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We went out to eat tonight and someone paid for our meal. My husband had seen a woman in there earlier who had had a house fire last year and he was the responding officer. Everyone was sleeping and he managed to get them out. We're guessing that's who it was. Such a nice gesture-usually he has to hem and haw about where to eat in town so nobody spits in it.

@TrixieFaux - your experiences reminded me of this: so far, the least judgmental person at work to have seen my tattoos has been a very cool, take-no-bullshit older woman who I was expecting to have a strongly unfavorable opinion about them. Instead, she thought they were pretty and said, "I imagine you just forget they're there most of the time." She just got it, right away. (Meanwhile, a couple people who I thought wouldn't bat an eye have told me I was an idiot when I got the first one.) A good reminder that age often has nothing to do with open-mindedness, and that assumptions are usually about what's going on in my head, rather than the person in front of me.

Today I'm exactly 1 month away from my appointment with Seth Wood for a large thigh tattoo. The appointment is part of a 5-day trip to San Francisco, so I'm doubly excited for the tattoo and the vacation!

This one is about 13 years old. It was done by Milford Barnes in San Diego. Although I like the more detailed ones, there is just something about a nice bold traditional girl head.

Bit unsure whether to post this here or not as it's probably a little "unusual". But, anyway, here's my first/latest tattoo. It's based on the Apollo 8 logo - I'm an astronomer and was inspired by NASA's Apollo program as a kid.

Not sure if you guys know but I got cocky with my Remis piece and never bothered healing it properly. It got really infected and smelt like rotting flesh. I just had it recently fixed by Remis so thought I would share and see if anyone else has any works that they had fucked up and had fixed, interested to see how they came out after the fix. I am very happy with the way my turned out. :) This was when freshly done! This was my healing skills lol Fixed 2 days ago :)

Just an idea to consider; it's impossible to tell what the scar looks like without being up close on it. It's possible/likely you will be told by a tattooer that any more ink on top of that just won't take and scar heavier. Option/idea; leave the current part alone and make a 'stone' looking piece by using the area around it to look like the scarred part is carved out of a block of rock. Tattooer with better skills can make a nice black & grey wash tattoo around it, adding some cracks and chips, and I bet you'll like it a lot better than you do now.

An awesome thing @CABS did recently was offer me his Eli Quinters appointment at Temple because I couldn't get one with Freddy Corbin. I'm almost tearing as I write this. I was, and still am, moved by his kindness.

I kind of miss the days when tattooing was the underbelly of society. Tattoo shops weren't labelled "boutiques", they were found on the fringes of the city, down the backstreets & alley ways, well out of view of mainstream population. I became part of this culture because I didn't fit in with mainstream & nor did I ever want to. I loved the mysticism & the secrecy behind it. With it becoming so mainstream these days, it def has its benefits. There's no way I could be in the position of work I am now, 20 years ago. I can turn up to executive meetings with my hands, fingers & neck sleeved in & be judged on my performance, not my looks...so it also gives me the opportunity to educate mainstream pop in a round a bout way that tattooed people "do know their shit, & can talk the talk". I love blowing peoples pre conceived misconceptions. The side to it I don't like is that elitism status. The, "I'm too kool for skool" attitude I see a lot of these days. Once upon a time, tattooed people had that special understanding of respect. Now it appears to have created cliques. I believe that when I strip down at a show & am on stage with other tattooed people...we're all the same, no matter what the work is, no matter how old it is. I don't look at designs, I look at overall effect. I believe when we're together, we should be treating each other with that old time respect (old skool is used to loosely), that acknowledgement, that understanding that we've been to the "same place" that most citizens will never understand. I don't expect to be sized up & judged by my own, which sadly happens a lot these days. So, I'm kind of hoping that it takes a full circle. That the superstars, the beautiful people & sports stars don't find it trendy anymore, & we can give it back to the people who understand it. Just a bit of my 2 cents on how I kind of view it.

And the winner of April 2014 "Tattoo of the Month" goes to.... @KBeee for this amazing monmon cat tattoo by Horitomo. Congrats!!! 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 in in a few minutes. - - - Updated - - - Oh, and you of course earn the title of "LST Ink Master Canvas April 2014" ;)

@El Dolmago and I went to The Pearl today and each got ladyhead tattoos from Glennie. Mine is the cowgirl, and hers is the profile with butterfly wings. You can still see the blood oozing out! Fresh.

Matt & Brady are both super rad dudes, I have some really early work from Matt when he was on the road, hah POWERLINES like whoa; and a skull from Brady from when he was at Jinxproof. Matt Rinks shirt, early/mid 90s

It arrived today. It's awesome! Thanks @Graeme and @DJDeepFried for the recommendation!

@Eilin and @taaarro, if you're still in SF, you should try to make it to this.

Passed my CDL test yesterday. I was really nervous; went first at 6am, and the tester was known for being a bit of a dick, but I passed. Orientation with an over the road company on Tuesday, then if all goes well I could be relocating to Cali somewhere and starting work within a month!

I meant it. You're coming from so far, it was the least I could do. At least you have the Eli pin!

Well what your describing sounds like an infection, but never having experienced any of this, I don't want to say yes or no. Did you go back to your artist and show them the final result or any of these pictures? If you followed those aftercare instructions, then my guess is something went wrong on the artists end. (However for your next tattoo or if you get this one redone, I may skimp more on the lubriderm--less is more, and too much can cause heavy scabbing). Also letting the tattoo completely dry out before applying any lotion will lower the chances of heavy scabbing. My advice is... go back to your artist and see what they say. If they know what went wrong and think they can fix it, then get it redone. But if I were you, I may hesitate to go back there... If you are still scabbing, you will have to wait to get it redone. Usually the minimum time between sessions is 2 weeks, but in your case it may be longer if you have scabs still. Hope that was helpful... And welcome, I hope you stick around after your tattoo issue is sorted out!

It would be interesting to know. Having grown up here (and hence, around a lot of Mormons) I do know that tattooing is quite taboo in LDS culture and I would imagine that tattoos are extremely rare among individuals who have always identified with Mormon culture. It's actually something that can be used as a cultural differentiator even here in SLC. - - - Updated - - - Mainstream LDS are definitely anti tattoo (I think it might be in their doctrine). Not sure about RLDS/CoC but I bet it's the same doctrine on tattoos.

The full back tattoo has always been the tattoo that had me awe struck from a real early age, and still does. Nothing quite like a photo of a handful of people together showing off their backs. Nothing quite like it.

Let out an audible "oof" at the infected pic.. Looks great now though!

My wife made chicken tostadas for dinner. Right now I am sitting on the crapper drinking a cold Lone Star.

Welcome, sounds rad. Check out Michael Aul's work. He works up in Michigan but seems he's on the road sometimes. At least for some inspiration.. love that guy's tattoos and paintings!

I feel that women should always have the best tattoos on them, just for the reason you illustrate. Everyone tends to be more critical of tattoos on women, from a male or female perspective. So give them something good to crow about. And people need to get out more... tattoos are no longer a circus side-show attraction. Rob - - - Updated - - - I caught a lot of shit when I was involved in Cub Scouts from ONE parent who thought it was inappropriate for me to be in a leadership position with having tattoos. But everyone supported me and I wasn't going anywhere. Long story short, where was this lady's husband? Doing a 10-15 for drug dealing. Rob

In terms of the people staring, or judging us just for having tattoos, I know for me one thing I am learning is NOT to have a chip on my shoulder...like, expecting people to stare and judge. I had two situations recently that made me realize--I'm the one judging them by thinking they are judging me! I saw an old lady at Trader Joe's. She was looking at me real funny and I was wearing a short sleeve shirt. I assumed she didn't like my tattoos. To my surprise she came right up to me, reached out her hand to lightly touch my arm, smiled and said, "Oh my! I thought that was a real baby at first, hahaha!" I was holding my daughter's doll in my arm the way you would hold a real infant and I guess it just freaked the lady out at first and then she was laughing about it. I started laughing and said to myself, man you just judged that lady as being uptight about tattoos and she wasn't AT ALL! Then like a week after that, yet another old lady was shopping at Albertson's supermarket. She was taking up a lot of room in the aisle, her cart was in the middle and she was on one side, not leaving me much room to get by. I tried to squeeze through, she glanced up and had a grumpy expression on her face and I immediately jumped to, "She's disgusted by my tattoos." No sooner did I think that when her face softened into a big smile and she said, "Oh look at me taking up the whole aisle, like I'm the only one in the store!" I laughed and told her not to worry about it as she pulled her cart out of my way. I walked away thinking what is the matter with me? Why do I keep judging these old ladies? It must be because of my mom. She is the only one who has ever actually said anything to my face about her disdain for tattoos. I need to get over it. Older ladies looking conservative, wearing mom-jeans, whatever, looking your way, looking grouchy....they don't necessarily hate tattoos! Some are curious, some think they are cool. I definitely receive many more compliments than disses, and seem to run into friendly people wherever I go. I'm trying to embrace it, and not expect people to not like them any more. If they don't like them, whatever, that's their problem, but I shouldn't expect them to not like them.

Time for another contest folks. Can't wait to see this month's submissions! Here are the rules: The tattoo picture that gets posted in this thread for May 2014 with the most 'likes' for the month wins! The contest starts on the first of the month and ends on the last day of the month. Your tattoo picture must be posted in this thread (both tattooers and tattoo customers can win) in order to qualify. Include with your photo/post...tattoo artist name & tattoo shop. You MUST be the one who has the tattoo or did the tattoo. You can 'like' as many tattoos as you want. It can be a finished or in progress tattoo. You cannot enter the same tattoo in more than one contest. Fundoshi's are encouraged, but not required.

Woot woot! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is a healed shot of my somewhat Ed Hardy inspired gorilla rose situation, tattooed by Chad Koeplinger. An hour and a half to outline and do most of the black. Three hours to finish. Two fun sessions!

I was honored to witness the act. @CABS is definitely the man for that.

Thanks for the help everyone. And WOW @TrixieFaux I absolutely love Nathan's work. I will definitely be contacting him! Thank you!

This photo of Jef Whitehead. Enough said.

Welcome! It sounds like you're close to Philly as welll? Don't rule out hopping the delaware, lots of great shops in Philly!

Mormons are super-dooper anti-tattoo, aren't they? I think (really, really don't quote me on this) I remember being told that both major denominations of the Mormon church strictly forbid tattoos.

With areas I get hit hard & cop bruising, redness & inflammation, I hit 2 pumping hot showers a day. Hand wash the area with a soft body wash, pat dry & then just the lightest application of paw paw cream, which has a local anaesthetic & reduces inflammation. If I don't swell too bad, the same application as above minus the ointment. Just let it dry heal. I had a solid hand piece done 4 days ago. The hand got slammed! Did my usual for the first 2 days. Now, leaving it flake dry heal, & it's healing a treat.

Rad! Both are awesome. I also really like the work you have that's surrounded by black but has a silhouette around it. Very cool stuff. Is that an old school thing I've just never seen, or something you or your artist came up with?

YEAH JERSEY! Where abouts? I got my first tattoo at Jinx Proof in Montclair. That was almost 13 years. (omg that was almost 13 years ago).

@irezumi those are so good! A big regret is throwing out heaps of old tattoo magazines I'd bought up when I was like 16-18.. And totally looks like Rudy's doing some kind of hermetic something-or-other haahaa

I'm quite partial to Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and the tattooers that work there.

Speaking of Reed Street. Man, that shop. I like thinking about Brian Bruno, who was from Gloucester, but he worked with Jerry Riegger (who worked with Doc King), and then of course Reed Street, Tattoo City, and Absolute. @irezumi The pic of Charlie, et al, so amazing.

Another one I should have gotten to tattoo me at Read Street......Harrison! I think Scott tattooed a Walrus impaled by an umbrella one night I was there....lmao!

Yes, I co-sign 100%. This same line of thinking and appreciation of tat family lineage is how I got meet Thom, Higgs and Bubash, and was lucky enough to get tattoos from Thom and Dan. I'm hoping to get the time & money to get something from Nick as well this year. - - - Updated - - - Not precisely 'lineage' but more like crew/family pictures from a 20 year old magazine. Close enough to be post-worthy. I'm sure some of you have seen it but I'm fairly positive plenty of you haven't. Horiwaka family, no names were listed or mentioned. TC picture and GTC pictures are definitely my favorites, especially with Harrison throwing what looks like mystical esoteric gang signs. Kind of wandering off from the thread title so here's this, from a different 20 year old mag.. I posted it somewhere else a few months ago, so if you've seen it already then yeah whatever. Ed, Nick, Thom & Tux

Some more on my back by Marius Meyer. It starts looking like a backpiece I think Next session is the 10th of May:

I just watched the Bourdain Parts Unknown: Tokyo episode and it blew my mind and really really really made me what to visit there some day. I've never been to Asia (besides like, a day in Turkey) and I can only imagine what that experience must be like. We have a vacation booked to Zion and Bryce and some other places in Utah for June with a couple friends of ours. This is my first camping trip/hiking trip/outdoor adventures, gotta be one with nature trip. Will probably be just as confused as if we were going to Tokyo.

I've recently fallen in love with this piece: Absolutely love the abundance of finger waves and the classic simple but powerful koi imagery. Adding this to my folder of ideas...

If he approves of photos being taken or posted/shared I would be glad to. And yeah he is arguably in the top 10 American tattooers doing traditional Japanese tattoos.

That is some rare lamb! Looks amazing.

Let's all go to Fenton's in Oakland, then. Ice Cream + Tattoo Party!

Here are a couple of lady heads that I have. The first one is about 11 years old in the picture. The second one is a couple of days old and healing in that picture after I picked it up last summer (as you can tell by the scab on her upper lip). Both were done by Robert Frazier from Winston Salem, NC.

Don't forget @Reyeslv's ass on page 121 of the Perseverance catalog.

I Would say it mixes pretty well i got some dotwork On my leg. With some oldschool conecting next to it. Also on my throat I got dot work connecting to realism and old school roses Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met behulp van Tapatalk