DeathB4Decaf

Hey guys! Thank you for the warm welcome! I'm excited to talk tattoos with you all!
Okay, I'll eventually get the hang of embedding, but for now links to peep's instagrams will have to do. All these are from when the tattoos were still fresh (of the ones I could find) because I actually don't have pictures of my work. But I'll try to get around to taking decent photos of it all healed up and settled. Anyway, let's start:
First session for my sleeve with Thomas (going for my second appointment soon):
Instagram
Instagram
Eva is by far the person I have the most work from. Chronologically:
Instagram
Instagram
Instagram
Instagram
Instagram
Instagram
From Sarah Carter. Least painful tattoo ever:
Instagram
My Valerie girls. I love these things:
Instagram
(Side story: You know that gorgeous punk rock Virgin Mary Valerie did a while back? I was supposed to get a punk girl from her that week she was at Kings Avenue, but decided to delay it because I thought these two made a better pair. And then she came out with that Virgin Mary and I've been kicking myself since. I'm actually thinking of going to England to get a second pair of girls on my calves to finally get my punk girl. She will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine.)
I'll try to get pictures of the other ones, since I couldn't find them online.
Disclaimer: My skins swells up like crazy when I get tattooed, so some of these are kinda distorted. Like I said, nice pictures of healed work on their way.

I'm a female engineer and tattooed lady. I wore short sleeves to the company picnic and everything changed.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

@DeathB4Decaf,
Thanks for your post and tips.
Will post it up for sure.

Sounds like you've got it all sorted with your artist. That's what matters. You'll be spending quite a bit of time together, so I'm sure it'll be forgotten in no time.
I understand what you are saying about time commitments and responsibility outside of your getting tattooed. I'm going to go ahead and make the assumption that the majority of people on this forum have demanding work schedules, travel times, and juggling to do regarding fitting in tattoo appointments. Open communication works wonders and occasionally things come up. As for driving almost 2hrs for a 15min consult. I'd say most of us have been in similar shoes. It sucks, but that's when you just got to make it work around both artist and client schedule.
Just in the future be mindful of when you are booking your appointments. Be open to say no when a suggested day doesn't work for you.
When I booked out the sessions for my full back, I was probably the most annoying client ever for the receptionist. I had a years worth of work commitments, planned trips, etc all blacked out of the calendar in front of me when we started scheduling. A few (nonconsecutive) months were completely off the table. I'm not the kind of person that can be on a canceled last minute call list. But, I'm sure a tattooer appreciates a simple no to a date. In the future have your agenda with you before booking.
And best of luck with your new work. Please post it up.

Hey ladies (thread), I think my tattooer's going to do the remaining peony before the cord winding through, but we're still waffling on what color to do the cord. She'd originally planned on doing it a deep teal, but now she's thinking a nice dark red. Any other suggestions for colors we can talk about at the next session? :D

I had the seventh session on my back yesterday and we finally started in on the colour and crushed the tiger. There's still a bit of shading to do in the water, and we're still figuring out what to do with the snake with regard to scales or patterns, colours, etc., as well as what colours to do the maples, but I am super stoked on the progress we're making.

Covering up will do the trick, as long as the clothing you use provides protection. Many T-shirts let light through, and a wet T-shirt is SPF 4! I've been surprised looking at the shirts I own. I wear UV clothing for bright sun situations or when I am outside a long time.
In the picture I attached, the ThinkBaby product is a sun block (mineral-Zinc/Titanium based), the other two are sun screens (non-mineral based), to use your terms. I did a significant amount of research to understand the chemicals and minerals and their effects on UVA and UVB, and sometimes I use one versus the other. Block if I don't care if the skin is white/hazy and if I need protection immediately. Non-mineral based requires some time for it to become effective.
I started the thread below last year, and around pages 3 and 4 I included research I had done into the chemicals used and why some entities (e.g., Consumer Reports) rate some higher than others. If you'd like to continue chatting about sunscreens, we can take it over to this thread. Thanks for the question!
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-after-care/5584-sunscreen-sun-vacation-threads.html

So it's been a couple of months since I last updated the progress on my back. The shading sessions are just so much nicer for me than the outline. I think I May have even fallen asleep at points during the session in January. There was no chance of that this week though as the studio was pretty cold despite the heater just next to the bench. I ended up putting half my jacket back on the side that wasn't getting tattooed.
Anyway enough rambling this is how it is looking now:
p.s. @SeeSea your back piece has come out great. Congratulations.

Big reveal in the wild. Diving in the Maldives. On this trip, I saw several of the creatures on my back, which was pretty cool.
The response from my dive buddies was overall pretty positive, and it changed a few attitudes towards tattoos. I had been chatting with three of the women before I let them know I had done it, and unrelated to my tattoo, they all spoke down on tattoos, including the "Why would someone do something permanent - your tastes will change over time" and the "What will it look like when you get old?" Sigh. One of these women really liked it and said it was the best she had ever seen, and she is in the medical field and has seen a lot of bare skin. A lovely woman from Austria was just in love with it and gushed about my "sea" that I can take with me. :-)

Bit of a long break from LST but I am still alive and slowly chipping away at my backpiece.
Had a decent break from tattooing over xmas which was great but back to the grind now.
The snake has taken quite a while but almost finished now. Each scale of the snake has 3-4 different shades of green so has chewed through some time.

Session 2 done yesterday, plenty left to do but its crazy how different it looks from the end of the 1st session.
Borrowed this pic from Marius' instagram page. Started with the fine line scales on the snake, then the black in the skull and finally some colour on the snake. All told it was probably 5 - 5.5 hours this time around.

What a hell of a start, @BrianH. That looks incredible. So envious you are getting work by him. Can't wait to see it progress.

Progress on my skinny ass. Been a long break since last time due to the tattoo studio moving premises - Back to regular sessions now so hopefully some more updates coming! Looking to finish the whole thing by summer. The sessions never get any easier...
By Mark Armstrong, Sacred Art tattoo studio, Manchester UK.

Here are the results of the first session with Rubendall at the Kings Ave Manhattan shop:

I have a few more pictures to share but I want to organize my thoughts and write a little blog entry to post along with those photos.

Had my first session with Rob yesterday. Probably the nicest tattooer I have met. Everyone at the shop was a blast, and even as beat up as I felt for a relatively short (4.5 hours) session, I can't wait to go back.
We started off with the general wolf that I had wanted for years. Then after looking at some of the awesome norse pieces he had done recently we started spit balling ideas with Fenrir and a skull from one of the deer eating from Yggdrasil.
There is a sizeable cover up at the top, and we start down towards the back of legs in the next session probably :)

Final days of waiting and I need some tattoo related stuff to read while i'm at work (pretending to work) any recommendations on blogs? I've already re-read the Body Suit to Fit blog.

Thanks @DeathB4Decaf saw your progress from Sunday, you're catching up! Looks awesome!!

I can't believe how much you have done already, @Mush. Coming together super nice.

hey friends!
Short little session on Saturday with Scott at Sugar shack, I was feeling quite sick so we only did a bit, background down the left side and gave the tiger some stripes. Really wished I could have gone longer. Since finishing I havent been able eat much without puking. Its been a shitty couple days.
Really hope to have a good long session next time, hopefully finish background down the ass and thighs.

@bongsau That looks like a heavy session! Those blacks and greys are so smooth, they're going to look really nice when the red fades out of them and they settle in a bit. You're in for a real delight with the lower back and ass cheeks though, really glad that we're done with the black in there on mine.
I'm taking January off working on my back and I find that I actually miss getting tattooed. I got a little one on my leg in the meantime and that was super fun, but nothing quite compares to the feeling you get after a heavy back session. There's something deeply satisfying about enduring the session even when your body is all FUCK NO for those first few minutes. The back is such a trip, it's a whole different world of tattooing compared to everything I'd had done before.

Session #2 - Did a 4 hour blast pounding the black into the perimeter of my Shaolin back yesterday!
First half of the session was lying down, second half was getting tattooed sitting upright which I really enjoy, makes the tattooing feel alive. Heavy black in all the clouds, full across the shoulderblades and down to the love handle on the left hand side with a needle that looked like a metal paint brush. Machine was roaring like a tractor, the way I like getting tattooed! Unfortunately I got a little beating on the ribs/lower armpit to border my existing dragon. Zouch. It is a gnarly amount mileage for a session and I'm feeling like I took a bat across the back, a little loopy today. Built up the borders around existing tattoos on both arms, necks, and ribs tattoos. Pretty cool actually having Steve connect to the tattoos he did on my in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Despite sweating through my long johns, felt pretty strong when we called time yesterday, this morning however I woke up with a red hot back, had to shower to unglue the shirt from my back and wrecked my wife's nice towel (LOL). Once again a great experience from one and only TheGangOfOne (Steve Batt) in Edmonton, AB.
I'm going to heal this up for a few weeks such that I can participate in Chinese New Year demonstrations with my kung fu school, then will setup the next rounds on the lower back and ass cheeks for February. May the Buddha be with me.

===
Hi Everyone!
Started this in Late October 2014 and just got it Finished on Jan 03 2015
6 Session of 4 Hours Each - Traveling back and forth from Montreal to Toronto...
Tattoo Artist is Tony Hu from Chronic Ink Tattoos.
http://instagram.com/tonyhutattoo
Completed and Done!
龍 - Dragon by davidcwong888, on Flickr

Another 7.5 hour session done yesterday. Papa Joe went over a few areas of the outline (darkened up some areas of black). Interesting color palette...one I wasn't quite expecting. I trust him, though. I think I have another 3-4 hours left on this one.
It only took me several sessions, but I finally learned how to really sit well. I was sitting on table with my arms hunched over a padded bar and my legs hanging over the side of the table. I basically had to relax as much as possible and focus on not tensing up my back. Just "accept" the needle and try not clinch my back up. I could have gone longer, but it was getting harder and harder to find my happy place, especially after breaks.
Sorry for the bad pic. I had just gotten out of the shower and applied some Lubriderm.

Today I capped my other knee with a demon head by Franz Stefanik at The Okey Doke in Toronto. Its always a great experience with Franz. Interesting conversations with a great guy who also does amazing work. I'll have to update my legs in the Squidpants thread soon. I'm really looking to forward to getting some filler work around some of the larger pieces on my right leg now.

Got this lil lady from Shawn VanOven! Thanks for lookinh