ShyGypsy

Aww, this got me right in the heart. So sweet. Great read, @Pugilist.

I stumbled across this article this morning, about a photojournalist documenting a dying tattoo tradition in Syria. The photos are beautiful and I love learning about traditional tattoo practices in different cultures (I had no idea that there was a Kurdish tattoo culture!). I thought some of you nerds might find it interesting too!
The Last Tattooed Women of Kobane | PROOF

My strategy is to play dead, like I'm being mauled by a tiny bear. So far it's working.

You are assuming that everyone out there has a creative mind and/or appreciates art.
It ain't so.

I don't mean to sound like a cranky old man. Honestly, I am sort of curious from a sociological standpoint.
Has all the texting kinda done away with visual literacy or something? I'll admit I hardly ever do any texting so it's not something I ever got into.
Or maybe people are afraid of criticism? I notice that they do seem to be afraid to have any opinions of their own and certainly putting a large image on yourself suggests you had a strong opinion about the art.
I have no idea, but I really am curious about this.

Was searching through the forum and couldn't find a thread on this specifically.
In the process of extending my neck tattoo's up onto the back of my head and maybe in the future extending these to the front of my face.
Just to a nip the inevitable 'the face/head is a huge step', 'will change your life/appearance/people's opinions of you' in the bud, I have over 200 hours of work currently on me including hands, neck and one below my left eye, I know what I getting into.
any others out there with face/head tattoo's or thinking of getting them?
if you do have them what's the pain like? what was the experience like? if not but are planning to get them what designs/styles are you looking at?
Lets have a discussion..
Cheers,
Oz

In relation to your second point, you could check out Chad Koeplinger (Rock of Ages, TX), or Robert Ryan at Electric Tattoo in NJ.

Two sessions 3 hrs each.

Maybe I'm thinking way too hard. Well then if that's the case I gotta start looking into a new piece. Thanks gents appreciate the feedback.

Ok, now I thought TLC were bad, but this takes the biscuit. These guys are offering to teach people to learn how to tattoo in a day, and just so you know they are quality, they have a 100% success rate ! :mad:
UK Official Tattoo Academy | Tattooing Tuition + Tattooing School
This has to be illegal, I mean what can ANYONE learn in a day that makes it ok to tattoo?
We should start a secret society of anti tattoo school ninjas, operating on a global level, with the sole objective of making putting these type of operations out of business.

Please do, I'd like to know more about that too. Was the practicing artist performing the procedure as a professional service or as an experiment? I can't imagine that anyone in a medically-related profession who is worth their salt (see what I did :P) would put a handful of sea salt directly onto an open wound. That is total madness. Also, most tattooers who have some knowledge about what is happening with their equipment will know why tattooing without a medium will bog down your machine and traumatize the skin.
Saline solution in itself, when mild, is completely harmless to humans. I'm not questioning your claim so much as the legitimacy of who was doing it. I think is counterproductive to set standards to subpar practices.
Also, I am not coming from a place of trying to delegitimize or replace laser removal. I don't think it has to be one or the other. I want to know more about saline removal because I think it would be nice to have viable options and alternatives with tattoo removal. For me personally, I would prefer to do something like saline removal on smaller tattoos because it would be easy to sit for, and less painful than laser removal. For larger pieces, I'd probably go the laser route because you can cover more ground in less time.

My opinion, avoid this. It looks similar to Tatt2Away® by Rejuvatek Medical, Inc. (Official Site) | Tatt2Away® Natural Non Laser Tattoo Removal System, which I also don't trust.
Here's the thing. Who out there thinks it makes sense to open up a tattoo (create an open wound) via tattoo machine with no ink in it, then pour salt in it, or use saline (salt water) instead of tattoo pigment? No one. Ask your family doctor what they think about this, and they will tell you the possible side effects, you'll walk away.
It's non-FDA regulated. There's no governing body on how this is to be done, or instructional information. There's nothing saying who is and who isn't doing it right. It's also invasive. Whenever you open up the skin, you are opening yourself up to long term negative effects.

I have heard and people using saline to remove tattoos for some time and have witnessed the procedure a couple of times. Those couple of times I haven't been able to develop an opinion about whether it works better than laser. The first time I saw it happen, it was to try to remove a couple letters in a tattoo that was misspelled, after a couple of sessions the tattooer covered it up with the right letters, secondly was a guy who was trying to get his whole sleeved zapped so he could get a japanese sleeve by someone else. He only did one session, but it removed a good amount of black from the tattoos on his arm, but he still decided to go the laser route, . I am not sure how they use the saline to remove the tattoo, but I saw it done with a coil machine, so methods could be different, but if that is the case one thing to consider is that laser sessions hurt a lot but take a lot less time than having somone go over your whole tattoo with saline, and the process hurt more than being tattooed, so which is really worse?. Like I said this could be a different method with same substance, but that is my insight from what I have seen.

Oh my... Considering that the black portion of tattoo is perfect, it looks like a fierce allergic reaction to red ink.
I have found this:
"Cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) used in red tattoo inks can lead to allergic reactions and scarring. Tsuruta et al. reported a case of a 40-year-old Japanese man with a red tattoo who developed a whole-body rash after eating 250 g of raw swordfish and alfonsino.19 In this case the mercuric tattoo pigments caused the initial sensitization to mercury in the patient, producing a delayed hypersensitivity reaction."
Did you visit a doctor???
I had a contact dermatitis. After aprox 7 days, but it doesn't look like that.
Still it could have been triggered by black ink.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73768496/IMG_7719.JPG
It was itchy. After 4 days of "Betametasona Loratadina" and antistaminics, it started to fade.
All this allergic matter is really underestimated.
If I’ll go trough other tattoo sessions I’ll surely ask for an ink patch test.

You had to sign a disclaimer for your tattoos? Man...this world is changing in a direction I just don't understand.
I grew up on the streets hanging out in biker run shops. It was the old time culture that attracted me to the lifestyle. I couldn't even fathom such a request. If a fella said to me but, Mick, do us a fave will ya mate & don't plaster our work all over FB until such and such, I'de say, no worries mate! That's the only disclaimer I'm used to...a mans word. Not having a shot mate, it's just foreign policy to me that's all. I suppose this is what we call the generation gap, but I'm fuckin' glad I grew up in the generation I did man.
Face tattoos. Never for me either. It took me 28 years to hit my hands solid, and that was only working on the old time aspect of the no hands/ face rule unless already suited.
Cliffe Clayton, my original Tattooer back in The Valley @ High Energy Tattoo in the mid 80's said to me one night when I walked in drunk on my 19th birthday asking him to tattoo my left hand..
"Son, ya might not understand this now, but there's gonna be at least one time in your life, just once that ya wished you were never tattooed, and for that one reason, I don't wanna be the man who made you regret that moment"
Now, I was 19, drunk and replied with the usual "she'll be farrrkin right Cliffe" attitude. But that statement stuck with me all my life, and then there came that day which I understood exactly what he meant to which I silently thanked him for it.
His next words to me went along the lines of, "ya got fuckin' 3 seconds to now get out of my shop c*unt before I punch you out the door"
The second wise bit of advice he gave me that night. :)
But ya know. We're all big boys playing in a big boys arena, and if your decision is to tattoo your face Oz, that's your journey. I'de be interested to see & hear what ya got planned mate.

Greetings everyone!
My name is Sara and I'm italian. I got my first tattoo when I was 18, a Nazca inspired tribal and a japanese ideogram for Raven but I'm working on a design for a cover-up.
A few years ago I got very interested in becoming a tattoo artist and just a few weeks ago I finished a course that gave me the certificate to practice the profession in my country, although I'm looking for an apprenticeship before I ruin someone's skin.
I've joined your forum because I loved the interviews section and I got really curious about your community here.
Thanks for reading :o

I think "it's a tattoo" is a PERFECTLY acceptable answer.
This is not my style of tattoo, but it looks like you can expand on the design and add to it with more flourishes and elements. This might make you feel more satisfied with the total work
I give it 5 more posts before someone recommends a panther skull dagger blast over lol

Why don't you try being upfront about what you want?
Instead of going in, telling whoever that you're just shopping around, then laying it on them that you're scratching, just walk in and say "hey, I've been trying to teach myself to tattoo, and it isn't making it. Is there any chance I could work-in any capacity-here?" People dig honesty, and IDK, I get totally the ass when someone tries to piss in my ear and tell me it's raining.

There are too many contridictions for me to cover them all but I will get to one or two.
First you said that yoy are walking in the shop like anyone shopping for a tattoo but most people don't go in and say I can't wait to learn something from you.
Second you said you don't expect that people are going to be welcoming to a scratcher but you then get hurt over a response as such.

But this isn't work of a scratcher...everything I do is sterile and wrapped up....machine, cord, table, green soap, all that shit gets wiped down and wrapped up. ...yes i am working out of an apartment but not everyone learned in the shop when they began....i walked into the shop like any person shopping for a tattoo would....i was just checking out the spot and getting a feel for one of local spots....nothing wrong with that just like any collector would...maybe i am shopping around for work that i find interesting....i told her i am soaking it all up...tonight i just soaked up something that didn't fit...just thought it was weird response to say i won't tattoo you if you are trying to learn something...shit keep your secrets...i'll will find my own....tattoo me blindfolded i will still learn something...i am not expecting any welcome mat or any applause for my courageness to be a hack...i do good work that i am proud of and my clients are happy with....is all the work fantastic no but its way early and its a long road...namaste

Yeah, don't be a scratcher. Don't be everything that established tattooers who care about their industry hate and expect to be treated like a welcome guest. Our job is to do good work and protect our craft, not pass on bits of information and make you feel welcome or applaud you for having the courage to openly be a hack.

Thanks to everyone who shared their opinions and experiences, reading some of the posts was reassuring for me. I've only been on this forum for a short time but i just want to mention how great i think this forum is, because of all the cool and helpful people here who are willing to share and be respectful. so, i booked time with my tattoo artist to have the work done. he's a talented and respected tattoo artist in SF (i've also seen his name come up a few times on this forum and its always in a positive light), and he knows about the scar and is ok with it. i'm so f-ing excited to get a tattoo by him. the appointment isnt for a while, but maybe if im not too shy i just might post a photo of it here after it's done.

I've been tattooed over a good size scar and the artist said the key is how old it is and that it's turned white I believe. You said yours was 12 years old so it will be no problem.

Oh and as far as getting the actual tattoo. It might hurt a tiny bit more over the scarred area but you probably won't even notice.