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Color added. Robert Ryan, Electric Tattoo, Bradley Beach NJ

9 tailed fox by Horimitsu at NYC tattoo convention.

People politely disagreeing and expressing mutual respect for one another... Is this really the internet?

Got this sweet tengu mask done by Stewart Robson at the Scottish Tattoo convention last weekend. Sorry for the crappy phone picture. I am well chuffed with it. Edit: the picture quality is worse than I thought. I will switch it when I get a sharper one. This doesn't do it justice at all. Sorry.

Polish Prison Tattoos Look what I found! These tattoos outlasted their owners. There's a cool skull and snake, a random guy on a bike (no mustache), some very interesting couplings...pretty cool tattoos. :)

I think it's pretty simple, an asshole is an asshole no matter the setting. Glad it's getting you business though @smiling.politely! It pays to be cool.

Off color jokes and discussions are one thing, harassment is another. Personally, I've finished a girl's half sleeve that was started by another guy in town, because he kept making very obvious references to trading his services for intimacy, while trying to pass it off as a joke. And I've heard a lot of people say they quit going various places for similar reasons.

Healed whispering devil and fresh heel tattoos (and dirty feet). All by my pal Iain Mullen, Imperial Tattoo Stockholm. I am happy I finally decided to get this devil done, had been looking at the sketch in Iains box for a year all ready. It's actually facing inwards, against common tattoo-logic. If you follow around the leg you can see that it's point towards another tattoo of a sleeping lady head, by Jaclyn Réhe. edit: about the heels, the mouth with yin yang was my idea but made to fit by Iain. The other thing, whatever, was drawn on by him. We think it might be a satellite and/or one of those things alchemist brew their stuff in. Either way I think it's just right.

Going to see Spirit Caravan Friday with C.O.C. in Raleigh.

Gotta love how many snotty comments about tattoos come from people who easily spend as much time/effort/money on other forms of "body modification."

Oh....they are never said to your face....only on the sidelines behind your back and you don't say anything because of the politics involved! Why? Because if you've ever seen the US play soccer you know that they never field the best possible team they could! If they did they would dominate the world with the talent pool they have to draw from! Most of the real talent drops out because of the cost.....or the elitist politics involved in it all! Trust me.....if said to my face where my kids would have had nothing to loose.....I would have knocked some of their teeth out and broken a few of those nicely constructed noses! Sorry to go off topic there......

Hello and thanks for checking out my new tat. Tattoo was done by Shawn Van Oven at the electric city tattoo convention. Large complicated gap filler connecting the lower and upper arm. Thanks !

Bunch of good advice from all sides here. Agreed on these fronts; If it really comes to it and you are determined then sit down with your tattooer and talk about what works best. Too many shades and tones in a flower and leaves that size esp in a traditional tattoo doesn't look 'proper'. Over analyzing. Live with it for a few months before making a decision to change it; it might grow on you just as is. That being said, if someone said they are just dying to add some other colors the best options imo would be either a small one color burst from behind it or a color (maybe 2!) in the banner but not both options and not too much of anything at all. That's just too rainbow-y and looks like a bad fail not a good fail. That was my attempt at a clever witticism with the banner quote but that's the best I have at the moment. Consider colors not used already but not pastel-ish or muted tones. I would offer the idea of whipping some golden yellow from the fail side in and whip some blue or aqua from the better side in. Gold being a lighter color will balance with amount of red green and black on that side and blue being a fairly mid tone color will work since there's not very much else close to that part of the design. More green or an orange just would look too similar to what's there. But mostly just live with it for a few months. It looks fine.

I'm also guessing there are some pretty rad chicks out there with skulls and daggers and panthers on their arms who just happen to have kids that play soccer -- jus' sayin'.

First thing I wanna say is that I think you're awesome and one if my favorite people here. Also that the level if respect I have for you is extremely high; this is a tough fucking job and you have to be a damn strong person to do it. That is multiplied exponentially by being a woman tattooer; in such a male/macho dominated field you have to have a backbone of steel, so you go girl. High five. Even the best of friends have differences of opinion from time to time. If someone said that experienced happened while getting tattooed by Sailor Jerry I would not be surprised; if someone said that happened while getting tattooed by Hardy I would be really surprised. Best of friends but just different people and approaches to business.

Just finished my first session on this piece this afternoon. Finishing up in May. Work done by Chris Chisholm at Halo Tattoo in Syracuse, NY

here's my new snake on my lower leg by Bailey Robinson. Taken from his insta, best photo I have at the moment.

I'm putting in an old one. (Photo is from 2008) Done by Hunter Spanks in lovely Baltimore, Maryland. It says "Death & Roll" because I really love the band Entombed.

I feel like I'm a clash of different styles. I speak a few different languages, have more than a few interests, and have done a lot of different things in my life. My tattoos are a reflection of that, and as much as I admire people with one full suit from a single artist, I know that it's not for me.

Just finished the last session on my 7 headed rib snake with Uncle Allan. Touch up and details. I'll post to the lowdown when it's all healed up. STOKED.

Yeah, Sabbath tonight, Carcass and Gorguts on Wednesday and I'm saving money for my back instead. If Godflesh was playing here I'd have to go to that though.

I wouldn't mind one or two being that I'm a fanatic and I love cats. :D

Duh....I am one of them....and long before it was fashionable to be tattooed! My kid was in the Olympic Development Program and if you had been tattooed back then and around that crowd....you would know the BS stares and comments I had to put up with! LMFAO......I knew someone wasn't going to be able to help themselves and was going to have a comment!

I'm thinking of getting one on my other leg, it would match my fox.

I have to respectfully disagree with most of this Bunny, I've been getting tattooed for a long time and at many shops as well, and can also speak from my experience on the other side of the counter. There has always been trash and there has always been professional courtesy. The idea that because it's a tattoo shop that it's an excuse to be a piece of trash isn't something I can condone or respectfully agree with. For longer than you and I have been doing this there have been tattooers that don't act like that. Even the HA I worked for didn't act like that and called out other tattooers and bikers that worked for him if they said shit like that, and he's a tough take no shit MF that most would assume might be that type of trash. If someone said that to my wife or gf they would definitely get punched in the face, and that would've happened 30 years ago as well as yesterday.

Creativity only goes as far as what you can make work in the skin, which is all craft. AKA- creativity means nothing without a foundation, which is what is protected in tattooing. I usually try to think of all of the art side ending on paper, while trying to think of actually tattoo as craft. There are parallels and connections between both mindsets, of course, but it helps my mindset in both to think that way. Another silly statement, when explaining how to improve a design recently... upon explaining why something being too small would cause issues down the line as it aged in the skin, I was told by the client "Well, it doesn't have to be good or anything..." I was flabbergasted.

not exactly ours, but one of our Grand-dogs:

I puffy heart this thread.

I have a Pharaoh's Horses and a Rock of Ages, both on my thighs.

Just got a cool little bat from Austin Maples. Idle Hand, SF.

Totally side-tracking the new contest, but when I need to see @Lance 's feet.... @KBeee, I just type "Horitomo monmon cats" in google images and they pop right up:

The two ladies of the house: Cheezie Cheetah & Miss Pickle enjoy sarcasm, playing hard to get and Temptations treats. Oh, and sleeping in my sweater drawer and getting cat hair everywhere. Winston the pug is my little prince. Actually he is more of a glorified cat without the agility. He enjoys short walks in the park, sniffing the cats butts, soccer and stealing pizza. He is turning 8 this summer and is gracefully becoming more surly as he enters his golden years.

This thread always has the sickest work! Here's mine, just finished a few weeks ago:

If godflesh was playing montreal Id go as well....i wish they would. Id rather go to Montreal then NY or boston

I'd love to and so would my wife. Someday we'll make it to this mythical west coast.

Just out of curiosity, just how many people on here already have or will soon have monmon cat tattoos anyway? @KBeee has one. @Fala and @TrixieFaux are getting one soon. @Eilin also? There's me too and I know there are at least a couple more but can't remember.

Thanks for the nice comments. Now lessee if I can post some pic's!

Tim Lehi/snow leopard battle!

big enough box :)

might not be all secrecy at all. try describing the process of creativity in relation to any craft. :p

It looks good like it is

It's a Kuniyoshi print. Mitsukini Defying the Skeleton Specter

I think that anytime there's some trolling or any idiocy going on around the forum someone should link to these pages. Puppies and kittens save any thread.

Ah, FINALLY ! This box is just right.

After years of trying my To persuade my wife to get a dog. I finnally got a dog it's a French bulldog if just 12 weeks old and it's just awesome he is so damn cute I am in love. Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk

Depends. Did he say, "I hope you don't mind but I'm staring down your pants at your tits dick while I'm tattooing you." Or, "I hope you don't mind but I'm staring down your pants at your dick while I'm tattooing you because I think a panther would look great down there."

Got in a session with Henning yesterday at Kings Avenue Manhattan. Haven't seen him in a year and naturally he had a lot of catching up to do on the back piece in comparison to the head start Rubendall has had, haha. It was another 6+ hour session and it was pretty brutal. Side ribs and spine are no fun as you'll see in the pictures and I found myself constantly questioning..."Why am I doing to this myself???" Probably the worst pain I have felt so far getting tattooed. We managed to line and shade the background on my right side and also part of my lower back. I will see Henning again this Friday to line some more feathers and shade in the left side background and maybe finish coloring my koi thigh piece. Strangely ironic that this is marathon week in NYC (The ING NYC Marathon to be exact) because that is what these crammed in LONG sessions feel like. But totally worth it in the end. Enjoy the pics folks. Doing some drawing to get a feel of what left side will be like come Friday Laying down the background and connecting it to Rubendall's work A little more close up with a different angle Masters watching masters at work: Chris O'donnell and Richard Pinch observing and lending advice to Henning. I was in awe! Can't see much from this pic but we got a lot done and I was totally spent. More to come this Friday

Ugh fuck you horitomo!!! I'm quitting to go work at subway as a sandwich artist