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Black can cover red. Black it all in. Have a large solid black star. A year or so down the line, don't ask anyone what you can cover a black star with. Live with the solid black star the same as the 1000s of people who also didn't take my, or other tattooers advice. They probably have very happy lives right now. Just because you're convinced that it can be fixed, that doesn't mean the resulting fix-job will look better than what you have. I'd love to be a dick because this thread is 6 PAGES deep already but I won't. For future reference I'll just say: As a rule of thumb, any coverup needs to be AT LEAST twice the size of the original tattoo. Meaning, a slightly smaller than palm-size tattoo would need at least a hand-sized tattoo to cover it if the original were light or open enough. In the case of dense geometric designs (ie: stars) you may need to go much larger. To cover what you have, you would need to get a full sleeve. Not an arm filled with tattoos, a full sleeve. Executed by someone who is competent with coverups. - Ask to see healed photos. Or just get that bit of black thickened and swap one kind of wonky for another. Either way, life goes on. Here's more arrogant words from someone who's just another stranger hammering at a keyboard: Stubbornness is one of the greatest enemies of cover-ups and fixing tattoos.

Getting tattooed on Sunday by none other than @cltattooing . A Santa Muerte on my shin. Planning on a few hours, but might just get the outline and some shading in before tapping out.

Oh what the hell. My leg, done in November by El Monga Sasturain.

heres one from last night, Ill post another when she's healed.

Don't know if this is helpful at all, but it has been a fun trip down memory lane for me. The progression of how my nautical star changed... Based on your drawing, I'd say that the thicker line would not make it look better, but there is still hope for making it better if it's in the hands of the right artist.

Thanks again to all of you for the kind and thoughtful posts, words can't express my appreciation and gratitude :D Regarding the topic, after browsing a recent thread started by a noob, I"m reminded that there's always exceptions and some people need to be told something with out that sugar coat ;)

And the winner of "Tattoo of the Month March 2014" goes to.... @Russ by a landslide with whopping 68 votes! Congrats Russ. Your backpiece is nothing short of amazing! Tattoo by Valerie Vargas (Frith Street Tattoo, London) Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. Thanks to everyone for your submissions! New contest will be up later today.

I don't even care that I just spent the last 30 minutes browsing the Sephora website.

Realized I was unhappy, so I picked up a second job to save money for a few months. Then I picked up my life and moved 1200 miles, to a place much more suited to my lifestyle. Have an interview for a job that I would love, and would most likely become a career, on monday. The apartment search is going slowly, but I think I found a few good options finally, I'll find out monday. Overall, im pretty sure this new chapter of my life is gonna be a fun adventure! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Black in your arm. Nobody here really gives much of a shit about the tattoos you get.

Jason Ochoa - GreenPoint Tattoo, Brooklyn. Straight off the wall, great guy!

I want to start off by saying I absolutely love this forum. It's introduced me to many tattoo enthusiasts like myself, just all around good people. Not only that I got the honor of spending almost a week in San Francisco with @Iwar. I know I haven't been posting much, I'm going through some personal stuff, including a divorce, and I just haven't been at the top of my game lately. Here's why I'm posting, I've recommended this forum to a few people and while they've checked it out and even posted threads, they couldn't get used to the 'clickiness'. Fortunately @MikeL stayed and as a result we got to see his amazing work done by Rodrigo Melo. The guys that have been here a while are well versed in tattoo etiquette and the guys that stick around pick it up pretty quick. That's great, I'm so glad we can serve a purpose and be a place where people can learn about the Do's and Don'ts, they can learn what a good tattoo is and who to get it from in their area. I really want to see this be a place where anyone can get comfortable and learn a thing or 2 without feeling less than. I want to be confident that if I send people here that they're just bummed they didn't find it soonerT. I guess what I'm saying is that there should be no elite bullshit over here. Everyone should have the chance to learn and share the fun we have over here. I just hope this can be considered when some noob says something stupid. Don't ridicule them, do them a favor and PM them to fill them in. The more knowledgable people here the more fun we can have and the more tattoos we can see. I guess what I'm saying is, if someone says something stupid, think about how to reply in a way that they want to continue to post here. I'll do my best to start posting again, I love you guys and I love this forum :D Thanks all, Ian

here is my Loika reworked & tattooed by Dave Gibson . . I recently had contacted Bill Loika and thanked him for the artwork and showed him this piece,he's a really nice guy.

@ian Hopefully everything works out for you in the end im pulling for ya. As for LST; this forum is great. Being relatively new here myself I've found this place to be nothing but welcoming and I felt right at home. It's refreshing to be able to talk tattoos and share them with others that show the same level of enthusiam in them as I do. Simply put LST is the sh*t!

If everyone here, including several well-rounded tattooers, are giving you the same advice worded slightly differently each time I would have say that the answers are not going to get much different. Telling people that they are wasting their time and effort trying to give you sound advice in a thread asking for advice just because it's not what you want to hear is kind of a dick move. All in all, the BEST advice here is to go into a shop whether it's this artist or a different one, and go with them. We have given you some ideas and advice and that was the point of your thread. Take it from here and seek out a consultation in person with an artist.

This might not be the place for you... Last Sparrow Tattoo: Get tattoos that make you feel warm in the pants

I had always wanted a full back incorporating a ship since I was like 15/ 16. This would be my favourite part of my collection by far.

been a bit since i've posted anything.. i've been working on a few projects lately, one being a new zine. 16 paintings, full color & spiral bound printed on cardstock. only made 10 of them and am expecting them from the printers on wednesday so if anyone wants one shoot me an email, they're $8ppd in the US (will also ship internationally) -- [email protected]

Booked in with Chad K when he's gonna be in Amsterdam in May to finally pick up my panther from him, he's gonna put something on my shoulder too. I'm also going to be heading across the pond to NY next week, I have appointments with Dan and Steve at Smith Street. If any anyone feels like meeting up, maybe showing me round a bit please message me on here.

Dude totally jealous. I would love to head out to Oakland to get tattooed by @cltattooing. Not even that far away... :( :( Oh well maybe someday. Btw @cltattooing, love what you're doing, see it on IG. Cool stuff

It's not the end of the world. There has been lots of solid advice offered to you here. The most practical solution is just leave it the fuck alone and let the experience breathe. You're trying to make something work that's been through two iterations already. Get some other tattoos in the meantime and have fun. Maybe one day this star will be left in the dust of an epic sleeve coverup? Just remember...at the end of the day, *it's just a tattoo* and a small one at that, not the end of the world man. Don't sweat it.

The eagle/snakes mine as well haha productive month.

haha at first i was hesitant to take the 6pm slot because I know it might end up being a 8pm or 10pm slot. But there are worse things in the world than sitting around a tattoo shop for a few extra hours.

Go talk to your tattooer dude. You can draw on yourself with Sharpie all day, and we can give you advice (definitely get a panther) but you should really just talk to the person who can physically fix this.

Put a big black panther over it. Panthers cover everything, and everybody needs a panther. Your artist is really the only one who can decide if it can be fixed or covered... another tattooer could weigh in on here, but it's really up to your artist's vision and abilities. Someone already touched on this I think, but often when people get hung up on mistakes in tattoos they have... we suggest to just get more, and better, tattoos. You know, go out and get a kick-ass new tattoo and the other one won't bother you as much (and yes, that star is a little wonky, but it's not hugely obvious or some scratcher garbage either). Have you thought about branching out and checking out other tattooers? You're not too far from Philly, which has plenty of good shops, and in the opposite direction there's Tattoo Mark's in State College, which has some great tattooers.

Are there way too many feathers, especially on ducks? The body is not a pillow. What's wrong with these warped pieces of poultry that they don't have any concept of what it means to be a living bird? You're not an eagle that rents grass for piles of snakes and crossbones.

Yes, definitely waaay too many tattoos. Living beings should never be marked by the ravages of time, their environment, circumstance or human intervention! Won't somebody PLEASE think of The Children!

Finished these ones yesterday. @Scott Sylvia did the skull on the right, Freddy Corbin on the left. These were done over a week and a half. It was a fuckin honor to be tattooed by both. Fuck sorry about the size.

I've seen them in person in Cincinnati and where I also met Mike. He's a great guy and the pictures on his site don't do the artwork justice after seeing them in person. I've been a huge fan ever since, and I'm constantly impressed with the speed at which he posts new work. I've recently scored a print of one of his pieces and thought I would start a thread to bring attention to his work for those who haven't seen it yet. Paintings

I saw Robert Fisher play solo more years ago than I care to think about because it makes me feel old (I would guess around 2005?) and he has one hell of a voice. Really good performer and a nice guy from what I recall.

How has this not turned into someone's signature line yet?

Thanks for the welcomes everyone :) I mainly work with the old pencil and paper machine and I'm currently exploring japanese styles and pin up. My favorite tattoo styles to toy with are rockabilly themed and pin up tattoos. Having only lived here since September, I still find it mildly amusing that they call Lim. stab city :) Looking forward to chatting with you lot!

Rando bumps: Keratosis pilaris. I only know this because there is a body scrub I use that is designed to treat it, and it is AMAZING. I don't actually have KP, but my mom apparently does, and she swears by the stuff. It involves a scrub component and a light peel treatment, and it makes my skin so freakin' smooth. It is expensive (fittybux), but I've had my tub for about two years and it works better than anything else I've ever tried. Just thought I'd toss that out there!

I posted in here before about how horrible my inner arm was, and I completely stand by that post--that was the only time I have literally gasped in pain while getting tattooed--but I've had a bunch more tattooing on my inner arms since and I think the problem with that really painful session was that I'd slept for around two hours the night (morning of really, fuck working nights) of the tattoo. Getting tattooed on very little sleep is the absolute fucking worst.

I hate those stupid things. Big part of the motivation for choosing my upper arms as a first tattoo area.

I want to be told that I am pretty and smart and that people like me... Oh... tattoo stuff! Well you covered most of what I wanted to be told, I was just wondering what people would fix first, and how they would fix it.

Yes! booked in and excited. He added a wolf head and a black bear head on my ass last time and background clouds as well. Im sure your going to get a great big tattoo. Im looking forward to this trip a lot. I got another saturday which means I dont need to take time from work and I can spend some time.

That skull/snake looks like it was done by someone on acid. While they were on public transport. Getting a handjob. From Michael J Fox. The point i'm making is that is a very poor tattoo.

Nice one buddy!! I am in with Valerie on Monday - I'll say hi if our appointments overlap!

Something that bums me out sometimes about the culture of tattoo "collectors" is a preoccupation with being a "cool" client, i.e. someone who seems "down" and who the tattooer hits it off with. I wonder if this is maybe where these kinds of anxieties come from. Fuck that. You sound polite and respectful, which is probably how most of us aim to be in most customer service situations. That is how I try to behave in most of my day-to-day dealings too. Beyond that, I try not to worry about whether or not I am "cool", or anyone's fave. That shit gets a bit too high school for me. Also I am not cool.

Ian, sorry to hear about your divorce- the best of luck... As far as the forum goes I am not really convinced we are that unfriendly or closed off as group, to be honest. How many people are banned or told off by moderators here? Practically none. This is still a very, very civil forum by online standard for the most part. There is the appearance of a 'clique' but actually there is a turnover of members here and I see new posters become regulars become 'old hands' in time... It's always possible to be 'even nicer', but my personal view is that a pretty good balance is struck on the forum in terms of being friendly but also being honest. I like the fact that there's a lively atmosphere with some home truths occasionally being told, and I would hate too see that go.... I have learned a lot from some of the tattooers' rants posted on here!

Hey, good to hear from you! Hope everything works itself out in your favor. I still feel like I say stupid shit all of the time, ha There is a lot of egotism in tattooing in general, it's one of the things about all of it that bums me out the most. I think everyone, myself included, falls into that pit from time to time. Sometimes we get so obsessed over the impression and impact of the art that we don't distance our selves from it and our everyone's-got-one opinions fly out, and words turn into vomit, etc. Thanks for that reminder though :) One of my favorite things about this place is that everyone is really mellow, really nice, and usually has no problem checking themselves. It's rare, especially on the soapbox of anonymity known as the internet.

This post is awesome!!!!!! I feel like it's 1987 again.......when this was the general consensus of 85% of the population! Ahhhhh.....the good old days....how I miss them! It's good to know there are still people out there that haven't been swayed into thinking tattoos are acceptable by the media! Thank you for the post! ;)

Women with snakes and crossbones? Sounds goddamn tough and sexy!

It doesn't make anybody any money.

I generally glance at first, if it looks bad I just go on about my life and forget I saw a bad tattoo.. On the other hand, if it's good I get an eye full and he/she sees me looking I generally say 'hey that's a rad tattoo' and keep doing whatever I'm doing. I think the main thing is space number 1, if your not invited closer then don't get closer and 2, just because we both have tattoos does not mean were friends and talk about your uncles heart condition. Just be respectful like you would expect and most everyone will be cool.

Healing two different areas of my back done a week apart from one another. Ping-pong itching! It's like a whole second round of itching even though the skin has already fallen off, like bugs crawling under my skin. It's taking me about 10-12 days to complete a peel. Wish I was younger, maybe it wouldn't take as long. 2 weeks until my next session.

Hey, welcome to LST :) I think you're in good hands. To draw on an age old cliche, a picture's worth a thousand words. Images draw meaning because they tell stories, and it seems like you're found the right image for your internal dialogue. You're in the hands of a great artist, so just trust that their vision will collaborate with yours and I guarantee that you'll get a tattoo that will bring you great happiness for years to come. Good luck on your next piece and be sure to post up some pictures!

My wife and I invested in "tattoo sheets." They also come with us if we travel for tattoos.