Synesthesia

^ I agree, I hate how fetishized tattoos are. Not even just on women, probably half the pictures of guys with tattoos are the smoldering model types. Most of the time when I try to google certain designs, I feel like I'm looking at soft-core porn. I've always thought tattoos are more for the individual getting them (not in the upside-down "IT'S FOR ME!" way :rolleyes:), but this hyper sexual stance on tattoos makes it seem like you get them to get ogled by strangers. I feel more beautiful with mine, I don't need to dress like a porn star to express that.

I think this is the first season that really LACKS a few talented 'ringers'.

If I can ask... who do you think is 'good talent' so far?

I don't think anyone's really AMAZING, but some solid tattooers. On the earlier seasons, it was always really obvious who the top 3 were going to be, and everyone else was pretty middle of the pack or worse. This time it seems like there's a lot of "better than average" ones at least. I still wouldn't get tattooed by any of them, but I don't remember as many blatant eyesores this time.

I'm liking this season more than the others so far. Some really good talent, not too many drama queens, and thank god they let that Ashley bitch quit instead of talking her out of it like they did with Tatu Baby. I'm a big fan of Gentle Jay...he's kind of a dick, but an endearing dick.

I've been dry healing my currently healing tattoo for the past week, and it's getting pretty itchy. I just put some lotion on it after reading your post. It's helping, but still a bit itchy. It has healed rather well, though, visually speaking.

I'm not quite dry healing, but I am using about half the amount of lotion I've used in the past. So far, it's been pretty annoying and uncomfortable. I was actually worried it was infected because I've never had a tattoo hurt for so long afterwards, but I think my skin is just so dry, that's what's causing the pain. It does feel marginally better when I put lotion on, but again, I'm trying to restrict myself as much as possible. I think I over moisturized my last one, which made it take forever to start and finish peeling. I can't imagine healing completely dry!

Experimenting with using less lotion while healing my latest tattoo, and it's not working so well for me. My skin is painfully dry and tight feeling all the time (it's been 4 days). Still in a decent amount of pain too, I'm not walking normally yet and even in a resting position, the tattoo feels like a giant papercut and has a slight stinging/itching feeling all the time. Pretty miserable overall. :(

^ I'm against all those too (except for neutering, which has more positive than negative effects...I still felt bad for doing it to my dog). The dog also runs the risk of infection while the tattoo's healing. Regardless of where it ranks on the cruelty scale, tattooing an animal for your own selfish reasons is totally lacking benefit to the animal and is causing it unecessary pain.

Every now and then one of these stories pops up, and I can't understand why anyone would even want to do this. Is it supposed to be funny? For attention? For fashion? Just...why? Why can't you just put clothes on your animals like a normal psycho? As far as the "it was done under anesthesia" argument, that doesn't mean jack shit. Just read the thread where we complain about healing tattoos to see the pain and discomfort doesn't stop as soon as the needle does. It's one thing to give a dog a small tattoo for ID purposes, but this is just dumb and cruel.

Had a session a couple nights ago with some classic rock and metal. Getting tattooed to Dio was fucking awesome.

About 4 hours of shading. Outlining is rough for me, about 3 hours of lining and I'm done. I'm not sure I could do even a medium sized tattoo in one session. :( That's okay, that just means I can get tons of little ones. :)

Got this shaded last night by Jason Reeder. Really feeling the burn today. :D

Just got pretty much my whole inner leg from the knee to the ankle shaded last night. I underestimated just how sore and how much pressure I would be feeling today, so once when I stood up, I went way faster than I should have and almost fainted. :( Last night and today, I've been limping around the house like my leg's broken. People are always so worried about the pain of the needle, but honestly, I'd take a couple more hours of tattooing over what I go through afterwards...

This is going to sound snobbish but does anyone else have a really difficult time having an enjoyable conversation about tattoos with a non-tattooed person? It seems like they always push the conversation towards: laser removal, their super meaningful/personal tattoo design idea and the long story behind it, reality tv, infection/disease, or other similar non-sense.

Every time tattoos come up at work, my co-workers start talking about getting tattoos from their friends at their houses. And inevitably, it ends with them saying how they don't like their tattoos. Yet they continue to do it, thinking they're miraculously going to get decent tattoos. It's exhausting to even listen to.

I don't throw on anything too heavy like Hellyeah or Slipknot, because she is a female.

Funny you would say that. I'm female and if you consider Slipknot "too heavy," the metal I listen to every day would make you shit yourself. :)

Most of the time when I go into a shop around here, they're playing some kind of gangster-y rap. In one shop, they were playing some kind of ambient stuff. The shop I've been going to has like "shop music," which varies depending on who picks it that day (the last time I was there it was some really lame 50's music as a joke, but it's usually classic rock or something along those lines). And then each artist has their own little room they work in where they can play whatever they want. My artist likes metal, and he knows I do too, so he usually pulls up some metal on his iPod. Nailbomb, Type O Negative, Deicide, Job for a Cowboy, etc. Depending on who else is in the shop (they do a lot of nipple tattoos for women that lost theirs due to breast cancer, so there's a decent amount of older women that wouldnt usually be caught dead in a tattoo shop), he doesn't always feel comfortable subjecting people to that music. But if it's just me and him, we go all out. :D It's usually metal, sometimes it's classic rock, last time we ended up listening to The Beastie Boys. Not my thing, but whatever, music choice is up to him.

My best experience getting tattooed so far was a couple sessions ago where he played like 2 straight hours of the Deftones newer stuff. I have their older albums, which are hit or miss for me, and I had been avoiding the newer stuff because it just didn't seem like my thing. But he insisted I hear them, so he played their newer albums and it got me into almost a trance like state. It was a pretty amazing experience and the session seemed to fly by.

Got this from Scott Sylvia over the weekend, very happy with it (stole the pic from blackhearts IG). Gonna go back to Blackheart for their walk in day in a couple weeks too.

Tattoo of the year.

I was browsing Tim Lehi tattoos and found this fucking sweet one (obviously not mine, maybe someone's here?)

Since I'm snowed in today, I went ahead and made another appointment in a couple weeks with Jason Reeder for my nocturnal/crepuscular animal leg sleeve thing. :rolleyes: Going to be coloring in my hare and maybe some filler shading.

I guess it depends on where the tattoos are and what kind of relationship you want with your parents. If they can be easily hidden, there's no pressure to tell them now or never, unless you really want to be open and honest about everything (even things that aren't much of their concern). My parents have surprised me about their opinions on me getting pierced and tattooed. Of course they hate everything at first, but they come around pretty fast. Things have actually gotten easier the more work I have done, whereas I expected it to be more of a fight the more I had done. It seems to be that way for most people on these boards: it's harder to take the first plunge, and everything afterwards goes a lot smoother.

The majority of people on this list are extremely accessible. Get on it!

I'd really like to make trip to New York at some point to get tattooed by Richard Smith, he just might be my favorite on the entire list. At this point in my life, going to California or out of the country is totally out of the question, but maybe someday...

Some of my dream artists...

Tim Lehi

Richard Smith

Grez

Steve Byrne

Dan Smith

Grime

Chelsea Shoneck

Valerie Vargas

I've noticed this on 2 of my 3 tattoos. The only one that doesn't ever feel itchy is the one on my foot. Not sure if it's due to locations of the tattoos, or the fact that different guys did them, or maybe different ink, or what...

This show is AWFUL. At least half of it is clearly staged. I saw a couple episodes, one where a random naked guy shows up in front of the shop asking to use their phone because his friends stole his clothes, and another where a guy clearly doesn't speak English and can't draw what he wants...oh, the hilarity. The tattoos are pretty much garbage too. The whole thing makes tattoos seem like something only crazy people can get to show the world how crazy they are, like a desperate grab for attention.

So far, nearly everything about my newest tattoo is smooth sailing. Maybe it's because it's the inner part of my lower leg so it's kind of tucked away more than any of my others, but I actually keep forgetting it's there. Just a really faint stinging sensation all last night and this morning, no swelling, and not nearly as much of the horrible "rush of blood" feeling that I got with the previous lower leg tattoo. Here's hoping it remains uneventful. :p

Excuse the awful picture, I'm out of town visiting my boyfriend and had to use his phone to try to get a pic. I'll have to try to get a better one when I get home. Had this done yesterday by Jason Reeder. This is my second piece from him, it's on the inside of my right leg (he did an owl and mouse for me on the outside of the same leg). The ears KILLED and that was by far my most painful tattoo experience thus far; it might be hard to tell from the pic, but they creep up to the side of my knee and the back one almost goes into my knee ditch. I thought this would finish off my leg, but I have a patch of open skin on my shin and the back of my calf is still open, so it looks like I have some more work to get done before the project is finished. Probably throw some moths in some of that space, and Jason is trying to talk me into getting a bat, we'll see. :D

Can I bump this thread? Strongly considering an eagle tattoo for my dad and was maybe hoping for some new inspiration. :)