Shaun1105

That's awesome! Pharaoh's horses on stomach is the best tattoo. I'm a fan of Alix Ge as well. Can't wait to see some pics!

Welcome to the forum. I wish you the best in all you do - but the first step in "getting into tattooing" is to get one yourself! After that get a bunch more. I hope while you're here you learn much.

Luckily this has only happened to me on a relatively small tattoo. There is actually an action shot of it posted here already. I had little choice but to grit my teeth and bear it. I took any short pause in tattooing to move my arm a bit and relieve the pressure. In the end though, the pain/discomfort in my elbow really did mask a lot of the pain in what is a pretty sensitive area to get tattooed (inner arm). And it makes for a good story to go with an excellent tattoo.

Yeah! Welcome to the Steve chest eagle club!

Yeah I could tell that. Looked like you were having a great time ;) My tattoo ran past midnight so I missed any chance of coming by when you were done.

Went to the Montreal convention looking to get a walk-up. Jebb Riley was available, and he put this candle in a long space on my right bicep.

For anyone going to the convention tonight - if you see me say hi. I'll be the guy with a beard and tattoos. ...in also tall, bald, and perhaps most helpfully I will have my LST tshirt on. Tomorrow I will be harder to spot perhaps. Look for the panther tattoo (my avatar) on my calf. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I miss a few days on Instagram because of doing an excessive amount of fantasy football research, and look what I miss! Very exciting! For everyone else who is attending, are we still going to try and figure out some kind of meetup?

I have an inner bicep tattoo, and it worked out fine. "Too fat" isn't ever an issue I don't think, what would be more of an issue is very loose skin from weight loss. Looking forward to seeing your tattoo!

As others have said, the quality artist you choose will be just as safe and clean no matter where they're tattooing you. There has to be a slightly (tiny) increased risk of an infection, just because you're getting tattooed around hundreds of other people instead of 5-10 people in a shop, but your own aftercare is infinitely more important a factor. The reason not to get a tattoo at a convention has nothing to do with safety, it's about the atmosphere. I found getting a tattoo at last years Montreal convention to be WAY too loud and hectic for my taste. It was very difficult to have a conversation with my tattooer - essentially we were shouting half the time (booth quite close to stage). Afterwards I told myself I'd never get tattooed at a convention again... ...I'm getting my next tattoo in a couple weeks at the Montreal Convention.

Only really makes sense using the North American date notation MMDD I suppose.

Hi Beth, welcome to the forum! If your friend wants you to design this because he particularly likes your style, then just draw an angel with flames as you normally would. Then he can take your art to his chosen tattoo artist who will do the necessary adaptations. If he has asked you because he doesn't really understand that creating the art is a part of what a tattoo artist does (this seems to be commonly misunderstood - many people think they should bring a finished design to their tattooer), then as @Graeme said just pass on the work and recommend he have his tattoo artist do the design.

So far I'm resisting the temptation, but there's still a couple weeks to go. Both of those guys are high on my list (and I didn't realize until just now that Robert Ryan was even at the convention!). Either of you know if they're doing appointments only or taking walkups at all?

Last time I got tattooed my artist was discussing a similar situation with some other tattooers in the shop. This wasn't him it happened to, but someone he knew/knew of: So a tattooer opens up a shop like almost across the street from the existing shop. Starts trash talking, causing problems, etc., much like you're experiencing. One notable lie that the new tattooer tells about the old is that the older guy has Hep C so people shouldn't get tattooed there. Obviously, old tattooer isn't too pleased about this. His remedy, apparently, was to grab a handful of used needles, walk into new guys shop and stab him with them while he was tattooing a client - "I've got Hep C, do I? Well, now you do too". The good old days. I'm not saying you should do this, not at all. You should just keep doing solid work and wait for people to realize the other guy sucks.

Hi, welcome to the forum!! Most of the tentacles of the octopus would be headed down your arm towards your elbow, wouldn't they; with only one or two reaching onto your back and chest? If you choose a good tattooer I'm sure they will have ideas as to how to place them - who are you thinking of going to? I don't think it will look odd. Do you have any pictures of your current tattoos? We'd love to see them!

These four are on my great-uncle Boots, who served in the Royal Canadian Navy. First two are on his upper arms and were done in 1949 in a street booth "by some 19 year-old kid in Pompey, England". Google tells me that means Southampton. The second two larger ones are on his forearms and were done in Victoria, BC. Artist unknown. Within the same year, I believe. All of his kids' names are in/around the tattoos.

My family reunion was this past week. I made sure to get some shots of the tattoos on my great uncles. These would be some of the first tattoos I remember seeing as a child. These are on my Uncle Jerry. Done in Vancouver, BC in 1941 by Steve Robertson*. My uncle was 15 years old, and was working on the Building and Rail gang of the CN Railway. One night they got into a bottle of wine, the older guys told him he was going to get tattoos, and he went along with it. They cost $1.25 each. * My uncle says these were done in a shop by an artist of that name. Has anyone heard of him? There is a Canadian tattoo history thread I have yet to read through fully, I will check there too. First is a heart with an arrow+banner, "Father" and "Mother" above and below. Second is an anchor, kind of tough to read nowadays as it's quite small.

I totally agree that shop>convention. That said, I will be getting my next tattoo at a convention so, yeah. Favorite shops I've been tattooed at: Rock of Ages Pearl Harbor Gift Shop Immaculate Shops where I would like to get tattooed: Black Anvil Tattoo (First shop I visited that I didn't get tattooed at. I vowed someday to return. From the outside you would barely know it's there but inside it's very cool.) Frith St. Great Lakes Spider Murphy's Temple

IN! I have been waiting patiently for this thread to get started - did you know last years was posted in January?! :) Unlike last year I'm not going to make an appointment, but I will probably get a small tattoo if someone has time available. There's a gap on my right arm that has been bothering me lately... Looking forward to meeting up with LSTers - and hopefully some brunch. Mmm...brunch.

Welcome to the forum! If you tell us the area you live I'm quite certain someone will have an artist recommendation for you. Don't be discouraged by a long drive or overnight trip! I have gotten the majority of my tattoos while travelling (just realized that, actually) and while it does increase the cost a bit, you end up with both the tattoo and the travel memories so I believe it to be well worth it.

@shaunsomers

But there IS a correlation between income and ability to actually get tattoos. Demand isn't just wanting something, it's that 'want' being acted upon by offering something (money) in exchange for it. When talking about tattoos, I think we do have to distinguish between different types: Scratcher/DIY/"free" tattoos are an inferior good - That is, people will want less of them as their income increases. Professionally done tattoos are a luxury good - as our income increases we (meaning people who purchase tattoos) will spend proportionally more of our income on tattoos. For example, if at a given yearly salary we may purchase 1 tattoo per year at a cost of $x. Given a $10,000 raise/bonus, we will now purchase a larger tattoo worth $2x, or two perhaps two or more tattoos. So we've at least doubled our spending on tattoos despite our income not doubling. Tattoos run into problems that other luxury goods do not though. If one's income increases high enough, there's really no limit to demand on something like boats or shoes or watches. Even if you have bought the most expensive/luxurious one available, you can always buy another one. No matter how much we like tattoos, we really only get one chance to buy a full back piece or body suit (smaller areas can be covered up or blasted over, but you know what I mean). Looking into this area gave me the chance to learn about Veblen goods too - items whereby the demand increases because the price is higher. I think that this is possible with tattoos - this one being the one that comes to mind. Would Ms. Johansson have chosen that tattoo if it were done for $60 by somebody's friend's bro? Probably not.

Actually you have an excellent point - that they have no exchange value! I think that education and vacations aren't quite right as examples though - education improves your skills and a vacation is something you actively go out and do. The education is exchangeable in a sense too (you could teach someone else). And short of being there with you, others don't really SEE the results. Being tattooed IS a life experience though, so it does have that in common. In some sense, it is like getting your hair/makeup/nails done (none of them a need either). Or maybe those guys who trim shrubs into shapes? Piercing too, which is maybe the closest comparison. A combination of service rendered, and art. But with a uniquely permanent result. I actually lay awake last night thinking about the economics of tattooing.

Tattoos are definitely a luxury good, by definition. If any of us were to win $100,000 tomorrow, we would surely want another tattoo, probably one larger or better than we have had before (as long as enough bare skin remained). And yet as each year passes they become less and less luxurious. Cell phones were once exorbitantly expensive and truly "luxury", now they are all but necessity in our culture and owned by many people who we would otherwise say were extremely poor around the world (most people I met in Haiti had a cell phone, though they often didn't have electricity of their own to charge them). I'm not certain, but 'poor/lower class' people in the West are probably more likely to have a tattoo than a "wealthy" person. There are also many tribes/cultures around the world where by our standards they live in abject poverty and yet they have tattoos - they spent time and resources on them even though they aren't needed. Unless, maybe, they are on some level? Tattoos are also unusual because they are flexible/ scaleable in a way that many goods are not. A quarter-sized bird silhouette is "a tattoo", and so is a Battle Royale full backpiece. But a Hot Wheels is not "a car" the same as a Cadillac. So classifying all tattoos in the same way (luxury/normal) isn't fully accurate.