AverageJer

Made it up from Minneapolis this past weekend and my wife and I both got tattooed. We had a great experience at GLT.

Nice. It's always good to talk about music. I think the best music I have been tattooed to was the Jack White pandora station. I have also thought it would be cool to have some really nice classical or Jazz on so that I can really focus on calming myself (I am not good at sitting still). Ultimately though I think the best choice is whatever helps the artist focus.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

Interesting thread. I'm not really a ritual guy but I do have some preferences. Ideally I would get a good nights sleep and have time to get to the gym for a workout a few hours before the appointment. After this I like to eat a good meal- not to big but enough to tide me over. I also like to take a shower right before I leave home if possible. Then it's all about relaxation and distress tolerance skills. Like others have mentioned- focused breathing during the tattoo is important. It works at the dentist too. Afterwards I will be pretty pumped up so I like to party. We have had friends over a few times on tattoo day and that works well (especially when my wife and I both get tattoos on the same day- which is very fun). Beer will be involved. It's a day I have been looking forward to so I like to make it fun all around. My wife and I have appointments at Great Lakes Tattoo in Chicago next week while on vacation so it will be difficult to adhere to a specific routine. We plan to be pretty chill the night before but I'm guessing we will have a lot of fun afterwards. Obviously I am looking forward to it.

I got my first tattoo at age 38 and I'm kind of glad I waited. I'm not saying it's a mistake to get them younger- just that it has been fun for me the way things have turned out. I have about 10 depending on how you count them and I still have plenty of room for more.

Lot's of different things are inspiring. One thing that I think can be cool are historical artifacts. I had an artist come up with this version of the sideways medusa head that serves as a column base of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul.

totally worth enduring that question for good pho

my wife and I talk about this a lot and more and more I am finding that whatever plan or rule I come up with get's quickly broken as I think of new ideas for both content and placement. I do have some larger spaces (such as my whole left arm) that I am purposely saving in case I ever end up with a really good tattoo opportunity.

Interesting question. I'm not sure what the legal and ethical ramifications for a tattoo artist are and good for you for having a line. Still, as a person who works with youth who have a variety of mental health and developmental disabilities I do think they deserve as normalized of an experience as possible. My instinct is that if the request was for something tasteful in terms of content and body placement it would be fine to go forward with it. I'll be curious to see what others say about this.

I think the "meaning" issue is a real barrier for people when it comes to getting tattoos. At least it was for me. Before I had any tattoos I kind of didn't bother because I didn't know what I would get that would have enough meaning to have it written into my skin. My first tattoo was about my family a couple of years after the birth of my daughter. With my next few tattoos I was still kind of over thinking it and coming up with wild stories to tell myself about why what I wanted was a good idea. Now that I am more comfortable with tattoos in general (I've realized that nothing horrible has happened) I am more able to find enough meaning in just thinking it's cool.

This is not something that has explicitly been said but I get a strong sense that my family thinks my wife's tattoos are cool because she is an artist but my tattoos are dumb because I'm just a regular guy who suddenly started getting tattooed at age 38.

Thanks for the welcomes.

I'll see if I can figure out how to post some pics. Give me a minute. - - - Updated - - - Testing- - - - Updated - - - - - - Updated - - - Sorry these are coming out so huge. Here's one more:

So hopefully I am doing it in the right place. I enjoy tattoos and enjoy online forums. I don't have any questions and it is unlikely I will have any advice other than opinion based advice so I may end up being more of a lurker. I guess time will tell.