Synesthesia

Please tell me you aren't getting "1 of 1" tattooed on you? If so: I hope that's just a placeholder. But you never know what the kids are getting nowadays. If you're actually getting an image, I would suggest either ribs or more of the shoulder/bicep area. The back of the arm can be pretty visible and disrupt the flow of any future arm tattoos you may plan on getting. Ribs are a tough spot to sit through, but it isn't as visible so it makes it a little easier to dip your toes into the world of tattoos. But whatever, get what you want where you want it.

I can't offer suggestions of where to go since I know nothing about Spain, but I would suggest as far as subject matter, don't get anything related to your dad's health problems. No one (including him) wants to be reminded of that all the time. There's more to him than his condition. Find a positive way to spin it: maybe you want to say that he's brave or strong, in which case a ferocious animal might be the way to go. Maybe you have some fond memories of your dad that could be showcased by something beautiful and delicate like a flower. Maybe you could get an image of something that reminds you of your dad: did he carry a pocket knife, have a favorite hobby, go on family vacations, etc? Think of the good times and stuff that reminds you of him and something will come to you.

I don't mind seeing it twice! Killer work.

I think you can post other threads after 10 posts on the forum. And I don't think that will work well as a tattoo. Too many fine lines that will thicken and blur with time, leaving you with a black blob in a few years time. Even if you did that as a massive backpiece, it's just too many lines too close together. What may work better is something like Ron Henry Well's smoky/drippy designs (pictured is an example), still sort of abstract and giving that fading in/out look that the drawing has, but with shading, which will hold up infinitely better. I would suggest finding a really good, creative artist, and giving them free reign to come up with something inspired by that picture. We can offer suggestions maybe if you say where you're located.

My family adopted a beagle named Buddy a few years ago. He's a lazy old man, but he guards the house ferociously from mailmen, UPS delivery men, and the like. The first picture is him at his guard post, the back of the couch. From which, he keeps watch over the neighborhood. The second picture is a rare (ahem) nap break.

You don't need to incorporate anything else about your kid, his name is more than enough of a connection to the subject matter. Don't clutter up an awesome tattoo with words or dates! I think your kid will be proud when he grows up and sees his dad got a badass beast as a tribute to him. You could do something statuesque, new school, traditional...the list goes on. There's tons of options for a griffin since it's a mythical beast and there's no "wrong" way to draw one. It just depends on what style you want. Who is your intended artist? Any links to a portfolio?

It's not (always) stupidity, I know plenty of otherwise smart people who go full retard when it comes to tattoos. I think most people do it based on price. The same artists who post on their Facebook pages "I charge $50 an hour" or whose shops advertise "buy one, get one free tattoos!" do shit level work. Most people are just bargain hunting and choosing whoever is closest and cheapest. In their mind, all tattoos are more or less the same because all they've ever seen is these shitty local shops or "good" tattoos on TV shows like Ink Master and they probably think "Those guys are good, but they're famous and on TV, I could never get something that good," not realizing how poor the tattoos on these shows often are. Even Chris Garver's stuff on Miami Ink was wayyy inferior to what he's doing off the show! I think if people would a) quit being so stingy about something that's on them forever and b) look around outside of your town, they would see what's possible and get better stuff.

I don't know if it helps you at all, but this thread made me think of Davey Havok, who has a couple pairs of daggers going diagonally across his ribs. I think anything diagonal/vertical works in that spot, horizontal just looks awkward imo. I myself have a tiny dagger through a heart on the back of my arm to fill a gap (plus it was to benefit an animal charity, I couldn't possibly go home that day without getting something!). I plan on getting a bigger dagger someday.

I don't think I ever posted mine in this thread. Done by Sam Warren in Lancaster, PA. Sam's a real nice guy and this turned out so awesome. I gave him the picture that inspired me and asked him to put the skeleton and horse in armor since he does neat armored stuff, and it turned out so much cooler than I ever expected. I've also got some thunder thighs so this thing is massive, hip to almost the side of my knee, and wraps around the front, side, and back of my thigh. ^ The front/side ^ The back ^ This picture was my inspiration, the cover of one of my favorite metal albums I've gone back and forth on what to do on my other thigh, for a while I wanted to do something really opposite: colorful and cutesy (I have an idea for peach faced lovebirds). But now I'm kind of thinking I might want to do some realistic black and grey on that thigh. I kind of think the lovebird design I'm imagining might sit better on my calf. And since I've already bombarded this thread with images, why not: here's peach faced lovebirds. Aren't they fucking adorable? I'm imagining them in a neo-trad/illustrative type style, super colorful.

I was in a shop recently that was having a flash day. One poor soul had drawn up a couple mandalas and did pretty much nothing but those for the first few hours of the day, so he finally stuck up a piece of paper that said "sold out" over the most popular one. I think mandalas are trendy now, but they're a pretty harmless trend, I think they'll age well and look timeless (for the most part). I get a little tired seeing them popping up on Instagram and Facebook all the time, but I don't think too many people will be really ashamed of them in the future. It's still better than upside down scribbles on your fingers or whatever.

I wish I could find it, but I read a post somewhere (maybe here) about someone who incorporated an old four leaf clover tattoo into their sleeve; I want to say it was a traditional Japanese style sleeve...? Not sure. But it worked out fine with him. I think with a traditional/neo-traditional piecemeal approach, you can incorporate all those elements with some negative space or filler around them with no problem. You might need to retouch the older tattoo so it looks like it "belongs" there, but I think it could easily work. Something like this as far as placement, maybe in a different style if you want:

No one here was nasty to her, other than in the thread where she tried to say tattoos don't hurt and I admit I got a little hot headed about that, because it came off as show-offy and like she didn't have the experience to back it up. She came in here with this attitude that she was tougher than any of the rest of us with way less experience than most of us, and that rubbed me the wrong way. But I digress... People tried to help her and with every turn, she acted like she already knew what she was doing and that begged the question of "why are you even here anyway then" on this and the Big Planet forum multiple times. The first post in response in this thread was just someone saying "hey, I don't like it, but great if you do." The harshest response in this thread was just people saying not to go back to that artist. Which is a solid recommendation, because this is a pretty poor tattoo. I think this girl has maybe some psychological issues or something where she thinks this is the best she deserves; she puts down other people as "snobs" for going to world renowned tattooers and is determined to stick with this guy. I also won't spoil where she lives, but it isn't exactly as small of a town as she makes it out to be, and she's VERY close to a lot of high quality artists. I hope she comes back someday because she could get some awesome tattoos with an attitude adjustment. The funny thing about all this is, it isn't THAT bad of a tattoo. I've seen much worse. The issue here is usually people are humble about their shitty tattoos, and she still thinks it's great and we're all "haters."

Update: I found a picture elsewhere on the internet. I won't post it out of respect for OP, but it's out there if you browse other forums. I am seriously confused how this person frequents (or should I say "frequented," since both forums are full of haters) two tattoo forums with people with hundreds of hours of tattooing, asked so many questions on both forums, and still came out with this. Also, bizarrely enough, OP's skin doesn't seem as dark as her other thread indicated it was. I think this picture is through a filter...or OP is completely delusional.

I hoped that's what she meant, but it didn't sound that way. Regardless, my point about her inspiration tattoo being horrible still stands. I hope OP sets the bar way higher than that.

I missed the pic, but for real...if you're going to create a whole new thread about your tattoo (when most people just post in the latest tattoo thread), then what did you expect? You're literally asking people for their opinions, and then getting mad when not everyone says something you want to hear. I assume the tattoo was rough (for the record, I predicted this being a disaster back when you said you wanted it to be like 4 x 4 inches) so I guess we're "haters" for encouraging you to get better tattoos.

I wouldn't feel comfortable waxing until more like 2 or 3 months into the healing. Shaving I think you're fine with once the scabbing and peeling goes away. Obviously you're not going to pull ink out or anything with waxing, but I tend to have long periods of light peeling or wrinkly looking "new skin" once my tattoo is done healing, so I would just want to wait until my skin was back to normal to not disturb the area any more. Waxing is traumatic enough on your skin without factoring in a healing wound. Maybe I'm overly cautious. Here's another question related to shaving and tattoos: does anyone know if there's any truth to the myth of tattooing slowing/stopping hair growth? It could be my imagination, but it does seem like my tattooed leg gets less hairy than my untattooed leg, maybe just because the hair blends in with the tattoo so I don't notice it as much. I've heard about people getting their armpits done because of this and the stories about tattooing affecting sweat glands. If any of that is true, I will seriously entertain the notion of getting my armpits done!

Okay well that's a horrible tattoo also, and if you're not even going to entertain the notion of laser or something requiring more than two sittings, then you're going to end up with something not much better than what you already have. Good luck.

Was this done professionally? It looks to be of pretty poor quality. You MIGHT be able to put a lot of black over top of the buildings and have a black background but I don't see anything else that can be done with them. And MAYBE re-line and pack tons of color into the rest of it to cover up the banners, but really the whole thing needs to be relined anyway. You might as well laser it all off and start over. You would have a lot better chance of covering up those buildings with something other than solid black that way.

Literally every one of those was a terrible idea. Almost all were upside down or sideways, and about half were in highly visible places like behind the ears or on the hands. I just...ugh.

Every time I add a little something to my arms (all traditional tattoos) I find I can't wait for another session and am already eager to fill in the gaps the new one made. But with bigger tattoos, I get burned out on the frequent sessions, opening up so much skin at once, and the long sittings. So if money wasn't an issue, I'd probably get my arms filled ASAP! But with everything else, I would still probably go slower because I have other issues with the bigger, non-traditional pieces I get.

I think it looks real tough and you should leave it alone. A badass pirate ship would look cool with that.

@LizBee, I agree it was probably a joke. Maybe a little insensitive or maybe just a bad day for you, but it doesn't sound like it was meant to be hurtful. On the subject of families and tattoos...my mom has begrudgingly accepted that I'm tattooed and will continue to get tattoos (even after I called her right after my last thigh piece's session saying "OH MY GOD, I'm so exhausted, my body's going into shock, I'm never getting tattooed again" and then I got another one a couple weeks later ). The other day though she actually suggested getting some kind of flower underneath my traditional butterfly. I made fun of her for a while afterwards for "giving her permission."

Fair enough, just showing you the type of stuff that can be done! If you really want the hieroglyphic look, you can at least add some more shading/color or details to make it look less like just flat lines.

So...you asked both of them about your next three tattoos before you even got your first one? I'm still confused. Maybe you should take things one at a time. Do you want the wave done in a certain style or do you want it to be pretty close to how it looks in the picture? Dan seems to do a little bit of everything, tending to favor more neo-traditional/new school stuff, whereas Aaron is primarily a traditional style artist. I think Aaron's stuff looks bolder because that's the traditional style, heavy black and solid lines. They're both pretty good. It really comes down to what look you want. I guess if you literally just want him to copy a picture, it doesn't matter which guy you go to. Even the most average street artist could replicate that wave without too much trouble. I think people focus too much on "getting ripped off" when it comes to tattoos. You have to look at this forever, and getting something done well that you love is worth it. That's why I emphasize choosing your artist first, because cost is secondary to a job well done. I try to save up a good amount of money before even going in for a consultation appointment, schedule something a couple months out to make sure I'm good on money, and only ask for a ballpark figure at the end of the consultation (phrase it like "Okay, so about how much cash should I bring with me...?"). Usually, I save too much and bring too much money with me. Better than being chintzy and not bringing enough.

That thing is crying out for some background. Maybe some light gray mountains, clouds, trees, or something else to suggest distance and add depth. Other woodsy animals like wolves, bears, deer, etc could work. Maybe down lower on your arm, you could add a lake like the eagle is swooping down to catch a fish. Alternately, you could do the patriotic route.