doshio

Love his work, saw that one on instagram earlier today. Awesome job.

It shouldn't, no. I do sometimes prefer to keep mine covered rather than be stared at - I guess it's a form of escapism when I do that - but for the most part I wear 'em proudly. Today's culture is fairly accepting of tats anyway.

Just finished the first episode of Killjoys. It's some pretty basic shit (which is the standard for Syfy), but fuck it... I miss Firefly, so this'll do.

I mostly listen to Aussie shows, which might not be of interest to most of y'all, but there's a few American ones (and one awesome British one) on my list. Podcasts | Nerdist - I find Chris Hardwick to be a fairly shit host, to be honest, but he gets some damn good guests. I do my best to ignore his incoherent fanboy blubbering and enjoy what the guest's got to offer. The recent episode with Mike Judge was fucking fantastic. Stuff You Should Know: The Podcast - Just a couple of dudes talking about how various parts of the world, humans, technology and science work, but in a really easy-to-understand way. Some good humour mixed in. QI : Quite Interesting - No Such Thing as a Fish. This is a podcast hosted by the research team behind the British comedy news panel show. They each present a bizarre fact and then joke around for a while. Enjoy eh!

Haha, sweet tat nonetheless.

Jesus... I'm a big believer in folks getting whatever the hell they want tattooed on them, but some people really stretch the limits of my 'are you fucking serious...' meter.

Shit, forgot to reply. @steve1461686340, @gougetheeyes, cheers for the guidance!

What do you have on your shoulder? And what's your other tat, for that matter!

Saving Mr Banks. Huh... This looks good. Great cast. Hanks, Emma Thompson, Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitfield... I'm in. And, even though it's not strictly relevant to the plot, I hope they touch on the fact that Disney didn't allow women to be animators at his studio. Edit: just realised it's a Disney movie... pretty sure they won't touch on their dark past, haha.

Yeah, I like Champloo, although it's not quuuuuiiite as good as Bebop... ;) Believe it or not, I don't like NGE! I like the idea of it, but I just hate the characters... Well, most of them. It's visually stunning though, can't argue that.

I post pretty boring shit, but you'll find me at mkstvns :)

Great call on Ninja Scroll. Akira is of course another obvious must-watch... Wicked City is some good messed up fun, the Patlabor movies (third one sucked though), Macross Plus miniseries... Oh, all-time fave anime series, Cowboy Bebop. Cannot be beat.

Caught Pacific Rim tonight. Analogue robot gave me a laugh, and that baseball bat of a ship was rigid as fuck... If only today's oil tankers were that tough! Fun flick though. Nothing complex, just the good simple giant robot fun that our younger selves went nuts for.

TOP idea for a thread. I've got a couple of tattoos planned to kick things off, one just for fun and one as a sort of little motivator, for lack of a better word. I've been sketching out ideas for a long-ish piece on my arm that would start up near my shoulder, depicting a classic tall ship on the surface of the ocean. BUT, the ship is in two pieces, with a couple of kraken tentacles in the process of tearing it apart. Clouds and small birds in the background, etc. The water is shaded black and blue - but mostly only near the top, near the 'surface' of the water - and the image moves down into the depths of the ocean, down my arm, with the long kraken tentacles reaching up from the bottom. Haven't decided if the kraken's torso/head will be visible... I like the idea of having the tentacles disappear behind a banner, which is covering where the body would be. but I'm not sure yet what the banner would say... The other piece is just something I'll have near my wrist, where I can always see it. It'll be some sort of 'be better' message (but something a little more playful). I battle with anxiety, depression and indecision, so I think it'd be a nice reminder if it's something I can see all the time.

Heyo Beth, welcome from another newbie. :)

Hooray, working now! Cheers again folks :)

Hahah, I HAD posted an intro, but it disappeared after I posted some links to my art, breaking the forum rules! Alas, I am a dumbarse. But cheers for the welcome :)

That is just stunning. Been staring at it for a little while now. Love the speckled effect to edge of the rouge/blush under her eyes. Kudos to Paul, and to your wife!

Jesus. That looks amazing. I don't think I could bring myself to get anything that big - at least not initially, haha. Who knows what lies ahead. Right, so Bob Roberts... that's a name I can add to the long list of legends to research. Is it common to have an eagle and a dragon facing off in a tattoo? Love the idea. Don't think I've seen it executed before.

Hey guys, I stupidly posted some links in a second post in my intro thread, so it got moved to the moderation queue - but it looks it's also caused the original intro post to disappear too... I can see and access the thread, but can't see any content in it! How badly have I cocked up? Hah.

Great story. I'm familiar with the feeling of realising that years of resisting tattoos was ultimately unnecessary! It's been a great feeling to 'give in' to the temptation. Now I just have to scrape together the coin to get my next one! I love the one you've got. And I feel like maybe having character in an artist's work is a tiny bit more important than technical skill (incendiary comment..?), because it has a more old school feel to it.

Hi all, Long time since I've been a new member on a forum, forgot what it's like to be confronted with so many rules, haha. Totally fuggin' necessary though, don't get me wrong. I just hope I don't break any of them! I'm Mike, 33 years old. Born, bred and based in Melbourne Australia. Graphic designer, illustrator, motoring journalist, bla bla. How do I keep this short... I've only got one tattoo but I've always loved them - from afar. That is, I never allowed the world of tattoos to be a big part of my life, but I've always been drawn to the mystery of 'em. My dad is covered in tats, but for a lot of my life we didn't get along, so even though I loved the idea of tattoos, I always ended up associating them with arseholes. But hey, we're good mates now and I fucking love admiring the work he's had done over his life. So I'm coming to it late, y'know? He's got all the classic work, your sparrows and your hearts and your roses and your tall ships and clouds and banners and so forth. I love it all, and it's the guiding influence in the style I want on me. It's also taken over my creative love. I've been a designer and illustrator all my life, but never this sort of thing. But now it's all I can think about. And damn there's so much to learn (and rightly so). I've watched the shit I could get a hold of; Stoney Knows How, Hori Smoku, and a bunch of newer clips on YouTube, etc. I've read a whole bunch of shit, stared for hours at the work of established artists, etc. And one thing is clear: I've got a lot to learn. I've been drawing heaps - largely because I want the next few pieces on my body to be my own design - but also because, yes, I'm yet another shithead that dreams of becoming a tattooist. I'm probably too old and too loaded-up with debt for it to be a reality, but hey... a guy can dream. I haven't been this driven and inspired in ages, so that's all I care about right now. SHIT. So much for keeping this short. Cheers guys. Now I've got a bunch of LST's useful links to get stuck into. - - - Updated - - - Am I allowed to post links? Let's see... Here's some shit I've been toying with so far, but really I'm getting ahead of myself. I should be practising the core basic flash stuff really... Anchors/bombs part 1 | part 2 | part 3 Ship (and Kraken...) in a bottle part 1 | part 2 | part 3 (I'd rather colour this in the more traditional style, this was just a "let's get it down first..." pass at it.) Mike Stevens (my real name), All sewn up, the least sexy seamonkey ever, a slightly more sexy mermaid, the legendary Bubble o' Bill. Sorry, hope that wasn't overkill on the linking.