kzv20

So, I promised my cousin that I'd pay for her first tattoo on her 18th birthday as a gift, since she's like a little sister to me. The good thing is I get to chose her artist so I know she'll be getting quality work done, the bad thing is that she might be dead set on getting a lace-like tattoo style done. The picture provided is the one she showed me and she wants something close to that. The thing I'm worried most about this is the longevity of the tattoo since it's mostly just lines very close to each other, I don't want her to end up with a huge blob of black ink on her arms later down the road and regret it lol So any advice of this style of tattoo would be nice and any recommendations of artists in the midwest would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

2nd this. Awesome people to get tattoo by!

Welcome to the forum! Post a picture of the half sleeve and we'll go from there. Also if you're looking for new artists around the MN area, I recommend Josh Arment and his whole crew from the Aloha Monkey. They're located in Burnsville, MN. Great bunch of people and do quality tattoos!

since i only have a sleeve I can't comment on any other places, but the places that hurt the most for me would be around the whole wrist, the inner elbow and right around the armpit. My artist would try to have small conversation, but i wasn't able to say anything back. I just zoned out for those places. I personally don't use anything to distract me, i'd rather much listen to my artist talk away or just listen to the sound of the tattoo machine to keep me calm.

Looks good. Don't over think on the design and let your artist do his thing.

I always get asked how much my sleeve cost and I tell them and their response is along the lines of "OMG! I could have bought a car with that kind of money!" Or People with bad tattoos always give me the "You got ripped off. Look at my tattoo. Its awesome and I only paid $50 for mines"........ I take a look and the lines are all blown out, the ink is faded already and the tattoo is fresh under 1 year and since I'm not a rude person, I just tell them that they have a nice tat and I go on my way.

At first I wanted one Traditional American and one japanese sleeve, but then ended up getting a japanese sleeve and now i fell in love with the style so i'm planning a full japanese bodysuit :D but i do regret that i won't be able to get traditional american on me, but that's what friends are for lol

Well there are 1-2 shops that do ok work. A lot of the tattoo shops in town don't really do the kind of tattoos that i like, which are old school traditional americana and japanese. What I would recommend is go downtown and explore. A town favorite is the Memorial Union Terrace, where you sit and enjoy a drink and meal and listen to live bands play all afternoon, until late evening. Right now it's too cold to be out on the lake though unfortunately.

that's a nice solid tattoo. You'd have to really look close and nitpick to find anything wrong and by that time, its just opinions. Be proud to wear it, there are other's out there with "koi" tattoos that look nothing like a koi lol

It's been while since I've been on the site and before I just lurked around and never posted, so I'm here to just reintroduce myself. I'm in Madison, Wi where we have over 8+ tattoo shops, but none that I really trust. I've been travelling up to MN monthly for the past year to get tattooed by the one and only Josh Arment, Owner of the Aloha Monkey. At the time, i was looking to get a Japanese sleeve and somehow wound up on this site and found out about Josh from here. It's been a couple of months since he had finished my Kyuubi no kitsune sleeve, but I plan to start going on my monthly trips again for my next sleeve. My end goal is to get a whole bodysuit done by josh. I'm really into traditional tattoos. Anything from japanese to old school american tattoos amazes me. Also good tribal and a properly done portrait/realism is awesome. I someday hope to travel the sorld and see some of amazing shops out there. But in the mean time, I also want to see all the iconic shops in the US too. Anyways this is me thanks for reading! Lol

I was in MN over the weekend visiting some family and decided to go talk to Josh Arment at the Aloha Monkey about doing a full sleeve 9 tail fox japanese tattoo. Went in to get an estimate only, and ended up leaving with with 4 booked appointments :cool: I cant wait! Lol