Graeme

There's a whole section of this forum dedicated to tattoo designs, try looking in there. Go to a bookstore or library and look in art books. I know you didn't like people busting your balls about your tattoo, but getting good tattoos requires doing some work researching artists, looking at reference, learning about tattoos, art, and design and while this forum is a great resource and starting point, the onus is on you to do something with it. Nobody here is interested in holding your hand through the whole process.

Thomas Hooper experimented a bit with video of his tattoos on his blog, but I don't know to what extent he is pursuing that line of documenting his tattoos. I agree that well-done video of tattoos is great to showcase them, but I still think there's something to be said for good photography. Look at Taki's book Bushido and the photos of Horiyoshi III's tattoos in them and how well they show the tattoos and the way they sit in the skin. The photos are really pretty amazing. I think the problem is that we've just gotten far too used to looking at crappy pictures taken by camera phones on tiny little phone screens and while I think it's on the one hand so great to have this massive amount of access to seeing some amazing tattoos that are being on daily around the world, we've also lost a lot. An iPhone just isn't going to give you the richness and texture that a decent camera will, and the nature of the internet, and instagram especially, is that it's very much about immediacy and getting as much information out as quickly as possible which means that amazing backpiece or sleeve or bodysuit (or whatever, even a one point!) that you and your tattooer have been working on for months or years and that you're going to carry for the rest of your life and is going to age and decay with your body becomes this image that somebody is going to stop and look at for a couple of seconds, "like" it it not, then move on to the next tattoo, dog photo, or picture of somebody's pretentious lunch. I haven't tried Vine, mind you.

It will be worth it.

@BrianH Do it unless you want to be BANNED. (We drove eight hours for a consult once, which seems kind of crazy when I actually think about it but seemed more or less sane at the time...depends on how badly you want the tattoo)

From what I see in real life, besides on tattooers, the best tattoos I see tend to be on construction workers. Seen some really nice sleeves on bus drivers too.

Yep, lines will spread and small details will end up bleeding together. There's a great new instagram account called vintage_tattoos run by Steven Wrigley, a tattooer from Glasgow, and it's worth looking at if only to get a better idea of how tattoos are going to age and look 30, 40, 50 or more years down the line. I think you'd be far better off breaking the design up into different elements and getting a geisha girl as one tattoo, a koi as another, but that's a discussion you should be having with your artist.

Welcome to the forum and intro threads are the perfect place to ask questions. I'm not an artist, but that design in that spot is not going to work. I'd suggest finding an artist who does tattoos you love, and with that drawing you could probably go either Japanese or New School, and asking him or her to simplify and rework the design so that it will work as a tattoo.

Admins, could we add a button that will automatically post that OV Dan Higgs video talking about how tattoos go together for whenever there's a thread like this?

Anderson Luna is amazing.

Welcome! Tell us about your tattoos. Pictures are always appreciated too.

It isn't worth wasting your time caring about what tattoos other people get. People have been getting tattoos for as long as there have been people, I have no reason to believe that people will ever stop getting tattoos. It's larger than all of us and it will survive. Sorry for being a dirty hippie there.

Nice one! I am super excited to watch Alex Snelgrove grow as a tattooer because while she's putting on great tattoos right now, I think as she tattoos more and gets more experience she is going to be really amazing. She is such an incredible artist and her handpokes are completely ridiculous. There's a handpoked portrait on her instagram that is better than what I've seen a lot of people do with a machine. - - - Updated - - - Here you go, handpoked portait by Alex Snelgrove (this tattoo isn't on me): http://instagram.com/snelgrove

Like this? Paul Jeffries' back done by Eddy Deutsche.

Almost everything I know about genital tattooing I know from reading Phil Sparrow who made it sound like it was nearly impossible to make a good looking tattoo on a penis, so well done sir.

I prefer to use the term "tatgallery" when describing myself, but maybe that's just me.

Nice intro, and welcome. Sounds like you have some great tattoos. I'd suggest looking into Cory Ferguson who tattoos in Oakville and does really nice blackwork.

Yep!

But if you want something that's going to stay perfect forever, get a print or a painting, not a tattoo.

I've been listening to this one after Doug Hardy posted on instagram that he'd been interviewed on it. II've so far listened to the Doug Hardy one, the Jojo Ackermann one, and the Brian Everett one and they've all been these great loose chats between tattooers. I think most people here would really dig them.

I feel inadequate with my two languages. :( @Delicious the best way at overcoming your self-consciousness about your accent is by getting drunk! Well, maybe not best but easiest for sure!

I'd suggest that if you're not willing to abide by the rules of this board and take the very good advice you've been given that maybe you should stop posting because this sort of thing isn't tolerated around here.

Last Sparrow Tattoo - Newbie Guidelines

Hey I thought that people with tattoos were supposed to be cool.

Because they require a minimum of effort.

You got any tattoos other than your handpokes?