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That's what tattoo artists do. They take your idea and draw it up for you... People on the tattoo forum don't do that. Also, doing great, thanks!

@petiloi and @beez, such great work on both of you! I love Diamond Club. I was lucky enough to see Bill and Junii yesterday at the Japanese National Museum in Los Angeles. I also got this in LA from Horisuzu: Perfect fit. I'm so happy with it.

Started this little guy with Chad today at Lifetime Tattoo in Denver pic stolen from his instagram

I'm still waiting for my paycheck and endorsement deals.

I started volunteering for a wild bird rescue center. It's literally a crappy job, but I love being around and interacting with the birds. Usually they are baby birds that fall out of nests, or birds that were injured by cats/dogs/cars. I get to clean cages, floors, aviaries as well as prepare food and maintain the facilities. Occasionally they'll have me help with the feeding and care of the birds. So far my favorites have been the hummingbirds. They'll buzz around your head because they're just naturally curious and not too fearful of humans. I also get to work with swallows, ducks, sparrows, finches, pigeons, doves, and quail. I do this for 4 hours per week and it's been very rewarding despite having to constantly clean up bird poop.

Soooo, I was trying to take an all-things-tattoo-hiatus until October but the boys were getting tattooed so I thought "Oh, I'll just get a little gap filler from Paul" (like I did the previous day with Bryan Randolph)...and this happened. No really, I can stop whenever I want... Paul Anthony Dobleman - Spider Murphy's Tattoo, San Rafael, CA

Have you considered getting into bodybuilding?

I will say first off that I don't work for Yelp and I don't own a business reviewed by Yelp. (And I read between the lines when I use Yelp.) But I read the FAQ and I design algorithms and some of this makes a lot of sense to me. Ignore all this if you want ::shrugs:: but it at least partially explains your rating and can help you improve your rating going forward if you wanted to. So, I'm repeating my Yelp quote from above for completeness: Sifting through your Yelp reviews, most of your shop's "not recommended" reviews are by people with 0 or 1 friends, and have posted only 1 review - for your shop. Also, there are a large number of reviews for your shop all in a few short periods of time, all made by people doing only 1 review - for your shop. And all of those reviews give your shop 5 stars. Some of the 5 star reviews include one from your owner and from someone simply complaining that there are bad reviews! From the Yelp FAQ, they use a software algorithm to detect trends like these and tag them as not recommended. From an algorithm standpoint, these look like fake reviews designed to inflate your rating. You could easily have gotten those reviews by having all your friends sign on and create "fake" reviews. As you might suspect, this happens all the time on Yelp. Now, you say that the reviews are genuine, but you, the business representative/owner, took an action to influence your reviews. Yelp doesn't like that behavior (lots of 5 star reviews from people only having reviewed 1 business in a short period of time). As a consumer, I would look askance on those reviews as well. Also from the Yelp FAQ: So, now that you understand how Yelp works, you can game Yelp back. If you want a review to be recommended, ask your clients to post the review RIGHT AFTER they get the service, not by making a mass call for reviews all at the same time. The reviews need to be randomly spaced out in time. And tell some of them to give you 4 stars - which is still a great rating. That will still help your current rating and have less of a chance of the review being rejected. Also, ask your owner to respond to negative reviews with a short, professionally-worded reply that shows you are being responsive, not defensive. My $0.02. YMMV

A few days ago the Daily Fail rolled out yet another tired old article on why tattoos are no longer just for bikers and sailors yada yada. The lady whose photo it used (without her permission) with an impressively patronising caption ("Fortunately most women don't go as far as having a tattoo 'sleeve' covering their whole arm.") has blogged about it here: Needles and Sins Tattoo Blog | "World's Worst" ... Tattoo Reporting

Remember I know nothing - I'm trying to go through the whole forum to understand the different types of tattoos, especially the traditional. I just saw the Ed Hardy video on black panthers that someone linked to on this forum somewhere - omg I had no idea of the tradition and wonderful simplicity of these panthers - I have so much more appreciation of them, now. I don't think I want one (yet!), but maybe I would like a traditional white tiger in the style of the panther - just black and greys (except for those blue eyes). I never would have thought I'd go for something that traditional - maybe the panther or tiger coming out of the traditional rose. Perhaps to get an appreciation for any art, it's important to see many good examples of it - the gallery is really helping me, and I'm "making" my way through the "What makes a good tattoo" thread. After all, I was attracted to tattoos from the beginning looking at my Uncles WWII Navy ones. Hope this is not out of line here.

Thought I would throw in this little tatty from Kirk Jones.

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

By Jason McAfee at Temple Tattoo. Oakland, CA. B&G arm is almost done. Got a couple more gaps to fill. So stoked.

Been a while since ive checked back on here but heres a few pics of the panther and the parrot i got from Chad K at the Amsterdam convention back in May, its really hard to get a good picture of a shoulder but Chad drew the parrot to fit the space perfectly. Also a Mum heart i got as a walk in from Jordan Baxter at Black Garden a couple of weeks back, picture pinched from his instagram.

Last week, Sarah Hurst of Vivid Tattoo, Knoxville, TN put a nice likeness of my submarine dolphins and SSBN patrol pin on my chest. My first ink at 61. I had seen a sailor getting a tattoo removed the old way - rock salt abrasion - back in the 70's when I was in, and that really scared me off (don't know what he had, but there was an old chief standing over him basically letting him now that if he cried out, he'd give him something to yelp about. Now, my grandfather served in both world wars. Lied about his age to get in WW1, and that I'm sure is when he got his tattoos. I only remember a couple of them - a cupie doll and a faked line. Someday I might get that faked line on my forearm. Maybe. I'm very pleased with my new ink. Not showy or perfect (the patrol pin has some wiggles and a run-away line, and the stars could be sharper). But, at only 4" (~10cm) wide, it has great detail - and the drop shadow was a neat surprise! These represent 10 patrols on USS Von Steuben SSBN632. A total underwater time of 2.5 years. Although my Lord and my family mean more to me, I don't have a design in mind that would represent the marks they have left on me. I guess that remains for me to represent.

not until he shaves.

Haha, I saw it on instagram and thought "poor fucking bastard". Looks rad, @exume, total tough guy stuff right there!

Jeez. Get a room.

From what I can gather, using Titanium Dioxide with the linseed oil results in a less stable paint layer. Using Zinc Oxide/Zinc Sulfide with Titanium Dioxide with the linseed oil should result in less yellowing. Apparently the Titanium Dioxide is so inert that it allows the oil to rise to the surface, thus yellowing faster than other pigments. It could also be because of the canvas/ground being unable to absorb the extra oil. You can bleach it out by letting it dry away from direct sunlight, then expose to direct sunlight for short periods of time.

@Graeme, the only advice I'd have to get this in the right direction is re-gesso or use your white paint and relayer. It's been a few years since I did extensive oil painting, and I was one of those *gasp* post-modern assholes. Mistakes made me happier.

Look at my 38 year old one in my Gallery! I'm still astonished that the colors are still good, even if the outline has "grown".

Here is some M.C. Escher Chris Dingwell did on my forearm in 2002. It's held up well over the last twelve years.

I never lurked, I don't lurk, I'm a jump right in kind of person. Also since I'm here on behalf of the shop I work for it's a little different, we're looking for a new artist, so waiting out my 3 days til I can post a help wanted post. I made a bad assumption about these forums since most tattoo forums are filled with tattoo artists and very few enthusiasts, this place seems to be the exception. So yeah I'm a body piercer, have been for 12 years, in a shop. I have a Halloween themed sleeve in progress, and a spirit animal portrait sleeve in progress on the other side, I have a mostly Asian themed leg in progress, and a few odds and ends thrown in for good measure.

I think most of us are just professional tattoo enthusiasts, with a few stellar professional artists kicking around. We show off our latest work and talk about upcoming pieces. So share away!

Good ole Murray!

if she doesn't like that piece maybe her pick out another piece of Sailor Jerry flash. get these books and put them on your coffee table. Sailor Jerry Flash Vol. 1 - Hardy Marks Publications and Don Ed Hardy Archive Sailor Jerry Flash Vol. 2 - Hardy Marks Publications and Don Ed Hardy Archive Sailor Jerry Flash Vol.3 - Hardy Marks Publications and Don Ed Hardy Archive

I'll have to go back and look for more bluebirds. I was also thinking about getting this. My wife has blonde hair. If we ever get divorced, I could change the blonde hair to black or brown.

training for 2 fall marathons - baltimore and philly did an 18 mile run yesterday and 2 hours of standup paddle board bit tired this morning - waiting for the fam to awake so we can hit the beach :)

Yeah. Leave it in the hands of the tattooer. It'll come up trumps. While he's working on this piece, start throwing some ideas together on how you can extend it down to the wrist. ...some animal features would be cool. A big dragon outer forearm, tiger inner & use the same background to tie it all in. Any subject matter mate, whatever you like. That's the thing I like about sticking with one tattooer, it's kinda like we design on going work together. Looking good anyway [emoji106]

Dude was about to get a watercolor tattoo and AND YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!

Well, I started the thread a while back b/c I was uncertain exactly what I wanted, and even tho I thought I'd made a mistake w/it, it's turning out perfectly in the end. So much so in fact, that I'm going to extend the work I'm having done to incorporate an existing tattoo-tho that tattoo will have to be reworked. And it will all then blend in with work I had done a couple years ago. So, it's worked out pretty good! The artists have been receptive to "Um...i dunno..I like flowers, will flowers work? Whatever you think, go ahead and do it"

Biggest turn-off for me is hoof shoes. Ladies, you are the height you are. Heals make your legs look nice. Platforms don't add anything but altitude. Now, if this had been in Huff Post, it would have made NBC Evening News!

Started "dating" someone. She was leaving for a month long Bali-trip the following week so we made the most of it, met ever day and shared beds for 4 nights. I'm surprised about how good something this new can feel. I'm a happy guy and I miss her now

Finally finished this backpiece by Valerie Vargas at FST :)

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

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.

I've never seen a tattoo shop rated below 4 stars on Yelp, meaning that everyone must be getting really great tattoos. The thing that bothers me most about Yelp is that so many of the "bad experiences" could have been made better if the reviewer took 2 minutes to be a human being and talk with somebody at the shop/restaurant/whatever rather than go home - or whip out their phone - and write about it. Or to just chalk it up to having to interact with people you don't know & shug it off if it's small enough, which it usually is. ("The cashier looked like she was JUDGING ME!!") It enables a lot of the most irritating kinds of modern-day behavior. The flip side is that it can name & shame businesses that racially profile, etc.

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!

Hola Stephen, good luck

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.

Now that this is (mostly) healed up, here is my latest from Grez. What do you do when you love Catholic imagery but haven't gone to church since you were a kid? You throw the best mascot in sports in a virgin Mary shroud. Grez is a big baseball fan, so he took the idea and ran with it, including adding the Liberty Bell in place of the sacred heart. Edit: he also did those cats last fall. They've settled in nicely.

3 years later all color haha

To me its like, I really enjoy many types of photography, and I can get a huge kick out of graffiti if it's done to my liking. I also like reading books and a few pop cultural phenomenas are wonderful to me. But I don't care at all for tattoos that look like photos, graffiti on someones body, text-tattoos or pop culture references in tattoos. And even though I've been skateboarding for close to 12 years I have never seen a skateboard tattoo that I liked. If you ask me, tattooing is a quite specific thing and it should stay that way. Just because you like chocolate cake AND chorizo hot dogs doesn't mean a combination of the too will be better.

Got my rose morph today... am super happy with it

I won $100 through their IG contest today! Now to decide who to get tattooed by...

Did a quick lil post for swallowsndaggers the other day for PCTF. And, Black Heart along with Scott have joined up. Swallows&Daggers | News | Weatherholtz Announces Pagoda City Tattoo Fest