polliwog

Fantastic--I will buy you a beer afterward if you have the time!

@9Years please post a photo of that when the mange disappears, too!

I think this is the main thing. Most of the time, you're just comparing different flavors of bad. I have had untattooed people express shock at the fact that my visible tattoos weren't awful more than once.

I was going to suggest -derm, too. I had a really weepy lower leg tattoo that scabbed up badly during a 15-hour train ride where I didn't have access to a place to wash it---and the air on a plane is going to be significantly drier. You don't need to leave it on for 4 days; I tend to just do 48 hours, which seems to be enough to keep me out of the scab danger zone.

Time off work: obtained! Can't wait to see Montreal again, it's been at least a dozen years.

@BrianH thanks!

The only thing I would advise from experience is not to leave it on so long that the tattoo dries out (as if it's approaching the flaky stage) underneath. Makes removal far more painful and tricky. I left Saniderm on my largest thigh tattoo for about 5 days and had to peel it off slowly and painstakingly, and now I like to take it off when there's still some moisture under the bandage, after maybe 48 hours. Weirdly enough, even after it's off, my skin still feels far less tender than with a dry heal. You do you of course, just butting in.

Damn. James would probably tolerate a weekend of tattoo conventioning if he could stay in a hotel with a secret passage.

I'm planning on going. I couldn't tell from the website (though I didn't do a ton of digging) whether or not there was a hotel associated with the convention that offered a special rate. If not , I'd love to hear about where people have stayed in the past.

Youre probably thinking of @semele who has a great Pharaoh's Horses from Nick Colella.

If it's been a couple months already, this sounds like a question for someone knowledgeable who can look at it in person, and not for the internet...

When the soap is cold, it feels amazing...when it's warmish and the towel is rough, arrrrrggghhh. Not to mention that some people are just brutal wipers.

First thought was that the crown makes it look a little like the Keep Calm and Carry On thing that was everywhere a couple years ago. You should consider whether you want your tattoo to evoke that. Other than that, I'm not an artist and it feels weird to give design advice to someone I don't know...

@Iape just copy and paste the URL and it automatically formats.

I swam about 12 days after an arm tattoo and did lose a little color where there were still scabs. If you're planning on being near the beach at all, I'm a big fan of UPF rated rash guards-- you wouldn't want to get sunscreen near a tattoo that fresh, I'd think .

@marley mission I love that!

Only 2 tattoos in, but thighs have been easy pain-wise for me and have healed up great. It does feel like a big wobbling boiled ham strapped to my leg while it heals, though. Bag of peas, keep it elevated. I also wear leggings exclusively while they heal but I hate wearing real pants anyway. My experience will have no bearing on yours, but I do feel that it's helped me to avoid wearing abrasive denim and whatnot. @sophistre the tattoo that @cltattooing did on you looks so great healed, omg

@Cork He moved here last November I think.

Before I discovered that getting tattooed is the best, I thought I might collect miniature books. Also stupid expensive. I have one.

If I'm honest, I think the only kind of "collecting" that I really struggle with is the kind that implies that there are maybe a couple people who do The Best [tigers, lady heads, insert your subject and style of choice here] and that you are somehow falling short if you don't make the time, effort or money to get to those people. While I understand that there are highly specialized tattooers who are justifiably sought after...my hourly wage is modest, most of them will be out of my reach forever, and I still want to get tattooed. And more than once every five years. It's also possible I'm creating a straw man. But it does seem like a social media -fuelled thing. On the other hand, it really doesn't matter what anyone else does.

@marley mission I hear you. A local tattooer recently posted a drawing that I love, but it would require multiple sessions and I want to be able to swim this summer.

@marley mission he is in Massachusetts 3 weeks per month and at Delaware for 1 week, I believe. He does still have a lot of availability in MA, so if you come up here I'm happy to meet you after. That may be a disincentive, though. Double your pleasure and hit upThe Torchbearer in RI.

He's a pleasure to get tattooed by, too. I don't really know how to describe it but he brings a good energy with him.

Todd Noble did a Percy Waters girl for me and I took a really bad photo of it (sigh). I love it, though.

It's barely visible, but FWIW I have a couple similar small milky spots in my eagle, in the black shading. The whole thing raises up sometimes when it's hot so I'm guessing it's just scar tissue. It definitely looks different from areas in a different tattoo that scabbed and lost ink. I agree with everyone else that it isn't noticeable in yours.