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I suppose I'll contribute to our collection of giant ass-flowers. Finished a few weeks ago by Grez!

More progress on my back piece this weekend. Artist: Jill Bonny - State of Grace (The bird and side piece were already there)

As long as they're good tattoos, I don't really care what suddenly takes off as a trend. What sucks is that trendy stuff invites a lot of imitators who copy without knowing what they're doing (there's a lot of really wonky mandalas out there, for example). But I find it hard to care, particularly as a client, what images are "trending" as long as they're done well. None of us are all that original.

Sleeve-y sleeve being done in Beijing. Chinese Opera/flower/bat freehand jazz.

I feel like I've been seeing tons of peonies. But then again it could just be because I'm digging the design and hope to get some someday... And clearly monmon cats are all the rage.

Squid stance and all the glory of being a foreigner busting out kung fu steez in front of the famous Beijing Shi Cha Hai Sports Institute (where Jet Li trained):

Thought that Amy deserves a post. My 1.5 year old frenchie.

http://instagram.com/p/jXmpkuMVAH/#

Lots of killer rose morphs. Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

Thank you! Yeah I really like color tattoos, I'm not particular in that way. But I think when you start to get many not too large tattoos and they're all in different color schemes you end up looking like a explosion in a paint factory. Not that there is anything wrong with that, some people pull it off , but being of my particular kind I would find it impossible to dress and end up only dressing in black clothes. Also I would probably be like "man.. I really wish this blue was a little bit more teal" after like 10 years. I don't know, I can only speculate on what it would be like. Black and gray on skin looks so nice. To each it's own I guess.

We're all a bunch of unoriginal bastards anyway. Waiting for chromed out shit to come back.

I don't know if the guy is on here or not but I actually recollect seeing someone on IG getting a monmon cat back piece with a Fudo Myo-o back piece. Yeah, it was pretty jaw dropping incredible.

Who's gonna be the first to get a monmon cat backpiece?

Just finished. Mask by Anderson Luna. Hopefully the detailing will hold and not turn into a blurry blob down the road.

I have an appt with Steve bryne in august

Rose morph was huge in 98-2002 (and probably a decade before, and probably a decade before). It's a good thing to come back.

Hate em.

Ladies with animal headdresses and hirsute gents with bushy beards and/or curly mustaches may have reached the oversaturation point but I will never tire of tattoos with tattoos be they monmon cats or peoples.

it should be written vertically - top down. And the stroke direction of how you write a character can change the meaning. You should know though there are actually 2 "alphabets" which are phonetic and don't include a number of english sounds, as well as roman script and the Chinese Kanji characters in Japanese - so 4 ways to write one thing - each having different implications. Hiragana is the script for native Japanese words, and Katakana for foreign words. So if I was writing my name in Japanese I could write it 4 ways - Erin, エリン(elin- a foreigner), えりん(elin - if i was born in Japan - also how my name was written on my bank stuff), or 英鈴 (Ei-lin which translates to English Bell - if I was a Japanese national). Be careful with tattoos of a language you don't speak - or have a native speaker to correct for you. I lived in Japan and speak some Japanese, and still don't trust myself. I have a Kanji as part of a larger tattoo on my back for my Japanese astrology, the year of the ox (or ushi). Google and most tattoo flash said to use the Kanji 牛 but my native speaker friend, who is also a calligrapher said the symbol for the year was actually 丑、as 牛 basically just means cow - like on a menu. Always double check. Also things do not always mean/ translate to what you think- for example my stepbrother named his dog what he thought was "child of the forest" in Japanese - what he actually named her was Kuniko- it means mushroom.

I got this from Tom Yak at Electric Tattoo on Saturday. It's not a great picture because it's hard to take a picture of the back of your own arm, but you get the idea. Electric is a great shop.

Decided to quickly drop my pants in a field Crow - Bert Krak Rock of ages - Steve Byrne Strongman - Stacey Ann Golliwog - Steve Byrne Pharoes horses - Steve Byrne Gorilla - Dan Santoro Tengu -Steve Byrne Rose of nomans land - Steve Byrne Grimm Reaper - Eli Quinters Not that many right now but until last July I only had two

@Mick Weder Thanks a ton for the share. It means a lot. Getting back into normal life is definitely difficult. Living on the edge, or at time going past it, has really made me into a different person than I was as a kid. It started in middle school for me, when I saw the kids who were getting high and listening to underground music and wanted to get into their clique. Now, I have a few friends who aren't heavy drinkers or are trying to get sober, and it's a journey for sure. Went to another meeting last night with my sister's boyfriend. The speaker was awesome. He was this old punk dude who went through so much, and is now going on 32 years sober and clean. His stories were very inspiring. He had some cool things to say about the whole God part of NA, which I found supportive of my own views. Saw someone who ran cross country at my high school's sister school and talked with her for a while. Going to a welcome to NA meeting tonight and a CA meeting tomorrow.

I just want to say that I hate healing my inner thighs and I am the grossest right now.

tiny arrows, black stipple stuff...everyone wants a mandala a la hooper, tribal coming back but all of these are not yet fully saturated just see a lot of them. give it a few years and everyone will hate it. inevitable. then the next trend will start. the other stuff everyone has mentioned mostly it feels like i have seen for the last 5 years. except mon mon cats that shit is pretty recent also there has to be at least 10k tattoos of that butterfly head winged dietzel girl

Log cabins! Usually with smoke pouring out the chimney, mountains & pine trees for background and maybe a couple birds chirping around. First couple I saw I thought to myself "hmm, that's kinda neat", but when they started popping up in my instagram feed on the daily they got old real fast. At least for me.

Thank you, again! Yeah I know, especially the ROA could be more dramatic in color. Also done by Peter Lagergren and his ways with doing color tattoos is just beyond. I've seen some quite complicated healed ones by him and they look truly amazing. If you don't know him I highly suggest you check out his stuff. I don't know about how popular it is to get only b&g and only/mainly traditional but to me, judging by "the internet" it seems that quite a few people are doing it. I think it's a great strong look, a bit more primitive and raw looking than having a lot of color and fine lines. Actually I'm trying to get some prettier pieces as not to look too grim

It's constant to stay on top eh mate?! Ya know, I remember when I was young and started dropping lots of LSD & mushrooms and shit, I did it 'cause it was fun, and ya just don't realise how quickly everything spirals out of control. From there I started shooting amphetamine. When I realised I had an amphet problem, I started shooting smack to wean off the speed...so it was like shoot speed in the AM, shoot smack in the PM and instead of having one, now we had fuckin' two addictions to battle. Man, a few years living like this is one thing...but I find the hardest battles it not so much the physical addictions I needed to conquer, but the integration back into "normal" society. Dealing with the Mr & Mrs Jones's of the world. When ya lived on the edge man, it's real hard to find stimulation at times. They're the times I find myself at my weakest. It took a long, long time to understand what it meant about it being "for life"...actually, I think I just started to work this out recently. You know...you're gonna draw lots of strength from this journey mate. Embrace those positives :) I wouldn't normally throw something so personal like this out there, but the topics here & thought....fuck it.

Lots of INSANE backpieces

What is your wife's opinion of it?

My kitty Molly has 2 masses in her abdomen we found from an ultrasound today. They sent away cells for testing. It looks like one may be obstructing her stomach causing nausea and vomiting. They may have to do exploratory surgery to know for sure. She is 16 and a sweet little thing. I'm not sure what to wish for from the test results, other than that we could cause her as little pain as possible. God, animals just wrap their little furry paws around your heart.

It's 2014 and tattooing has come along way. What images have been the most tattooed? Where do you see the rest of the year going? What trends are you hating? Which are you loving, however reluctantly?

Your collection is amazing. I love the b&g look and I think the way they all work together really brings a great cohesion to your leg tattoos. I have a ton of color in most of my tattoos, but if I had to do it again, I'd give very serious consideration to having more b@g.

@elseWe spoke for a bit at SOG convention and had a nice list of subject matter. I settled on geisha with tiger and some secondary elements

People with gas masks and octopuses :(

The one real positive thing I've noticed developing is that dudes, & dudettes who are suiting down are starting to really appreciate "heavy", not just washing in work. That draws a line in the sand between a fad & a commitment. I think yas all know what I'm talking about here! Oh...I see lots of air balloons getting around. What's up (haha!! up) with that!?...not that there's anything wrong with fkn air balloons or anything, just wondering.

Agree with @HaydenRose. Though, I have a peony and am on the monmon cat list... Lots of koi this year too. Yes @beez! The bent back/skull gals! And moths/butterflies. - - - Updated - - - Kitsune and foxes in general

Ahahaha thanks lance, I giggled. I had ultra hairy (for me) calves when I started on my leg. I wasn't expecting to work on my calf and wore knee socks thinking I was super smart because we were only working on my thigh, and she could access that really easily if I just pulled up my skirt - I really planned for this and thought I was super smart, but she had other plans and I stood for an hour on a chair with my hairy legs out for all. She did not shave them, and hasn't shaved any part of me (okay, this is getting weird) before tattooing me ever. And then the next day my feet were really dirty looking because it was raining and black dye from my shoes melted on to my feet as I was walking to the shop so I had hairy legs and dirty feet (though I was freshly showered). So I guess this is an example of good client *intentions* :p. Next sitting I had a pedicure and leg wax. (Starting to sound remarkably similar to a date. Hm.) Hopefully made up for the time previous!

Bent back gals!

Well, my backpiece was started 4 months ago, and is already nearing completion. After day after a session I was looking forward to the next session, but everytime when that time came, and the needle hit my back somewhere I thought 'Why did I want a backpiece?!' 'Luckily' putting the lines in was pure hell for me, so everything else after that is like a breeze (well... it still hurts like hell on my back and ass ;-) )

To be fair I totally enabled him getting his panther head and was THIS close to getting the octopus on my arm at the same time... we do feed each other on this

I got a dagger through a skull and a snake because, really unless I added a panther how much better can that get?

it is a sexual thing. the dagger symbolizes a penis. i have a dagger stabbing through a skull and eagle because i love skulls and i fuckin love america.

Edit: Myles and I posted the same thing.

Sorry. I took out the price. - - - Updated - - - Is it normal to be told a flat price, then come back for another session and they charge you more because they under estimated the time it would take? No being snide, I honestly don't know if this is normal practice or not.

Oh god yes. I had a FAST back piece and I was ready for it to be done about two sessions before it was. Or maybe it was whenever the first session on the ass was. I love your phrase "big ass ass lotus." I have a big ass ass rose. I've been done a few weeks now, and I'm still basking in relief that it's finished. Your back looks great!

I headed over to the Okey Doke tattoo shop on College St. in Toronto this morning to get a tattoo by Franz Stefanik. What an amazing experience. Here is my latest tattoo, as I continue to work on my legs.

Really digging the monochromatic theme, @mmikaoj. You and @rozone are making me a little jealous.

I realized that besides for instagram photos in the Latest Tattoo Lowdown-thread, I haven't uploaded any proper hi-res healed pictures of any one the tattoos I've gotten since I first registered here 3 years ago. I'll make sure to get to that. Anyway, here's my twiggy pale legs at their current state: Left leg, top to bottom: Rose - Eli Quinters Judas wearing devil mask - Iain Mullen Heart factory-thing - Rudy Fritsch Dietzel masked girl - Joel Albertsson ACE-script - design by my friend, tattoo by Iain Mullen Swampy horned skull - my friend Isabel Crocodile bird - Joel Madberg SOOS Man with birdcage head - my friend Isabel Ancient aliens UFO with wings and bird claw - Iain Mullen Gorilla in tower holding skull - Deno Crossed bones RMA - my friend Isabel Återkomst - some scratcher named Jens (traded for a small photo) Badly healed heel tattoo - Iain Mullen Upside down skull - my design, tattoo by Iain Mullen Right leg, top to bottom: Shaman and hyena - James McKenna Rock of ages, upside down cross - Peter Lagergren Girl sleeping in moon - Jaclyn Réhe Human cuddled in egg shape - my friend Isabel Whispering devil + indian symbol and three moons - Iain Mullen Baboon head - Matty D'Arienzo Saraswati/indian looking head - Adde Ramstedt Behive - Knibbe Pallius Upside down eye of providence and snake - Ville Prinsen Big angry snake head - Deno Cat reaper - Joel Madberg SOOS Funky tiger coming out of flower - Cezilia Hjelt Equaly badly healed heel tattoo - Iain Mullen (both to be redone in a few months) Bum dreaming "C.R.E.A.M." - Frej Lind Hårda Tider-band logo on toe - my friend Isabel Edit: Oh wow, long post. Thought they were thin enough to go side by side in pairs. Well.. enjoy

you can find a lot of his old sheets from Spaulding still available. Color them yourself!