Benjamin King

The getting stared at in the store for being 25 and buying 3 tubes of prep h thing has happened to me.

Lately I have been thinking I'd like to get both my kneecaps done at the same time by 2 different people. My wife thinks that there is a logistical issue with this in that one of the artists would need to be left handed so that they weren't working on top of each other, or one of them would have to be between my legs. Has anyone had this done? Is it possible? Artists, I need some input!

I'm not gonna read through all 20 pages here to see in anyone has mentioned it, but I use Preparation H. Yeah, hemerrhoid cream. I was up at Adrenaline in Vancouver a little while back and Justin Cox turned me on to it. I was telling him about how I always had problems with big, thick scabs and up to that point I had never had a tattoo heal that didn't bleed out a little. He told me to put Prep H on it a couple times a day and lo and behold, every tattoo I've healed since I've used Prep H and they have all been perfect. Something about shrinking the blood vessels so they don't scab. I don't know the exact science, but I'd be interested if anyone else had any better insight into why it works. Basically I don't touch it for 24 hours and then I hit it with the Prep a couple times a day for a a week or so. Very small amounts, just enough so it shines. After a few days of the Prep and regular washing, I take a couple finger and rub them in a circular motion over the tattoo, very gently, and presto! It's off, for the most part. No scabbing, no patches. Like people have said, everyone's skin is different so you gotta find what works for you, but if you have a lot of trouble with scabbing this might be worth a shot!

Thanks all! Glad to be here.

For sure! Congress Street is one of my 2 go to shops when I'm at home. I've been tattooed by pretty much everyone that works there. As for stories, I'd say that I first started to get really into tattooing and knowing what I like about a year ago, after I got married. My wife and I decided that for our honeymoon, we would go to 4 different cities and get tattooed in 4 different shops. We chose the beautiful Pacific Northwest as our destination and flew out to Seattle with no appointments booked and all of our friends' money from the wedding gift basket. In Seattle we got a hotel and went right out the first day to find a shop. Luckily, we stumbled on Under the Needle on 2nd Avenue where we met the wonderful Matt Lentz. Matt put a solid, beautiful panther head on my arm and it was a great start to the trip. I've been back since and gotten a bigger piece from Matt, and I've got to say I've never seen anyone so meticulous with a machine. Love it. From Seattle we headed up to Vancouver, where we tried to get in at Gastown, but to no avail. That happens when you depend on walk ins. We ended up over at Adrenaline with Justin Cox, getting a couple traditional feathers to commemorate the loss of a pet duck. We had an absolute blast with Justin, Bailey and all the other fine folks over at Adrenaline and I certainly hope to head back over there someday. After Vancouver was Portland, where I realized after not much Googling that we had a lot of choices. After scouring portfolios for a while, I landed on Sean Lanusse at Infinity, who capped off my left shoulder with a big, beautiful gas lantern. This was my first experience being tattooed in a shop that had closed for the day, and we spent our time wisely, picking Sean's brain about art and tattoos and life and everything in between. Sean is a really funny, intelligent guy and my conversation with him was pretty much the turning point where I knew what I wanted to do with my body in terms of tattoos. He gave me his philosophies on traditional tattooing (bold lines and bright colors, "tattoos that look like tattoos," etc.). From that day on, I decided I wanted to be tattooed by as many different people in as many different places as possible. Thanks Sean! Our next stop was San Francisco, and Sean told us we had to hit up Black Heart. When we arrived at Black Heart, we had no idea what in institution of tattooing it was. We got right in with Katie Sellergren, and my wife got a huge jellyfish on her thigh and I got a big ole great white shark on my forearm. Needless to say, it was an awesome experience, and Katie was an absolute treat. What an unbelievably talented, awesome human being she is. From that trip on I've been on a quest to seek out the best traditional artists in the states, and I've been tattooed everywhere from Anchorage to Baltimore. When I'm home I like to hang out at Bona Fide Tattoo in Concord, New Hampshire with my good friend James Faggiano. There are plenty of folks I'd love to get tattooed by, and I can't wait to get out there and start checking more names off my list.

My name is Ben, and I'm from New Hampshire. In the last couple years I've really started to "get" good tattooing and I've been amassing a pretty good collection of great traditional stuff from all over the U.S. My wife and I like to travel and get tattooed in new places, and I've heard this is the place to find great tattooers. Hoping this site will make planning vacations easier in the future! Cheers.