirty hippie couple where the dude had dreads that smelled like dead things and a Greenpeace t-shirt, and they spent the rest of the set making out. For fuck's sake. At least I managed to wrangle backstage access for Godspeed so I could watch the band play without being distracted by idiots. Fenriz said something once to the effect of how for him music isn't about the live experience but rather is about the relationship between him and his headphones or his speakers and the record or tape he's listening to and I think he's on to something here.

I'm jealous.

I'm always a bit skeptical about this stuff but I looked up the app and saw that one of the features is on Eddy Deutsche. Unfortunately my phone is too old to use the app, but if you're going to have cool people like Eddy in there then I wish you the best of luck.

Tattooed versions of Ed Hardy's "Civilization?" painting are going to be huge in 2015 on men and women alike. You heard it here first. You're welcome.

Honestly, I don't know why you would pay somebody here to draw something for you when this is a service that your tattooer already provides as part of the tattoo.

Totally forgot I've listened to Sun Kil Moon's Benji a lot. Dur.

Crazy good. I heard while getting tattooed recently that Stace has only been tattooing for something like three years. I feel there are a few people right now who haven't been tattooing that long who are already ridiculously good, really looking forward to seeing how he grows as a tattooer in the coming years.

Welcome! It looks like you have some Chris Trevino work from the weird period? I'd love to see more!

Tattoo pain isn't real pain anyway. I could still be crazy mind you, but everything is getting covered at some point so no sense in putting things off because they're going to hurt. Besides, if you want tough tattoos you can't be a wimp about it.

Nothing booked yet and this will have to wait until I've finished my back but plans are underway for getting my chest properly started. Going to get a kurikara Fudo really big on my torso. It's going to rule.

@SeeSea looks so amazing in the pictures! I regret not seeing it in NYC but @Pugilist said it looks even better in person!

Lars Krutak has written a fair bit about tattooing in Africa. I believe he has written books about this, but here are some things available online: Tattooing in North Africa, The Middle East and Balkans by Lars Krutak Tattoos of Sub-Saharan Africa by Lars Krutak TRIBAL TATTOOS of MOZAMBIQUE'S MAKONDE - by LARS KRUTAK I once worked with a woman from Senegal who was casually interested in tattoos are she talked a little bit about traditional tattooing in Senegal, nothing really in depth, but there is a tradition of tattooing there. In general, if you want good information, I'd spend less time on the Internet and more time talking with people. I would guess that Lars Krutak, who wrote the above articles, has an email address and probably does speaking engagements or lectures. You said that your nan doesn't like tattoos, but what about your other relatives? They may know things, and even if you don't get anything useful about tattoos in Ghana, maybe you'll get some good stories regardless. You're in the UK, right? I'd also suggest talking to guys like Curly, Alex Binnie, or Tomas Tomas because I can only assume those guys have a tremendous amount of knowledge and information about pre-technological tattooing, and I'm sure they'd be super happy to do a tattoo like this. Finally, you have access to some of the world's greatest libraries and universities, use those.

I would suggest that if you have limited experience healing tattoos, follow the aftercare instructions your artist gave you. Unless he explicitly told you to rewrap the tattoo, don't rewrap it.

I had some parts of my sleeve relined at the end. There was nothing wrong with those lines prior to them being relined but the second pass did make them pop a little more even after they were settled in. But that is the arm. But yeah, it can be a thing depending on how the artist works. I wouldn't let it frighten you off getting a backpiece though. They're a considerable investment in time, pain, and money, but, in my opinion, there is nothing in tattooing as impressive as a well-done backpiece so it's worth it. I'm not going to be so brave when it's going down.

Oh it gets better than that. I was just informed by my artist on Saturday (prefaced with a "I don't want to scare you, but...") that when we're done my back we're going to have an extra full day session to reline it. Now that I've been through it once, I think full day lining sessions are only a thing because the client really doesn't know any better at that point. I felt like I'd been hit by a cement mixer after the first one, no idea how I'm going to get through the second. The answer may be alcohol.

@DeathB4Decaf I saw the picture on Instagram and it looks amazing! It's a super cool idea, the execution is great, and I can't wait to see how it comes together. The first shower after the tattoo is the worst!

I know that @MrsGougeTheEyes has one on her forearm that I believe she got from Cody Miller and I'll vouch for it being super rad. Also @polliwog won a Tattoo of the a Month contest with a big rad fuck off Chad eagle. I think Chad's eagles are the best, they're so powerful. I don't know how much my opinion counts for here, but I'm going to say that eagles on women (or on men) are pretty fucking badass.

You're just jealous, homie. Today was okay except for when he did some extra lines around my crack. Goddamn I hate lining. There was a bunch of involuntary twerking as well, that was interesting. Thanks @Iwar!

I didn't buy a fundoshi before starting my back because the shop I'm getting it done at just doesn't seem like that kind of place (it's pretty old school in all the right ways) so I've been wearing a sock...but after six sessions I think I should just get a fundoshi. I saw one on eBay with a dragon pattern so I'd vote for that if you can find the fabric.