Euchlid

Yeah, he's been tattooing for just a few years, but he's also a phenomenal artist (mostly watercolour I think). Usually people who have that inherent natural talent for art can pick up tattooing quickly under the right tutelage. Same like James Tex's son, Anthony Tex.

Hey all, I've been MIA due to school, but i just got my other thigh tattooed so I thought I would post it. Done by Stace Forand at Steveston tattoo (just outside of vancouver, Canada) 1 session, 5.5 hours. - - - Updated - - - Not sure why it posted sideways, but I'm on my phone and cannot be bothered to figure out how to flip it. Sorry.

Healing a big thigh piece (5.5hrs) under saniderm. It's 4 days after it was finished and it's suuuuuuper fucking itchy right now.

@brahby I had a fair amount of liquid under mine when I applied the second piece (the day after having my thigh tattooed) The liquid stuff is ok, and will dry up, if it's a lot (such as, making the derm swell up) or if it's leaking it's best to take it off, wash your tattoo, and put a new piece on. some people are just leakier than others haha. maybe post a photo if you can?

I just recently had my thigh done, and tried using a saniderm bandage for healing. It was awesome. I wear stockings for work, so I was able to wear clothes without any issues of sticking to anything. and then at the end of the week when I peeled the second piece off (as the first piece is only worn for 24hrs) It was already healed skin and just went straight into "sunburn mode". I would suggest looking into the term type bandages for awkward clothing covered spots. I dry-healed for 11 years and I am now a convert, especially for Canadian winter tattoo sessions! you can find my experience and photos in the saniderm post in the aftercare forum

I've gotten "Do they still hurt?"……. to which I am not so sure what my response should be. Haha. The questions I get from plain skins are usually "what about when you get older?", "What do your parents think?", "What do they mean", and so on. Usually well meaning questions, so even if it's annoying, being a dink accomplishes nothing. My responses in order are usually, "Nope, they stop hurting when they're healed", "when I'm older I hope they will distract people from my slowly decaying body", "My parents support me in all my life endeavours", " some of them have meaning attached, but for the most part, I just find them aesthetically pleasing". I also have an arbitrary dislike for people calling them "tats" and "ink". but that is just my opinion.

@soraya Oh yeah, some of us are full of all sorts of surprises. My crew tends to be flabbergasted as they see me with glasses, and I talk about uni a lot. So they have all sorts of pre-conceived notions, it's fun to bust them

@bongsau awesome insight. Thanks. That's pretty much in line with my thought on the whole matter. Smashing prejudices is awesome, but remembering that the reason heavily tattooed folks are prejudiced is totally voluntary, versus racism or other "isms" is always good. I think a few young kids I've seen with hand and neck (outside in! Haha) whinging about not getting a job in an already shitty job market could keep that in perspective. I love seeing people in "white collar" jobs with tattoos, i think within another generation it will be pretty standard fare. That said, I would never imagine myself as a flight attendant with hand tattoos, so those will have to wait :)

@rozone those are stunning. I'm always curious what people with hand and neck tattoos do for work. Whether they're in the "industry" or have an awesome white collar job that is lenient, or work in the trades somehow. Or the last category of young kids working from the outside in (hands before sleeves etc) and not realising potential hangups from doing it that way versus inside out. I will treat myself to hand tattoos when I retire, it's a rad piece of real estate for sure.

@polliwog tell them you're going to tie it all together with smoke and swirls. People often ask me if i'm going to extend my sleeves all the way to my wrists (they're ¾) I usually explain the hilarity in trying to find long sleeves that can cover my ¾ sleeves when my arms are extended out…. and that I like my job…. so no. ¾ was a planned thing, and they'll stay that way

Anthony Tex at Deadly Tattoos in Calgary, Canada is a pretty rad artist. I think he's 21 or 22 and has been tattooing for a few years. His dad is James Tex (who is fucking phenomenal) so he's obviously had amazing tutoring for the techniques, on top of his obvious natural ability in art. Here's his instagram Instagram And here's the shop link for Deadly Deadly Tattoos inc.

All my dad's side of the family lives in the Netherlands, so it was while visiting family in small towns like Ede, and Venendaal. They weren't negative stares, as I don't think anyone cares haha, it was more so that I didn't notice any other heavily tattooed people. So I kind of stuck out. In bigger cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam, of course no second looks. - - - Updated - - - Oh yeah, and when I was visiting pals in Seoul I definitely got stared at. Between having long blonde hair, and showing my shoulders (sleeveless tops are scandalous, whereas tiny shorts are not, lol there was no fucking way I was wearing a tshirt in 30 +degrees) the tattoos just added to the mix of things to look at. I didn't mind though, people were super nice, and Seoul is a rad city. Lots of tourists wanting photos with me was also funny.

There are a fair amount of visibly tattooed folks here in Vancouver, and more and more heavily tattooed ones so I don't feel like I stick out tooooooo much, especially in certain areas of the city. When I travel it's a whole other ball game though. Last time I went to the Netherlands to visit family I was a definite anomaly, when my husband and I went to Rio in 2009 were stuck out like sore thumbs, especially on the beach. We're going to South Africa and Mauritius so that will be a fun experience of trying to stick out less, haha especially as my husband will have most of his rioting monks leg sleeve finished. I really don't mind getting stares, I've gotten lots of compliments from older people which is great, although I think they're more perturbed by my septum jewellery than anything else. What I don't like is unwanted touching. When I was 18 and living in Paris, I only had my back tattoos, and I lost count of the number of people who would "don't mind if I do" and just pull my shirt aside to get a better look. what in the fuck. do not fucking touch me unless I say you can. ugh. I hated that. I find I get grabbed less now that I'm more heavily tattooed, maybe they think I'm intimidating. lol Or I've gotten better at the "don't you fucking dare" look.

@Graeme That's rad that Dave is doing your back, he did my friend Corey's leg about 9 years ago. I think a lot of people don't realise the awesome tattooing talent that exists up here in Canada!

haha I realise you can see my one sleeve peeking through the cuff on one arm (look how fucking short long sleeve shirts are on me, good thing I have the foresight to get ¾ sleeves, long-ass dutch arms cannot by contained!) and in the second photo I am only wearing one ply stockings haha

it only becomes awkward when you have close friends who bitch openly to you ( or on social media) about having no money ever, or being in trouble financially (like worrying how to pay for rent certain months) and then they go and get tattoos (or piercings, or buy whatever other material things). My thoughts are…. perhaps you should save up some money so every other month you're not putting yourself in the same situation. Also, having the cash piggy bank for tattoos means you also have a cash back up supply for emergencies (like helping your kid repay his car, etc). Especially when these are pals I've helped out financially in a bind…… I don't expect to be paid back, it just sucks to see skewed priorities months in a row.

yeah, i would leave it on for a full 6-7 days with something that far down an extremity. looks good though!

@Graeme HI DEF COUPONS obviously worth it. I usually tell people I spend less than 100$ on hair and makeup per year (respectively). Also, I work hard and make pretty good money so whatever!

My airline doesn't allow any visible tattoos either. When I was hired we didn't have a skirt, only pants. So I wore pants and long sleeve shirts. Then when we got skirts I lobbied for opaque black stockings, and was finally allowed. Level 80 denier is what covers my calf the best, but in the last year I've been wearing compression stockings underneath my thinner black ones. Unfortunately they don't make compression hose opaque enough to cover my calf (and now thigh) tattoo so if I want to wear compression hose I wear two layers. I could just go back to wearing the pants, but I like the skirt better!

Heather McLean out of Strangeworld in Calgary, Canada She did my Dutch girl sleeve, and portraits on my husband's feet (Salvador Dali and Jean-Paul Sartre). She's super rad and really nice, and definitely takes some influence from the great Steve Moore. Her website is HBomb.ca : Tattoos She does tonnes of art too, and makes sure to take sabbaticals for art purposes, so she's super hard to book. She also has a bunch of rad prints up on Rivervalleyprinting - Heather McLean The river valley print co. does lots of prints for a bunch of awesome Canadian tattoo artists

So, funny story. I'm a flight attendant, and the other day a former teenybopper/now still performing (who knew?!) singer was on my flight, I asked him if he was going to play a show, and he told me my glasses were cute, and that I was very cute. Which cracked me up. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my little sister used to like his kind of music, while I was the angsty teen who loathed it with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. lol. At least he was nice. So for those who had crushes on a young Aaron Carter, he apparently still performs, and has the hots for glasses.

Yeah, I think the biggest benefit for me was definitely the lack of mess. I had such a terrible time healing my last sleeve, especially as it was winter time and parts of it just wouldn't dry up so the moment clothing touched it, it would start to weep and gel to whatever I was wearing. I wore my term bandage overnight after my appointment, then put a fresh one on for 6 days, and that was perfect. I could wear whatever, and not worry about getting stuck to anything. I agree that for little tattoos in easy spots there is probably no point, but anything that has to be covered with clothes is definitely worth the cost. Also, if I'm spending that much on a tattoo, what's 20$ for a roll of derm? I've only used it for my thigh, which has a nice close by blood supply for healing, I'm curious how it will work for a calf.

@SeeSea so sorry you had to say goodbye to Molly :( I've just been gone for work for 5 days so I didn't see this until now. Monmon cat is a wonderful memorial idea! I love animal memorial tattoos, they give such a great palette to let their personality shine.

That's really nice that you dipped into the tattoo piggy bank to help out your son. I have an actual piggy bank (well, it's a Chinese lucky cat bank), when I get a pretty good paycheque I go and take out 100$ or something and stash it in there, if I try to mentally compartmentalize my savings into tattoos, and other stuff I get lost, so having tangible cash for tattoos is a much better way for me to save up. When I had my last sleeve done I asked for gift certificates from the shop for my birthday, it was awesome how a bunch of my friends pooled together for a gift :) As for my husband and I, we keep our finances mostly separate so we save for our tattoos independently of each other. That's why I want to get most of my legs done before we have kids, then I'm sure we'll actually need to budget for things haha. Sometimes I forget how easy two incomes no kids is. Props to all you guys with kids and continuing tattoo projects.

Soraya, I apologize if my question made it sound like I thought you were made to get a tattoo. I really honestly just meant whether others have been asked/suggested to get a tattoo. Because I already had a bunch of tattoos before I met my husband I just never even thought of it. But I suppose if I was dating a "plain skin" I might suggest the same, especially if my partner hadn't really put any thought into the matter before. I'm so used to stories of people not liking their partner's tattoos I never really thought of it the other way around.