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My latest, finished a few months ago by Matt Brotka at Salvation Gallery in Richmond. (he didn't do the pumpkin on my ass haha)

Alright, here's the hammerhead shark I got from Deno on Sunday:

I agree with the school - if we don't mention tattoos or educate them about tattoos, the kids will simply forget about tattoos. Banning sex education has reduced pregnancy why wouldn't it work for tattoos? Remember - ignorance is power!!!

I was sure I'd posted this somewhere on this forum before, guess it was another thread. Anywho, here's mine (fresh photo, obviously).

Hey now, nothing wrong with the mortuary sciences, sir.

This is on my foot! It's a little distorted from the swelling in this picture. This is the only healed one I have, just of the blood: I found the foot excruciating! I'm so glad my next appointment is on the arm.

Hooper did this foot as part of a full squid leg: I was lucky enough to see it in person while it was being worked on and it was knock-you-on-your-ass good. I'd love to do something like that with my feet but I'm not in a place in my life right now where I can heal something like that.

Reviving this thread partly 'cause I love it, partly because I have something to add in terms of awesome things I've done recently. This afternoon I successfully defended my PhD! Yikes! I am still kind of wrapping my head around the enormity of it, and so spewing my crazy wired energy wherever I can. :)

More roses? Or just small Mike Malone flash? And if all else fails, Black Flag bars. Eight of em!

Thanks. He was posting his sketch, him tattoing me, and the final piece on Instragram. It was a great experience for me, and I came out of it with more than I expected. I know this is more of a traditional tattoo forum, but I'm OK posting here. Personally a bulk of the traditional tattoo work is not my style, but I've always appreciated a good tattoo regardless of it's genre, and I've seen some awesome traditional work here in my short time in this forum. - - - Updated - - - Being from Boston, I only travelled to Columbus because once I had chosen Gunnar I had to go where he was. I'm now looking into getting something added to my eagle, and currently am looking into Russ Abbott who will be guest spotting next year in my neck of the woods. I really don't want to travel again because that added a lot of cost to an already expensive piece. - - - Updated - - - As a side note to my Gunnar piece, here's the tattoo surrounded by the three drawings I did that I gave Gunnar as my "concept"

@metalmancpa I know you said you're done/slowing down getting tattoos, but I believe Mike Moses is relocating to Columbus... while he doesn't tend to do charicature-y stuff, I have a feeling you might dig his stuff..

WHO: Gunnar (Gaylord) WHAT: A caricature of me listening to heavy metal music that comes to life WHEN: Oct 22 2012 WHERE: RedTree Tattoo Gallery in Columbus OH WHY: I drew pictures on the sides of cassette cases 30 years ago while I would listen to a late night heavy metal radio show. For a long time (in recent memory) I wanted a tattoo that was conceptually what I was drawing. Finally took the time to get it done.

More Pharaoh's Horses;

i think it may have to do with the area the school is in as well. I've been asked to come speak to my daughters gifted class to give a presentation on tattooing, both modern day and the various histories of it as well. this was a room full of 6th graders, and they had some very intelligent questions, not at all what you would expect walking into the room. I enjoyed the experience and i believe the kids got something out of it, other than tattoos are cool and i should go get one tomorrow. I believe the censorship that school is using is only going to harm those kids in the long run. tattooing would come a long way if more people were educated about what makes a professional tattoo worth waiting for. thats just my opinion tho...

I have one in my armpit already :D - - - Updated - - - I think you might be right. I'm going to have BJ Betts dial in the script on my chest next time he comes to CA, have Jondix do some patterns behind the plane and besides my back which will get started in Jan, those are all I really have left for open spots. I better just be patient and choose wisely :D

I would say any job outside of "adult entertainment" should be ok.

The real thing that upsets me o is if the kid really wanted it and some asshole tells them they cant do it it just makes the kid feel like crap. Its not really about the world of tattooing here for me, more about the children. FOR GOD SAKE WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!

Might be easy to cover up..... one thing goin' for it. Rob - - - Updated - - - Depp and Charles Manson in the same shot... gnarly.... didn't realize Charlie was up for parole.... Rob

January 6th 1980, I had just come out of the womb.

Just had a double Laphraoig to celebrate my phd defense and it was the best one I've ever tasted. :)

If you deny kids anything, there will always be a sizable percentage of them that will go to the ends of the earth to seek it out, especially if it's "taboo". By making all this fuss, it'll just end up driving a few of those kids in that direction - and that would certainly include doin' it the hard way (scratchers, needle-and-india-ink, etc).

Hi and welcome. If you are looking to be responsible and save money, you might want to leave now. There is so much great stuff posted here everyday day that it makes it hard to be a sensible person. I haven't finished my first tattoo and I'm already planning the next one.

And that's the bottom line. There is limited new school or american traditional that I would actually get tattooed on me - but I still love looking at it, and am glad that other people get it done and show it off. Diversity.

Grandad had an eagle and shield on one forearm, maybe baseball size. I might have been 12 or so. On the other arm he had an old girlfriend's name, it wasn't grandma's. He never bothered to cover it!!! Later on I asked him where he got them, he said one was in Hong Kong the other in Hawaii ... Dude was a badass...

Calling @Iwar (I think I call out Ivar at least once a month..)

Just say they are based in your deep love for Satan and cheeseburgers. Works 30% of the time all the time

Joseph Smith would try to convert him and get his $15,000 back!

I was actually really stoked on your Black Flag tattoo.

i've posted this before but i'll post it again. got this done by Mario Desa this year, i need to get a healed picture because it looks great. my girlfriend got this started by Max Kuhn last month the same day i got my back outlined.

my backpiece is finished and it was honestly pretty quick and not too painful except for the lasering!. In ways I wish the process lasted longer but I have a bad ass tattoo from a kick ass tattooer.

Some killer stuff in here! for perspective: Done by Greg Christian while he was in NYC at Wooster St Social Club I had made this appt a while ago and was really looking forward to it. Thought for sure it would get canceled after the Hurricane happened and flooded the city, leaving downtown Manhattan without power all week. Luckily, Greg made it to NYC last minute and I got this tattoo from him a day after the power came back on. It was a really cool ending to a very shitty week. Very fortunate.

Ahhhh shhhhiiittt! I really wasn't expecting this much gold to come out this little thread. @Stewart Robson Thanks for the advice. As a young person with little to do/keep track of, I find it hard sometimes to remember other people have lives with a lot of things to juggle etc. You're totally right about the Instagram thing too. I think a lot maybe people fail to see it as it is for most tattooers, a marketing tool,not some fun little place to share pictures of your shoes and such. @Jennifer Stell I hope you don't see this thread as a dig on you, or Richard. I know you guys are busy, and in fact you're right. I wasn't just referring to you guys. Mostly, I just wanted an experienced view on the essential information needed to convey serious intent. I know you guys are busy doing exciting things for yourselves and for tattooing as a whole. I'm pumped to continue corresponding with you. I look forward to meeting you and Richard, and I can't wait to have some Stell on my skin!

November Tattoo Of The Month thread material :D

Caught this one from Greg Christian while he was in NYC last weekend!

I agree with @Our Endless Days, that was a lame ambush. But I have enjoyed the season thus far. A much better start compared to how Season 2 dragged out some of those first 4-5 episodes.

first 3 episodes have been good. that ambush scene on the vets was a fucking joke, though.

I kind of hate you right now. Those are two things I've always wanted, but ran out of room for. Who's doing them? As for my feet, I got a daruma and Oiwa (cool legend about her, by the way) by Bill and Junii Salmon:

My feet don't match exactly, but are kinda complimentary. I'm really happy with how they look together. Left by Bailey Robinson, right by Deno.

I don't want to hijack another thread so I'm just going to post my dumb thoughts on here. First of all this place is seriously addicting, there are so many good tattoos being posted it's amazing. Thank goodness I have things(responsibilities) holding me back from spending a shit load of money on travelling and tattoos. Secondly I wish I had a picture but I saw such a bad ass bald eagle this morning, it was just sitting on a deer on the side of the road with a bunch of ravens jumping around it, and it had such a 'just fucking try it' look on, made driving on these shitty snowy roads totally worth it today.

Nice stuff @metalmancpa. I'm not a new school fan but I really like your Gunnar piece.

thanks, @everyone. I think by friday i'll be back up to normal. if i've learned anything on LST, it's to get legs and tough spots done young so they're not hyper-cunts to heal.

Hey Mitch.... I returned your email... Sorry, I'm so overwhelmed with more work then I can deal with at the moment... I may be late but I always show up... ha. like a slutty girl and her period.

I got upper arms done first, then chest plates, then started working on my legs. I started and finished my back, and this year I have brought one arm down and will start filling in the rest of my front. Next year I guess I'll bring the other arm down, chip away at the front piece and maybe add some filler to my legs. I don't really regret the order I did things in. Like David I would probably choose to do things in a different way if I had another shot at it, but this is a little like wishing that you could go back in time and study a different college course or take a different career path or something... The grass is always greener in some respects. When I got the chest plates I never thought that I would want to fill my whole front in within a couple of years. Funny how quickly your ideas about where you draw the line change. I guess someone raised above that the 'ideal' in one POV would be to do legs and all the very private space first, and only then move onto the arms and the public space. Reallistically, however, I think there's a minority of people who want to invest all that time, pain and money to have an almost entirely private collection of tattoos for a good number of years. I think people want to 'look tattooed' without necessaryily being an exhibitionist.

Yeah he's incredible. The whole S.O.o.S crew are excellent tattooers. I have another piece from Capilli, you can see it's tongue next to the bird in that one.

Great show as always! I'm jealous of all of you who got tattooed! Thanks for posting photos. I'm living through you. It's a constant battle for me going to this Convention as there are always so many fantastic artists to get work done from. Alas I'm still holding on to the idea of cohesive work by Jill Bonny so walking the floors with that awesome vibe in the air tempts and tortures me. That said, I'm happy I was able to walk away with a few new prints and reading material. I was hoping to score an original ink on handkerchief drawing from Mary Joy at Tattoo City but I showed up too late. There's so much good stuff there it's crazy. Can't wait till next year. @hogg, I saw you a couple times at the show, but you were busy talking to people so didn't want to interrupt. Sorry, I didn't get a chance to say hi. Ha ha, I really need to get better at introducing myself to people since I didn't get to meet more LST people ;-)

You know when you see cars with bumper stickers from past election campaigns? Imagine that's your face instead.

3rd session on my back,6 hours of background.

Hey!! Just wanted to bump this up and say that it was great to meet all of you! You're all (not surprisingly) awesome humans, my only regret is we didn't get to hang more. @tammy thanks so much for the dinner (we owe you one) @Lochlan you're a handsome dude, next time you and @hogg can jump me in proper @dari great to meet you, sorry we didn't get more time to chat! @MsRad that WOLF VEST is killer, really nice to meet you and Jackson, @steve1461686340 you're the goddamn man, @Barbie Doll next time we'll make it down to your side of the table.. who am I forgetting. Great night and apologies if we were a little out of it. ...maybe I can make it back for SoG... hmmm

just did my first yoga class!

I would have a tendency, with the feet to go with something that matches, size & style wise. A pair of Japanese masks a traditional cockerel and pig or matching circular geometric designs like a rose mandala. Another option would be a single design that flows over both feet. This one tattooed by Michael E. Bennett from 2Spirit Tattoo in San Francisco. And this by Tomas Tomas of Into You, London