Breakme

My no-go zones are hands, neck, face, arse and back. I am open to hands once I've left the corporate world, but for now it's a no. My face is something I'll never consider, it doesn't appeal at all. Unfortunately I have an extremely sensitive/twitchy back and I think getting a back piece is impossible for me, as much as I would like it to be otherwise.

What?! Who does that?

Uh that is rough you are fighting off a cold also. I thought I was coming down with one the day before my appointment but managed to avoid it. Take care of yourself and hope you feel better soon.

@SeeSea I'm no spring chicken myself! I've done things a little differently with the healing on this one. No booze, loads of vitamins, magnesium, protein and lots of green tea. I also only washed it twice a day for the first two days, let it dry out for a couple of hours or so and then a super thin layer of bepanthen. Days 3 onwards wash once a day in the shower and a tiny amount of sorbolene lotion. Seems to be working really well.

I'm 4 days in on healing my inner forearm, have a good amount of peel going on but the itch is strangely absent. Have I just dodged a massive bullet on that one? It seems to be healing so much quicker and easier than my thigh did, from memory I didn't start peeling till around day 5 or 6 on my thigh and the itch went on for days. I also hardly leaked any ink from my arm whereas my thigh was still leaking on the second night. Any thoughts if it is from being tattooed by different artists or is it because of the different body parts?

Fun little Impala on my forearm from yesterday. Artist is Clare Hampshire at Korpus in Brunswick, Melbourne AUS. Photo from her Instagram.

Finally starting my arm tomorrow with Clare Hampshire, so excited! It's the start of the cold and flu season here in Melbourne, so I've spent my week dodging sick people at work and on my daily train commute, loading up on vitamins, good food, lots of green tea and sleep. Fingers crossed I can avoid the germs for one more day.

Oh so gorgeous! Those roses are spectacular!

@HaydenRose thank you! I'm getting a horse head next, so excited! @growltiger not too long ago I wore a regular bra with one strap down under a one shoulder dress and it was surprisingly supportive (I'm a D cup)

What a great idea! For my thigh I wore baggy short shorts and boyleg underwear. It worked really well as I could just pull the sides of the shorts up when we started getting into the top of the thigh/hip area. The boylegs gave me great coverage too as I wasn't comfortable to be in just underwear. I was also right in the middle of my time of the month, and my skin gets super sensitive (I can't wax or pluck eyebrows). Unfortunately I had been waiting 9 months for my appointment so I couldn't have planned it around this. Anyway, as it was my second tattoo and first major tattoo, I have no idea if it hurt more than normal as my first tattoo was done nearly 15 years ago. I'm having my other thigh done in about 6 weeks, same artist same placement and size, so I should be able to compare. I didn't realise how much swelling there would be and fortunately my work pants are of the wider leg variety so I was able to still wear my pants at work, they were just a lot tighter on one side, haha!

Oh I loved this book, have you read the sequel The Wise Man's Fear yet? My latest guilty pleasure is the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. Wizards, faerie, vampires and all sorts of magic and spooky things. Great world to escape into. I get through about 3 books a month, so I'll def be keeping an eye on this thread.

Sorry to hijack, but I didn't want to start a new thread. I have a lower back tattoo (almost ass crack) that I got when I was 20 a very long time ago. Think kinda tribal with vines and flowers. You get the idea. I want this tattoo gone, but the problem is, my back is super twitchy. Idealy I would want to cover it up (its around 15cm wide) but unless I take a few valium and pass out, I just can't handle any part of my back being tattooed. I get the worst spasms from people just touching my back. Should I just laser it and know it's never going to be completely gone, or perservere with a cover up? Anyone else have a super sensitive back?

Wow, awesome @peterpoose !! I'm just a noob, so no critique from me either. I will say that I've been following your journey with your many artists, and what I really want to know is, once your journey is over (and I realise this will be really soon), do you think you will miss getting tattooed or is the whole process just a means to an end?

Wow! Love the details in her corset/dress!

The main questions I've had about my lady head are: Who is she? Why do you have a massive womans head on your leg? Fortunately she is based off a character in a book series I love so I can just go with that. My next tattoo is going to be a deer head wearing a big fruit hat, so I have no idea what I'm going to tell people when they ask what that means, haha! I'll think I might have a bit of fun and make some stupid shit up. This thread is giving me lots of good ideas. Hate the questions about cost! So rude!

I just looked up Tom of Finland and WOW! Was not expecting to see that! haha!

I couldn't think of anything more manlier than a dude with a gorgeous lady head front and centre on his arm. Same goes with women, I think they are also so feminine. I guess they bring out the best in both sexes! :-) I have a lady head on the outside of my right thigh and I just adore her, there are some pics in my intro thread if anyone is interested in taking a peek. On a slightly different side note, (not that I want to derail this thread) has anyone seen a "man head" tattoo? Very curious!

Thanks for those links Joe! I also forgot to mention Teniele Sadd, really love her ladies and birds, would love to have her do my right arm, but will have to replenish the tattoo fund after my sessions with Clare and Emily in the next few months. Teniele Sadd @teniele Instagram photos | Webstagram iowagirl - if you ever get the chance you should def do a trip down this way. Guess it's quite expensive and quite a long way to come for a lot of people. There is heaps of Australia that I haven't seen yet, despite living here for 7 years.

Hey cheers for the replies! So happy to hear you guys are excited for our part of the world too :-) I should've loaded pics last night, but it was a bit late, ha! Just recently got this lady head from Emily Rose Murray Took around 4.5 hours and I'm not short! I also have a forearm half sleeve in April with Clare Hampshire, she is doing a deer head http://claritytattoo.com/ and Emily Rose will be doing a horse head on the outside of my other thigh in May. So lots of exciting stuff coming up! Just want this year to get a move on already, as much as I hate wishing my life away. Who are you favourites from Aussie? - - - Updated - - - - - - Updated - - - Fuck, sorry its so massive, no idea how to resize :o

Hi everyone Just starting the obligatory "please welcome me" thread so I can start posting and participating, been lurking these boards for a good few months now. Umm, so a bit about me...... Kiwi chick living in Melbourne, Australia, slightly older than 30 and apart from my first tattoo at age 20 (that one is a story for another day) have only recently started getting serious about (finally!) tattooing the rest of my body. There is some amazing talent coming out of Aus, I feel like it's a really exciting time to be in this part of the world. I gather that most of the people that post here are from the USA and some from Europe? Hopefully there are a few other people from this side of the world. So yeah, that's it. See you guys round :-) Bec