cameroncrazie80

Finishing up this piece tomorrow night. Excited to finally have it finished.. It's my "getting out of the Army" present to myself.

I was all set to go today, but the friends I was going with decided to get a hotel and spend the night, and I didn't want to spend the night. I have a TON of driving to do over the next two weeks (over 2000 miles in less than a week), so I didn't wanna put the extra needless miles on my car. Probably good anyway. I would've ended up spending money I didn't need to when I'm finishing my current project on Tuesday.

Like I said before, a lot of the people on here spend probably a majority of their disposable income on tattoos. That's not me, and there are things I would rather spend those thousands of dollars on that other people would roll their eyes at, and that's completely ok. Even if 3-d printers do become something that people get tattoos from, I still think there will be plenty of real tattooers out there, and I still think a tattoo artist would be helpful with a 3-d printer tattoo machine for everything outside of actually doing the tattoo.

You are absolutely correct, but if you put a pair of $50 mass produced loafers and a $300 pair of hand made loafers that look almost the same, or a $1500 suit tailored to you against a $200 suit off a rack that looks similar most of the general public is going to take the cheaper option because it costs them less money and they're still going to get a little value out of them. Those hand made loafers may last 10-15 years, but how many people do you know keep shoes or wear the same shoes for that long? Those $50 pair of loafers may only last a year or so, and most people will be happy with that. People that are buying a $200 suit are probably not the people that have to wear a suit everyday to work. I bought a Calvin Klein suit off the rack in 2004 for about $300. I've worn it to job interviews and extreme special occasions. I still have it, and it still looks just as good. Everyone has their vices when it comes to quality over quantity. For most of the people on here it's tattoos. For a majority of people who have tattoos it's not. They want to spend the least amount of money for tattoos as they can and they think the ones they have look amazing, until I show them tattoos from the more well known tattooers in the country. I have a buddy that has about 5 or 6 small tattoos, lives maybe 5 miles from Bob Tyrell's shop in Michigan and had no idea who Bob Tyrell was.

I did mean no offense by it whatsoever, and like I said, it may have been a poor choice of wording. You may be absolutely right about the way it fits the body. I'm not saying it would get rid of tattooers. I think they could still be useful as far as drawing up designs and talking through the size of the tattoo and placement, but again, the average person (myself included until more recently) has no idea about placement and what will and won't work as a tattoo. They want the image, or design or words where they want it on their body. And garbage for tattoos is relative to the person who has to live with the tattoo. If they're happy with it, then it's not garbage.

I didn't mean elitist as a bad way of looking at tattoos and the culture. It may not have been the right word because I've never seen anyone get berated for not agreeing with the masses on here. But how many people look at tattoos as art appreciation? I promise you, not many if you think about how many people have tattoos as a whole. That's why I said the majority of the population doesn't care about the tattoo culture or the artistry behind getting them. They look at it as paying for a service. Which is why you hear about price haggling and trying to get discounts. I'm not broke by any means necessary but I'm not rich either, but there are some tattooers I would love to get work from, but I will never be tattooed by because I won't pay that much for a tattoo, but I do believe the saying about cheap tattoos and good tattoos. But I am also the type of person that will never ever get a full back piece or chest piece. Some people view tattoos as something that they are ok spending a lot of disposable income on while most of the population is not. Me personally, I have things I would rather spend those thousands of dollars on than getting tattooed that people on here wouldn't agree with. It's like traditional tattoos on here. From everything I've seen most of the people here seem to love traditional style tattoos and flash. Me, I don't think I could ever get a tattoo of flash off a wall, or traditional style because I don't like them.

I understand peoples thoughts on the artistry and creativity from a human being one of their most important things when being tattooed. However, let's be honest, a vast majority of people who get tattoos don't care about that. If I could take the image or design I wanted and could be tattooed by a machine knowing that it would be perfectly replicated the way I want it without the worry of a misspelled word, or bad lines, or shading I would be completely ok with that. But I probably don't have the same views on tattoos as a lot of people on here. It's definitely not a bad way to be about tattoos, but the views a lot of people have on here are on the elitist side of how they view tattoos and the artistry and craftsmanship of tattooing and the people that do it. I could have basically a perfect tattoo at probably a much lesser monetary cost, which a majority of the population would be more than happy with.

Just finished my first session on this piece this afternoon. Finishing up in May. Work done by Chris Chisholm at Halo Tattoo in Syracuse, NY

I have no tattoos anywhere near the veins used to draw blood in the arm and when I joined the military, before leaving for basic I had to be poked 4 different times (twice in each arm) to get one vile of blood, and these were by LPN's and PA's. Sometimes there's more to it that has nothing to do with tattoos. Dehydration, having deep veins can both be issues. Even an RN in a hospital surgical unit has a problem putting an IV in me last month when I had surgery. As I am going into the nursing field after college, I really want to be good at this as possible to not cause undue stress/pain on someone.

Gonna put in my two cents on this. I currently only have one tattoo that I got almost 15 years ago, and I am starting my second one this coming Saturday, so I am by no means even close to full of tattoos (my wife has more than me), and I still consider myself a newbie on here and especially to the tattoo world, but I've done A LOT of reading and research on here and other places over the last couple months. I kind of agree with some saying that a responsible artist shouldn't tattoo someone's hand or palm or somewhere that is nearly impossible to hide unless that person has quite a few tattoos already. If I was a tattooer, I would seriously question a person coming in with no other visible tattoos wanting one on their neck/head/hand. I would try to talk them into getting it somewhere else, and if they declined I wouldn't do it. To the OP. Good luck man. I have a friend who has a tattoo on the inside of one of his fingers, and it's pretty much completely faded away to where you can't even really tell it was a tattoo so you may get lucky, but there's still something there on his finger. And being a member of forums from everything to sports, video games, music and now tattoos. There are people who try to be forum police and act like they're elitists on every forum. For most it's their way of trying to say "I know more than you do, you don't know what you're talking about". It's the nature of the internet.. Best to just let them do their thing and not pay attention to their elitism.

Yeah, a body suit of cats all done the way he did them in the very first episode of this season.

Looks like me and a buddy are going to be going to this. Since it's only a 2 hour drive or so, we'll probably go on Saturday and spend the day. Maybe bring a little extra cash and maybe get some work done with a walk-up. Their Facebook page is a little updated, but they said for the most part all the artists from last year are gonna be back with a few changes.

I told him I wanted kind of an armcap down to about middle bicep, maybe a little lower. I just don't wanna show up to the appointment and have to have him to another design adding in the background stuff. I don't really have an idea for the background stuff so I am leaving it up to the artist for whatever he wants to do/thinks will work the best. I'll probably call the shop next week just to make sure we're on the same page. I think it would make me feel better about it too.

So I have an appointment to start what will be my second tattoo on April 5th. I went to the shop to meet the artist and discuss my idea. First I was met by what I guess is their front desk clerk. He asked about the tattoo and I explained it to him, and he went and talked to the artist for a minute came back, I put down my deposit and then said the artist wanted to meet with me. So I meet with the artist, and we lock down the image that I'm getting, but what I explained to the front desk person that I guess I am assuming he passed along to the artist is that I wanted more than just an image, as I wanted some background stuff behind the image, in what I guess would be like 1/4 sleeve? but just on the outside of my arm that's visible, so from tricep around to bicep. I never really talked about this with the artist. Should I assume that the front desk guy relayed the info and just show up to my appointment, or should I maybe call the shop and talk to the artist to make sure that we're on the same page before my appointment? I'd go to the shop again to talk to him in person, but it's an hour or so drive.

Yeah you're probably right.

Thanks guys. If I was single and didn't have multiple travel plans both in and out of the country, I'd probably look to make an appointment with someone, but there's always next years Best In The Midwest which is in my hometown. I still may make the trip out here, if anything just to be exposed to more artists, and maybe pick up a few more things. I got my first tattoo in 1999, and I've waited till now to get my second and this forum has been a huge help.

Anyone planning on going to this? I'm debating if I'm going to or not as I only live about 2 hours away. I probably won't get any tattoos here as I'm getting one in the beginning of April. Also just curious if any artists names really stand out to anyone on here? I'm still a newbie to the tattoo scene. Artist Roster | Roc City Tattoo Expo

It's only getting weird around here because of one specific person...

Everyone could get bigger. For some people it just comes with eating a little un-healthy, and for those people who can eat McDonalds 3 meals a day, everyday, just get in the gym and lift a lot of heavy weights!! I am kind of in the middle. I'm 6'4 250 and have always been a bigger person. I developed a "gut" when I was about 16 or 17, and I haven't been able to lose it. I'm in the military, and even with my gut I could easily run 8-10 miles and keep up with guys half my size. I say do what makes you happy. I'm a little self-conscious about my gut, and because of that, I am not sure I could ever get chest or back tattoos because I'd have to take my shirt off to show them, but I haven't ruled out getting them done.

The fact that he's defending a "studio" that seems the complete opposite of legit, speaks volumes..

Another classic misspelled tattoo. except the person who got it found a website that had badly spelled words too.

But again, your reasoning of re-wrapping is understandable, but had nothing to do with what was used in the post I'm referring to. I didn't come here to get in little who's the bigger internet tough guy matches or am I going to be the reason this thread get's off topic, so let it go and move on.

Was my post directed towards you? I understand the comfort thing, but that's not what was used in the medical journal of the post above mine that I was referring to. Using the "not trying to be" or all due respect" to make yourself try to sound like the bigger person responding to a post that in no way shape or form had anything to do with you makes you look like the bigger ass than me. Don't really see a reason that you felt it necessary to try to play big brother or protector for someone else.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but was it necessary to post a medical journal? And you keep your tattoo wrapped for 4-7 days?? I get that you probably change it, but this isn't a wound that requires a dressing for that long. Would you wrap a scrape on your knee for 4-7 days? But whatever works for you man.

Wow.. That is way to intricate to try and go through, and if you're using a diagram like that to decide on a design or style, I personally think you are not getting tattoos for the right reasons.