penguincomp

Done! Added the mountains and my wife's name at the shoulder, inside of the arm touches, elbow and the final touches throughout the tattoo. Adam was great to work with and did a fantastic job.

I had the same reaction. While it sucks to hear that you went through the same thing, I am glad I am not the only one who experienced the joy of going into shock after the long sessions.

Latest update: Next appoints with Adam Hays are in May to finish up my sleeve. Much to my surprise, I had no scabbing. Itched like a bitch for awhile with the skin flaking off. When I am tired and not thinking I find myself walking across the house and out of the corner of my eye I get surprised that I have a full sleeve. My girls love it. "That's my horsey!" says one of my 3yo daughters.

First tattoo and it was a full sleeve, 6 hours on Thursday, 6 hours on Friday. Flew home Saturday morning.

Now that is some nice ink. Who did them?

We get (on average) 10 of the Terlingua's down to Terlingua every year (including the Terlingua Cobra) :) Thanks for the warm welcome everyone

Welcome

I plan on going to different people for mine since they are specific in design.

Adam told me of a guy down in the Atlanta area who is a tattoo artist as well but he specializes in the water scenes since he is a diver and underwater photographer. I am going to look into him when the time is right. I am not starting the right arm until I am done with the left. Ninja edit: http://www.psychotats.com/newweb/pages/DeanoCook/DeanoCook.htm This is the guy.

Guess I left out this part of the story. I have the plans for my right arm in my head. I am also a Master Diver, Rescue Diver, TEC Diver and a host of other diving certifications (still working on TEC and Dive Master). I also enjoy the Caribbean and boating. So my right arm is going to be a full color ocean theme with a pirate ship on top (shoulder) then under the water is going to be a SCUBA diver, fish and other aquatic life. Opposing arms, different themes.

Adam Hays at Red Rocket Tattoo in NYC did my sleeve. There are multiple meanings in my ink. First off, it is not done. I have about 6 hours of detail work left to do. So on to the story! 2008 was a great year for me. My first daughter was born (I have twin daughters born a year later) and I took delivery of my 2008 Shelby Terlingua. #2 of 38 built. I took delivery at the Shelby American Terlingua 2008 event in Terlingua, TX. Come to find out, my wife went to college in the next down over. In 2009, Shelby American couldn't do the event. So myself and 3 of my friends did. In 2010 I took the Terlingua Preservation Society to 501c3 making it a non-profit business entity. We donate all of our proceeds to the local community (70% live below the poverty level down there) which includes Terlingua High School, Terlingua Fire & EMS and Activets. Among others. In 2012 we had our biggest year yet and raised over 24k in our one weekend. Terlingua has become a big part of my life. 2.5 years ago I started thinking about getting my first tattoo. Then it was on to the what theme, color, grayscale or what. I spent a year and a half figuring out what I wanted. During my Terlingua event I discovered the artwork of Adam Hays. At around the same time I started looking at the local artists by me and was found that none of them could capture the essence of what I was looking for. I race Mustangs and getting into desert racing. I decided I wanted something that imbued Terlingua, my daughters and my racing. Last summer I discovered that Adam did tattoo work, I hit his web page and the light bulb went off in my head. THIS IS THE GUY! I emailed the shop in August 2012, couple of phone conversations later I had an appointment for January 2013. Since I was flying in for the appointments, I wanted as much work done as humanly possible while I was there. I left it up to Adam to decide what could be done. What did I know? I had never had a tattoo. He was the expert and I left this up to him. I gave Adam the details of what I wanted in the design. He came up with the idea of horses racing through the desert and the skeletons (Terlingua thing) on the horses. It tied everything in and I loved the concept. Last Thursday and Friday I discovered what my pain threshold was, which was about what Adam could tattoo in a single sitting. We had two six hour days of tattooing. Below is the product as it is on my arm now. What is left is the mountains behind it (which will have my wife's name in it because without her, I would not have my daughters), some cactus and dust clouds coming up around the horses. All in all, I am extremely happy with my ink and the work that Adam has done. Now to get my race schedule this year and find out when I can get back to NYC to get my tat finished :) Added note: Shelby, Bella and Lexi are my daughters.