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On Sunday I got a gross Mr. Toad. No particular reason, I wanted to start getting more stuff on my legs, and I wanted something traditional Japanese. Done by Stace at waterstreet tattoo in vancouver, Canada.

I suppose I'll contribute to our collection of giant ass-flowers. Finished a few weeks ago by Grez!

finally got my other knee tattooed this afternoon. by lowercase j

Decided to quickly drop my pants in a field Crow - Bert Krak Rock of ages - Steve Byrne Strongman - Stacey Ann Golliwog - Steve Byrne Pharoes horses - Steve Byrne Gorilla - Dan Santoro Tengu -Steve Byrne Rose of nomans land - Steve Byrne Grimm Reaper - Eli Quinters Not that many right now but until last July I only had two

30 in 30 sounds like a breeze... Usually I hear 90 in 90. Some people swear by it. I think you just have to do whats best for you and constantly evaluate yourself and your needs, then adjust accordingly. - - - Updated - - - Also big news for me... I got accepted to an MSW program! Starting in the fall and so ready to hit the books again after a few years of mindlessly working. And my husband and I have been struggling with our opposing schedules and the new puppy has made it challenging to find alone time together, but last night we hung out in bed and chatted for a long time before falling asleep and I had so much fun just catching up and being silly. I haven't laughed that hard in years! It's a beautiful thing having a life partner. I highly recommend it! :)

Dropping your pants to display squidpants is the LST secret hand shake.

I usually leave mine at home. Seems a hassle travelling with them.

The penultimate example. Guy Aitchison. 1992.

made it a full month without drinking. younger brother's college graduation party was last Saturday so I had a few beers. Budweiser is surprising flavorful after not consuming alcohol or processed sugars for a month. lost 9lbs of fat and gained 9lbs of muscle during the month of May. gained a lot of strength. and i could just be imagining things but i swear my tattoos look brighter.

not just metal but chrome...

Just returned from another trip to China. I was actually shocked at how much enthusiasm and positive response there was to our tattoos this time around. Everywhere, literally...like, here are all these cultural relics, history, ancient landmarks, wonders of the world that are hundreds of thousands of years old...but wait rook! It is a crazy foreigner with all these tattoos. "WOWEE So very beautiful" was the typical praise. Chinese all wanted to get photos with our tattooed kung fu team, kind of fun to be a spectacle in China for a few weeks. The young kids at the Shaolin Temple were super hyped because I have lots of different animals tattooed. I would use the tattoos (and kung fu poses) to help practice their English vocabulary. Dragon, monkey, crane, tiger, eagle, frog, turtle, snake...and my miniature preying mantis tattoo was the obvious favourite, it got tonnes of laughs and what I assume translated from Mandarin into "what the...crazy foreigner...mantis...look how so tiny...funny!" I told my Shaolin friends the tattoos were Canadian chi gung, funny to hear a shaolin monk grimace about "much pain" from tattoos when you just watched them bust metal and sticks across their body. This photo below makes me laugh. Buddy Beijing was so pumped on the tattoos on my forearms I had to hulk hogan my shirt for him. He then got so amped and insisted we take a photo with him and his baby. And then with grandma and gramps. And then the whole family. And then individually. It was a pretty magic moment and victory for international tattoo relations! There was some confusion and disappointment though that I had near everything on my body tattooed...except for my back! Well there's always next time...starting my backpiece journey next month :cool: ------ my Instagram is "dennis_kool" if anyone is interested in pics from Shaolin and China

This completely flies in the face of all the talk of sobriety here, but it looks like I'm going to be teaching a course on beer tasting in the fall.

Thanks guys! I think we'll do a rat on the other thigh once I've saved up some more allowance haha. I already have a snake and rat on my calf so I need a ratman on the other leg to balance it out.

@Mick Weder Thanks a ton for the share. It means a lot. Getting back into normal life is definitely difficult. Living on the edge, or at time going past it, has really made me into a different person than I was as a kid. It started in middle school for me, when I saw the kids who were getting high and listening to underground music and wanted to get into their clique. Now, I have a few friends who aren't heavy drinkers or are trying to get sober, and it's a journey for sure. Went to another meeting last night with my sister's boyfriend. The speaker was awesome. He was this old punk dude who went through so much, and is now going on 32 years sober and clean. His stories were very inspiring. He had some cool things to say about the whole God part of NA, which I found supportive of my own views. Saw someone who ran cross country at my high school's sister school and talked with her for a while. Going to a welcome to NA meeting tonight and a CA meeting tomorrow.

Thought that Amy deserves a post. My 1.5 year old frenchie.

http://instagram.com/p/jXmpkuMVAH/#

Sleeve-y sleeve being done in Beijing. Chinese Opera/flower/bat freehand jazz.

More progress on my back piece this weekend. Artist: Jill Bonny - State of Grace (The bird and side piece were already there)

Just finished. Mask by Anderson Luna. Hopefully the detailing will hold and not turn into a blurry blob down the road.

I'm just saying that we should beware the hubris of mocking how ugly a former tattoo trend while thinking that our current tastes are timeless and will never seem outdated to anybody. I love my traditional tattoos, but I also know that they will look very much of their time and uncool to people somewhere down the road. Tastes change. No one and no style is immune.

Thank you @TrixieFaux, @ironchef, @scubaron. Tests were inconclusive. We're taking her for emergency surgery in the morning. I have to drive 4 hours to get home tonight. So please keep her in your little animal prayers - she's mommy's little girl.

I don't think she's saying to apologize for it in anyway. But styles change, and even though traditional tattoos do have a staying power, certain elements won't be as accepted. I think it was Catcher in the Rye that said something along the lines of "no matter how cool it looks now, years down the line we'll all just look like those old people doing the Charleston." Should we apologize for that or let it sway what we get? Fuck no. But I'd be curious to see what collectors/tattooers/whoever think of my tattoos in ten-twenty-fifty years.

One of these times I'm actually going to not be broke around this weekend, and I'll get a Saturday the 14th tattoo.

Hahaha, I didn't realise "Les Elephants" was a popular Dali tattoo. I have them on my back, I had just turned 18 and they were my first tattoos. I didn't really know very much about tattoos at the time, but I wanted something from my favourite painter. Would I get something different now? Sure, but do I regret them? Not in the slightest. I think it's pretty easy to rag on people for their design ideas, but as long as it's done well, who gives a shit if they're walking around with a popular owl, or a famous painting? I'm sure some on my tattoos wouldn't appeal to a lot of people, but that's why I am wearing them; because I like them! I used to work at a tattoo shop as a receptionist, and the artists there would definitely suggest improvements on weird concepts, or poor placements, but the biggest thing was they would respect that some people's ideas are definitely subjectively "cool", so just make sure it's executed well and there you go.

it's a manly symbol from back when real men got tattoos, and today real men still get them because we're manly enough to get a tattoo we like and not care if other people are ruining its meaning. By men i of course mean women too, because it's a damn fine woman who can stand by that tattoo.

Awesome. Man, I really need to jump on that no drinking train @BrianH But work, work...oh work, you suck the life out of me.

We're all a bunch of unoriginal bastards anyway. Waiting for chromed out shit to come back.

As long as they're good tattoos, I don't really care what suddenly takes off as a trend. What sucks is that trendy stuff invites a lot of imitators who copy without knowing what they're doing (there's a lot of really wonky mandalas out there, for example). But I find it hard to care, particularly as a client, what images are "trending" as long as they're done well. None of us are all that original.

Ahahaha thanks lance, I giggled. I had ultra hairy (for me) calves when I started on my leg. I wasn't expecting to work on my calf and wore knee socks thinking I was super smart because we were only working on my thigh, and she could access that really easily if I just pulled up my skirt - I really planned for this and thought I was super smart, but she had other plans and I stood for an hour on a chair with my hairy legs out for all. She did not shave them, and hasn't shaved any part of me (okay, this is getting weird) before tattooing me ever. And then the next day my feet were really dirty looking because it was raining and black dye from my shoes melted on to my feet as I was walking to the shop so I had hairy legs and dirty feet (though I was freshly showered). So I guess this is an example of good client *intentions* :p. Next sitting I had a pedicure and leg wax. (Starting to sound remarkably similar to a date. Hm.) Hopefully made up for the time previous!

My kitty Molly has 2 masses in her abdomen we found from an ultrasound today. They sent away cells for testing. It looks like one may be obstructing her stomach causing nausea and vomiting. They may have to do exploratory surgery to know for sure. She is 16 and a sweet little thing. I'm not sure what to wish for from the test results, other than that we could cause her as little pain as possible. God, animals just wrap their little furry paws around your heart.

by Stewart Robson On a side note, me and @ThatGuy crossed paths in Frith Street without realising, Crossing the online/reality divide. It's a Fantastic back piece! Gets my vote this month.

http://photos-f.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xpa1/925000_242144452644757_1131876742_n.jpg I still haven't decide what to put on the inner arm of this. I've gotten in contact with some artists and I've gotten ideas of skulls, flowers, hanyas, and drums. and severed head I'm leaning towards a B&G skull. Is there another badass idea that I'm not considering? Doesn't have to be japanese.

I was watching a tattoo doco ages ago and the interviewer was talking to this suited dude outside a convention about his choice of design. Old mate says, in the beginning a lot of thought went into design, placement and meaning...now it's just all about the coverage man. I was really able to pick up what he was putting down with that statement. I know what I like, but long gone are the days where I'd think too much about it. I have been with some pieces, but like when we were looking for a large feature to punch in the inner right thigh, tattooer says, how about an evil looking monkey playing a banjo swinging a whiskey bottle from his tail sound? Whiskey swilling monkey it is. I always knew as a young boy that a heavy suit was designed for me. For me it's not quite the design, it's going heavy. In saying that but, when I see the most awesome work through these threads on fellow LST members, the work just blows me away and constantly think how I'd love to be able to start all over again. ...hold on, nah fuck that! It hurts too much :)

In all seriousness, what about a rokurokubi? Their necks can stretch and bend all kind of crazy ways and could definitely work around a scar. And theyre cool.

LOLOLOLOL

Thanks for the welcome and my instagram is FP_55 and suburbanxcore ardmores real close by good to see people near by thanks for the welcome

Yeah, yours has the sultry. The other chick looks zoned out or ready to sneeze. Any thought to contact them and ask WTF, even if you aren't upset?

That's like the Platonic ideal of a panther. And it fits your back so perfectly. Congratulations!!

People with gas masks and octopuses :(

Who's gonna be the first to get a monmon cat backpiece?

in the car.

I got this from Tom Yak at Electric Tattoo on Saturday. It's not a great picture because it's hard to take a picture of the back of your own arm, but you get the idea. Electric is a great shop.

It's been a couple months since some serious butt work, I forgot how fun it was. My glorious buttocks create quite the shadow in that lighting, but I've got myself a nice new pink and purple lotus. Also referred to as the big ass lotus, or the big ass ass lotus. Whichever you prefer. Also the blue is finished, and the snake got touched up a little. Very productive. Picture is as always from Dana's Instagram because I'm lazy, and I can't really get a better picture either. Damn my rear end constitution.

Thanks man, I really wanted to keep a traditional feel even if it's not 100% old school. I hear you I get nervous the day of every session and then I'm upset when it's over. This whole thing is a process so no rush especially at 13 months in. The dude over my shoulder is one of the shop Artists he's super talented (wish I knew his name) but his work is solid as all hell. He watches rubendall do his thing when he has down time (usually during my sessions). It's flattering when the people in the shop are into the piece Thanks for all the support

A chick with a full back tattoo......and a chopper!!?? Get outta town! :cool:

It's been six weeks since the last session, but today we finally got to continue on my back. At first we just wanted to do the colouring of the Kitsune, but we even managed to put all the blue in the coat. All this was done 4 hours (of agony :) ).

@Wilhell Fantastic man. Marius' dragons are so awesome!

@scubaron If we are talking about the last 17 years then the only significant difference is more companies making it. The basic formulas themselves and for the most part the material that makes up the pigment particles haven't changed much. The only real significant change in the last 30 or so years is the introduction of synthetic binders. Without getting technical or saying more than this forum calls for I can sum it up into the difference between natural or synthetic ink. There are a lot more companies making synthetic ink with bright shiny packaging and sponsorship deals, tv appearances, etc, so to someone it might seem like there's all kinds of new technology and brighter colors but that's not really accurate.