real meta

I'm awaiting the email that will serve as the final confirmation, but I'm pretty sure I just booked a spot with Steve Byrne next month. Holy shit.

Love that placement. El Monga is the nicest guy ever.

@CultExciter Next level shit, man. Super stoked for you. I got my foot did by Antonio Roque this evening. Picture's from his IG.

Humor and novelty aside, I would like to say that @Stewart Robson did a really great job with that tattoo. Seriously, it's the best genital tattoo I've ever seen, and I used to frequent BME.

I've had a similar experience. I was at a neighborhood bar and ran into the apprentice from a local shop where I've been tattooed a couple times. While we were talking she referred to me as a "collector." I said something about only having four tattoos, but she just shook her head and said, "You're a collector." I'll take it. As plenty of others have pointed out, the term can come off as uppity at times, but it's also useful to describe a certain approach to getting tattooed.

I was just thinking you were overdue for some new tattoos... Also, after looking at the previous page...holy shit. You people are killing it. I've seen so many of these tattoos on IG and been pumped on them, only to get on here and see that they're on LSTers, it's great.

Just made tentative plans to get my foot tattooed by Antonio Roque next month!

Honestly, this is ultimately what it comes down to. I don't claim to have a genius, creative mind, and I'm sure none of the other non-tattooers do either, but at least we have the sense and/or taste to give the tattooers creative freedom. They know what's best, leave it up to them. One of the reasons I'm glad I didn't start getting tattooed at 18 is because if I did, I'd be covered in a bunch of band symbols and other bullshit. Being open to tatooers' ideas is literally one of the best things that has ever happened to me. God damn I am drunk.

I was JUST about to say how badly I need a tattooed cat on me. Great minds...

Hoo boy, I can relate to both of these. Except I would say that getting the inner thigh tattooed also sucks really bad.

Super nice, @MJH IV!

I'm kind of relieved to read this. I just got almost the entire back of my calf tattooed a few days ago, and while most of it wasn't too horrible, the last 30 or 40 minutes (of a ~3 hour tattoo) were pretty brutal and left me completely worn out. I've never claimed to sit like a rock, but I was/am starting to feel like a wimp.

Thank you for the kind words, everyone. All credit goes to El Monga. Aren't they awesome? They're one of my favorite details in the tattoo. In fact, they're a testament to how great a tattooer El Monga is: I mentioned that I liked medieval themes in tattoos, so in addition to putting the castles, etc. in there, he also gave the entire tattoo sort of woodcut-from-the-middle-ages look, and I feel like the boots are ripped straight from that sort of imagery, as well. They really round out the overall aesthetic of the tattoo in my opinion. ...hopefully that made sense. I didn't sleep much last night.

There's already some seriously stiff competition, but here's my entry for this month. Done yesterday by El Monga.

Just got this put on me by El Monga. Picture stolen from his instagram.

I'm sitting in the shop waiting to get tattooed by El Monga. I just saw the design he drew up for me and I am SO PUMPED. It's incredibly awesome.

The shading and color on that are so smooth, it's kind of blowing my mind right now. There have been so many good tattoos posted in the last couple days.

I came here to post my IG account name, but @irezumi already posted a screencap from my feed. ...but really it's real_meta_shit. More tattoo pictures pending.

You should probably nip that in the bud.

Yessssss

That guy does some awesome work, but I don't know his real name either. He posts a good amount to his facebook as well.