idyllsend

Yep! Drove back from Montreal to Hamilton the day after having my right inner calf, just above my ankle done. It honestly wasn't so bad once I was in the car, it was getting in and out at rest stops that brought on the pain, but after sitting for a bit it settled down. It was still quite warm out, so I wore a dress and didn't have to worry about fabric rubbing on it or having to cover it up again.

Had this coverup finished last September. The original elvish was done by a scratcher in my dining room 9 years ago. I was smart then. I had about 5 laser sessions on it, and then had my appointment to cover it up last July. A huge thunderstorm hit, the wind was absolutely insane, knocked a huge branch off a tree that took out the power the the shop... hence the unfinished outline in the first pic. Anyway, love it. Chris Anthon, who was working at Thrive Studios in Cambridge, ON at the time, is the artist. I have another coverup on my ankle, will have to dig through some old photos to post, and next year when I start my back piece it'll be covering up another 3 old [bad] jobs.

I'm assuming it was the image of Buddha, not that she has a tattoo. I think this article pretty much sums it up: Why I have little sympathy for the Buddha tattoo tourist | Amantha Perera | Comment is free | theguardian.com

Good call. Alas, I have no friends :(

Where do you out-of-towners usually stay? I stayed at the Novotel last year and it seem to be pretty much full of convention-goers.

There was a story going around not too long ago about a guy denied entry into Sri Lanka due to his buddha tattoo. The Man with the Buddha Tattoo - Robbie Bulloch I say, if you're a visitor to that country, you need to do a little research and respect their culture, full stop.

Also sadly, I haven't really got the money to get something new from him. I am on night shift that week, and am commuting in from the Hamilton area, so I hope the pain will keep me awake enough on the drive home.

I do not tell lies :}

Someone knows my pain! It's in my room and it's definitely never leaving.

I bought a new mattress and boxs pring for the headboard and footboard I just antiqued [good] and the box spring will not fit up my stairs [bad], so I just spent the last hour removing the NUMEROUS staples securing the dustcover, sawing the wood frame at the half point, and tomorrow will be bending that sucker in half with the help of a friend. Then I've got to get some metal brackets to reinforce the sawed parts after it's in place and bent back to shape. Biggest pain in my arse, ever.

I am thinking of going. I went last year solo, which was alright 'cause I had a couple appointments, but I'm not sure I'll make any this year, so knowing there's a meetup might give me enough incentive to go again.

Ooh a meetup, well I may come just for that! My back piece is being done by Evan Dowdell, owner of Time Will Tell in Burlington. Super stoked, even if it is a crazy long wait to get in with him. Oh, and this is what I got from Ron. - - - Updated - - - He hasn't posted anything to his instagram about it yet, but he emailed me letting me know as I had written him about getting mine touched up. I hope I don't get in trouble for saying something XD.

First we have my beloved Cain, may he rest in peace, who was sadly put down a year and a half ago before he made it to 13. He was such a cuddle monster. He would stretch his body across mine and sleep, or play dead when I tried to get him down off of me. Next we have Kylo, my gentle sweetheart. He's 14 this year, his hearing is going, and his back end is a bit weak, but he's still doing well. For all the bodily noises and smells that come out of this old man, I still love him to bits. And finally, my cat-bros [littermates], Tulkas and Mandos. Named after Tolkien deities, they just turned 9 last month. Tulkas shies away from other people, but he's the biggest mamas boy. He loves to perch on my shoulder or bury his face in my neck. Mandos, well Mandos just about loves everybody [except animals other than Tulkas] and will roll over for a perfect stranger to pet his belly.

That's precisely it. A result of their one dimensional thinking suggests there's only two type of people out there: me, and people who wont like me due to having ink. That the only people available for me to be interested in will never be interested in me. Ridiculous. I wonder if men hear the same thing.

Thanks! She was the whole reason I went to the convention last year. My first convention ever! I was thinking of going this year, mostly to get a touch up on the piece I got from Ron Wells last year, but he is coming to Toronto in May...so...I'm not so sure I'll make it out. I emailed Eilo about getting something done, but if I don't hear back from her I have no other reason to go :( Plus, I have to save for the aforementioned back piece I'm starting next year.

It has been 6 days since I got tattooed on the back of my calf. The top of it goes just into the beginning of my knee ditch. I work in a factory and have to stand/walk/bend down/pick things up, all dang day, and oh boy is it ever painful when I have to squat down to pick something up. I have 4 days off, yay long weekend, so hopefully a good bit that's peeling will fall off by the time I have to go back in. It is also an apprentice tattoo, something that should've taken 3ish hours, that ended up taking almost 5 hours, and I nearly tapped out, twice, which has never happened to me.

I've been informed by family members that I am less likely to find someone to marry if I keep getting tattoos. There's so much I could say to this, but I don't. Ignorance begets ignorance. And when plain-skinned men want to check out my work, they have this thing where they try to hold my arm or touch my leg as they inspect it. No, no touchy, just looky.

So I kinda consider myself Queen of geek tattoos. I'm a pretty big book nerd. The deer and lady head-horse are influenced by Harry Potter and Earth's Children respectively. The middle lady head is my history geekness coming through, and is inspired by Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife. Also, the lady head-horse is a coverup of some [badly done] elvish script, and I've another elvish script piece across my shoulders which is also to be covered up when I begin my back piece next year. And that is being covered up with a dragon, which is influenced by Smaug. :cool:

I posted this on the Full back piece experience thread and was advised to post it here as well, so here goes: So I have a modesty related concern, directed mostly at women with full back pieces or tattooers.. I would say I'm fairly comfortable being naked, but not with an audience, and the shop I'm getting my full back piece at [with partial buttocks] is pretty open, and there's two big windows by his station [in retrospect I should've directed these concerns to my artist already, but until then...] and a big parking lot can see directly in. Any respectable artist will cover the windows and possibly provide a screen from the rest of the shop, yeah? I will have to get pretty naked, the most I can see keeping on is my undies but they'd have to be pulled down anyway...do you ever bring a blanket to cover your front side while your stencil is being put on? Any advice related to being completely naked while being tattooed will be extremely appreciated.