Synesthesia

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.

This is my first (and not last!) skull, I guess it's traditional enough to fit in here. By Brian Via at Golden Ages. This was taken by him as soon as we were done, I really need to get some healed pics sometime.

Could be cool in all black and gray realism (sometimes small pieces of color just make it look unfinished). I love that statuesque look. Who's the artist?

I wouldn't get it colored or with UV ink, it's a decent black tattoo as it is. I think at that size it would look muddled with color, which is probably why he didn't want to (and I'm guessing you didn't want to go bigger). Your options for detail expand exponentially the bigger a tattoo gets. As for UV ink, I wouldn't trust that shit in my body. Who knows what long term effects that might have. If you want to gamble, that's on you...but I will be getting no UV tattoos.

Not my tattoo, just something I found through googling. I personally don't really like word tattoos, I think images are a lot stronger and you could evoke the same feelings in a less obvious way. But it's your choice.

Major dick. So sick of someone being decent at drawing and thinking tattoos are just drawing on skin, there's so much more to it than close-minded brats like this guy could even begin to understand. Just remember one of my favorite tattoo phrases: people get the tattoos they deserve.

I don't really do separate washes, I just kind of keep going until it's not slippery anymore. Can't imagine you could do much (within reason) on the first wash that would actually cause damage.

A near and dear tattooer once told me the first wash should begin by sticking the afflicted area under water as hot as you can stand it for a minute or two, supposedly opens the pores to get more of the slimy gunk out. Then you scrub until it's not slippery to the touch anymore. Otherwise all that slimy stuff hardens into nasty yellowish scabs. I wasn't diligent enough with my lower leg tattoos and I guess all the blood pressure from standing pushed out gunk faster than I could wash it, for a while at the beginning they looked really crusty and nasty. That first hot water rinse hurts like hell but I feel way more clean and refreshed after it (possibly a placebo, but whatever).

Gender makes no difference in tattoos. :) That's a lot of words for a small space, and a picture speaks 1000. You could interpret them creatively into an image. I have no idea what style of tattoo you're looking for, but the first thing that came to mind with those lyrics is a boat at sunrise, you could maybe have the band's name or an abbreviation carved into the side of the boat. I favor traditional style images so this is sort of like what I'm imagining:

^ Most of your cover-up is under the shadowy part of his shield, which is indeed black. In the case of this tattoo, she DEFINITELY needs a lot of black, please don't try to tell this guy it can be covered with color. I think this could easily be hidden by something with heavy black, and with a couple laser sessions, that opens up her options further.

I had my first experience with a rotary about a week ago. Tough to really compare because this was overall my most painful tattoo to date and done on sensitive skin, so it hurt like fuck no matter what. I did enjoy the quiet though, made it easier to focus on the shop noise, which is part of what distracts me from the pain.

I usually get a little bit of a "I'm different forever!!!" kind of panic after tattoos, which usually turns into a little bit of the blues. The last couple I've gotten have been more of a "I'm different and more awesome forever" excitement. Not sure what the change has been, but I've overall been in a better frame of mind lately and I think it's trickling down to my tattoo experiences. I used to go through a little mourning period for my skin post tattoo, now I just jump straight to the planning stage for my next one. :D

Got my inner bicep area done yesterday and things are rough the next day. Massive bruise all down my tricep, red all over (my brown skull looks pink!), and my upper arm is almost twice the size of my other arm. I have really sensitive skin, so I kind of expected the worst and I'm getting it. I would be concerned if my artist hadn't warned me about how ugly this area can be to heal.

I found it really painful to stand/walk after my calf tattoos. But it only hurt for a couple seconds, after I was up and moving, I didn't have any pain. Something about the blood rushing to that area, it feels like a horrible cramp. Elevating and icing it as much as possible definitely helps with the swelling.

Another one by Brian Via, picked a drawing off his wall of stuff he wanted to do. Inner bicep and it hurt like hell, especially the stuff by the top near my armpit. So happy with it though.

I have a mantra of sorts that I repeat in my head during the tough spots: "Pain is just intense physical sensation." Helps remind my brain I'm not actually in danger and puts everything in perspective. So far, I've only hit a couple really bad spots, most of it was manageable. We'll see how effective it is when I finally hit the notoriously bad spots. :D I've also found lining is like 10 times worse than shading, so sometimes just thinking "Soon we'll be doing the shading and it's smooth sailing from there..." is motivational.

By Brian Via, about 4 hours. Definitely my easiest tattoo thus far, and yet also somehow my most bad ass. :D

Well this is my first time logging on in a while. I've been going through some emotional stuff and needed to take a good long break from tattooing to get things straight again. I have an appointment coming up this Friday to get back into the game with a bang...starting my "sleeve." This is my first above the knee tattoo, and my first traditional tattoo. It's scary, but weirdly liberating to start making progress on more visible stuff (forearms someday!). I'm getting an eagle and rose by Brian Via at Golden Ages. https://www.facebook.com/goldenagestattoo#!/media/set/?set=a.486756928091524.1073741827.486086374825246&type=3