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.

@G.Uristti is right, if you are bummed about the color get it touched up. I did on one of my blues about 6 months after the original work. Additionally, I've heard of white yellowing, though this seems more of if sun hits it. I have white on one of mine that has stayed true for 18 years. It gets zero sun though so that is why I am sure it has maintained its color. Personally, I like the color it is going as it accentuates the yellows and greens in the stems. Doesn't look brown to me.

Couple of things that bother me about this show, and both have to do with Dave Navarro. Let me prefice this by saying I love JA and have huge respect for him as a guitar player, but for a judge he has some horrible work on his arms. I know he is there to provide color commentary (no pun intended), but his tattoos scream "don't do what I did". Second, Dave needs to swap the sunglasses for something else. Those things are horrible. - - - Updated - - - - - - Updated - - - - - - Updated - - - "The excuses are B-O-L-O-N-G-A" followed by Forrest Cavacco's "Bull****" will always be a classic for me.

How bad is inner bicep?

Looking to get three birds to represent my daughters this spring. Placement right now is on inner bicep (under my wing kind of thing). I have a little concern the birds are not as traditional as I would like. I like the idea my artist sent me, but the black lines are not as thick as I'd like. Any advice not only on stencil, but also colors (I'd like to have each bird a different color) would be greatly appreciated.

Same here, my wife and I had our wedding in Providence and always have an place in our hearts for all things Providence. We now pass through about twice a year. BTW, the three wolf heads with snakes and dagger is KILLER!

I really like this thread. Thank you for sharing the photos. I've been meaning to ask my wife's grandfather who/where he got his work done during the war. He was Navy and spent his entire time in the Pacific. My interest in traditional has me loving not only the look, but the history of the art.

I had my hidden pretty well on my thigh. At the time I was home from school and my mom walked in to tell me my dad was on the phone. My boxers had ridden up pretty high and it was showing. I recall she said, "Wake up, your dad is on the phone. IS THAT A TATTOO? FAR-FA-FLICAL @$#? SOB!!!..." My response, "Calm down and let me take the call; the tattoo isn't going anywhere." Woah did that fire her up even more. That was 20 years ago, and we have a good laugh at it now.

Anyone have any work done or seen the work from either Jenni or Ben at The Body Gallery in Sterling?