Synesthesia

@marley mission Mathematically, I paid an astronomical amount per hour, but I didn't really care because I was glad to have met him and came out with a killer tattoo. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. How is that ripping into anyone? It was more me feeling stupid about giving him my upper limit because I was afraid he wouldn't do it for less, when really I was just setting the price. If anything, it shows how cool he is about pricing and how fair he is...I was afraid a big shot like him would be snobby about cost but he seemed like he would have been fine with just about any number I said (within reason). What I paid isn't his fault because that's his policy, I just kind of felt like I played myself, as the phrase goes. And if that's the closest I've come to feeling ripped off from an artist, it also just goes to show how cool most of them are when it comes to working with clients.

Either I'm not understanding this or this shop has some weird practices. You were put on a waitlist and you were going to be just assigned a random artist? I haven't done a walk in (yet, about to try this weekend!) but first of all, I wouldn't do one for a shop where I didn't like every artist. You never know who might be busy that day, and I want to be happy with whoever I get so I don't waste my time going there. And if you wanted a certain artist, I'm not understanding why you didn't just make an appointment with that person? I don't think you were wrong to walk out, but I just don't really understand what was happening here. Also, even if you got the apprentice, any tattooing apprentice worth his salt should be able to do simple Sailor Jerry filler. I'd be concerned if he couldn't and would question the judgment of everyone in that shop who thinks he's ready to tattoo. As for price, it costs what it costs. If you want someone to do it bad enough, you'll pay what they want for it. In the end, and especially if you have several tattoos, an extra $100 or so is chump change. It's not even really worth the haggling.

So now we have to address each specific person that brings up a point or risk "singling out" someone? Come on. This is a forum. People are free to respond to and address whoever they want, whether it's individuals or a group as a whole. If you don't want to have individual conversations with people, maybe the internet isn't the place for you. Let me address everyone equally so no one gets their feelings hurt: My experience with smaller tattoos has been I get a specific amount when I ask for a ballpark estimate (ie: "This tattoo will cost $200"), I put down a deposit, and I'm told "This will come out of the end total so you now owe the balance." With bigger tattoos, it's also been the case that I get a certain dollar amount per session which is usually based on what an artist charges per hour at a slightly better deal (ie: "I'll charge you $400 for each session"), and I again put down a deposit and pay the balance for the first session, and then the session amount for every subsequent session. We usually go over my budget in the email/consultation and we both come to an agreement. I've never had any surprises with my tattoo costs, really. As for this instance, it's your job as a customer to make sure you can afford the tattoo so in the future, you might want to work more closely with your artist about your budget and expectations. What's done is done here. You can either be a repeat customer and maybe he'll cut you a break on future tattoos, or you can take your money elsewhere if you were really not happy with how he did things. But you shouldn't penny pinch too much on tattoos, it's worth spending a little more to get something you're happy with because you have to look at it forever, after all. In the grand scheme of things, assuming you have or plan to get multiple tattoos, an extra $200 really isn't much at all. On a related note...I will say I've only felt "ripped off" once and that was by Chad Koeplinger. He apparently takes your budget as the cost of the tattoo. So when I was emailing him, I told him my maximum budget, afraid if I said anything lower, he wouldn't be interested in doing the tattoo at all or would do it kind of half assed. So that day I paid the maximum amount I was willing to pay. He told me mid-tattoo that that's how he does things, and I felt kind of like a dumbass for essentially charging myself so much. Especially considering how fast he tattoos, I paid over $250/hr if you think of it that way (which I try not to). However, it WAS still technically within budget, and it's an absolutely awesome tattoo. Meeting him was awesome too, he's one of my favorite tattooers and artists in general. So even then, I came out on top of the moon about the whole thing.

Look for fresh and healed photos. Most quality artists will try to take pictures of both because they're proud of the way their tattoos have healed. If they don't have any healed photos, I would be skeptical of how well their work ages. When evaluating pictures for technical skill, look for things like blowouts (looks like bruising, it's when ink goes too deep and spreads), straight lines, confident lines that aren't shaky, well saturated color, and well composed drawings (aesthetically pleasing, easy to tell what they are, etc). All that aside, no tattoo will ever be perfect. You might see some mistakes here and there if you look at it critically enough. I think most of us here that have more than a couple tattoos have at least one with an issue. I have a blowout, I have a couple spots of missed color, etc. Honestly, sometimes I like an artist in spite of some technical mistakes just because his tattoos have character or his art really connects with me. I don't worry too much about going to the "best" artists, I just go to people I like who I want to work with so I can come out with some badass art that I want to look at every day! As long as there's no egregious mistakes and you like what this person is turning out, I would go for it.

Isn't this the same thing you posted about in another thread where you said you wanted to go no bigger than 8 x 8? Good luck getting a phoenix in that size. Seriously, good luck.

Yeah, okay, you almost fell asleep in the easiest spot you can get a tattoo and you've already said you get small ones. Go read the "least painful place to get a tattoo" thread and see how many people say shoulder or upper arm. You've had a whopping two tattoos, one of which in a universally easy spot, but want to talk about a high pain tolerance and say that not all tattoos hurt. Come back after you've had more experience and see how your opinion changes. I thought mine hurt a lot in certain spots, but then again, I was sitting for 7 hour sessions and covered a huge amount of skin. You'll probably come back here and say your slightly-larger-than-hand-sized tattoo in a relatively easy spot of the thigh was no problem. Two people already said certain aspects of the process suck more than others but your tattoo probably won't even touch on those because of size and placement. Not sure what else to tell you.

Come back and talk to us after getting your butt crease, side of the knee, or inner thigh tattooed. The shoulder/upper arm is a notoriously easy spot and feet tattoos can go one way or the other. Some people find bony spots hurt more, some people find sensitive spots (inner arm, inner thigh, etc) hurt more. I just recently had pretty much my whole front/side/back of the thigh drilled from hip to knee and parts of it really sucked. You probably will survive a hand sized tattoo though. The only aspect of coloring that hurts more is right at the end when they add white highlights after doing the lines, black shading, and coloring. Otherwise, color and black and gray are about the same. Not sure why you're asking about pain but also trying to sound like pain doesn't bother you. No need to try to sound cool here, all tattoos hurt.

It's hard to recommend anything when no one really seems to know what you want. I would have suggested Tattoo Paradise, I've been there and it's a great shop with really talented people. Jinx Proof is similar, although I've never been there, they're on my bucket list. If you feel like traveling some, the Baltimore area has some good shops you could look into: Stay Humble and Have Fun Be Lucky are also on my go-to list. In Frederick, if you really wanted to travel, there's Classic Electric and Black Label. I'm prejudiced towards more traditional tattoos and that might not even be what you want, though.

It kind of sounds to me like you want to look like various famous people you think are cool, to the point where you don't even know what you want. Rob Zombie is covered in 90's new school/biomech type stuff, I don't even know who that Weezer guy is and can't find any good pics of his tattoos, and Chad Smith's octopus is tribal like you said. These are widely varied styles, and honestly, a lot of what these guys have is really dated and nothing special. I would suggest you do more research into various tattoo styles and imagery, without knowing who the tattoo is attached to. Figure out what it is you really like in tattoos and be yourself, don't try to look like anyone else. Also, multiple styles of tattoos can look really nice on a single person. I personally like the look of traditional sleeves, so my arms will be filled with traditional stuff. My legs are kind of a free for all at this point, I have neo-traditional type stuff now and might even get a Japanese or photorealistic black and gray piece or two.

I'm far from heavily tattooed but I have a couple repeats already: 2 skulls - one traditional, one more neotraditional...and attached to a skeleton 2 roses - both traditional, one red, one pink I know I'm getting another skull at some point, and I'd like to get a tiger some day (then I'll have repeating big cats). I'm sure I'll end up with another rose or two. I have a butterfly and I'll probably get another at some point. I worry about putting similar things too close together (ie: I won't get a tiger next to my panther), but that's just me being particular. Otherwise, I like getting a couple different versions of the same things and seeing different artists' takes on similar subject matter.

Depends. Most of the time for the smaller ones I get, just once the first night is enough. Every few hours, in a worst case scenario of a big tattoo in a spot that's oozing frequently. If you're going to re-wrap during the day, you need to be changing your wraps often and washing in between.

I assume you're looking for living artists. It is really tough to pick, I'll name the first few that come to my mind, in no real order. I mostly did this based on who I felt was the most "important" to modern tattooing. Chris Conn - His lady heads have inspired damn near every artist doing lady heads after him. A lot of his flash is iconic and still being riffed on today Dan Higgs - The enigma...his tattoos and flash have so much character to them, and he brought an occult influence to tattooing that is still popular today Chris Garver - A huge influence on and master of American and Japanese traditional tattoos. Also, as much as we might hate it, the show Miami Ink he was a part of brought tattooing in the mainstream. A lot of what Garver did on there is just little walk ins that weren't special, but anyone who looked him up would be blown away by what he was doing off the show Freddy Corbin - Hugely influential on the west coast style and anyone trying to emulate that look, he did some great things with bringing religious symbolism into tattooing Ed Hardy - Probably my #1 choice, off the top of my head. A student of Sailor Jerry, so obviously he has the classic look down and designed tons of iconic flash, but he also really came into his own with a wild and loose west coast style of American traditional. His dragons and morphs I think have been especially influential on others. And again, with his clothing line and perfumes and all that, I think the average person is at least somewhat familiar with him and he therefore brought some attention to traditional tattooing. Honorable mention would probably be reserved for a newer guy who will continue to have a strong impact...I'm going to go with Steve Byrne. I think his portfolio is pretty much flawless as far as bright and bold traditional, and I am always amazed by his creativity. He mixes old and new ideas and his tattoos feel classic and fresh at the same time. I think future generations will really hold him to high regard.

I haven't been getting tattooed much lately because I've been focused on one big piece for the past several months. I expect more traditional one shots in my near future! But here's what I've got so far when it comes to traditional style tattoos, and a little background on each: Eagle and rose by Brian Via at Golden Ages in Lancaster, PA. I wanted something to represent my parents (still alive, not a memorial!). Brian is super laid back and the whole shop is really talented. Also done by Brian, picked off his wall of things he wanted to tattoo. My first skull and not the last. Butterfly done by Antonio Roque in Frederick, MD. Really cool guy especially considering he's kind of "Instagram famous" with over 50k followers...easy to book with, charged me actually way less than he should have (and got a big tip as a result), and no ego at all. Panther and rose by Chad Koeplinger when he came through DC. He's one of my artistic idols and I was kind of star struck to meet him. Fun guy to talk to and I was amazed at his speed (this took less than 2 hours, including all the time we spent talking about movies). But wow does he hurt like no one's business! I wanted him to do this spot (inner bicep) to get it over with as quick as possible, but he's pretty brutal! Anyway, I asked him for a panther and rose and said he could do whatever he wanted with those subjects, so I got my whole inner arm blasted with this.

Re-reading some of this thread and it's cool to see the pieces come together. I personally have no plans to start my back anytime soon, but if I ever did, I'm thinking I'll probably go the route of a more piecemeal approach, like this (but in color): https://www.tattoodo.com/images/0/3148.webp I love seeing all that negative space and seeing how several small tattoos can come together to make one cohesive piece. Plus it looks so old school and tough.

Wisdom...me? Personally I like that guy a little more. His lines look smoother and straighter to me, and his blacks are darker. If you want to go more the geometric route, I think he might be a better choice. But either way, I think you would walk out with a solid tattoo from either artist you would be happy with. Just from a critical perspective, I think that guy is a tiny bit better overall.

I would recommend not even putting lotion/ointment on scabs. If you get them too wet, they can get mushy and slosh off before they're ready to come off, or you could accidentally rub them off. Just leave everything alone and try to not touch them as much as possible. I had a couple big, ugly, yellow ones on my lower leg when I got it done because it was oozing constantly every time I stood up or walked around, but it all healed fine.

I used to be a firm proponent of the "let it breathe" philosophy, but I've found healing to be a lot smoother (literally and metaphorically, hardly any scabs!) by re-wrapping as needed. I always re-wrap in plastic for the first night, for a couple reasons: it keeps my tattoo from scraping against my sheets/pajamas because I'm a restless sleeper, and it keeps my sheets clean. In the morning, a nice hot cleaning in the shower using the generic brand hand soap I buy. If it's a lot of skin opened (ie: a coloring session on a large tattoo) or in an area that tends to ooze a lot (lower legs because of gravity), then I may re-wrap during the day several times. As long as you're changing the wrapping often and washing between changes, it's fine...in my experience. Maybe once more the second night if the oozing is still pretty heavy. After that, I don't generally need anything besides maybe a couple more washes and MAYBE a slight dab of lotion after the scabbing is mostly done and my skin gets unbearably dry and itchy. I find the more things touch your tattoos, the more problems you have. Re-wrapping keeps you and everything else from touching the tattoo during those crucial first couple of days, and it keeps my sheets and clothes clean. Everyone else's results may vary.

Perfectly average trendy stuff, imo. I noticed in some of her circular or diamond shaped tattoos, her lines got pretty bumpy. And overall she's not quite as bold with her choices as I normally like my tattoos to be (not bright enough color, not thick enough outlines, etc). You could do better, but you could also do a lot worse. Are you in Phoenix? I honestly don't know of anyone in that area (who doesn't do traditional tattoos, anyway), but maybe someone else could suggest an artist.

@jdberetta, dude, you're being a dick. Just stop. You feel very strongly about this product (for some weird reason) and other people feel very strongly in the other direction. Such is the nature of forums. No need for sarcasm or petulance. I agree with the majority that this product is stupid. Tattoos have always been permanent. If you can't handle the idea of it being permanent, maybe you shouldn't even be entertaining the notion of tattoos. This idea just exudes entitlement. You want to be able to say you're tattooed without living with it. It's spitting in the face of everyone who suffered for their tattoos (being judged, ostracized, etc) and everyone who grew old with their tattoos and lived in them. It's disrespecting the entire history of tattooing. I firmly believe that everyone who gets tattooed should suffer in some way throughout their lives because of it. You suffer to get it, and you deal with the negative consequences that come with being tattooed. I'm not saying non-tattooed people should be spitting on us everyday or anything, I like how the population has warmed up to them some and made it at least a little more acceptable. But you SHOULD encounter at least a handful of people in your life that negatively judge you for being tattooed or hate you for how you look: those are learning opportunities everyone in life should know how to deal with, it teaches you about the concept of sacrifice, and they give you a chance to learn to love yourself in spite of what others might say. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from this Ephemeral crap on that nearly spiritual level because there are no consequences. And jdberetta mentioned people getting tattoos lasered off as being similar to this: it really isn't. That costs time and money and is (allegedly) more painful than getting the tattoo done. Most of the time, the best you can get with lasering is just getting it light enough to get covered. It's not an easy way out like temporary tattoos are. I hope most artists (and people getting tattooed) laugh people out of the building coming to get this done. It's just so wimpy, WAY more wimpy than just saying "Hey, tattoos aren't my thing, I don't ever want to get one."

Piercings have come a long way in recent years. Nowadays with proper jewelry and technique, there's no one who "can't" heal piercings. Sounds like your piercings didn't reject exactly, you just have a steel allergy, which is somewhat common. You might want to look into getting titanium, glass, or silver/gold (not silver/gold plated steel which can flake and expose your piercing to the steel underneath) jewelry for any future piercings. The title "surgical steel" or "stainless steel" doesn't have anything to do with its sanitation levels, it just means it's safe to use in your body. If you're allergic to steel, you'll be allergic to all kinds, but will have more severe reactions to cheap steel. Anatometal, Industrial Strength, and Neometal are good options for metallic jewelry, and Gorilla Glass makes great quality glass plugs, nose bones, nostril screws, etc. You can even have your jewelry custom made by the company if you place an order through a shop or certain websites, to make sure you get exactly what you need. See if there's any APP members near you, they generally are of a higher caliber than your average piercer: http://www.safepiercing.org/get-involved/locate-a-member/searchable-member-database/ If not, that doesn't necessarily mean there's no good piercers around you. Go into local shops and see if they have a piercing portfolio, look up shops on Facebook, research what makes a piercing good or bad, etc. (Sorry to go on a non-tattoo tirade!)

I'm pretty sure they used to be an hour and a half, if not longer, yeah. That REALLY drags. I hope in the future they do something like (another guilty pleasure show incoming) Project Runway. They send the finalists home to work on their pieces, the host (or judges, in this case) comes to visit them while they're doing the work and give advice and hang out, then they come back to present what they've done for judging. It runs so much smoother, is more professional, and just generally feels more "the end" rather than Dave stumbling through his words and everyone being rushed because of time. Anyone catch Dave telling Christian to have a seat after he already sat down? At least it'll be easy to cover. But it looks like he did it backwards so Matti would be able to read it everytime he looked in a mirror...? Extra douchey move.

I have a mantra I repeat in the worst times, which helps me put things into perspective: "Pain is just intense physical stimulation." It's good to remind yourself that pain is okay, you're not going to die, you'll get through it, etc. As for twitching, hell if I know. I've got one lower leg done in a leg sleeve type design and I was twitching like crazy the whole time. I dread having my other calf done...

Ended up dry healing my thigh tattoo mostly just because it was so painful and swollen the first couple days that I couldn't stand to touch it besides a quick clean in the shower. Was not about to rub Aquaphor into that! After the first two days, I just let it be. Rinsing in the shower and letting the scabs and dryness do its thing. It's been a surprisingly pleasant healing so far, although now I'm getting the dreaded itch, which is exacerbated by no lotion. Took some gnarly pictures of the scabbing yesterday. The worst spot of peeling, all along the top/inside of my thigh: Some more peeling along the outside of my thigh, and some of the thicker scabs in he darkest black areas:

Eh, it wouldn't make good TV to give people actually good advice and consequently actually good tattoos. Instead, let's give them these ridiculous time constraints and impossible circumstances so the viewers get to see shitty tattoos! Turning away people and telling them to get a couple laser sessions isn't nearly as...uh, "exciting." I like a lot of what Tommy does, and I appreciate the show being so upfront about how goofy and scripted it is. But yeah the other two people are almost always awful. Most of the time when I watch it, it's just to see how entertainingly bad their tattoos come out. I imagine the show sets a terrible level of expectations for the average viewer. They come in to a shop with a huge, awful tattoo they want covered and then get indignant when no one can cover it: "What do you mean? I saw them cover something twice as big on Tattoo Nightmares!"

I watch this show religiously, total guilty pleasure. My thoughts on the finale (if any of you give a shit): - The live format is terrible and needs to go. Awkward pacing and you don't even get to get a good look at the tattoos most of the time. - Christian's chest piece was really nice except for the collar bone area, where he crammed too much stuff in to a small place. Let that shit breathe! Also hated how the tips of the eagle's wings went onto that guy's shoulders. Going to look so weird anytime he lifts his arms at all. - Anthony didn't finish obviously, but his chest piece was pretty nice for what it was. - Cleen's was so bizarre. Putting that guy's nipple right in the middle of that girl's neck/chest. The weird way it trailed off. Just...weird. - Christian's sleeve was okay, but the color was so patchy. Definitely not finale worthy, imo - Anthony again didn't finish (outside sleeve only, lol) but was nice for what it was. - Cleen's sleeve was awful and looked so phoned in. The inside was almost entirely just purple squiggles. Wtf - Another gimmick for next season, oh boy. - I thought Matti's tattoo was better than Sausage's by a long shot, but it's all a popularity contest and people like Sausage more for some reason. Was bummed afterwards to hear of the tracing controversy (https://www.instagram.com/p/BF4Yrc5H0H_/?taken-by=matti_hixson&hl=en). This kind of soured my whole opinion of Matti. - Glad Anthony won. Yes, he didn't finish either piece, but what he did was way better than anyone else up there. Just goes to show the restraints they put on these guys are insane. I'd rather see what they can do with tons of time and have a better tattoo to look at than think "That was pretty good for 24 hours of tattooing"