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@beez I thought Matt Deverson did an incredible job of place my snake skull chrysanthemum on my leg. I really really liked that about him though, it was one of the reasons I chose him to do my more visible part of my leg, He seems to have a natural eye for placement. And yes the Geisha Spider is gonna be dope, Ive given Matt (Dr. Claw full artistic liberty, so I know it'll be bad ass. Your quite the beast getting that much work done in such a short span of time. I don't think I could handle that. After a long sitting I need a week of break to gather myself back up. As goes pain referral leg are very strange. Ive got most of my butt done and god damn it sucked, One of the worst Ive done yet. @Eilin that is a wonderful piece, Not my style but solid work. It always amazes my when somebody can transcend a style with the quality of their work Heres a pic of Matt (Dr Claws) work so far Matt Deverson's piece and my wifes arm with work by Deverson also And finally a little sumthin sumthin by the boss man himself Bill Slamon

Finally finished this backpiece by Valerie Vargas at FST :)

I'm gonna submit the smallest tattoo to win the monthly contest (ok, not really, that back, gahhhh)! RAT HEADS GET NOTHIN' BUT CHEESE Y'ALL, done by Cody Miller at Blackheart. Photo pilfered from his Instagram.

Thrown me sides & a leg in, not me back yet I think. Anyway, back tattooed by CP, Brisbane Australia. Cheers.

Here's a healed picture of my back piece by Valerie Vargas at Frithstreet tattoo :)

Hi guys!! For those who have not seen on Instagram, I was a dumbass and scheduled three days of getting zapped on my last trip to SF. That shit is hard on the body!!!!! @cltattooing made an awesome stabby skull for me, and then we hung out w @CABS, who is an alright type of guy (understatement of the season!). Junii added color to my froggy, some shading and background and outlined a peony on my thigh. We started the first snake! Matt (dr claw) started on my serene butt snake. Shad will be starting the mean back snake in October, and Junii is doing the thigh snake (I think?!) I was not the only one getting my butt drilled (word choice?) in the shop that day. I had the pleasure of watching Drew Flores begin one of the backpieces that is part of the 108 heroes of LA project. How cool is that?!? Also @petiloi was in the shop getting some work done by Bill Salmon. Hi!!! I did not identify myself bc, you know, tattoos. But it was cool anyway! Pics attached. Warning: Butt ahead!! (Nice asp, I know. Tips hat to @CultExciter for that one).

Dean Bloebaum at Infinity here in Portland made this one for me. He has a few cobras in his flash and I've always liked his skulls, so I said "Cobra-dagger-skull" and this is what he came up with. I'm stupid stoked with how this turned out. Edit: Even before the color was added I thought it was pretty cool.

So here's my super awesome lady head by Kim Anh Nguyen, done at the Montreal Convention last year.

So Chad finished my back recently. Here it is.

Holy shit, what an incredible month this has been! Big thanks to everyone who submitted. The winner of July is @polliwog for this fantastic tattoo by the great Chad Koeplinger. Congrats!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. New contest will be up shortly!

Yes, so this happened! LST meet-up!!! Unfortunately Lance went back to JANM before Stella took our picture. I don't want to ruin @hogg's tough guy ban hammer reputation or anything, but what a great guy! Lance, too--but we already knew that. Great to see those tattoos in person, too.

We picked up a last minute class so we'll be there with bells on - and also to supply snacks! I just need to decide if I'm in need of a new piece too!

Well, it's on. I'm booked in with Fil Wood at Black Crown on the 29th September. Thanks for all of your help with the selection process, it hasn't been easy. I'll be back on here to post updates at a later date. Also, thank to everyone who was kind enough to show off their tattoo's, it really helped to set a bar. You all have some amazing pieces to be hella proud of :D

That's an excellent idea. I'm taking a bit of a social media break at the moment because the snark started to feel overwhelming. Almost nobody talks like that if they're face-to-face. Here's to more positivity on here and elsewhere.

Thanks, guys! And a particular thanks to the folks who encouraged me to grab this appointment! I got lucky with the win because everything this month is great. Laughing at "little" though - I'm 5'2" so there's not a lot of tattooing space!

It really depends on the tattooer, sometimes to even get an appointment you have to do a consult beforehand, others work better with it rolled up into one. I've had consults a month before the appointment where we talked about each little thing, went over reference and got everything ironed out, and I've had appointments with guest artists, or when I was travelling where I just walked in, showed them the place and bounced a couple ideas around. Different people work differently, so I think it's best to let them do their thing. If you've already sent a deposit and some references with an idea of what you want you should be good, if you have a specific idea in your head of what you want it to look like maybe you can reach out to them to get that idea across, but if you chose your tattooer specifically for their style then I'm sure you'll be happy with what they come up with.

We started the session on my butt and I thought it was okay as far as spots on the back go, though it certainly wasn't nearly as hilarious as a lot of people think that ass tattoos are. I was much less into the part where the ass joins the thigh, the tailbone going into the asscrack (WHY am I getting tattooed into my asscrack, what the fuck is wrong with me?), and the kidneys and love handles. Me and my wife were wondering after about how the tramp stamp was ever a thing because you potentially hit all the bad spots in one tattoo there.

Tribal. And I'm being 100 percent sincere. Check out Curly's work. Curly Tattoomonger

The answers depend on the artist. If you want to share the artist's name someone here might be able to share their personal experience with the artist.

just confirmed that Friday is my day of tattoo glory.

You're gonna leave me to do this aren't you...

I'm going to challenge myself stop posting negative/sarcastic comments and stick to the established threads (latest, back piece, awesome, etc.) Reading some of the intro/troll threads is counter productive to my life goal of peace and happiness.

I have stopped drinking alcohol while I'm working 6 day weeks and am amazed at the difference I'm feeling after only 3 weeks. My head is so clear and focused, my anxiety has pretty much taken a back seat and I'm making great gains at the gym. Really excited to see where this takes me.

Dear admins, if this is too basic a question for a thread, or if it has been covered elsewhere please delete it. Until very recently, I appreciated Japanese style tattoos, but was totally uninterested in getting them. It probably had lot to do with growing up in Tokyo and living here again now. Ever since a tattooer friend recommended (or implanted the idea of) getting a thigh done tebori "for the experience," I've been semi-obsessing about it. Who are your favorite tebori artists and why? It seems the styles, from the width of the windbars and palette, to drawing styles, are so varied. Do you like the artists doing classic work or the younger artists making "innovative" work? Some younger Japanese tattooers seem to be heading in a SSTP direction of simplification, where ultimately, classic tattooing, whether Japanese or American, becomes almost the same (except in subject matter). Some others' works seem too anime-influenced for my tastes. Even among older artists of a similar region, there's also a lot of variety. For example, Horitoshi I's work looks completely different from Horikyo's works and they are both Tokyo-based. Just curious about all your opinions. Horikyo Horitoshi 1

Hello, My name is Luke and I'm from Belfast, NI. I honestly joined to get some advice in preparation for my second tattoo. I got my first tattoo of a jolly roger about six years ago and thought that joining a site like this one would give me the kick up the arse I need to continue. I hope to pick up a lot of ideas/tips here and perhaps make some friends along the way. Thanks

Like little kids playing with Sharpies... only it don't wash off!

It's a really effing great tattoo!

Gospel! What Cork said @Eilin! What Cork said!

Dude - you are killing it! Such a great collection. - - - Updated - - - @beez Another LST'er killing it. Great work and you are a champ sitting for those. Also, the butt-hearts are awesome. Someday I too will have butt-hearts.

@Graeme does that make is butt snake buddies for life now? BTW there is a #buttsnake tag on Instagram and so far as I saw, there was only one actual butt with a snake on it (MINE), which has to make you think....who else is tagging *anything* butt snake...and why?! Also, about the butt.....OWWWW am I right?

@beez Speaking as somebody who recently acquired a butt snake of my own, BUTT SNAKES FOREVER! Also, you're completely nuts for getting tattooed three days on a single trip. @Eilin That is superb! I love it!

First day and the contest is over.

I came into this thread with lofty ideas of dropping a last minute tiebreaker...and then liked every single one.

Needs more black.

Just got this piece done, 1st tattoo, It's solid black, want;) to turn it into a sleeve eventually!

Hung out with my buddy Joe today. He's like a mentor, older brother, super cool uncle all rolled into one. Joe's responsible for introducing me to Henning and putting me on the path of my ongoing tattoo journey. For fun we snapped off this pic of our Henning backpieces. Both our sleeves are also by Henning. Joe has awesome work from Tin Tin, Aaron Bell and Mike Rubendall as well. Enjoy!

I just watched this past season. What a complete waste of time. HOWEVER, I do love watching the l live finale shows because they are so poorly done and the truth of how bad Navarro is at his job is revealed. Also, this show is so incredibly boring that the editing becomes a character.

I want to see a dagger with a dagger thru it...

Finally got around to getting some pictures of my completed Nue half sleeve and chest plate. This was completed back in March by Brian Bruno at Absolute Art Tattoo and I can't recommend him enough. It's a really good shop full of great people.

Agree with your perspective on instagram. For me it's the methadone substitute to my addiction. Not as good as getting a tattoo, but viewing the work still stimulates me. The challenge for me has been following too many tattoo artist and get away from the "disposable" aspect that you stated. I follow and unfollow based on content. I've cut the list down considerably and challenge myself on seeing a tattoo and being able to pick the artist. By my memory I'm really good, but that's MY memory.

I've been thinking about this. Personally, while I like instagram and the access to so many pictures of great tattoos, word of mouth recommendations are key for me, and I think a tattooer would have to be doing something really special for me to want to get tattooed by them solely on the basis of their instagram account. I also realise that I've been getting tattooed for long enough, regularly enough, and geographically broadly enough that the pool of tattooers who I've either seen tattoos from, or heard good things about, or had the chance to meet at a shop or a convention is pretty large, and that this isn't everybody's situation. I think what I like least about instagram is that the volume and nature of it makes tattoos kind of disposable. I think it's pretty much useless for large tattoos because you can't get any meaningful sense of a back or a sleeve on a tiny picture. You can't capture the detail of a large tattoo on a picture that fits on a phone screen, and you can't really get an idea of how the tattoo fits and flows with the body. Small tattoos seem more suited to instagram in this way. The volume though...like what does it mean when you can see dozens (if not more!) really great tattoos every day? Do we get a better appreciation for the tattoos, or is it just that we glance at them for a couple of seconds, hit "like" or not, and then scroll down to the next one? There have been so many times that I've seen something really cool on instagram and I'll think of it days or weeks later and I can't remember who did it and I can't find it again. Whereas there are tattoos in tattoo magazines I have that I remember even though I maybe haven't looked through the magazine in a couple of years. So basically, instagram is a really great tool in a lot of ways, but like everything with the internet, it tells us a lot less than it maybe appears at first.

Cool! We will come cheer you on with snacks.

posted this in the backpiece thread but i'm gonna give it a shot in here as well. finished yesterday thanks to Max Kuhn.

It's how we used to kill panthers and gorillas.. before the internet RUINED TATTOOING.

I'm a few sessions into my front piece with Horitomo. Here's the latest. And yes, everything in this picture is to scale.

here is my tebori experience and you dont want to see the embarrassing fundoshi pics my wife took...

I like Horimitsu of the Horitoshi Family a lot. His colors are also very vivid and bright. His designs take on an abstract approach at times to traditional Japanese tebori themes. I've follow his Instagram religiously. Missed out on an opportunity to get tattooed by him at this past NYC Tattoo Convention. Hopefully he'll come to the next one!

This in-progress bodysuit is pretty breathtaking: By Horimatsu

"hey look at this guy's skin, its like instagram but instead of on my phone its right here in front of me."

I feel physical discomfort when I hear the word Aficionado...it gives me the douche chills.