Graeme

@BrianH Henning and Mike usually share a booth at the Montreal convention so you should have plenty of chance to talk ideas with him while you're getting tattooed.

Hotel sheets have probably had a lot worse on them than leaky fresh tattoos, I don't worry about it that much. I think the gory bandage in the bathroom garbage can is a lot grosser, personally.

@SeeSea looks fantastic so far!

Dude comes on here, introduces himself as a scratcher, and we argue art with him? We can do a lot better than this, folks.

I'm not sure what you expected coming here, not knowing us, us not knowing you, and asking for suggestions about what you should get for a deeply personal tattoo. I do, however, stand by my suggestion. A big eagle on the chest is one of the best tattoos someone can possibly get.

Welcome Veronica. I think you should get a big eagle across your chest because tattoos represent whatever you want them to represent so you might as well go for a huge fuck off eagle.

Leaving my popcorn at home because the worst thing about posters like this isn't that they're ignorant and too stupid to know when to shut their mouths about it, it's that they don't even have the backbone to come back and defend their ill-informed opinions. Untertainment value minimal.

Poutine is so gnarly if you take it home and eat it the next day, you wouldn't want it shipped. Shit would not totally not clear the border either.

I'm still likely not getting tattooed but I think I'm okay with that. I'll be there regardless, and I'll set up the LST meetup, horse meat or not.

This is a really terrible picture but I got this cigar smoking frog from El Monga at Aloha Tattoo Barcelona yesterday. I am super stoked that he decided to attach himself to my leg because I think we're going to have some good adventures together. @bongsau Really sorry for your loss, and my deepest condolences. Sometimes it's the silly little tattoos that have the deepest significance.

Give it a little bit of time before doing anything. You posted recently that it hadn't peeled yet, and often when a tattoo hasn't totally healed the lines don't have the crispness that they will once the tattoo is properly settled in. This is maybe a tougher pill to swallow, but sometimes, even if there are bits that aren't perfect on the tattoo, that's okay because you're talking about something handmade on skin. It inevitably will have flaws and imperfections and that those are beautiful in their own way.

We don't talk money on this forum. If you want to do that in real life with friends, family, strangers, or whoever else, fine, that's your choice, but here isn't the place for it.

Nice intro and welcome!

@9Years I've seen a bunch of his frogs on his Instagram and I love them. They have a really great feel to them. The shop guy at Aloha was excited to see what Monga is going to come up with because he hasn't seen him do a frog before, and then he showed us this tattoo he got from Monga when he asked for a squirrel and it's this squirrel being constricted by this snake/dragon kind of thing and it's amazing and probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of squirrel tattoo. So who knows what this frog is going to look like but it's going to be great.

Couldn't resist booking a little one with El Monga while I'm in Barcelona. I'm getting a frog because I really love frog tattoos, and I really love El Monga's tattoos so it's going to be super cool and fun.

Pain is really individual. My wife has pretty substantial coverage of her thighs and she's never foind it especially bad. A lot of people here hate getting their lower legs done, I've always found them really easy, but inner bicep for me was totally brutal and some people are fine with it. Bottom line is tattoos hurt, and that's partly what makes them awesome. Honestly kind of happy that I'm going to hit where the thigh connects with the ass soon so I never have to get tattooed there ever again.

Welcome dude. What are you thinking of for your half sleeve and who are you planning to go to?

I'll second that and add that Kim's lady head is a fine, fine tattoo as well.

@RoryQ The fates have conspired against me and I won't be getting tattooed in Barcelona after all. I didn't hear anything from Aloha which is just as well because last week my wallet was lost or stolen and I had the money that would have gone towards a tattoo in it, and with my back coming up in three weeks, I just don't have the money right now for a fun (or not so fun) holiday tattoo. That's life.

Related to this, I'm seeing a tendency among the "I'm a gentleman tattooer, I'm 20 years old, have a moustache and face tattoos, BOLD WILL HOLD" crowd for tattoos without outlines. They're all ripping off some European tattooer whose name I don't care to know but often pops up on those idiotic "HERE ARE 20 TATTOOS THAT WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO PUNCH YOURSELF IN THE DICK" kind of sites.

Give it some time, it looks fine and I don't see any reason to be concerned about it. There's a tremendous amount of variation in how tattoos heal. Speaking from personal experience, and just going on tattoos on my arms, so similar spots in terms of blood circulation and so on, I've had tattoos almost completely peeled in as short as five days after being tattooed to as long as two and a half to three weeks. There's nothing that looks bad about your tattoo.

@Mark Bee I only hope that there is nobody there to take a picture of my face while it's happening because I'm sure I'm not going to fare much better. I don't think I really understood how large my back is until I saw the contours of it on tracing paper and because it's going to have a full background, it's going to be a LOT of tattooing. @eisen777 Who is Jess thinking about going to? It's going to be so nice not having to travel far for large work for once.

Yeah, they're dogs that hunt by sight instead of other senses like smell, and include breeds like greyhounds, whippets, deerhounds, wolfhounds, etc.

@Axelsdad Whippets are awesome. I have a greyhound, she's the best.