Gingerninja

@Boiled Dove Hahaha...I always recruit people to Tegaderm me. I now have my "regulars" who laugh at me (I buy them drinks or dinner which seems to help). Even with the derm, my last few have healed scabbier and slower. Thankfully, I just had bloodwork done so I know that at least the heal isn't something else. Your torch by Chad is amazing!!

Dig the piece by Bobby Trefz. And I almost bought those Docs!

@DJDeepFried Man, that sucks. I was hoping that the tides had turned and the courts would rule differently. The Olympics are going to be very interesting in 2020 when the world's athletes and tourists arrive all tatted up.

@UKMisfit3 Fingers crossed that you continue to have (mostly) pain-free experiences. How big are your rib piece(s)? Multiple sessions? My ribs only bothered me for the last 30 minutes of my sessions which were (2) fours on the left and (1) four hour on the right. Those last 30 minutes were excruciating.

I don't know what's up with my body but the last couple of tattoos have scabbed like never before. The back of my thigh is healing albeit a lot slower than other places. It's driving me batty! It's not itchy just scabby..

@Emil That is super cool!!

Have you considered going BIG? Like a complete stomach piece?

Aw, what a lovely story! Thank you for sharing. I love stuff like this. :)

Very nice, @oboogie! I'm surprised it isn't wearing a pair of rad glasses. :)

Welcome. Your photo rules! Where was that taken? How did she react to your tattoo? That's so cool!!

@Mr_Spaghetti I saw your Grez piece on the interwebs. Damn, it's soooo good.

Yep, looks totally normal! Remember that it can take a couple of months before you fully heal. Don't pick at it and let your body do it's healing thing. As long as it's not red and hot (i.e., infected) you should be good to go!

OMG...I'd totally spam this thread if I posted all my new tattoos since March. LOL.

+1 @Boiled Dove and @oboogie Sending light and hugs!

And I got this over the weekend from Henry Big. OH.MY.GOD. how I love it! Lots of hidden images. :)

Ask your Dom.

So many people were at RF this weekend. The photos look amazing. What was your favorite part of the weekend? Did you do any aftershows? @Boiled Dove

Ha! True that. @SStu

Hey there! Welcome to the forum. Quick question - do you plan on staying with one artist or collecting pieces from a bunch of people? Both traditional and Japanese have a ton of common imagery (re: daggers, panthers, roses, tigers, shishsi, peonies, demons). I suggest finding a few artists from each style then start looking at what they are doing. Look at the people that THEY are following. Go to tattoo conventions. If you see pieces that resonate with you, ask who did the piece. You'll need to decide for yourself if you like negative space between the different pieces. The cool thing with Japanese style is that fingerwaves, clouds and rocks always are the perfect fillers. Where do you live?

Where did the latest tattoo lowdown thread go? Anyway, this past weekend was Ocktoberfest at Old Soul in Canonsburg, PA. It's a cool event where the shop invites a whole bunch of artists (like 60'ish) for the weekend. Some by appointment, some by walk-in. The trick is that everyone is queued up for a table/space to work since the shop has maybe 12 stations. The Old Souls guys have it running like clockwork...superiorly organized. You still have to wait but with the festival outside in the street and karaoke going on inside, the time flies by in no time. Nate Hudak made this for me on Saturday. He has a super light hand and is fast. Back of the left thigh.

I had the back of my upper thigh done yesterday about an inch below the butt crease and didn't even feel it. So thankful!

@Hogrider Ha! Yeah, you have a small amount of red going. :)

Hi Helen, You need to keep calm and communicate with your artist. Your artist (at least most artists) want to do a great job and have satisfied customers! Sounds like there was a breakdown somewhere along the line. Good healthy communication will go a long way to sorting it out. Maybe call the shop?

As an FYI, I have had bumps in my tattoos that lasted for 3+ months. They went away.