Breakme

Best of luck @MadeIndelible, addiction is so insidious, but you can get well again and get your life back.

I've mainly been tattooed out of private studios so have been OK in that respect.

My boys having a weekend snuggle with me. Martin is the tabby and white, and Tuxy is the tuxedo cat. We adopted them from the shelter when they were 13 weeks old, think they are 4 now. They are brothers from the same litter and are best buds.

Thanks @Graeme. I think I'll avoid booking a convention sitting and just hope I can book with her when she does a guest spot, the thought of people watching (and cameras) makes me feel anxious.

Urgh, can these reality tv shows just die already?

For the first time in a year I don't have any appointments booked and I feel a bit lost. I'm waiting for Clare Hampshire and Emily Rose to re-open their books in a couple of months time. I envy you people that are able to book appointments a month or so out. I've spoken to Kat Abdy at Cherry Bomb in Perth over email regarding booking with her when she comes to Melbourne at the end of the year for a convention, however until she books her flights and knows where she will be guesting nothing is set in stone. Has anyone had a 5+ hour sit at a convention? How did you get on with so many people coming past and watching? Did you feel overwhelmed at all?

Had to give my thigh a couple of sneaky slappings today at work while walking from my desk to the kitchen. I think I managed to pull it off without looking like a weirdo.

Are you serious?

Today I am itchy and sore at the same time. That's a new one.

That sounds like a bargain. If you like drinking bubbly wine Dan Murphy's sells a cleanskin bubbles which works out to be around $6 a bottle if you buy a case. It's really good.

So odd she would call herself a cleanskin. In aussie, cleanskin is a term for wine which doesn't have the winemakers name on the label and is generally sold a lot cheaper. I guess she's calling herself cheap! Ha!

Just out of curiosity, are you left or right handed? I'm a righty but yet to start on my right arm (next on the list), have only done the left inner forearm which took around 4.5 hours but could've easily sat for longer.

I have had the fuzzy vision and feeling a bit disassociated from my body during a session. I have suffered from anxiety and panic attacks in the past so I just relaxed, closed my eyes and didn't fight it and it passed. Yesterdays session has been the most painful so far. Then the weirdest thing happened on the drive home, I must've had a huge endorphine rush as all of a sudden I felt like I was high. Lasted a good 15 mins. Feeling very sorry for myself today, my thigh is so swollen and sore.

Ok, update for you ladies re our discussion a while back about getting tattooed at that time of the month. Just had my second thigh done, same size and placement, same artist, and "not that time of the month" and it hurt more than the first one! I found my left side that was done today had a few more involuntary twitches than my right side, and seemed to have a lot more nerve clusters and more sensitivity. Has anyone noticed that one side of their body is more sensitive than the other? I think I'm done with thighs for now, they well and truly suck with their little twitchy movements you can't control.

I find this sweeping generalisation of women offensive. The ladies on this forum are incredibly passionate and well learned about their tattoos. If you want to alienate these fantastic women, then please continue making ignorant remarks like this.

Got my thigh session with Emily Rose tomorrow. Have kicked the cold I came down with late last week and am ready to go!

Urgh! Woman = women, still half asleep this morning!

That segment on Sunrise disappointed me on a number of levels. Not only do we live in a patriarchal society and have to field comments like that from men, we still have a number of woman who sprout off the same ignorant remarks which only serves to re-inforce these archaic views of how woman should look and live in society. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but she could've worded her response in such a better way. No one would begrudge her for saying that tattoos weren't her cup of tea and leaving it at that, but she had to take it further with her message that woman with tattoos aren't attractive and that men don't find us attractive either. Because we all live our lives just to make ourselves more attractive to men, right? I also find it amusing that someone with no tattoos can make such a blanket statement that everyone will regret their tattoos at some stage in their life. If people do regret their tattoos, how in any way is that affecting her? What ever happened to live and let live? Why wasn't there a woman on that panel with a sleeve or a gorgeous chest piece? I hope that Anna Musson doesn't have a daughter, as we don't need any more woman growing up hearing and believing that self expression is viewed negatively and is ugly.

Oh wow! Gorgeous roses @embers

@Colored Guy I'm sorry to hear about your wife's diagnosis. I hope you two have many more years together. @beez Hell Yes! Tattoos on guys are extremely attractive to me too. I've never dated anyone with tattoos as I got together with my partner in my late teens, but I imagine if I did I would want to look at them all the time. I look at my tattoos all the time, I never get sick of it. This may be a bit Too Much Info but my bathroom breaks are significantly longer as I end up staring at my lady head on my thigh. This is only going to get worse as my legs fill up over time, haha! I just get a profound sense of "rightness" (is that a word?) looking at my tattoos. It makes me feel incredibly happy.

@beez thank you for reminding me of ginger tea. I had to google sambucol to see what it was as I've never heard of it. I'll pop out and grab some from the pharmacy. My favourite healing potion is beef pho so will make sure I get a couple of bowls in this weekend too. Thanks loads!

I've been with my partner for 17 years. He has no tattoos and no desire to get any. He really likes my tattoos and is very supportive of me with getting more, so I'm pretty lucky in that regard as I've only started to get serious about tattooing my body last year. I would love it if he decided to get tattoos and we would embark on this journey together but I respect his decision. I did manage to drag him along to the Rites of Passage tattoo festival last weekend and he was pretty amazed at what he saw, so all in all I think I'm pretty fortunate that he has taken it so well! None of my girlfriends (or even male friends) are interested in tattoos so I do feel like I'm very alone and would love to have someone I could share this with. One of the main reasons I joined this forum really.

My next appointment is with Emily Rose again on the 12th May for a horse head on my outer thigh and I've just come down with a terrible cold and high temperature which I'm hoping I can kick well before then. Her waiting list is horrendous and I'd hate to have to re-schedule as I've been waiting for 6 months already. Fingers crossed.

With my inner forearm I noticed a big patch of redness moving up onto my bicep, and my arm was very swollen. I think the red on my bicep was from where she was holding my arm. It started improving around day 3. I found taking ibuprofen for the swelling helped loads.

She sounds like she has issues, or is just massively ignorant!