Synesthesia

As usual, I really liked Kruseman's (fangirl, I guess). He did exactly what he should have and his was the only really readable design and would age the nicest. I was pretty bummed that the jury criticized it for being "just a rose," I'd much rather have a nice clean rose than 50 different components crammed into one muddy tattoo. People have no respect for the classics. Tyler's was shockingly bad, like scratcher level bad. And I'm so sick of his "I don't normally tattoo this subject, this skin, etc" shit...what DO you do? Things I would love to see the show do away with: the jury, and the entire existing format pretty much. The jury adds nothing to the show and it's always pretty shocking to see them vote someone the worst of the day when the judges thought they were one of the best. Just goes to show how little the average person knows about tattoos, I guess. I really feel like it contributes nothing and is pretty mean spirited. I would hate to have my brand new tattoo dissected by a bunch of people on TV and I always feel bad whenever someone is brought to tears during it. There's just no need to make someone feel so bad about something that wasn't even their fault...most of the time they didn't pick the artist and didn't impose the time limits. As for the format...I've always hated the skull pick thing. This isn't how tattooing is done, unless you're a world famous artist who has the luxury of declining inquiring people, you pretty much have to try to do whatever comes in the door or send it to someone else in the shop at least. I would like the show a lot better if people chose their artist. It's always kind of mind boggling when the show actually does that (like the last episode with the football players) and all the artists act like it's the worst thing ever...uh, isn't this how your shop is run back home? And if they actually got a decent amount of time to consult with them, if they broke the sittings up over more days, etc...anything to make sure the tattoos were the best they could be. Someone who isn't on the level of the other artists is still going to suck, whether they have 1 hour or 30 hours to do a tattoo. At least then it would give people more of a chance to get decent tattoos and do the craft more justice. And of course, they could get rid of as much drama as possible and I wouldn't bat an eye.

The worst I usually get is a body part falling asleep (never the part getting tattooed, damn!). Like for all of my upper arm sessions, my fingers and lower arm usually go numb from the arm rest. The first session on my leg (a somewhat longer sitting, between 3 and 4 hours), my neck got kind of sore from laying down on the table for so long. So for every longer session like that, and even the shorter ones if I think of it, I bring either a jacket to ball up and prop under me or a pillow.

Marley, I agree. I think there's been the most drama so far this season, all of it pointless. Think of how much better it would be if it was just a bunch of buddies doing the best tattoos they could with realistic constraints (instead of tattooing fingernails and incorporating people's buttcracks into the design). It always bothers me how during the skull picks, they all try to screw each other up...these are going on people forever and you guys are TRYING to give them bad tattoos. I'm still rooting for Kruseman. He's a local artist, does solid traditional, and has one of the better attitudes of anyone there.

I asked him for a panther coming out of a rose, and requested the rose to be pink. I pretty much just let him do whatever otherwise. Hopefully this link works. https://instagram.com/p/54vxv8kMJy/?taken-by=hc_afifan

Damn people, tattooing has enough drama with all the reality show bullshit, can we just not bring that crap onto the forums? You don't like each other (or at least one of you doesn't the other), fine, I really don't care. I'm sick of it being brought up all the time. Just ignore each other. This is the best tattoo forum I've found and I don't want it to dissolve into petty fussin' and feudin'. To the OP, if you're even still around (sounds like you didn't like people saying you shouldn't take a shortcut and you ran off), this course sounds like a horrible idea. The best way to learn about tattoos is to get tattooed. Find a shop, hang out there a lot, get a lot of work done there, and maybe you'll get a foothold in the business through an apprenticeship. I can't imagine anyone would want to take on someone who started their career this way, and I think in the long run, it'll just be limiting to you. In the meantime, just work on drawing and studying tattoos. Build up a good portfolio while you're making connections and don't fuck up anyone's skin in the meantime. As for the forum rules, I don't question it. I don't really need to know all the details of the profession. Tattoos are expensive, hurt, and require a lot of time and skill. That's all I need to know as a customer. If you're going to not get tattooed just because a forum won't tell you how much so-and-so charges per hour or how much their backpiece cost, that's just pretty sad. I really think it's unnecessary.

^ Sweet. I was just tattooed by him at the same shop a couple months ago, didn't think he'd be swinging by again so soon. My tattoo by him is my favorite so far. :) I have lots of tentative plans and I'm debating if I want to try to get in with one (or two) people before the end of the year, or wait until next year. They would be a long drive and I'm not sure I want to risk it in possible winter weather. But I want to get tattooed again really bad...decisions, decisions...

It's like an 8 hour drive for me, so it's daunting haha. It would be the farthest I've ever driven, and one of the farthest trips I've ever made period (besides when I was like 5 and my parents took me to Disneyworld). I have tentative plans to maybe take a weekend trip down there some day with my boyfriend and spend a day sightseeing and a day getting jabbed with needles. ;)

Matt Kerley is one of my all time favorite artists. Awesome tattoo, like all of his stuff is. Hot Stuff is on my list of places to get tattooed ASAP (not just for him...Danny Reed and Kris Roberts are amazing too).

We're getting settled into our new place and I'm loving buying accessories and houseplants/outdoor plants. I've never really done much gardening before and never had much interest in it, but now that I have my own yard and garden, I'm really getting into it. My mom ordered a whole bunch of flower bulbs that are on their way in the mail and she's going to split half of them with me. My boyfriend's been joking that I'm finally becoming a woman. :rolleyes:

My favorite band is AFI and my favorite song by them is called "Synesthesia." Plus I think it's a cool looking word and a neat concept ("the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body").

I'm making plans (distant plans) for my forearms now. I have a couple tattoos on my upper arms that stick out past t shirt sleeves anyway, and since that's most of what I wear, I figure I might as well go for it. Once I looked at things from that point of view, forearms seemed like a no-brainer.

^ I'm kind of with you there, but the Japanese style he has worried me because I wouldn't want it to be straight up Japanese. I also had a "it's meant to be" moment when I saw he posted a rooster tattoo and a snake within a week of each other. :D But yeah, I'm still open to any other ideas or suggestions anyone might have. This is wayyy in the future.

No "bright, cartoony, or simple tattoos"...not sure how well you'll fit in here. ;) But for real, sketching is what the artist is for. Don't just ask strangers to help you out on the internet for free, no one has time to draw something for you so you can take it to an artist. Just cut out the middleman and have the artist draw the design. Makes more sense, no? Do you have any tattoos? These are all ambitious ideas that need a really great artist to make them look good, and a lot of dedication on your part to finish them. Take those ideas to a world class artist and you could get something really cool. If you give your location, someone might have some ideas.

Reviving this thread to ask for some input... Although I won't be getting tattooed for a while, and might even get a couple one shots before starting this next project, I was wondering if anyone had any input so I could start thinking and planning a little better. I'm pretty confident I'll pursue an earlier idea I posted about getting a scene of a rooster and snake fighting on my calf (sort of illustrative, neo-traditional style). Trying to think of someone relatively local that would be good for it. I'm imagining at least 3 sessions because I'm a wimp, so I don't want to go cross country for it or anything, but would be willing to go a state or two over. So far I have two guys on my radar: Brad Dozier (https://instagram.com/braddoziertattoos/ out of Ohio) and Fran Massino (https://instagram.com/franmassino/ out of Maryland). I like both their style of snakes, and Brad does tons of birds also. Any other ideas for artists to consider?

I think tattoos should be positive. Reminders of positive events, positive emotions, etc...it sounds like yours would be a reminder of bad times. Or they don't necessarily have to mean anything, sometimes just getting a tattoo makes a happy memory (meeting new people, going new places, etc). Just get something that makes you happy and makes you feel good about yourself.

^ Pain is temporary, awesome tattoos are forever.

Well maybe if mine took 8 hours, I would be less eager. :) One of them was about 3, the other was well under 2 (including time spent talking about movies and politics...Chad Koeplinger, everybody). And yes, @pidjones, the area closest to the armpit is the worst I've found for pain yet. Especially with the one by Chad, where a couple of the leaves of my rose really went in there. It's one of those spots where I guess it's connected to other nerves because it would hurt all the way down to my elbow and in my ribs.

^ I also like it. Especially the skull. Maybe touch it up a little to bring back some vibrancy, but otherwise, I would leave it alone.

Pics? Just because I like to see tattoos. Don't worry about imperfections. No tattoo is perfect, it's art crafted by hand on another person, there's so many chances for it to go wrong! Minor imperfections add character. I decided to get my other inner bicep done ASAP after suffering through the first one. Everything about that spot sucks. Both of mine swelled like crazy too, despite all my best efforts to elevate and ice it. Glad I only have two inner biceps.

You can upload them here if you want, or put them in your gallery (on your profile page). Or both. You'll have to upload them through a site that gives them a url and then use the "insert image" button when you post it here. Try tinypic, photobucket, imgur, etc.

Welcome, post pics! Australia has so many great artists, I'm jealous.

My boyfriend and I are moving to a new apartment (see "awesome things" thread). We had the roommate from hell that's still giving us problems even after he moved out 2 weeks ago. He owes my boyfriend $200, refuses to pay him, refuses to help clean the apartment, and left a bunch of his shit behind for us to get rid of. He just took his stuff and ran. He told my boyfriend today to just take the money he owes him out of his portion of the security deposit...since he refuses to help clean and abandoned a bunch of his property, I say he shouldn't be entitled to a portion of it. And we might not even get one since we've had maintenance problems from the beginning and a shitty landlord. Not to mention he hasn't done a single thing to help maintain the place, besides buying us all paper towels once I think. AND he doesn't have a job, hasn't had one in months, and doesn't plan on getting one anytime soon. His mommy and daddy are paying a bunch of his bills for him so why bother having a job? Ugh... Also, moving sucks. We're slowly taking over non-essential, small stuff by car so we'll have lots of room in the moving truck we'll get for the couch, tables, etc. It sucks extra hard when you have a pretty sizable CD collection. I'm just glad my parents are letting me store my record collection at their house!

^ I just had my two year anniversary with my job a couple months ago and I got a water bottle with the company's name on it lol. Me and my boyfriend are getting our own apartment, we previously had a roommate. It's so much better than our current place. We have a little patio, space to plant a garden, so much more storage space, it's a single story building so only one neighbor and no stairs, and in a much nicer location that's conveniently located near Lancaster and Harrisburg (aka: two of the only civilized places in central Pennsylvania). So we're very excited...and very exhausted from slowly moving (again, see "shitty things" thread for more details). :)

I got tattooed about 2 weeks ago and my skin is still in the milky/wrinkly stage, but I'm ready to go again. :D The only thing stopping me from getting another already is upcoming moving hassles and expenses. Once I get settled in to the new place, we shall see...

Found this the other day, pretty much sums up my view on it: