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I'm currently healing a piece on my arm, and started with Dermalize. But then the airline company managed to misplace my bag with the roll in it, so I had to buy something called TattooMed while waiting for my Dermalize. It's supposed to be the same thing as Dermalize, Saniderm etc. At first it felt great, more comfortable than Dermalize actually. But after I removed it, I had an allergic reaction. My arm got red/pink ish, and after that faded away, I now have some bumps and it itches. Never reacted like this to Dermalize or Saniderm. Just thought I'd share my experiences if someone's considered trying it out - although everyone reacts differently.

starting this Tuesday (07/03),my wife and myself will be on Maui for 2 weeks. doing this>>>>>

Welcome to the forum. Here's my advice: Stop thinking about the design itself. To a competent artist, that would be their job. The part you need to worry about is finding someone competent of making the design. We can't tell from the above what your level of experience is, but while you can bring reference material in to assist in the design process - you don't want to bring a finished design in to just any old tattooist and expect a great tattoo. Educating yourself on how to recognize a good artist/tattooist is going to be the trick.

Have a great trip @Dan

Hey! Dan's advice is 100% spot on. Do you have an artist is mind? Hopefully, the specialize in the style that you are looking to get and have done LOTR tattoo's before.

Bah, healing tattoos fckin sucks.. I had almost forgot the hassle the first couple weeks 😂 Oh well, earn your ink!

Got this sexy wolf done on friday by Line Marielle in Denmark! It's a continuation to my existing work from her on my forearm, so now Im the proud owner of a halfsleeve 😁 Will end up with a full sleeve eventually, I bet! Theres also another raven, a Valknut symbol and a verse from Håvamål in old norse, so all of the new stuff isnt visible here. Maybe Ill upload another pic later. Im so stoked, cant wait for it to heal.

Horitomo. Two sessions, all electric (rotary and coil). Photos do not do this justice! I will say that first four hours of outlining and shading was super hateful. Of course, I am already considering having him do my left shin. What is wrong with me? 😜

I'm only on Page 2, but I had to chime in. I just saw some Derrick Snodgrass tattoos walk in, and they look sooooo good. The orange fell out in the flowers, but I'm still into it. It's got that "soul" that everyone's talking about. I actually can't wait for my tattoos to age and and look old. I'm a weirdo.

I had a poetry prof in university a million years ago who said something on the first day of class that I think applies to so many other things in life, and maybe it's relevant here, I dunno. He was addressing the perception of many freshmen that learning how to scan poetry, learning the rules of it, didn't matter, when so many of them took a shine to poetry after discovering e.e. cummings or Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock -- in the case of the latter, mistakenly believing that it was free verse, which it actually isn't. But that mistake underlined his point, which is this: until you're familiar with the rules of a thing, until you understand the hows and whys of that thing, which often entails becoming familiar with its major players through history...you can't really meaningfully deviate from those rules. He said that he thinks it's important to break rules, but it's even more important to understand why you're breaking them when you do it. You start with the foundations, and then your choices have context and meaning, whatever choices you make afterward. Maybe this doesn't apply to tattooing, I don't know; I'm still learning...but I find that most people with knowledge of a subject will assume that a new person discarding the fundamentals of any given thing are doing themselves or the thing a disservice, for lack of having the knowledge to know any better. Maybe that's not always true; maybe a new person can just intuit those things and make excellent choices blindly. It does seem rather more unlikely, though.

I want to get tattooed by people who do tattoos that I can feel in my gut, which is to say that when I see an artist's tattoos, or look through their portfolio or on their instagram or whatever (though more and more for me I want to see the tattoos, and not just pictures of them) I want to have a deeper reaction than just thinking that it's a good looking tattoo, and I want to have a good time getting those tattoos. I've been tattooed by some "big names" and I've travelled a fair bit to get tattooed, and to be honest, I feel a little self-conscious about it because--and maybe this is only in my head--I fear coming across as somebody who buys into that kind of almost celebrity culture that sometimes goes along with tattoo collecting that I think @Pugilist articulated very well. Because for me it's not about that and it was never about that. I just want to get rad tattoos.