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I have a mini aussie,19 pnds,14" at the shoulder,she is 7 now. . . . . . spay,neuter,rescue.......

Definitely went a little excessive with framing a $20 print, but these were our honeymoon purchase and Horitomo was gracious enough to sign them. The wife and I are very happy with how they turned out.

Got these bonji from Horimitsu today! They were done by machine, too small for him to tebori. Still awesome and very pleased. Please forgive the pic, they are still fresh and only a few hours old. They represent the Buddhist's Bosatsu for protection from evil.

Good one while tattooing a girl's arm today, from one of her friends. "I mean, I know you have to have a steady hand, but tattooing doesn't look that hard." Told him it was the hardest thing I've ever done, with each day being both easier and harder than the day before, a really quick list of about twenty things you have to think about the whole time, and ended it after 10 seconds of awkward silence with "If tattooing were easy, there wouldn't be so many bad tattoos out there," followed by a laugh to make it obvious I wasn't mad at him or anything. He just didn't know. Still... wow.

Hi I'm Piers from the UK, I'm new to the last sparrow forum but have been following the web videos for years. I've been collecting tattoos for about 6/7 years now, I am a regular at Frith Street tattoo. Here's a picture of my back by Valerie Vargas.

Unicorn tears and the souls of dead cats

@Lance I asked for the specific ones in red. Fugen is my birth year and guardian deity. I was born in the year of the dragon and I have a dragon 3/4 sleeve by Henning on my right arm. Made sense to highlight the Fugen on my right arm. For the left arm I chose Fudo Myoo to highlight in red. Being the immovable one and I also I like the flow and look of the written character a lot. The 8 Bosatsu together is a representation of all 12 Asian zodiac animals as well, a circle of life if you will and is basically protection from evil. I've always been superstitious (but not religious) so this all worked out. I know most collectors who get bonji, especially capping sleeves, get them in black. I went in with the traditional mindset but wanted something a little unique and different. I also chose red because I've seen large bonji characters shaded in red with a red outline and it always looked outstanding to me. Only thing I was bummed about is that I was looking forward to having these done in tebori but being that I have skinny arms and the characters stenciled out on the smaller side, he felt it best to do it by machine. I'm still happy with the results and experience and will definitely be getting future work from Mitsu sensei.

Not sure of the specific Bosatsu but I know the characters are the eight variants of Buddha (Fugen, Fudo, Monju, Kokuzo, Senju Kannon, Dainichi Nyorai, Seishi, and Amida Nyorai). If I have room or think of the right place for it I will eventually get the bonji for the Komyo Shingon (mantra of light).

Hi guys I'm back. Just wanted to say thanks for all the recommendations when I first posted. I have now got my tattoo. Here it is Done by Jen at no regrets in Cheltenham. Love it.

I'm feeling a little ill these days.., it could definitely be yellow poisoning, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Might call in sick tomorrow and do some more research on the internet.

Probably caused by the mercury. Thats why the Mad Hatter was crazy.

Should have headbutted him

The prevailing opinion, which is correct in my view, is that said knowledge must be earned the hard way. I know I appreciate what little I do know and thirst to know more because that info wasn't just given to me.

hopefully that worked. This is my black lab, Ella. We've had her mother for 6-7 years, she's now 3 or 4. She was the runt of the litter, we hadn't planned on keeping any, but we just couldn't let her go. She's mostly very mellow, affectionate, and a bit awkward. She also looks funny in this picture, cause she tends to slumped against the couch like that, she's a bit weird. This is probably what I miss most after leaving my hometown, although she's my dog she lives at my parent's house, where she has her mother and two others to play with.

Sounds about right!

"I want a tree, to me that represents life" very rarely translates to a tree that looks alive and full of foliage. Everyone wants the dead tree and never recognizes the oxymoron

Last session for a while now. Drove on as long as we could before shop closing time. Fire, robe designs, more hair, details on the faces.... lots of little thin lines for fun! Dana Helmuth Read Street Tattoo From his Instagram @danahelmuth

This is going to sound snobbish but does anyone else have a really difficult time having an enjoyable conversation about tattoos with a non-tattooed person? It seems like they always push the conversation towards: laser removal, their super meaningful/personal tattoo design idea and the long story behind it, reality tv, infection/disease, or other similar non-sense.

If you are a solid person and you are doing well, hopefully your parents won't mind when you start getting tattooed. I got a lot of inspiration to start getting tattooed by seeing older skaters getting them, I love Brian Andersons tattoos hes got a lot of cool stuff. Who are some of your favorite tattooed skateboarders if you don't mind me asking?

Welcome! That backpiece makes for quite the entrance. Excellent work!

Showing patience and maturity are your best bet. Enjoy window shopping for the next few years.

yep that back piece is killer

Awesome man really Awesome ! Welcome

Go in towards Oakland, maybe Hayward even. With the BART system it's easy to get around. Stay away from Walnut creek, very expensive

Something like this seems like a good idea.

@ironchef, I love it when sleeves are capped by bonji. Very nice. I've been debating getting that done myself, but I've little room between the end of my sleeve and hand. Especially at the wrist bone. Kokuzo Bosatsu being my birth Patron though. Can I ask you the significance of, if I'm right, Fugen Bosatsu and Fudo Myo-o being red vs. black? Was it Horimitsu's choice or did you ask for it?

Good luck to her Gurby!

"Your tattoos suck." That one hurt ahahahah

You got me there! Cannot stop laughing!!!! I am pretty nervous for this one man. It's gonna be a wild ride for sure!

@beez You know when you see something that makes you hold your breath because you want it so badly? Your tattoo just did that to me. That is so beautiful! Very inspiring. If I lived in seattle... Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

Hipsters didn't ruin anything.

Two of our tortoiseshells, Clementine Isabelle is the stretchy kitty and Goose Mirabelle is the one w/more orange on her face. Both shelter kitties. Our first cat before we got married was a tortoiseshell, a stray who used a barn on the property where my husband used to live to hide from the coyotes. I used to feed her, and JD said if she could get along w/the dogs he'd let her be in the house. He came home from hunting the next day to find me curled up on the couch w/his three pit bulls and his new cat, by then named Bella Jo. She was amazing, and we had her until a few years ago. She was about 11 when she died, and left such a hole in my heart I went and got Clem, and then Goose. Their middle names are a nod to my Bella. We have a third tortie, Britta Rose, who we got from my parents after we got married-she's a crotchety 12 years old now. We also have a grey and white named Opilio Jo. I love kitties.

This is my homey after his first ever kill...not sure why I find this awesome. I'm a vegetarian.

Kudos on the die tattoo! ... Try taking a picture of behind your own ear. I think I spent 20 minutes trying that one.

I'm totally glad that I am not the only one who was hoping for a thread about the mythical (or real?) trolls. On a side note... was @SirBlazeAlot the original LST troll? @hogg @gougetheeyes ? Or maybe he was just retarded.

The Jeff Rassier leopard/snake is fucking dopeee

I finally got these up in our place. We're missing a few at this point that I hope to eventually add, and I just ordered the Horitomo tenugui from the Perseverence exhibition so I'll have to figure out how to best hang that. I tried using the mounting tape but I guess the one I bought wasn't strong enough so one of the pictures fell from the wall and the frame smashed and it took until last weekend to get a new one and bring out the hammer, nails, measuring tape, and a level to properly put these up. I think they look great.

SQUIDDLES if they only go up half way.

The preferred LST terminology for this kind of coverage is SQUIDPANTS.

If this is a real post and not some elaborate keyword troll, I don't think that's the kind of information anyone might readily share (nor should they be asked, in my opinion) either in the tattoo shop or online. Aside from being very personal, it has very little bearing on the solution to the problem. In this (or similar situation) my advice would always be to cover it with a great looking, high quality tattoo. Japanese style tattoos work very well for that.

Tim pausinger tattooed this awesome ship on me last year. The banner reads "This wreck will sail"! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I work at a very expensive exclusive country club. I have to wear long sleeves to work every day because of my tattoos but since I have to wear a suit and tie because of my position its kind of irrelevant.

Nathan Kostechko tomorrow (hand and arm), Seth wood in a week after (alligator continued), Yutaro sakai late march in scotland (dragon through the traps)

I think Jellyfish tattoos a pretty cool. A lot of them that I see though remind me of Ernst Haeckel's paintings. For those who don't know who on earth he was, he was a biologist/artist and whole load of other things around the end of the 19th start of the 20th century. Anyway I've put some of his paintings below so that you can see what I mean about the similarity in between his work and jellyfish tattoos. It might just be me seeing similarities that aren't really there but especially the picture with the coloured jellyfish on it I feel has been referenced a lot. Which is great because it's awesome.

I look back with vivid embarrassment at my first thoughts surrounding my first tattoo... and after reading a post like this, I'm really glad I never really talked about it with anyone, haha. I had mostly come to my senses re: design before the needle hit my skin, thank goodness, but it took so long to get to that point because I was obsessive over everything (design/details/meaning/etc.). I think it's a really common perspective for people getting their first tattoo. Maybe I tend to have more sympathy for these people than others since I basically used to be like that myself. Of course, I still think they need to educate themselves, but I get where they're coming from. Too much attention to an abstract meaning almost always means the tattoo suffers. But when you think about changing your body permanently for the first time, it's probably pretty natural to want as much control as possible.

This would not work with my kindergarten daughter who knows all about our tattoos. In fact she loves to go to the shop we like because every time we go in she gets to feed the koi fish and they give her a press on tattoo. We have had multiple conversations about how our tattoos are with needles under our skin, hurt, and are forever. She said she wants to wait until she is 50 but I guess we will see.

I work as a care giver at a group home for people with downs syndrome and similar handicaps. One of the inhabitants has a father who must be close to 80 years of age. EVERY time he comes to visit and I am there to greet him he will comment on my tattoos. Every. Time. He is probably senile and not aware of this. Last time was different though.. he usually opens up with saying "those are hard to get rid of..", like it is a question. I usually just say Yes, and smile at him. Then he asks me if it hurts, I tell him Not anymore, and smile some more. But this time he also said that he had tried (to get tattooed), on his hand, but that it had faded over time. And then he told me that (my tattoos) where prydsamma, which is a swedish word that translates to "something thats proper and enhances the beauty of a thing/someone". I was flattered for the first time. I didn't know that he liked my tattoos, just that he would always comment on them.

Koeplinger:

There are very rare examples of people with only good tattoos in my personal experience. I guess it is just a part of the process