beez

couple from today...errr...yesterday - stolen from the artist IG
traditional pieces by Shannon Pagliarini @ Crown and Anchor Tattoo in Pt. Pleasant, NJ

Here's the trick to Bactine: get the squirt bottle, NOT the spray bottle (spray can introduce airborne bacteria - if all you can get is the spray bottle then transfer it to a squirt/wash/Nalgene bottle). Now, squirt the tattoo using gloved hands to catch the excess, and rub it into the OPEN tattoo (linework usually isn't enough). Then let it sit on there for a few minutes, and then start tattooing without wiping it off the skin. Lidocaine won't fuck up your tattoo in any way and you won't OD. Note this does NOT apply to other numbing products, especially those with Epinephrine in them.
Some people spray a couple squirts on and wipe it off immediately with a paper towel, and surprise, it doesn't work.
This isn't a trade secret or technical information, by the way. I learned this as a collector long before I became an apprentice.

This may be a derail, but I got some Bactine for one of my leg tattoos...it was a weird experience; it was completely numb in certain areas, but then elsewhere it was like three times as painful. Has anyone else dealt with this?
Edit: I saw that @dari mentioned this in the painkillers thread. Maybe going to request no topical numbing agents in the future unless I'm doing love handles one day...

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!

@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!

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.

@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!

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!

if i get annoyed by a new thread it is just a sign that i spend too much time here.

@beez that is beyond cool. Also: 4 hours...howwww??!

Damn you, @beez. I already have a huge snake on my back, but now I'm jealous of yours. Very jealous.

@beez Absolutely incredible!! You must be so stoked with it!!

new lil dude from Hector Fong at Tattoo 13 in Oakland :)

By Trevor Shea in Vancouver BC. Healed and no filer...seriously. Trevor is the Mike Roper of Canada in my opinion. Bodysuits that you will never see online.

All right, you guys are awesome as always, @Graeme, @polliwog, @marley mission, @RoryQ, @AverageJer, @BrianH and @Breakme!
Sounds like I won't die ;-) Just keep moving, not too much, dresses or loose pants, don't plan big exciting things for the morning after, and have a great time!
My trip started out as, "Fly out for a tattoo, spend a couple days with Mom." Now it's turned into, "Mom and I fly in and have a nice vacation in SF and I happen to be blasting down to SJ to get a tattoo while I am there." !
Yes, planning on getting the tattoo on a Wednesday and flying back on Friday, so we'll probably fly there the Saturday before. This would be a perfect situation to use Saniderm, but since I've never tried it before, I don't want to start with this one.

@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!

@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!

@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!

I have a Thai mythological leg sleeve and hand tattoos. Done by IG: @fulltimetattoo back in 2007.

@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!

Edited. Forget it, not sure why I am replying to this.

I'm about 3 months into my apprenticeship. Last week my mentor says "Set up a machine and draw up some small designs right now, I have someone coming in for you to tattoo in about 30 minutes."
"Are you sure this is a good idea? Who is coming in?" I asked.
"Just some big biker guy I know."
I was shaking so bad that I could hardly get the machine set up. Hell I hadn't yet been taught how to use a machine. I wasn't sure if this was for real or a joke, but this is definitely the kind of thing he would line up just for the sake of fucking with me. I imagined some gnarly big dude he met at the local dive bar.
I'm sitting at my station frantically drawing a spider and a skull and I hear the back door ring and my mentor say "Hey man come on in, he's just finishing up your drawing."
I walk over to the station shaking and see a grapefruit sitting on the chair.

Progress shot....pretty much finished the top half.

@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!