sophistre

I'm going to start getting tattoos on my legs after August. I'm not looking forward to the healing. D: Even my lower arms throbbed a lot during healing, I can't imagine lower legs! It must be intense.

Mreh. Mandalas are beautiful. They've been beautiful since like the 9th-11th centuries, B.C.E. Just because they've become popular subjects for tattoos doesn't make them any less beautiful! Geometric designs likewise; you have only to look at the ceiling of any given mosque to be blown away. Whether these things make great tattoos or not is open to discussion (by people who know more about these things than I do), but that's entirely a separate conversation. Trends are a social phenomenon that has to do with perception and self-image. They often have little or nothing to do with the intrinsic worth of the object of acclaim/derision; it's more about social identity and group belonging and whatever else. I would totally get a mandala tattoo, and I don't give a fuuuuuu. It'd have to be placed well, but they're still stunning, imo. Don't care what anybody thinks, or who else might be wearing them. We tend to want to reject things that become trendy when we feel wiser about the thing the trend concerns itself with than the bulk of derps following the trend, but sometimes that's just cutting off our noses to spite our faces. The other tattoos under discussion draw fire here because they make for crap tattoos. But, still. If somebody loves it, even if they got it because it's trendy, it doesn't really matter. Their body, their life. More joy to them.

I think for the most part anyone who gets tattooed more than a few times has already said their goodbyes to caring about what the bulk of humanity thinks about it. There are no doubt exceptions to that generalization, but still. Like all extremely personal choices that run against the social grain, you open yourself up to criticism...but, assuming that it was a personal choice and made for considered reasons, it's not going to matter. 'Yeah, I hear you, but I do what I want.' I imagine the rest is a self-solving problem. People basing permanent decisions on ephemeral whims tend to be regulated by their own misery after the first few mistakes. (And if they come out of the other side of a trend with a tattoo they still love, then the point is still moot, because at the end of the day, they're winning.)

This healing period has been so weird. Usually I flake heavily...no flakes this time that I've seen. Just thicker skin, and a raised outline that feels like a seam. And the itching has been SO TERRIBLE. The outside of my forearm/wrist gets these sharp stingy itches that feel like bug bites, and the upper back of my arm gets tickles that run down the nerves in my armpit. AUGH. Always a friggin' adventure.

Whoa...either I missed the notification that people were posting here, or I didn't get one until today, which is weird. Sorry, [MENTION=19422]polliwog[/MENTION]! I had no idea. Mmmmm...I don't know that I can say the tattoo has grown on me, but it doesn't make me actively unhappy anymore. I try to take the Buddhist approach to this kind of thing, you know? It happened, and it isn't going anywhere. I can either hold on to my wish that things had turned out differently, and continue to dwell on my previous expectations, or I can let go of those and carry on. It's funny...I know when I post my arm in early May after Gilsdorf adds to that side, the prevailing opinion will be that it's not a bad tattoo, and it really isn't! The placement still bothers me and the colors don't thrill me, but it is what it is. The answer (as I was told by several different wise people) is to get more tattoos. Once it's part of something bigger, I think I'll forget to frown at it completely. [MENTION=53282]DavidR[/MENTION]: Finding this place was huge for me. I would've been tattooed either way, but it helped me understand many things on a level that I didn't before. Just hanging out here and soaking up what experienced people have to say puts us ahead of the game, I think! I wasn't nervous before my first one, except in the sense that I was afraid I might not sit well. I didn't want to be that client. I was just very, very ready after having to wait for so many years -- and as people have said in countless threads, if you pick an artist whose entire portfolio you love, you almost can't go wrong, no matter what they put on you. Maybe that's what tripped me up here. I liked it, but it didn't make my jaw hit the floor. There's probably a balance somewhere in there. I learn something every time I get tattooed, and my tastes have changed, too, even across just a handful of tattoos. I'm grateful to have had this happen in such an insignificant way, though, rather than with some gigantic tattoo disaster -- I know myself better, now. I have a better understanding of my own expectations. I can't wait for my appointment with Dan Gilsdorf. Talk about a tattooer's portfolio making my jaw hit the floor. I didn't even give him guidelines. I can feel confident that anything he does will be fantastic. [MENTION=50665]pidjones[/MENTION]: Sadly, not getting tattooed today! That was back in December. I can't remember if I got tattooed or not. I think I actually got sick around that time. I am wearing short sleeves again, yes. :) I'm in the gym too much right now training for something to be in long sleeves all the time, especially with the weather changing. Two people I've met have told me that the scorpion tattoo is their favorite, of all of the tattoos I have, even. They like the heavy simplicity of it. Go figure! Just goes to show you -- my quibbles are totally personal and subjective. I'm glad that you're adjusting, too. I got a private message from someone recently who said they're in the same boat. It's always reassuring to know you're not alone in feeling these things.

I think what would bother me about it, @beez, is that behind it there's an element of 'how you look when you're older will matter more to me than who you are as a person.' It would bother me that someone would think ahead to the point when I might not be young and fit and attractive and just cross me off of the list because some part of me may not age gracefully, in their opinion. That some nebulous future involving my aging body might matter more to them than the years until then, or all of the years we'd already shared. And that's crazy, isn't it? Nobody has any guarantee of aging gracefully (and obviously tattoos look pretty goddamn rad on older people, but I get that this is a subjective opinion). We're all going to get old and wrinkly and whatever else. It's just life. When I decided to get tattoos, I told my mother that if I lived my life with the ultimate goal of being bangable at 60/70/80, then I'd have surely fucked up somewhere along the way. If I'm hot and older, so be it, but what I want to be at 60/70/80 is interesting. I agree with everybody else -- I think he's saved you some time, and maybe even some worse heartbreak down the road. It doesn't make it any less bitter, I know. It's a very myopic position for him to take, imo, but at least he was honest about it. He'll have to own that in the years to come, for better or worse.

I hope not!! ...I'm pretty sure not, anyway. If that were possible I'd have died years ago, when I wasn't able to be tattooed at all. (Also, thanks. :) )

That snail with boobs wouldn't load on tapatalk when I was traveling. It's like 500% cooler than I was picturing.

Oh! Haha. Welllll, I dunno. Coverage still takes time, and tattoos still hurt, and they're still expensive, no matter how many hours you book at once. The endurance trial is certainly an experience, I imagine. I'll find out whenever I get around to my back, since I know already I'm going nape to at least the back of the thigh, and probably Japanese. Nice dinosaur!

Thank you very much!! I am thrilled with it. You aren't alone in those feelings. His instagram gets comments frequently from people lamenting the passing of his 'animals wearing necklaces' phase, though less these days than before, since he refuses to tattoo it anymore. That original style is what first drew me to him; it's beautiful artwork and seriously impressive...but maybe not very optimal for a tattoo. He's told me that he was really into it while he was doing it, but he was tired of it, and he said he's realized they're all going to age very poorly. Listening to him talk to one of the other tattooers in the shop one night, he also said he finds doing the actual tattooing with traditional much more satisfying and enjoyable -- that he used to enjoy when he achieved the effect he was going for with the neo-trad, but he didn't actually enjoy the labor of it. This last time I was down there, he talked about how he admires the simple economy/elegance of the designs...that he's played with altering some of them and most of the time he discovers that the thinking that went into that simplicity is actually extremely complex, and most of the designs he likes best just cannot be improved on; that it's difficult to change parts of them without compromising something else. As for the sleeve thing, originally I did want a full sleeve. I've known I wanted to be tattooed since I was pretty young -- early teens -- but I wasn't much for American traditional. I made a lot of the same ill-informed judgements about things like flash and whatnot that I hear other people making these days. I did love Japanese traditional, though. I wanted to be covered with it! I even exchanged faxes with Horiyoshi III back in the day. (Faxes. Seriously.) I don't regret the way things worked out, though. Like Bmore, I find the use of negative space extremely striking. It's fun to show up to the shop and not know what you're going to be getting; it's sort of like getting a present. And you can get all kinds of different things -- so many different artists doing different takes on all kinds of styles and subject matter. Full sleeves (and squid pants :o) are gorgeous in their own way, but they eat up real estate. It's a trade-off, I guess. Also, I sort of feel that piecemeal sleeves like this one ARE full sleeves, in a way. You may not know what the full character of the sleeve will be until it's done, but when I see people who have whole limbs done in this style I still get a very specific impression from the overall collection of images -- something with no less an identity as a cohesive piece. It's one of the things I was thinking about when I read all of the nice comments on the other thread...I almost wish I could get some distance on my arm and see it the way other people see it, as a whole thing rather than a collection of parts. It's hard to do when it's on myself, for whatever reason.

Seconding both of Graeme's choices. I'm going to see Dan in May and I can't wait; his folk flowers are incredible. Greg did my whole arm, so obviously I'm biased that way, too. There is another tattooer in Portland who does a ton of florals. Her name is Alice Carrier. No idea whether or not her stuff holds up in the long term, but it's very pretty.

Hokay, cross-posting by request, cos SeeSea is such a flatterer. I was going to wait until Greg posted the pictures he took of the new stuff, but he may not. Sun came out today when I was about to head to the gym, so I tried to get some myself. I got a diving girl, and we started a cobra, though we didn't finish it. They're looking a little bit foggy/chalky because I peel fast; they'll probably start flaking by tomorrow. It makes it hard to see the blue details in the diving girl, sadly. Sorry for the terrible angles! These links are just an overview of the whole thing, before we added the cobra. https://instagram.com/p/1gugZ7TBPK/ https://instagram.com/p/1guZOxTBO-/

You guys are too kind! I love the idea of a centipede or caterpillar. I LOVE the idea of a frog. I would never have thought about doing a frog, but it would probably go really well with the critters I already have. There's a weird adjacent set of spaces. Maybe we can do a fun frog/bug thing! I can't take credit for all of the good decisions (Greg is great), but the ones I did make I made in part because I learned a lot on LST. Thanks for maintaining a forum with so much important information on it, and a place where I can go to ogle people's work! Oh, I did! He told me to think about it. If I pressed him, I think he'd tell me to get monkeys, because he knows I don't like monkeys...and so now he's made it his personal mission to convince me to get a monkey tattoo. Haha. :rolleyes: I may have pacified him by telling him I want a morph, though. Nobody's ever asked him for one. Exciting! I will do this! I know he was out in NYC to guest last year, so he does periodically do that kinda thing.

Today Greg and I sewed up the two major remaining blank spaces on my arm, leaving two or three small patches that could comfortably contain some sort of fill. My homework assignment is to think about what I might want to put in there. We can always default to flowers and leaves -- I don't think I'll ever feel like I have too many flower tattoos -- but we both feel like there might be another option out there that's fun and slightly different. I just...have no idea what that might be. I haven't spent much time thinking about filler! Maybe bugs, or something...? The only thing we know for sure is that we don't want to introduce any colors beyond the ones already on my arm. He took some pictures of my arm today that don't suck (before he did the cobra on the upper back of my arm), and I am including the links here. Any suggestions? https://instagram.com/p/1gugZ7TBPK/ https://instagram.com/p/1guZOxTBO-/

These are beautiful.

I did! He was incredibly nice over the phone. I was going to drive down to book in with him the normal way and then my dog tore her meniscus, so I had to stay here, and he went out of his way to help me get an appointment. Very kind. I can't wait. :)

I was having breakfast when I scrolled to this. I accidentally inhaled food and almost died. Worth it though. That C&P...

This is very slightly off-subject, but related to the last few posts. I've wanted to ask for months, but wasn't sure where to put the question. I picked up a copy of the Good Book. It's really fun to look through. In one of the sections, I found an image that I actually have as a tattoo -- a Percy Waters thing. It's not credited to Percy Waters, it's credited instead to a contemporary tattooer. It wouldn't be weird to me, but there's a page in the front that talks about how it's reference only, you're prohibited from tracing or duplicating the original work within, etcetera. Is that weird to anyone else, or is it just 'if you draw an iteration of something, you slap your name on it and call it good'?

^That. Pretty much every time, too. None of my tattoos ever washed clean on the first or second pass. It takes a while, but the one time I told myself 'eh, it's only a little shiny right in that one spot, this is probably good enough' I got a dumb scab in that one spot and my healing took much longer, and I had to be much more careful with myself for the duration. Never again!

Hooooly cow. All of these amazing backpieces are starting to make me jealous. Not jealous enough to start yet, but...yeah. So good.

Pretty rad. That guy definitely did my favorite morph ever (I think it's on somebody around here, too?). I really, really want one.

I am super-late to this, but since I do strength stuff with my trainer twice a week and I'm doing insane-o cardio for my Rainier summit right now, I have had to wrestle with this a lot. A lot will probably depend on how you heal, but I peel fast, so I usually just wait the couple of days until after I'm basically done with flakes. My care routine results in only very tiny scabs here and there, if any at all. If the tattoo is in a place where a machine cable will be, or somewhere I'd have to rest my body weight on it for anything, my trainer and I work around it, or I skip it altogether. If it's in a place where it'll rub in cardio (like the upper inside of my arm the last time), I skip it. Even with a no-stick pad I would be worried about agitating my healing skin. Otherwise, once it's not an open wound anymore, I've usually been fine. Granted, I mostly just sweat on my face and maybe my back, so there's that. This is why I only have two tattoos scheduled between now and early fall. And that sucks, because if my tattooer really is going to be leaving the states, I want to get a big fat piece on my leg, but I just don't see how to get that in when I'm trying to train for mountaineering. >.<

So good. I spent whole minutes looking at how it all flows together. If I saw that thing in the wild I'm pretty sure I'd break the 'don't stare like a creeper at the tattoos of strangers' rule.

George Takei just posted about this: Man Full Of Regret After Homemade Tattoo Goes Terribly Wrong (Photo) The article is bad enough (I had to check whether or not it was satire) but the video really puts the icing on the cake, for this line alone: "Look at an artist's portfolio and compare it with pictures online of award-winning ink-slingers..." what in the name of god