polliwog

That's beautiful! That would be how many tattoos in the past year for you?

That sounds like an instant headache.

To further move off topic: pretty well, apparently, for their intended audience - I haven't reread them, but I ordered a bunch of them the other day for a kid who'd gotten hooked. They still seem to attract and speak to readers beyond The Outsiders being assigned in school.

I love the beach. I grew up going to freezing cold ocean beaches on the north shore of Massachusetts; if it wasn't painful, it didn't really count as going for a swim. I love nothing more than swimming in the ocean and coming out covered in salt and seaweed, and getting a basket of fried claims afterward. Nobody gives a shit what you look like on these beaches, either. Going to cover myself in SPF 50 and not worry too much about it. Sorry, I'm sorta drunk and feel a strong nostalgia for the ocean

That's beautiful! Hope I can catch him next time he's through.

I can imagine someone tattooing something interesting over her black-free abstract tattoos as they fade that takes advantage of the muted areas of color.

@irezumi is really going above and beyond with the advice lately. Thank you!

I think you can do soft, painterly application of color inside solid lines that looks good because I've seen tattoos like this - I don't mean tebori necessarily, but taking the texture of watercolor while adding some structural black and keeping the color within these defined areas. (The tattoo that Rus did on my arm has a light pink pigment overlaid with some darker red to imitate the watercolor illustration it came from, which in turn conveys the texture of the flower petals.) It may not last as long as solid, densely-packed color, but when it fades you'll still have the structure of a real tattoo. I like texture.

That's about as visually unexciting as it gets. Can't really think of a better way to express it.

All my best wishes to your family, @Colored Guy.

Sweet. I liked that cross-hatched tattoo of his so much that of course I got one that looks nothing like it (though it's also an old botanical illustration). I'm sure I was annoying as hell because I was so nervous. He has a good sense of humor, though.

The tattooer who did my first tattoo, Rus Laich had this picture of a tattoo that's essentially shaded with cross-hatching. I think it looks great. I imagine it'll age to a soft grey with barely-distinguishable lines over time?

a different kind of ridiculous

I think it might be tipping, a bit. Not to say that it won't take TV 5+ years to catch on to this; it'll just spit out increasingly desperate shows to fill the surplus of channels for people who are hate-watching this stuff while they can't sleep. I think shows like this might be a sign that it's on its way out as a trend. Maybe. How is this cool? I'm also doing my small part to make having tattoos look uncool :rolleyes:

Just a thought for the original poster - complaining about the behaviour of a tattooer on an open forum might not be the best idea, even if you've made both yourself and the tattooer/shop fairly anonymous. (As long as there are pictures of your tattoos online, linked to your username, you are somewhat identifiable.) It took me a while to realize this myself - like, if I plan on continuing to travel and get tattooed at various shops (which I do), does it help me or anyone else to grouse in a general way about, say, grumpy receptionists? It doesn't foster good will. I'm new to this whole thing, but in some ways it seems like a small/interconnected world. Going to try for kindness and discretion. Edit: I see that Slayer has offered similar advice. So again, what Slayer said.

I think at this point it's a word that's often (mostly?) used for people to distance themselves from other people who look uncomfortably like them/have some of the same interests but are insufficiently authentic. It can mean almost anything the person saying it wants it to mean.

This one by Cheyenne Sawyer. It's all about the eyes. There was a discussion somewhere on here about the length of the jaw determining the look of the head - I think I prefer the slightly less stylized/elongated jaws. To me this one just captures more of the big cat snarl. I really hope he comes to the Northeast sometime.

I was worried because I didn't get a response for a while after I emailed to call it off. I think he's just dealing with a lot of email, since he seems to be doing his own booking for this.

I had to cancel with him! He'll get back to you; he's super nice. Hope you can grab a spot!

I hope so. I feel like such a schmuck because I JUST made it, too. And he's a guest artist who really went out of his way to accommodate me. Fuck fuck fuck That's a great octopus.

Had to cancel my appointment because family stuff was making it look iffy, and I figured it was better to cancel a week in advance than the day before. Still, damn it.

Well, I'll be stopping at the Torchbearer next week (yay!!) so I'll have to keep my eyes open - I would imagine they're still decorating, though. I'm sure it's been said before, but all of the Higgs tattoos I've seen have this totemic power that manages to come through even on something like Instagram. Pretty amazing.

That bird is great. Every time someone posts a Higgs piece here it makes me want to do more to seek out Higgs flash. Thanks to everyone here who's shared theirs.

No fresh fruit or vegetables? Hope you get to eat those again soon - I get fruit cravings if I haven't had any in a while.

My understanding is that people here were more irritated by those images because they go against a lot of the principles (maybe a bad word, but not sure what else to use) of good tattooing. And yeah, the herd mentality thing, which sadly knows no gender. Anyway, I'm totally not interested in fighting on the internet about this, so I'm happy to leave it here. Unless we want to make fun of BMW drivers ; I'm always up for that.