Synesthesia

The earliest things I can remember being obsessed with: Backstreet Boys (Nick was my favorite), Savage Garden, Harry Potter, books in general, The Lion King, animals (mostly dogs). I still like some of those things. :) When I got a little older, things shifted more into drawing, comic books, video games (THPS ftw!), and punk/metal music. At 13, I discovered AFI and, 11 years later, they're still my favorite band. Looking back, I was always into art and music in one form or another, and was consequently attracted to the subcultures surrounding both...which includes tattoos, among other things.

I just recently bought a PS4 for myself and the boyfriend. We only have two games so far, haha. He has the newest Wolfenstein and he got me the new Dragon Age for my birthday.

I think it's common for people to get "problem areas" tattooed to help them like those body parts more. I personally have never thought a tattoo made a certain part of the body look worse, if anything, it's a huge distraction from flaws. If you want it on your foot, go for it.

I remember my lower leg tattoos being SUPER itchy. They're also the biggest ones I have, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. All my others are hand/palm sized and I don't remember much itching at all.

Definitely my shoulder, mostly just a pleasant vibrating feeling. Strangely, my inner bicep was by far the worst. Funny the DRASTIC difference a couple inches makes (that's what she said, hurr hurr).

I've gone to several artists so far and will be going to more in the future. I enjoy all the subtle differences between artists. One guy might draw a rose totally different from another guy, it's been fun mashing up different approaches. In addition, I have pretty bad social anxiety, so I've previously referred to getting tattooed as "therapy" (only half joking). Going to new places and meeting new people has done wonders for my self esteem and confidence.

EDIT:

I would feel so awkward going back to an artist with someone's else's work right next to theirs, asking for them to now work around that.

I think this is pretty par for the course with traditional style and I don't think anyone would be offended or bat an eye at it. I've seen world class artists do awkward fillers.

I don't have any pictures on hand, but it was a shark and anchor design to commemorate his time in the Navy and the Navy Reserves. Someday I'll have to get pictures of his tattoos to remember them before they get old and blurry. :p

This is something I'm struggling with. I like so many different styles of tattoos, but I'm not sure if I could really see some of them going on my skin...I'm not sure if they're "for me." I'm saving a couple prime pieces of real estate (back, thighs, chest, at least) until I make up my mind. With one arm, I'm getting traditional images (maybe the other arm too). So far I'm just going down my arm getting stuff I like that I think might fit in the spaces I'm making as I go. I'm trying to support the local (ish) talent by going to guys fairly nearby, I might travel someday, but so far I'm sticking to guys 1-2 hours away. I recently got one spontaneous tattoo and loved the whole process, very liberating for someone who's normally a control freak in other aspects of their life. :rolleyes: I'm definitely looking forward to more picking flash off the wall, or choosing something out of an artist's sketch book.

Cool, it'll have a lot of sentimental value to you. I came up with the design for one of my dad's tattoos (the artist redrew it a little, but still my concept!) and it's awesome to know he's wearing something I drew for him.

Sorry for the double post, but I just noticed this debate above and wanted to give my two cents...

@rufio, your distinction of traditional tattoo images being cliches for men and tumblr tattoo designs being cliches for women is just plain wrong. Traditional tattoos work equally well on both genders. It took me many years to get over my fear of them being "too masculine" and commit to getting a few myself with plans for at least one sleeve of them (female, here). Women have been getting these images just as long as men have. My issue with the tumblr designs you're talking about is not so much "a bunch of women have them and they're cliche now" as it is I just think they're weak designs. They're so small they'll definitely be black blobs in the future, I'm not a fan of silhouette designs because they can be hard to read, and a lot of them are just nonsensical (an anchor with the phrase "I refuse to sink"...THAT'S WHAT ANCHORS DO!). I think people are flocking to them because they're all over social media without really thinking about their strength as art. Traditional designs have so much power and emotion behind them and they just plain look good.

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I am not a control freak and I totally agree with you. But why I said this whole thread is surprising for me...I've seen some AMAZING tattoos done by a guy in my country and I said that's amazing gave him a call, told me he doesn't draw anything he just tattooes off the internet. and this is one of the best guys! What can I do? Very hard to find someone who actually draws the tattoo here in Romania.

But i'll keep trying and thanks a lot for the insight, very appreciated!

Are you looking for black and grey/color realism? Is he talking about copying tattoos or copying reference photos? There's a little more leeway in my opinion with drawing realism from scratch, because artists need to work from reference photos to nail the realism. Even then, artists sometimes have to invent things to make the image more tattooable, so it's never going to be an EXACT copy. Anything that's not meant to be a replica of a certain picture should be drawn (or at least altered from a photo), in my opinion.

@Sick, I think you're getting caught up in the whole "I need to know what it's going to look like, I need it to be perfect!" thing a lot of people get stuck in when it comes to tattoos. Getting a good tattoo is probably 75% researching and choosing a good artist, and 25% having a good idea. You can't get a decent tattoo without both of those things present. A bad artist could butcher a great idea, and a great artist might be limited with a bad idea or a client who's too nitpicky. Find someone whose portfolio consistently impresses you in whatever style you like, figure out what emotion you're trying to represent with your tattoo (or just pick an image you like) and I can almost guarantee your artist will draw up something impressive that you'll end up liking more than any image you could find online...because it's yours and yours only. The only thing I can compare it to is this: I have an autograph by one of my favorite musicians. It's something he signed, and although he's made many signatures in his life, this specific one is mine. It's not a print, it's not something his assistant signed, it's something he made just for me. That feeling is similar to when you have an artist draw a custom tattoo, it's just not nearly as special to have someone replicate an already existing one (that's the equivalent of a print of a signature, in my example).

Or if you really are obsessed with seeing what something looks like beforehand...pick flash off the wall. Or draw something yourself and insist on it being exactly the way it's drawn (don't expect a decent tattoo out of this strategy). Tattoo artists live and breathe art and can make you something gorgeous and custom if you just relinquish some control.

What makes tattoos hold up well over time isn't necessarily the color used, it's more the contrast with black. Black is high contrast with the skin and with most colors, so it makes other colors look brighter and helps the tattoo stay readable with age. Depending on what design you're thinking of, I honestly think you might not be able to tell much of a difference (initially) between black ink or dark purple/blue/etc. To the naked eye after it heals, it might just look black anyway with no other contrasting colors around it. But after several years, all color will fade significantly, and without having any black to anchor it, it's way more likely that a colored outline will lose readability. That's up to you to decide if that's a factor.

I don't know anything about toxins in ink. I think that probably falls under the realm of "trade secrets." People have been tattooed for thousands of years with more primitive materials than we have now, so I figure it can't be too bad for you. Again, that's kind of something you have to decide for yourself.

Shit. Too many good points.

https://youtu.be/gbIv7W7rhx4

Real talk...why are you being a dick? Either contribute to the conversation (dumb snarky videos aside) or go away. Some of us prefer traditional, you obviously don't, both are fine...this thread is supposed to be a celebration of traditional, so I don't know what you were expecting.

Okay, I finally remembered to post these...I've been really into art for a while now but I sort of fell out of touch between school and work. I've been having some anxiety issues and art is a huge help, so I'm constantly churning out things. No real plans for them, just for fun. I'm obviously hugely inspired by tattoos, but I just got some good reference books to help me try other styles. The paintings are either watercolor or acrylic, everything else is pencil or colored pencil.

v Not quite finished with this one...obviously I like AFI just a little bit. :D

v A JonTron-era Game Grumps themed flash sheet, because I'm a huge nerd.

People love to say "that's not gonna last" with regard to newer styles of tattoos, and that traditional tattoos will last.

Pardon me, but let's get real folks - that attitude is largely horse crap. Those old traditional tattoos on our parents and older, they mostly look like shit now. Have you seen any real sailor jerry tattoos now? Unrecognizable. All tattoos age and degrade.

Sailor Jerry was tattooing in the 30's. Techniques, tools, ink, etc has all changed drastically since then. We know more about how to keep tattoos looking good, we know how certain things can negatively affect them. It's not really fair to look at a 20 year old new school tattoo and say it looks better than a 20 year old (at the time) Sailor Jerry piece, and it's even less fair to compare it to something that's 70 years old.

Everything fades and blurs with time, yes...but I think some of what people are saying about traditional tattoos "lasting" is just in the sense that the image and style is timeless. That's part of what made me gain interest in traditional tattoos a few years ago. Up until then, I definitely looked down on it and thought I would never get it on me...the more I've looked at the art, the more it appeals to my inner graphic designer. I think it's fascinating how so much can be conveyed with so few lines and colors, and I like how you never have to look too hard to know what it is. Sometimes it's nice to not have to fuss around with art, you just want something that clearly looks like what it is.

Love the bee and the turtle. Personally I think your background is a little busy and detracts from the pieces. For a sheet with multiple small pieces like that, I think a plain color, smoke, web, etc is all you really need. But I'm certainly not a professional, just an art enthusiast.

I keep forgetting to take pics of what I've been doing lately. I started getting into painting again, which I hadn't touched in years. I've been drawing for a long time but I took a break and now I'm sort of rusty with it. No real aspirations to do anything with my art, it's just for fun.

I really love traditional style crosses and sacred hearts, but I'm wrestling with if I'd ever want to get one on myself because I'm not religious at all. My boyfriend is a Catholic, and in his opinion, it's sacrilegious for a Catholic to get a sacred heart (maybe even more so than an atheist/agnostic). Not saying my boyfriend's opinion is the be all end all, but I'd never really thought about it that way. I'm not sure I'd want someone to see an image that's linked with Christianity and assume I'm Christian, or worse, assume I'm trying to be blasphemous. I just like how they look. But in a world where tattoos have to have a meaning, I'm not sure I want people making assumptions about what they're supposed to mean.

^ Damn, that rose is gorgeous.

Made my appointment with Antonio Roque the other day, June 5th. He's the first artist I've been a little starstruck with, I've followed him on Instagram and Facebook forever. Traditional butterfly under my traditional eagle/rose.

I remember when I was a teenager and my parents insisted I was going through a "phase"...I probably have an embarassing notebook of tattoo doodles I was going to get once I was 18 (a whole lot of nautical stars and metalcore quotes, most likely). I don't get a lot of those comments anymore from anyone around me. I think people understand this is what I am, this is what I like, and it's been that way ever since I first learned what tattoos and piercings were and while my interests might continue to shift from those early plans, it's never going to completely go away.

I think sometimes people say someone is being trendy maybe because you're coming off as wishy-washy or indecisive. The more dedicated you seem to be, no matter what kind of tattoo style or modification you're into, I think the more people will realize how serious you are. Sometimes it takes a while for people to realize your commitment. And with parents, I think a lot of the time they HOPE it's a trend because they don't want you to go through with what you're planning. :rolleyes:

I think this whole thing of kids getting their first tattoo on their neck, or getting a hand tattoo when their arms are bare is part of a larger instant gratification trend. But that's still very much anti-mainstream in the sense that they're "job killers," these people (probably) won't be going on to become a lawyer and have 2.5 kids and a white picket fence. So I think there's trends within tattooing that aren't necessary the same trends found in society as a whole, your definition of a trend depends on which side you're looking from.

I think I've actually conditioned my boyfriend more than anything...for weeks after getting a new tattoo, if he even breathes too hard on it, he's like "OH SHIT, SORRY." It takes a good month or two before he feels safe touching them. :D

(There's probably 1,000 threads on this, I searched and couldn't find any though)

For those of you with 1/2, 3/4, full, or anything in between sleeves, post a pic. Ideally a pic of each arm, or a pic of both together if you can manage it. Just want to see how different styles and images look alongside each other! I'm slowly filling up one arm with traditional designs and am brainstorming what I want to do with my other arm (pics of my arm would be a sorry sight, maybe someday :rolleyes: ).

EDIT: I'm even cool with pics of awesome sleeves that aren't on you.

I just emailed Antonio Roque about a traditional butterfly tattoo...I'm sure he's probably busy since he just got done working a convention, but I'm hopeful for a prompt response. https://instagram.com/antonioroque/

I've known I wanted to be moderately/heavily tattooed ever since I first learned what tattoos were as a little kid, but I don't know exactly when I'm going to stop. I'm still a pretty blank canvas for the most part. I like most styles of tattoos so I'm thinking I'll get at least one of different things, I'm still planning where and how everything is going together. For instance, right now I have some illustrative type stuff on one of my lower legs, and I'm trying to figure out what I might want to get on that knee: if I want to continue with illustrative or do something else entirely different. I know I'm getting at least one armful of traditional tattoos, not sure what I want to do with the other arm so I'm leaving it blank until I figure it out.

When my boyfriend met me, I had one small tattoo on my foot with plans to get more...5 years later, I have 4 more. He gets a little sad every time I talk about getting more, but the more I get, the less it seems to affect him. There's not much difference between 4 and 5 tattoos, and there's even less difference between 9 or 10. ;) The more I expose him to tattoos, the more he's finding things he likes about them. He likes a lot of sacred geometry type designs (not really my thing) and has said he might get one (cute, he actually thinks he can stop at one) really large geometric type design someday. They're still definitely more "my thing," but he's warmed up to them a lot in the past few years.