YawkeyWay

Cult you are about to find out YOU were the first vehicle for influence. It was your post on Boyer followed by drive up the road to Staunton to get inked by Tim Forbus that originally got me looking at their work. After seeing Tim's Sacred Heart and one of his Gypsy Ladyheads, I gave him a call. Since then I have been inked by him twice. He was able to blow me away with my second piece as it was the most important one I'll ever own; it contains my girls names. I told Tim I found him because of this site.

Thank you Tim Forbus at Acme Staunton. The swallow represents my wife who holds my heart and the three flowers and names represent our three daughters. Size of the flower is consistent with the age of the daughter.

I for one have had my tattooer come back to lurking after I told him I drove 3 hours to get specifically tattooed by him based on a reference from this site. I also have come to realize how lucky I am to live in Virginia and have a love for tattoos, especially old school stuff.

All said and done, I had a great session with Tim Forbus at Acme Tattoo Staunton on Thursday. Inner bicep, which wasn't as nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Couldn't be happier with the design. The blue rose is skewed due to the bend in my arm.

Thank you all for the positive responses! I can't wait for my second session at Acme Staunton with Tim Forbus this Thursday.

Good Stuff Tim, look forward to our session on Thursday! BTW everyone else echoed your sentiments on the Swallow in my other thread.

Living in Virginia a couple hours away from the largest naval base on the east coast, I'm wondering it it would be disrespectful for me to get a swallow tattoo with my daughters names in scroll. I know historical significance of the swallow tattoo in sailor lore showed experience at sea. I've never served, nor will I now, so I'll always be a Civilian. Give where Tattoos are today, has anyone heard or read if this would be disrespectful to those that served. FYI, both my grandfather and my wife's grandfather served in the Navy during WWII, so another reason I would want to respect this if it still holds strong meaning. The swallow represents my wife and the scroll our three daughters. I'm going to add a couple other elements. Yes I know swallows are trite these days, but I have always thought of my girls associated with birds. Besides I'm having my artist, not copy, but use elements from City and Colour Sometimes album cover as a starting point in our design http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/city_and_colour/sometimes_f2/ I've already told my artist I want a good old school traditional bird in mostly black and grey, not a swirly girly looking bird. I'll add the wolfs head to my other arm in a couple years. :)

Nice lines, home brewer here. Thumbs up on the hops and placement.

Why should one nitpick when that is an entire freak show happening, but my first reaction was those eyes aren't even close to the picture. Holy cow, someone gave Smeagol the ring of power again.

Agreed on the 100% commitment in the future. She does good work for the styles I've seen. Honestly I'll admit I limited my research locally. Time and this board have made me much more knowledgable. Thanks for the replies.

And no, I have not seen the first drawing only been sent a piece of flash as a rough idea.

Yes I made a deposit. I agree it is only fair for her to keep it.

I'm a month out from my next Tattoo and I have been preliminarily working with a local custom artist who has been tattooing for 17 years and gotten good reviews from locals. Her work tends to sway from tribal to heavily colored fill in every space type work which isn't my taste. My feeling is this is what her folks are requesting. She has though delivered some old school traditional which was good. Up to this point is has been more of ideas passed with an appointment being made way out. Issue I'm having is I've been recently inked by an artist whose portfolio is more my taste and whose recommendations in Virginia offered the same old school traditional I'm looking for( I found this artist thanks to this forum and got inked between the time of setting up my upcoming appointment with the local artist back in January). I've also come to be amazed at some of the artists in Virginia who specialize in tradition American and Japanese tattoos. The upcoming piece is something old school representing my daughters with their names. My concern is the example presented by the current artist is too feminine. I want it to have some teeth, like the sparrow of this forum with my daughter's names. I don't want to be disrespectful of someone's work and give everyone their fair chance. I'm questioning if it would be better to cut my loses and go to a shop that specializes in/likes to do what I'm looking for (now that I've found them), or provide the feedback to the local artist and see what they come up with at the appointment and make the decision in person. Thoughts? Thank you in advance!

Tim Forbus at Acme Tattoo in Staunton VA, hooked me with some roses for my steal your face. The SYF was 18 years old, so he redid the outline and color as well.