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Outer thigh finished. A bit bloody.

@RoryQ Thank you! All credit to Tim Pausinger. And Yes, I am going to do my whole front. I've got another artist at The Pearl who is doing a large piece on my stomach. I'm looking forward to it, and terrified all at the same time. It is going to be a black and gray tattoo taken from a New Deal era relief on the Dept of Health in (I think,) Duluth. Unfortunately, I've moved in next to a donut shop and the image is going to look a little stretched. :(

Don't slip. Get tattooed by Ron Henry Wells. He is a force! I'll be there making tattoos and selling Waverly Color with Jon Glessner and Hunter Spanks. Stop by and say hi!

Well you seem to be getting many great pictures, but if you would want to more I asked my wife what those beads are called in Japanese, and received the answer of juzu. So just image searching juzu irezumi on good brought up some good/bad results. the kanji for it is "数珠刺青."

@sloppyjoe Getting a genie lamp with smoke coming out of it. Then, one of his smoky/drippy wolf heads comin outta the smoke. Part of me wanted to wait and see who else was comin, but I figured I'd email him anyway.

What VA shop is he coming to? I just booked a consultation in early January with Dennis at Providence Tattoo in RI and am quite fucking pumped. Providence Tattoo - DENNIS M DEL PRETE

@Genie of the West If you don't want the number 13 on your body, possibly a Friday the 13th special isn't the time to get your tatttoo. You may have unrealistic expectations on this.

Fudo head and flames.

I have an appointment with Marius Meyer January 31st. We are going to finish all the backround on my back piece, and some lines on the dragon.

It's been my life long ambition to do a QR code tattoo. ;)

@Tae Tae I don't know if you have heard of TinEye Reverse Image Search but it is a great reverse-image search that allows you to input an image and see where it appears on the web, which can be helpful when looking for sources. I mean any of us could do it, but just thought you might find it helpful :)

I wasn't sure I'd be posting here anytime soon, but Matt Brotka is coming to Virginia from San Diego, and I have an appointment with him next Friday. Should be really awesome. If you don't know his work, get on it! www.mattbrotka.com

Outer thigh finished. A bit bloody.

Who: Jamie Greaves What: Awesome snakiness When: Today - 12.13.13 Where: Real Art Tattoo, Leicester, UK. Why: I love snakes...and this is my third snake tattoo. I wanted something traditional and this is my most traditional piece yet. Gotta say though...It hurt like a bitch and I felt like a real pussy for a lot of the time, really struggled to get through it! Hope you guys like! P.S. Photo courtesy of Jamie as well, taken from his instagram.

Most shops have a "no design changes" on days like these. They're doing volume, get 'em in, get 'em out. However, if there's one where the 13 can easily be dropped, it's probably fine. Just expect some eye rolls. Another option is just getting tattooed on not Friday the 13th..

After reading posts here I thought the thigh was not going to be that tough, but man, there are some sensitive areas through the centre of the thigh. Colouring that turtle was rough.

I have not heard of that, thanks, I will check it out. I stopped searching the web because it seems to be a bit of an issue not sourcing the images artist, which can be difficult when going trough random pages. I started looking on facebook so at least I know who the artist was. Yep, they are Juzu beads. Thank you for the Kanji, that may bring up some interesting results. Thanks guys, hope these references can be of help, I sure find them interesting.

My friend and I are going to go. Haven't been yet.

got commissioned for this pair. loads of fun

Horiyoshi iii's son has a badass ghost backpiece

The little bracelets of masks are super rad.

Believe it or not, these beautiful beads (and the butterfly) were done by Stuart Cripwell a few years back. Not his usual style!

Flowers under 3/4 sleeves I think these are Bonji

Popped into The Pearl this morning to catch a session with Tim Pausinger before he left for the Xmas holidays. He basically finished my chest piece. In January we'll link the shoulders and arms to it. He is also going to do some spider webbing between the tattoo and the bottom of my pecs. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Chad Koeplinger made this on my upper arm when he visited Oslo in October. Hard to get a good picture because the tattoo wraps around my arm, but you get the idea :)

i entered the top part last month now i am entering the bottom part. done by jeff gogue. sorry for the blurry pic and this pic was taken the day after so it wasnt "fresh"

It all depends on the event, how busy it is and the people involved. But for the most part when people say no changes, they mean no changes. Making something orange, instead of red seems like an easy request, but once you start that, you have to start entertaining everyone's color requests and I know from experience if you allow people any input they want all the input. That being said, it may not be no big deal for the person doing it, but you just never know and remember you are getting what you pay for in these scenarios. Edit BTW i think the coolest one of these special tattoo days I can remember was done about 8 years ago here in portland for Halloween. You basically stuck your arm or leg into a curtain, you didn't know who was tattooing you or what you were getting until the tattoo was done, but you did get to look at the sheet, you just had to be cool with getting anything on there. I didn't get tattooed, but it seemed like a fun idea.

@mangoose is that your piece that mike wilson posted on his instagram today?!

I tried the reverse image search for the images I already posted without credited artists, I got no return results. Sorry for that. This took me a while to compile, I have included the artists or studios name where possible, some were not. This will have to be in 3 parts. Agony and ecstasy tattoo Akio tattoo AkiRyu Irezumi Art studio Hiziri Chamber 36 tattoo studio Edo light second generation of TATOO studio Gooddays tattoo Horihisa Horimasa Horinami Horisyaraku - - - Updated - - -

finished up this painting i was working on for awhile, I need to work on my backgrounds… and my snakes

She is actually gearing up to travel right now, so she is currently shopless. She was previously at FTW in Oakland.

That's a killer back piece he did on that woman. Really nice stuff on that website. Congrats - Can I ask - what are you getting done?

I think superstition is relevant only when you believe or partly believe. It's intellectually interesting to me to read about (for example) Asian superstition or religion in tattooing terms, but it doesn't worry my reptile brain or cause unease to me... Because I simply don't believe, on any level. I'm not even really too worried about Christian iconography... Devils even! Maybe reflective of the very a la carte Catholicism of my upbringing. What worries me would be jinxing myself in the sense of tattooing something that signals hubris, complacency etc. 'Counting my eggs before they hatch' and so on. To give an example, a lot of Martial artists / soldiers / cops seem to get warrior-themed tattoos or macho tattoos. My mentality is that I try to avoid something like that because on some level I think it almost dares the universe to come along and give you a crushing injury of some sort that puts paid to all that. The closest I have to a macho tattoo is my shin dagger, probably.

Well . . . maybe not so "traditional" . . .

Some great pictures! But I second Graeme on the need to attribute pictures to the artist responsible... I thought it was practically an unwritten rule here, in fact (unless you're actually asking who did it).

Sorry for the very late response. Holiday, sickness, work, laziness. You name it, it all applies. So to answer your question about resource material, unfortunately Shige did not give any books which have been translated into English that anyone can make use of. Obviously he doesn't need the translated versions. That said, personally, I've noticed, once you find the name of figures in a woodblock, it's fairly easy to find a description of the stories on the Internet. But of course, NEVER trust the Internet for all facts. It's crap. Full of BS by people who know nothing or romanticize to the extreme. It can be useful to determine the bare bone basics after reading multiple descriptions and discerning the relevant information but it's up to each person to dive further. After all once you know the name of the subject you can also search for potential books which can contain more reputable sources. One example is the samurai "Taira no Kiyomori". There's information on the Internet. Being wary of red herrings there's enough for you to learn his general history and background. Enough breadcrumbs to then be able to search for translated books on him as well. By the way, Kiyomori was an uber badass back in the day. In regards to prints/stories he talked about, there were a few interesting ones. One was in regards to I believe it was the Goddess Izanami-no-Mokoto who helped create the Japanese islands, I'm really not too sure. He showed an image where she was in a cave and thus in darkness so it alluded to Japan being in darkness. There was a whole story to it but that's an extremely abridged description. Kind of cool. Sorry to be vague but I'm not too good with stories that far back. A second print was related to Taira no Tomomori. Everyone typically knows his story with regards to the battle of Dan no Ura where in defeat he jumps off his ship with an anchor tied around him or afterwards depicted as a ghost. Shige lamented no one ever gets another image he is depicted in. One where just prior to jumping off the ship he is depicted with broom in hand sweeping the deck of the ship cleaning it. There's a Yoshitoshi print of this. Anyway, many people might think this is a weird image but it's very Japanese with regard to pride and maintaining an appearance. By cleaning the ship and having his enemies seeing it's pristine cleanliness in the midst of a raging battle he is showing them his pride and honor as a samurai even when all is lost. It's a very cool story just as interesting, possibly more so if you think about the meaning behind it, than other depictions of him. Shige also mentioned Tomomori's father who is vastly of more historical importance than his son. Taira no Kiyomori. Most people know about the shogun in regards to Japan and samurai power. Kiyomori, however was the precursor. He was the first samurai to gain power over the nobles and seize power in Kyoto the seat of the central government. Without him who knows if the Minamoto would have been able to take over after and become the first shogun. Anyway being such a powerful figure there is a story (and print) where he instructs a large if not impossibly long spanning bridge (for the time) to be built. He was so powerful a figure he is depicted as preventing the sun from setting till the bridge was completed. Like I said earlier, Kiyomori really is a badass for his day. If you've seen prints of him they will likely be ones showing him on his death bed hallucinating with scenes of hell or where the background garden is depicted as skulls. At the time he died he supposedly had a fever so high it burned people to touch him so the stories go. The last story was related through another one of his back pieces. It depicted a Uesugi Clan Princess ( I forget her name) taking a magical protective helmet across Lake Biwa to her lover a Takeda Prince (I think it was Takeda Katsuyori). There's more to that story but the point was to bring up the Takeda of Kai and Uesugi of Echigo. Both were powerful clans during the 1500s with legendary leaders who actually once met eachother and dueled during a battle (the 4th battle at Kawakajima, a really popular print subject). Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The Dragon of Echigo and the Tiger of Kai. Dragon vs Tiger. Heaven vs. Earth. (Sidenote: I almost chose them dueling as my backpiece had I gotten my sleeves paired as dragon and tiger rather than phoenix and dragon). Shige basically described how they were historical badasses that really existed even if the story about the helmet may be mythical. Well that's all I have. This was a very quick and extremely abridged, possibly slightly inaccurate description of some of the things that were talked about with a bit of my own bits of knowledge thrown in. Not to be taken as gospel. Always dig deep and do your own research for peace of mind and even then go to someone who knows better and has the knowledge. BTW, check out this link: Kuniyoshi Project

Very beautiful. I was starting to think I was the only one who still loved simplistic traditional Japanese. Seems to be more love for this neo modern stuff. Don't get me wrong I can appreciate the skill of people like Shige ect, but it just don't look right to me. Mini rant over :p

Bonji from Horitada (amazing artist with big bold beautiful work)

@matcwlwelch Amazing!

cool tan = oxymoron

Also btw if its less than a year old it will be a long long time before it begins to break down if it was done well. Applying lotion or sunblock every day several times a day is pretty tedious, esp if this is a life long plan to keep them looking 'new' or fresh or whatever. That will get old real fast. The sun is really the biggest problem. A well applied tattoo can be vivid for a very long time if it doesn't see much sun. I might also want to just give my opinion that a tattoo that has 'settled' into the skin looks better. That means it won't look brand new anymore but it looks a little more natural for lack of a better word, particularly with ink made without synthetic binders.

my wife & myself in Maui in March this year

@Delicious I would add that just because people love you and our on your side, doesn't mean they know what is right for you. At some point I think we just have to gain the confidence enough to disagree with our family and understand that their preconceived notions of what society deems appropriate is not going to determine your happiness, only you can do that. And disgreeing with them doesn't mean you love them any less, just that you have become your own person. Their is that old saying, you live under my house, you follow my rules. Well I have my own house and I say fuck rules.

Experimenting with decoupage-cold-press paper/liquid acrylic on stained pine with lacquer. Had some issues with things sticking, but not a total wash.

Skate design I did for TNS Industries