spookysproul

Well, this has been an absolutely fascinating thread to read with some great opinions in it.

A coworker of mine commented on how dark the black in my tattoos are and asked how I kept them that dark. This lead to her telling me about how she has one tattoo on her ankle and that she went swimming a few days after getting it done so it healed weird. Well, the three stars on her ankle were pretty faded (she's barely 21, if that) but there was also some nasty blow-out and real wild lines. Apparently the tattooer who did it told her those were also because she went swimming. Classy guy.

If I'd gotten almost ANY of what I'd wanted SO bad when I was 14, I would be so sad about it now. However, my tattoos that I regret all came after I was 21, so I'm not sure an age limit would do much good. Unless we go with the 35 age limit suggested above.

@Lance, You've got that right. I'm very fond of that movie.

I just got my first palm tattoo, an homage to the incredible motion picture Dark City. Yes, it's supposed to look wobbly, lop-sided and uneven. edit - sorry for how ginormous the image is. I'm less competent than anticipated.

I have script inside both wrists; the first wrist is upside down ("facing me," if you will) and the second wrist is the correct way. If absolutely nothing else, the amount of people I've had ask me what it says instead of just being able to read it numbers into the hundreds at this point. As was mentioned before, that's a very visible location, so be prepared to go from having no discussions with people about what very well much have a deep and personal meaning for you to having a veritable cavalcade of people who enjoy watching sensationalized TV shows ask you about "the story" behind your tattoo. I'm not saying don't do it, just be aware that your interactions with the general public will now include those.

I've got 3 Morrissey tattoos ("Viva Hate" on my wrist, "Trouble Loves Me" around a Dia De Los Muerte girl above that, and "Crash Into My Arms" around a coffin on the other arm) 1 Smiths ("Still Ill" on my foot) 1 Sisters of Mercy ("Two Worlds and In Between" on my left wrist) 2 American Nightmare ("The saddest songs make sense to me" around a heart with arrows inside my left bicep, and "I don't fucking care" around the bat/nail combo on my shin) 1 Clan of Xymox (an umbrella with "You keep the rain from falling down on me") 1 Prince/Cro Mags (a sugar skull with a pocket watch stuck at 5 with "Sign of the Times") 1 Skin Like Iron (a vulture with "Life will never be renewed" on my left calf) 1 Jawbreaker ("When it pains, it roars" above clouds with crying eyes in my knee ditches) 1 VNV Nation (kinda, I have the alchemy symbols for mercury and phosphorous on my thumbs) 1 Alkaline Trio (a ghost coming out of a toaster with "Good Mourning" on the back of my left ankle) and my toes say "Out of Step".

There are so many different options in terms of color, as well. If you have primarily black and grey and don't want to go straight into big and bright colors, remember you can always look for someone who sticks to using primarily muted and cooler colors.

A coworker of mine has a simple fly on the bottom of her foot... and it looks very much like one of the black spots that gum turns into after it's been on the sidewalk for a few months. From what I understand that is the standard result of the bottom of the foot tattoo.

Just to reiterate what a few have already said, it's on you and no one else. If you want to keep it, then keep it. If your partner is giving you shit for it and can't just accept that it's your decision and not her's, then perhaps there are larger issues at hand.

Thanks for the tip! Pre-conditioning has honestly never occurred to me. I just got zapped a week ago, and it peeled very quickly and I've just been applying Aquafor twice a day to keep it from drying out while the skin goes back to normal. However, I'm excited to try pre-conditioning next time. And thanks! We're very pleased with it. Yeah, putting lotion on scabs always gives me the heebie-jeebies, but it seems to do the trick.

Most of the time I've seen it recently was for shop minimum, and I'm not saying I want a whole backpiece for shop minimum, just that I think it should be more "13-oriented" flash, and not just flash with a 13 stuck onto it, y'know?

For what it's worth, I know some people who've reported excruciating pain on their feet and said the whole story about having to wear slippers instead of shoes for a few days, yada yada yada. I, on the other hand, was able to loosen the laces on my vans for a few days and that was that. I didn't think they hurt worse than my shins, which was barely at all. So, hopefully yours go more along those lines.

I'm always excited when I see a really good sheet of "13" flash. Conversely, I'm always a little disappointed when it's a sheet of just normal flash with some 13s thrown here and there. What are some good ones people saw this time around?

Ha! I knew a guy who - during the heigh of the Kanji craze - decided he wanted some, so he brought in the menu from Lee's Chinese and got "paper wrapped chicken" on his wrist.

Well, THAT'S insane. Consider me salivating.

I've always found really inconsiderate when people ask this question. Assuming the recipient of the question hasn't thought of it yet, and the above-mentioned response isn't known, then all it really accomplishes is ruining someone's day. People are so thoughtless. Alternatively, a friend of mine was carrying his daughter in Best Buy when someone pointed to his arms and said "What are you going to do when SHE'S old enough and SHE wants tattoos??" To which he responded, "Well, obviously I hate them." and walked away.

I have "Still Ill" in script on my foot, and while Nervio was drawing it on he goes "How does that "E" go? Like this?" and mimed a few swooshes. Nervio is a native Spanish speaker from Mexico and it took a few passes to realize that he meant "How does the "I" go?" and we got it sorted. In retrospect I shouldn't have had the quasi-heart attack I had, but it's that much funnier for it.

I've been dry-healing for the last few years, but we moved to Seattle at the beginning of fall and my wife and I got tattooed in the middle of winter. The Ultra Cold (compared to the Bay Area, anyways) was a motherfucker and the scabs kept cracking open and it wouldn't heal until I started applying lotion/Aquafor two-to-three times per day. Anyone have similar problems?

I don't know that it's ever occurred to me to ask to watch the set-up process, I've always just assumed that the reputation of the shop included cleanliness and sanitation.

Temple is about a 45 second walk eastward from the 19th Street BART station in downtown Oakland, and you can take a bus that goes along Van Ness in SF that will drop you off roughly 5 or 6 blocks from Spider Murphy's. Incidentally, Diamond Club is on the aforementioned Van Ness and you will absolutely get quality work there. Blackheart is roughly four blocks from the 16th & Mission BART station in SF and everything else is easily accessible by almost any MUNI line. I miss the City, sometimes. :(

When a tattoo on my ankle got infected, I was livid - I'd been going to this guy for awhile and how could he do this and yada yada yada. Then I realized after about four months of infected tattoo that I'd gone in the children's foam pit at one of those "Trampoline World" places when the tattoo had juuuust scabbed over. So, we tattooed some hydrogen peroxide in it and it healed up in about three days. I'm not trying to imply that you did something nearly as stupid, but just retrace your steps afterwards and see if maybe there's something you did without thinking that may have caused it before you write this guy off over it. As far as the quality of the tattoo goes, I think it speaks for itself. If you aren't happy with it, go somewhere else. You don't owe anybody anything, pending the entrance into a binding contract.

I definitely wouldn't have gotten any "buddy tats" had I known what I know now.

Yeah, it's strange - I definitely notice that it hurts significantly less when I can watch it happening. Why is that?

I mean, I have the back of both knees done. Even with a beer to take the edge off, that was still no picnic. I feel like after 8 toes, both feet, most of both legs, the front of my torso, the entirety of both arms, one hand, all knuckles, and smatterings on various places around my neck, I've gotten the gist of the "pain" part of it. While I do have a handful of less-than-stellar tattoos, I'd say the majority of mine are "good" at the very least. Now, my last roommate would swallow a few Vicodin, drink some concoction of "anti-energy drinks" he'd make and go to sleep until they were done. Most of the folks at Blackheart and Temple have worked on him, so I'd say he has some decent work as well. But, who knows? Carry on.