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I wanted a hot stuff devil/aloha monkey mash-up, and that's exactly what I got! Danny Reed put this on me yesterday at Hot Stuff Tattoo in Asheville, NC. Awesome guy, and a very cool shop. I waited till he put it on IG.

Definitely plan on it. I'm doing field research on jailhouse tattoos for the next eight months, but as soon as possible, I'll be there! The scope and quality of the work offered is, as we used to say, a trip.

Today Bonel from Corazon Santo in The Netherlands which is also working on my second sleeve, finished the Phoenix backpiece on my wife. (The kanji was there already, it had been done a few years back by another artist)

I'm already an old wrinkled dude covered in tattoos, I've got six kids, and all but two of them (too young) are regulars with Nick Colella. Fuck anyone that doesn't like it.

@Dan S stay safe.. Please let us know your research went well and get a tattoo when your done.

Sitting at great Lakes right now waiting for my half sleeve drawing from Nick. I had an appointment elsewhere today, and I showed up and the guy said he wasn't in the right frame of mind to tattoo. Called Great Lakes, Nick said no appointment so made the 2 hour drive. Hope this turns out well. Excited, nervous all in one. Hope there is an atm close by in case my cash is short. Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

I booked my next flights to New York this morning. Third session on my back with Grez in a couple weeks. It was a nice coupla months off!

^^ This...worse feeling ever! My ritual is serious now, as I have worked out the "kinks" that can ruin my day (well more than getting my knee drilled with a needle for a few hours haha). Shit, shower, shave, as close to the time before me leaving as possible. Fill my two nalgene 1L bottles with ice and water, begin hydration. Start the long drive into NYC, and park in the same parking deck (no need for street parking tickets, assholes want $150 a pop). Walk to burger joint, get massive burger and fries. Go to favorite bar. At bar immediately bartender(s) ask me what I am getting worked on today. Drink 2-3 tasty beers. Walk to shop, smoke a cig on the way. Use bathroom before because nobody likes to stop mid-tattoo. Afterwards, get in car light up a premium cigar (currently working on a case of Rocky Patel Vintage 1992s). After I get home shower forever then get a nice scotch and look at new tattoo. Literally nothing ever changes, and it works out perfect. Also not drinking any alcohol the day prior makes a massive difference!

YES! That's the one I want. The Hardy tattoo isn't too shabby either.

3 week tattoo-bonanza to come: London: Mole eating planet, side of underarm, El Carlo. Lady head sleeping under starlit sky, inside of thigh, Jacyln Réhe. Eel eating it's own tail, around another tattoo on front of thigh, Deno. Trieste, Italy: Heart/factory-thing, front of other thigh, Rudy Fritsch. Back in Stockholm: Tibetean UFO in smoke, back of knee, Iain Mullen. After that: chill time for a month or three. edit: (checked bank balance) ... or six

Thanks all...I may get some work while I'm here, who knows?! My posting is very limited, been here since last April, and this is the first I've been able to. Federal Pre-Release/Halfway House, most of the residents are coming off multi-decade bits, so there is some real wild tattooing. I posted some elsewhere, and will try to get some more, but it's a fairly major violation to get caught with a camera, or taking pix. A year, no big deal.

Yup, the only thing standing between me and nightly sex with a variety of super models is these damn tattoos ... and my wife. :-)

Horitomo is amazing, but has a very different style than Shige. I think for tattooers like Shige in the US you can't go wrong with Jeff Gogue. But honestly, I wouldn't attempt to get a sleeve while working on minimum wage. You're looking at a financial commitment of multiple thousands of dollars. Finish your schooling, get a job that pays better, and then start seriously looking into it.

Just saw this posted on Facebook... talked my dad into a little hand poked heart on his forearm at the end of the night. Don't have any good finished photos, though. I'll try to get one sometime that's in focus and such. His last hand poked tattoo was in the military in the late '70s or early '80s... it was one you had to earn through some sort of actions, of which he's only ever told me part of the story. And even that bit was pretty rough, so I'm unsure if he'll ever tell me the rest.

I will be grateful to have survived that long, and continue repairing/getting tattoos so long as I am able. If they look ragged and are unfixable when I'm 90, I guess all those 20 year olds dying to have sex with me are just going to have to be sad and disappointed.

I like to walk around a giant boulder three time. Upon reaching my third rotation, I point a six shooter pistol in the air and fire twice; in one second increments. After the second shot is fired. I hop on one leg backwards, around the boulder Three times. Guaranteeing a 100% successful heal. Hope this helps ;)

The good news is that the healing seems to be going really well. Two long 11 hour shifts at work with the constriction of a shoe. The swelling is going down after three days. I have the additional worry as I have type two diabetes, but what the heck. Good luck with your appointment. I just love those Horitomo cats.

Saying you want a certain shading technique vs just saying you want a traditional tattoo are two different things. I was using the needle grouping example to try to illustrate that point. Also I have always contended that the best advice someone can give on the internet about tattooing, is get off the internet and go into a reputable tattoo shop. I didn't learn what I know just hanging out in tattoo forums it required some in real life trial and error at real tattoo shops. There is no book or iphone app that will make you a savvy tattoo customer and 99% of what's on the internet is misinformation.

Why? Because in tattooing the customer usually isn't right. Because tattooing isn't the sort of democratic activity where you have an equal say to somebody who has spent years or decades constantly working at his or her craft because you read something on the internet.

"I'm going to tell her to ignore judgmental ass holes."

The lady Of Waterlupe/Pray for Surf painting Hardy did is probably my favorite interpretation of it

Old tattoos are way cooler than liver spots and varicose veins is my usual response to that question.

You might as have asked if there are any good rose tattoos out there. It blows my mind that a tattooer just said that. This should be a no-brainer; there are about a million amazing tattoos on this theme and you shouldn't need to ask this question. Nothing personal and welcome to the forum.

I masturbate furiously before and after. Sometimes during. Often banned. I usually eat, but nothing that will cause me to fart (very little options.)

I was there for the opening and party. Stunning shop. Great work.

Well why did you bring up women's bodies declining if you didn't think it made an impact on the choices women should make for their tattoos? I don't worry about what my tattoos will look like as I age. But I got that impression from you. You have to understand that you are a MAN talking about how and where a WOMAN should get tattooed. It's fine if you think tattoos are "sexy" on a woman, but end the discussion there, please. It's the same as when men blame a woman for not appreciating a cat-call. There's a point in the conversation where your opinion crosses the line. Maybe you didn't mean anything by your comment, I understand. My point is that this is a forum (watch how you articulate yourself, as meaning is hard to convey through text), tattoos are personal regardless of their meaning, and most (if not all) of the women on this forum have dealt with a lot of hardships as a result of deciding to get tattooed, so don't blame us if we don't take a compliment the way you wanted us to.

Most of my sessions have been 4-5 hours on average, nothing shorter than 4 hours. Several times I've sat 8-9 hours, mostly with Henning. We try to squeeze in as much work as possible when he's visiting. My first tattoo was with Henning and the entire experience was an all day event. Walk to subway, subway to LIRR, LIRR out to LI, cab from LIRR to Kings Ave. That's about 1 1/2 to 2 hours travel time already. Arrive 12-12:30PM. Other than email communications, hadn't seen Henning since the first time I met him in about 1 1/2 to 2 years earlier. Short conversation, Henning begins to stencil me and draw, which takes about 45 minutes. Then we get to business. Couple of bathroom breaks, a 30 minute break for lunch, then back at it. Henning would ask how I'm doing and I tell him I'm fine. Do you want to keep going? Sure (with no frame of reference). By the time all was said and done, it's about 8:30PM. I literally get home about 10:30-11PM.

I cannot 'like' this enough! Thank you so much for posting it!

Welcome. Since you'd have to travel to get tattooed anyway, why not go to Japan and get tattooed by Shige instead of finding someone who tattoos like him?

Got 2 appointments in the book, 11/15 and 12/4 to have Gina from Studio 69 (Ronkonkoma NY) freshen up my fu-dog. Its 31 years old, 'bout time I got it done over. Rob

Tammy won't be able to make it now either so it looks like we'll be in pretty good shape with the number of seats we have. probly wont need a second table.. see ya tomorrow!

So jealous! Wish I was in the area. Have fun guys!!

@daveborjes That is too damn good. I just learned about Heike crabs a month ago when Crystal from Gomineko Books posted about them. The legend behind them is super cool.

This has always seemed staged to me... and if it wasn't, she shouldn't have been allowed in the chair.

Grrrrroooaaan... What exactly do you mean by "special" and "not wrong"?! I'm planning my next tattoos to be on both my feet. You two scare me given all the tattoo experiences you've had. Mind you absolutely wonderful ones at that! Knock on wood, I'm hoping for Horitomo cats. Just praying, sacrificing the neighbor's goats, reading some KFC chicken bone messages and sorta patiently waiting for that special phone call asking when I'd be able to set up an appointment. Fingers crossed.

getting tattooed by Chad K on wednesday and Adam hays on thursday ... im a complicated mixture of excited, scared, awesome and stupid with a smidge of soon to be very poor

Do get a grip dear.

@HettyKet If you look at tattoos on a long enough scale, everything is going to look dated eventually. Good tattoos are still good tattoos though.

Nobody is gonna top Bunny in this thread As far as myself; deVita Tux Higgs Sonny Tufts

I get asked that all the time about my daughter. I think what boggles me is why do they assume that once you have a kid you turn into some prudish boring fuck twat? Like "oh now I have a daughter, I'm done with all of this heavy metal and tattoo business, time for Kenny G and A&F wardrobes!" Yeah the "old" question's always fun too. Like why would I care, I'll be 70 and all ugly n shit anyway. I'll just look cooler than other boring ass 70 y/o's that's all.

Just got back from honeymoonin' on Vancouver Island. :cool: We wanted to get some honeymoon tattoos and a we were thinking of getting cute little hummingbirds although we did have a running joke of getting "spirit eagle" tattoos on the drive out to the island. Then one night my wife says "YEAH let's get eagle tattoos, that would be more bad ass than a cute little hummingbird!" RIGHT?!? Can I get a HELL YEEEAH! As fate would have it, we passed a Birds of Prey sanctuary on the way in to Victoria and met this bad ass dude named Manwe who solidified the plan: We got some super-legit tattoo work at Government Street Tattoos in Victoria, BC. We called the shop they said come on down and let's chat, BOOM how does tomorrow at 10AM sound. Seriously such an awesome experience getting a tattoo from Chris David in this shop. So stoked on the results: Hers: Mine: I'm super stoked on the placement and design of my latest and greatest tattoo. THUMBS UP On deck for this winter (tattoo season)...getting a piece on the opposite shoulder/neck and starting the back piece. BOOSH

I hope there are no haters .. but I'm going to post this tattoo again this month!! Haha Done by Tim Hendricks at Gold Rush in Costa Mesa , CA

Yes I travel by car from the UK to all over Europe as I hate flying lol My trips are usually around the 4000 mile mark every 6 months. All my back to back sessions so far have been fine apart from this last one, which was just one off day I guess, no explanation for it. I have been told by nearly all the artists that worked on me that I have very good skin for tattooing, don't ask me what that means lol I also heal very quickly which I guess is another bonus. I have fallen asleep a few times while getting tattooed and missed it all lol From my expirience so far, for me personally my thighs are by far the worst pain and my shin was extremely painful also. I am told ribs are terrible, which I guess i will find out in 2 weeks time as Carlos Torres is doing my whole side. I have asked for him to try and complete the whole rib and half chest side in back to back sessions in 2-3 days as he isn't long in London but I am not sure I will handle that so I guess I will wait and see :)

I'll see your Michael angelo and ing-vay and raise you a great kat!

Oh I did forget, sorry about that - multi-tasking strikes again! It's by Yoni Zilber.

I imagine @Dan S has plans to visit.

end of thread.

fuzi....could we please never mention him again on this forum? i kinda wanna punch him in the eye for doing what he does. skin molester! he's in sweden now i read somewhere...should i go and punch him in the eye?

I may have one of the ugliest tattoos to date. I owed my buddy a favor and in return he said let me tattoo something of my choosing on you. He has never tattooed. I said ok. He chose Dick Butt, google it and you will see, he did it as his first and only tattoo so you can imagine how it looks. Actually it looks just like the google image. I love it. One of my favorites.