beez

@GlaryMillberg thx re japanese work! not done yet either ;p. I'm jealous of many of your pieces! My right leg is my traditional leg - I had to save space for one shots! So, per Shad's instruction, for four days post tattoo - every morning i got up, washed my tattoo clean in the shower, and then sent scores of text messages looking for homies to help wrap my back, lol. But really it was wash it, dry it, bactine it, and then wrap it. I could sort of manage the bactine myself, but absolutely could not get a good wrap on it - if you choose to re-wrap you will need a friend to help! Sleep in the wrap, rinse, repeat. It was scary not letting it breathe, but no infection or weirdness happened at all. This was my first time re-wrapping - I think I'm going to heal like this forever from now on! I used to dry heal everything but the heal so far on my back has been easy and not a single scab. (Which is what I meant in my earlier post when I said "keeps it from scanning" - I meant scabbing!)

Welcome! Your collection makes me want to be your friend! You've got lots of good stuff! And agreed, that koji kneecap is sick. - - - Updated - - - As far as your back goes, I recently re-wrapped mine for four days after the tattoo per my artist's instruction, and it kept me from scanning and the heal much more comfortable. You just have to have someone place the wrap for you, I couldn't do it by myself!

Back.

Thanks guys. You are all right - and I knew that already, but the reinforcement is good. I appreciate the love, all! Thanks!

hey guys. haven't read through this entire thread. just had a really weird (and hurtful) experience with someone I have been intimately involved with for four years. We dated for a year and then broke up, but we have been best friends for the last three. (both of us have dated other people in this time and blah blah, tho have spent the majority of our time with each other.) Because this is someone I spend 75% of every day with - and have for the last four years - and our relationship seemed to have changed over the last few months - I said "hey, I like you as more than a friend again, want to go out sometime?" which led, hours later, to "I could never marry you because your tattoos aging would be a problem for me". I feel like this is more of a cop out than anything ("it's not you, it's your tattoos!"), but it doesn't really matter in the long run. And obvs I was talking about a date and not marriage but that's where he ended up. (I mean, fair enough, if you know it will never work because of something unchangeable...) Can I just say: ouch, that's cold, that hurt more than anything he could have said, unless he told me something like my freckles might disgust him as they aged. It feels like a weird sort of body shaming? I'm in shock. It really hurts. I'm kind of trying to dial down why, because I know some people don't like tattoos and that's just an innate thing, the same way we all like tattoos, but he's never mentioned anything like that to me. For the record, I def had tattoos four years ago when we dated. Sure, I have more now. And he's been here this whole time as they have grown and grown and grown. Never said a word (nor would he have any reason to, I guess, other than discussing tattoo coverage WHICH I DO ALL THE TIME) I have never felt like my tattoos were a barrier to marriage or a long term relationship, though that is what society told me growing up, and that's what my mom said when i got my first visible one ("what about your wedding day?!"). And this guy who has been my BFF for years....certainly had many qualities that I would look for in a long term partner...never would i have thought my tattoos would be a barrier to that. I can see that it's a cop out. At 80 someone's gonna look 80 regardless. Anyway. Ouch. Anybody here with plainskin partners who might want to chip in? Why does the tattoo thing sting so much more than the actual 'rejection'?

Horitoshi family has you pull your knees up to your chest to really get that stretch and get in there when the time comes. Cannonball style!

yeah, definitely. i could sit better for him and he could work larger un-interrupted stretches!

Hogg, your snake may or may not have ended up in my reference pile ;). I'm flattered! Polliwog - I have no idea how in the HELL he did that in four hours. Even though I was there for it I can barely believe it. He said that since he had drawn and colored the snake completely already on a picture of my back, and then he drew it again on me in marker before we started, that because he had drawn it and colored it in he knew exactly where to go and that's why it was so fast. <throws up hands> he's a mad genius! I have never been tattooed by anybody who is particularly slow, either! But the other half of my back definitely took multiple sessions of AT LEAST 4 hours each, so this was soo fast! The one thing that may have helped was that he used bactine after the first 1.5 hours, and the lidocaine in bactine kept me nice and numb. But once I was numb he went for it and started digging in there - I could DEFINITELY tell I was being worked on. I don't know if I could have handled it without the numbing. On numbing: I used to be sort of anti-numbing, but I got numbed for the last 90 min of the eagle/dragon thigh piece and then for this, and I don't feel like I really missed out on the tattoo experience. I was definitely there for all of it! And the numbing may have removed the "hot fire" element of it, but not the continuously working over chopped up skin feeling. So that's it! @cltattooing that hector fong piece is sick!

@SeeSea i spend a lot of time in coffee shops and parks when traveling for tattoos (in SF)!! the only thing i would caution is to make sure you know exactly where you're going when the tattoo is done. My post-tattoo brain gets spacier and spacier each tattoo it seems - and I have a helluva time getting anywhere. So if I don't have a set point of where I am going next, I'm in all sorts of trouble.

Keep it clean and wrapped and you're good. Those back to back appointments can be rough! Ibuprofen helps keep the swelling in check. Good luck and let's see pics!

LOL love it :p

You getting work done in Seattle? A donde?

Edmonton! For 1 day! That's all I know! He is going to Arizona after this and then Canada. I know that he told me when, I just can't remember!!!! I'm so sorry - tattoo brain made me spacey. I think today is his last day at DC - maybe give them a call and find out? I said "I know someone in Canada (from the internet) who wants to get tattooed by you," and he said that wherever he's going, the shop owner said there were a couple of people who wanted to talk to him about his next visit there. He's gonna be in AZ for a few days so you might try hitting him up on instagram or something to see exactly where he's gonna be. @ironchef you FLATTER me!

@bongsau - Shad is super nice, and SO FAST! We got that snake done in 4 HOURS! 4!!!! Outline, shading, color!!! He does use bactine, as you mentioned, and that helps so much. He said he is going to be up in Canada, so I hope you get in to see him! This was a really painful session, all in all. The upper back is like hot fire. Not fun! I am so stoked to get to this point in my tattoo, though, and I can't wait to continue the collaboration. We were talking about a dragon on the rest of the back of my legs looking up at the snakes. !!!! Anyway, for those who might have missed it on IG, here is my new snake!

You must be stoked! We will all be excited to see. I've had a few sessions where after I have nowhere to go for hours. Usually I walk in a daze...post tattoo I am very spacey and feel pretty weird, so have wandered into some weird shit. Or wandered weirdly into perfectly normal scenarios. Usually I smoke a cigarette (though I am normally a non-smoker) and have an espresso, (check out LST on my phone) and then wander in the right direction and everything's fine. It's weird, imho, to have the experience of getting something like a back piece started and then have no one to download it to immediately! Hopefully that's a walkable area of LA? Lol :p

Li'l Horitoshi frog by Junii :) Very hard angle to photo!

@polliwog haven't been to the east coast in years, but did get my second tattoo in northampton. Some guy named chuck? don't remember the shop. (I realize it's 2 hours north and west of newton, but what the hell :p).

@polliwog you're in MA right? winter skin!!! always slows my roll. Where in mass are you?

@polliwog Hmm. If the bumps are tender or hot at all, definitely get them checked out. I thought you might be earlier in your heal - wish I had a better answer for you. Good luck!

@polliwog how far into healing are you? Without fail, every weird thing I've been worried about when healing a tattoo has resolved itself on its own without anyone looking at it - that said, just having someone tell you that it's okay might be the medicine you need to make it go away!

@Lance thank you so much re Chuck, you made my morning when I read that. :))) This snake is by Matt (Dr. Claw). I have my first session w Shad in a few weeks! 4/2-4/3. An early birthday present to myself! Has anyone been tattooed by Shad? Would love a little info if so!

@polliwog - Oh, wow, thank you! I've written about it a few different times, let me see if I can find and link to them/do a little write up when I have a bit more time. I know we all love talking about our tattoos here :))))