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Done, 2d sleeve by Shige : View image: IMG 5047 Next is back in November (or maybe earlier) to complete my mandala. Cheers

Here are some recent ones for me... Got this guy from Alan Berg Started this with Mat Welch and snagged this Bert Grimm horse from Miguel Olascuaga

Thank you!! I'm honored and excited to wear my LST shirt! :D

The winner of Tattoo of the month January 2015 is @graybones with this fantastic Seth Wood piece. Congratulations!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. New contest will be up shortly!

I have little shoulder caps too, (which may be one of my favorite parts) and both of my sleeves end organically. I didn't want any abrupt lines where tattoos begin or end. It's about what appeals to you as feminine.

I'm just here to point out the hilarity of motsimus' comment followed by the comment in Myles' signature.

Got this today from Derick at Level Up tattoo in Great falls, MT.

here it is. was a great time. really funny guy. i also think im having the best healing experience with this one from something i read in this forum a while back. i left the bandage over night and washed all the goop off in the morning. thing is minimally scabbing now http://imgur.com/8JFjxRJ

Great story, @Colored Guy, and cool idea for a thread, @cltattooing. I love the feel of a shop crushed with flash. I've been in a few shops that have next to no flash on the walls, and it always feels very odd to me--even elitist at times. Plus, there's something about seeing artists deal with walk-ins that I really like. The negotiation, the hustle (on both sides of the dummy rail), and the end result.

This topic came up in the shop the other day, I'd like to get some perspectives from tattooed folks who live in other areas of the country and the world. It was Friday, I had just gotten to work and it was just me, Carlos, and Sean that day. Our 14th anniversary party was the following day and the shop had just painted 10 sheets of over 120 original designs for people to come in and pick from at the party. Between expressing our excitement about getting to tattoo fun designs all the next day, and mentioning how glad we were that it was so busy this January after a slow December, we got to wondering! How does a shop full of flash affect the flow of business? FTW is located at the very tip of North Oakland, just a couple of blocks south of the Berkeley border on Telegraph Avenue, which runs all the way down to Downtown Oakland. We are just across the bay from San Francisco, and in Alameda County alone there are over 200 shops. 200 tattoo shops! Is it a coincidence that the 3 busiest shops in Oakland, one of which is ours, is a street shop with flash, paintings, and classic tattoo iconography covering every inch of space? The bay area is undeniably changing. If you are looking for a place to live in the bay area, asking rent changes on a monthly basis and it's definitely not going down. With the sudden and dramatic influx of money to the area, it seems as though tattoo shops are gentrifying as well, becoming more like salons and art galleries, and less like street shops. With that being said, there is still a very large population of lower-income working class people who I would easily say are still the majority of folks here. Anyone who has worked in a street shop is familiar with what the "money makers" are as far as designs go. Usually, you will make a lot more money in a day if you tattoo several smaller designs over the course of the day versus the regular hourly for one or two longer pieces. Largely speaking, unless you are a known name in tattooing and booked steady, walk-ins pay your bills. So as tattooers do, we catch up with our friends in other shops from time to time, often inquiring about work and whatnot and it seems like most people are working by appointment these days. This was our theory: Are gallery shops losing walk-ins on account of image? Do the blue collar people of Oakland go into a tattoo gallery and feel intimidated by fine art on the walls and think that nobody working there wants to do their tribal armband or kids' names for them? Are street shops more relate-able and comfortable for people who aren't necessarily looking to get a sleeve done? I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong or even that my thoughts on this dynamic is totally correct. A lot of business comes from the internet for most tattooers here and now more than ever is it easier to be tattooing the subject matter and style that you're interested in doing, for that I am very grateful. Is this something that you have experienced or noticed? Looking forward to hearing other perspectives.

SICK!!! - - - Updated - - - I saw it. Him and his chick are on another level. Matheson's front/torso is pretty rad too. And Chris Grosso goes from Tattoo Age to Munchies. Pretty sweet transition.

Healed photos of my last tattoo. Angel Tyrael (from Diablo) with Giger Wings. Got this finished in December 2014. Done by Tommygunn in Belfast City Skinworks, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Showing the wings wrapping around my leg.

Tattoos were only available in boxes of Cracker Jacks, lick 'em and stick 'em. The cool people always had theirs on straight. I'd get my mom to buy one of those multiple packs and save up the tattoos so I could put them on all at once.

Thanks @suburbanxcore .......I didn't realize Civ or Todd will be there.....very cool!

Matt Dunn @ Rabbit's Den in Milltown, NJ - 2/18 (ribs again!) Jamie Sawyer @ Immortal Ink in Clinton, NJ - 4/10 stoked and (about to be broke!)

My name is Time and I am Thai currently living/studying in Norwich, UK. I am pretty new to tattooing. I just had my second tatoo a few day ago and it is still healing! I have interest in American traditional tattoos :cool: This forum has been very useful! My first one inspired to stay forever as a child. second one for my passion of coffee Looking forward to get more and be inspired by the people here :cool:

Welcome, lovely tattoos. Agree with the coffee one.

Those are great! Welcome to LST.

You're welcome :) just remember to share pics!

I agree that looks more like Poe than Jesus, in regards to your spider web concerns. Here in the UK, it means passage of time. The teardrop on face means they've killed someone. Though some people get a teardrop on face because they like the look of it. I wouldn't really worry about it. Don't think too much about it, it's a lovely design. Enjoy it x

Welcome...cool ideas

I think you may have a soul mate here on the forum : @DeathB4Decaf ;-) Anyway, welcome...and who's done your work?

Welcome aboard. :D Like the tattoos.

Civ, Todd Noble, Mario Desa, and Nick Collela will also be there, among others.

Brought a drawing to Sacred Tattoo today with plans for getting a walk-in, after meeting the shop owner a week or so back. Niño was kind enough to redraw my doodle an this is what we came up with. Great way to celebrate the last few months of living in Oakland. Pic lifted from Nino's Instagram. Also, I visited Umami Mart and saw @CABS and that Felix and lady head in person. Great to meet you, Chris. Thanks for the directions to The Trappist!

You're over thinking it.

Agreed completely with this, especially about how placement is often the difference between good tattoos and GREAT ones. I think not only is it a hard thing to explain here, other than that it's one of those things where you'll know it when you see it, but it's something that really requires seeing tattoos in person because photos don't give a very good sense of placement, or of the movement of tattoos. Placement is something that is kind of irrespective of genre too. If you've seen Filip Leu's tattoos, I mean in real life, not in pictures, they way they sit is incredible. They look like they were meant to be there and that they were always there. My wife @Pugilist had her back done in a folky Americana style by Stephanie Tamez and it's the same, even though the style is totally different than Filip's. What was neat about seeing that tattoo come together was how immediately it looked like the tattoo belonged there.

Ahh, gotcha! So then maybe what we are really talking about is placement and design. Placement is where/how the design settles into the flow of the body. To me it is one of the more subtle hallmarks of REALLY good tattoo design. I don't know how to explain seeing good placement in a forum post but I CAN stress to you how very important it is. Maybe what your eye is registering as "masculine" is clunky tattoo design and placement? And wanting something "feminine" has something to do with more harmonious body/tattoo flow? Idk...shot in the dark...

@Colored Guy Civ is publishing a book of flash from S&W in February. Could be worth checking out. Here's the Instagram for it: Instagram

AMEN! - - - Updated - - - I will also add...tattoo shops that SOUND like tattoo shops. I once walked into a shop and was like "WTF is anybody working", well they all were with rotary machines dialed down. Too friggin quiet for a tattoo shop, let those coil machines roar ! IMO there is only a select few tattoo shops that look/sound/smell tattoo shop in my city. There is an oversaturation of shops however...maybe better to call them "tattoo studios" or "tattoo salons" by the look of these places, the look of the artists, the look of the fresh tattoos that leave. I think of them as boutique studios and are much more accessible, less intimidating to the average customer. Very sterile, fashionable artwork on the walls, each room has a big screen tv...I personally think it's kinda wack, missing out on part of the experience. But hey, everyone has there own reasons for booking appointments at any tattoo shop or studio,,, there is even a couple headshop-tattoostudio places around that popped up...lol...definately would recommend those if you want to get a hatchet man tattoo (jokes)! I like the open space, barbershop feel of the street shop. Bunch of tables crammed in the space, everyone is hanging in close quarters with shared misery and having a good time, bullshitting, dirty jokes, talking tattoos. Every square inch of the walls is covered in flash and artwork that looks tattoo-able. Tattoo shops that look like tattoo shops!

What about jondix deffinatly covers black and grey patterns

It's tough for me to articulate as well. I will say, though, some of my favorite tattoos I've seen on women are ones that accentuate their female form with placement/flow/lines/etc. I think tattoos can be one of the coolest ways to be more feminine. Roxx at 2Spirit in SF does this really well with linework.

It seems to me like there'll probably always be both, now that both types exist. There are people who will always be more comfortable on one side of that fence than the other...people who feel uneasy about upscale interiors and courtesy salon fruit-infused water, and people who are intimidated as hell by tattoo shops full of tough guys, or who've managed to make mental divides for themselves over different kinds of tattoos, who may be interested in getting a tattoo 'but not that kind' of tattoo. For some people, that's probably part of the experience they're shopping for, in both directions -- the salon feeling, or the classic grit. This is additional speculation on my part, totally based on my own anecdotal observations, but there also seem to be weird overlaps between people who don't like the idea of getting something from flash and want something 'custom' instead, and people who want the upscale experience (and people who got their tattoo concept off of Pinterest, which is totally ironic). I read here all the time about how there's been a huge upswing in the number of tattoo shops out there -- shops that come and go with excess apprentices and artists that don't last long, people trying to reinvent the wheel, this whole glut of shops in any given place -- and I suppose catering to this demographic probably provides them with a whole lot of business. Trends seeking trends, or something. But, if I had to wager a guess, I'd say that the street-shop mentality you guys were talking about -- artists with a style who can still turn out solid walk-in work, who are willing to do that, who are dedicated to the craft/labor of tattooing as well as the art of it -- will probably always be more successful in the long-term. Places like that will endure. And maybe there are lots of high-end salon-style shops that employ this ethic, too; hell if I know. I think it's probably the at the heart of what's most important, beyond interior design. ...I listened a lot of lectures growing up about artists who forget that art is not just art, but also a business. Haha.

you're asking LSTers here! ;) which makes it a quick and definitive "no." I'm pretty sure the majority of us would condone tattooing almost all parts of your body, except the hands and above the collar, unless you earn it. if you're worried about what "plainskins" think, that's a whole other question. there's probably a decent % of folks in the world who think it's too masculine... so i guess it depends on if I you give a shit what those folks think.

Beautiful lady arms! Here's mine, along with some unasked for lady back and butt (in progress). All of mine are done by the same tattooer, Gemma Pariente at Full Circle. I don't think sleeves are masculine on a woman, get what you wish, epic tattoos are for everyone.

Today I capped my other knee with a demon head by Franz Stefanik at The Okey Doke in Toronto. Its always a great experience with Franz. Interesting conversations with a great guy who also does amazing work. I'll have to update my legs in the Squidpants thread soon. I'm really looking to forward to getting some filler work around some of the larger pieces on my right leg now.

So far, the lower back and spine are reliably:

One of the more pleasant surprises was how gentle Josh Arment is. I think I finally know what you all mean when you say someone's got a light hand...before I'd just assumed everyone on here was crazy.

Roses will look great. I'm a panther with roses guy myself - just not nearly as epic as yours.

adding roses is a great idea!

I think @AverageJer posted a picture of a Sailor Jerry fish he got a couple days ago? I hadn't been on here recently and wound up getting a similar tattoo on Saturday. It's from Rollo flash tweaked by Josh Arment at the Aloha Monkey. You guys, I can't begin to do justice to how cool everyone at this shop is. After some very, very embarrassing last-minute indecision I went back to the first thing that had caught my eye on the wall (and learned a lesson about not overthinking things). Sorry about the picture quality.

My strategy is to play dead, like I'm being mauled by a tiny bear. So far it's working.

That is seriously epic!

Another 7.5 hour session done yesterday. Papa Joe went over a few areas of the outline (darkened up some areas of black). Interesting color palette...one I wasn't quite expecting. I trust him, though. I think I have another 3-4 hours left on this one. It only took me several sessions, but I finally learned how to really sit well. I was sitting on table with my arms hunched over a padded bar and my legs hanging over the side of the table. I basically had to relax as much as possible and focus on not tensing up my back. Just "accept" the needle and try not clinch my back up. I could have gone longer, but it was getting harder and harder to find my happy place, especially after breaks. Sorry for the bad pic. I had just gotten out of the shower and applied some Lubriderm.

Wow, that snake and roses is so cool. Here's a little one I got yesterday from Kurt Melancon at a fun Sailor Jerry birthday event at Leviticus in Minneapolis. Obviously not on the same scope as some of these but it's a quality tattoo and fun to share.

The article basically says that facial hair goes through cycles in terms of desirability, and that the swing from hairless to full beard (for example) is precipitated when the renegades go full beard followed by some others who like being out of the mainstream, and then beards reach critical mass when the trend catches hold and everyone wants one. Then the renegades start shaving to be different and the cycle starts all over again. Except the cycles are many years long ... and then there are the I-don't-give-a-shit-about-trends who keep shaved/bearded/whatever regardless of the trends. Kind of interesting, and a phenomenon that extends beyond trends in facial hair. I can think of bell bottoms ... high waisted/low waisted jeans ... Please god don't let the high waisted stuff come back! Or the god-awful one piece bathing suits with the massive leg holes that extend all the way up to the waist. I want my waist showing from the TOP, not the BOTTOM of the suit!

i'm an accountant and everyday i wear long sleeve button-up shirts to work to keep my arms covered. i am not sure if there is a tattoo policy here but i dont need to know. i'm not interested in showing my tattoos at work anyway, i'm totally ok with keeping them covered without needing to be asked. if i wanted to "be noticed" or "express" myself in the office, i'll just do that by trying to do a great job at work.

To add to this, most traditional Japanese suits (or traditional Japanese tattoos) start out as a back piece. Its not so common now, but before what you got as your back piece defined what you could get on the rest of your body.

Never believed in the whole "small starter tattoo" deal. How about those people getting full bodysuits by Horiyoshi III? I am sure some of those people had no work to begin with and commited to heavy coverage from the get go. If I could do it all over again, thats what I do. Have one tattoo and one only!