Graeme

@SeeSea we went to a Shambhala centre. From reading up about the various places offering meditation courses/lessons, Shambhala seemed to be one of the less controversial ones around--for example, the New Kadampa Tradition seems really cultish. The Shambhala approach is deeply rooted in Buddhist meditation but is more secular in approach and they don't seem interested in pushing any doctrines. Their meditation class just teaches you how to meditate, how to sit and in what posture, and so on. Conveniently, the centre is also literally around the corner from where we live.

Why not travel to get tattooed by him?

Welcome to LST. And get a skull. It works thematically and always looks rad. You can never go wrong with a skull.

Maybe your girlfriend should get an account and speak for herself.

@Mush Rad Shoki! Looking forward to seeing how it comes along. Also there's no need to feel embarrassed about tapping out. Seven hours is a long and difficult sitting on an easy spot, and the back is not an easy spot.

I was going to say that ass crack is pretty bad not just because it's really tender but because it feels like you're getting your anus tattooed, but now I know that bicep is far worse.

Had an ass and back of thigh shading session yesterday. It wasn't so bad. The imperial stout helped keep my spirits up.

Welcome and great intro!

@SeeSea The session is tomorrow, the first weekend session I've had for my back so far. It will be nice not having to take a day off work (or going in after a half day) and not having to go back to work the next day. Though there is something really nice about getting tattooed when you should otherwise be at work.

Welcome Henry!

I didn't find the elbow too bad as a spot, though it's a hard heal. For sure discuss aftercare with Greg, but I strongly recommend icing it over the bandage before you wash the tattoo because they don't call it the swellbow for nothing. Great tattoo, as well! You've gotten some great ones from him.

Welcome Lana, I know you from Instagram.

Great start to the tattoo, and I really enjoyed reading the story too. Thanks for sharing both.

Please read the forum rules, especially about sharing technical information. This forum isn't the place to talk needle groupings, voltage settings, etc. That aside, I'm not really interested in this experiment and I think we probably have too much about aftercare methods on here as it is. I've seen it far too often on here that people with very little experience getting tattooed are interested in the -derm products because it seems like a simple way to heal when they should be instead following their tattooer's aftercare instructions instead of dabbling with other methods when they don't even yet know how their body heals tattoos. Sometimes we say too much on here.

I think the only question here is are you making fantastic life decisions or are you making marvelous life decisions.

Oh you're in for some good times on your back then. It will be worth it though.

@CaitlinBurnett10 Read this article by David Bruehl about tattoos and nutrition. I've found that some food at the right moment really gives me a good boost to get through tough sessions. Bananas are supposedly good for endorphins, so is dark chocolate. So much of pain management has to do with mental preparedness too. @DeathB4Decaf I think we probably all feel like a wuss at some point. Tattoos hurt! I know that I always worry that I won't be able to handle it but I seem to do fine. Honestly, I didn't think that ass/back of thigh was as horrible as I was expecting. I even went to work the day after getting mine lined (it isn't shaded yet) and I was fine despite working a physical job.

The book really isn't about that at all. Basically, the guy who wrote it got a PhD in philosophy, ended up working at a think tank, really disliked doing that because he felt that his work there, instead of involving actual thought and reason, was just him giving an intellectual cover for policies already decided upon by oil companies and the like, so he quit that and started up a motorcycle repair shop where he only worked on old bikes. He got a lot of guff from family and friends about this because he was "supposed" to have a job like the one at the think tank with his kind of background and education, so the book is basically a justification as to how he didn't waste the money mommy and daddy paid for his education and that manual work involves a lot more skill and intellect than people who have no first hand experience of manual work understand. There are a lot of really superficial treatments of philosophy in there, naive understandings of economics, but I think what really bothered me about it is that he doesn't really understand work. Like I'm sure having a motorcycle shop where you get to only work on fun projects is great, but that isn't the reality of work, nor can it be the reality of work. He's talking about a glorified hobby. I just googled the author and it looks like he works in a university currently, so I guess my suspicions that he's a hobbyist are pretty much correct.

The guy with the koi legs? I'm pretty sure that's a Horiyoshi 3 suit.

Welcome and what @SeeSea said about the pictures!

Pictures taken while getting my back done. Session one: Session two: Session three. NOT FUN: Next session in a week. Can't wait, not being sarcastic there either. It seems that the more I get tattooed the more I want to get tattooed, and here I was thinking going into this that getting my back done was going to destroy me and make me want to slow down.

I really need to make it to this one year. Dave, who is doing my back, works it and he talks about how it's such a great convention. No nonsense, just loads of great tattooing. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but stupid tattoos taking up all my money so I can't travel to get tattoos.

It was funny looking through Tim's portfolio at the Montreal convention because I swear half of it is pictures of your tattoos. Great ones as always, and I especially love that frog. I hope you find work too because the only thing worse than having a job is looking for one.

Aye, scrumpy. I'll vouch from experience for that stuff being able to fuck you right up. I wish I could get that here, but it's probably just as well that I can't.

Let's be honest here, nobody "kills" lace tattoos because, like every other Pinterest/google image search trend, they aren't tattoos. Not saying that somebody couldn't do a nice ornamental tattoo using lace as an inspiration, but the stuff that's on the link above isn't what we would consider here to be good tattooing.