LizBee

@LizBee Great Stuff!

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Ah feck it, here have a fresh pic of my new tattoo. 
On 2nd October I got this tattooed. A Honda CB Twin Motorcycle, with Giger style touches.  Tattooed in memory of biker friends who recently passed. 
Tattooed by Tommygunn at Belfast City Skinworks, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Fresh pic (taken 4 Oct 17)
 

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Brand new shoulderblade piece, 4 days old. Inspired by the cedar waxwing, my favorite bird, and my grandma's pansies (she would have been 120 years old on Friday!) Tattoo by Darcy Nutt at the Richmond convention, blending in beautifully with her previous work the past two years on my SA cichlid/floral half-sleeve. I'm definitely one of Darcy's "nuts"
P.S. All of Darcy's tattoos are free hand

Me too. My 6.5 hour session required someone bring me a sip of sumpthin, but otherwise there is chat and mental relaxation techniques, and time is up before you know it. I discovered early on that when I tried to look at my phone or listen to music I had a harder time than just laying back and zoning out/accepting the sensation.
 

Update:  Redness and swelling all gone now (started improving last night, 48 hours after) and I emailed my artist, who assured me that this can happen in the upper inner arm, especially after having been worked on for so long. Now the tattoo is healing normally under my trusty layer of Tegaderm (that has been on the whole time, since a few hours after getting it done) and we're back to what I'm used to.
My poor boss (a surgeon - we see so much MRSA and other difficult infections) was CERTAIN I had a terrible infection and was terrified for me yesterday, insisting I start antibiotics, but I reassured him, and now he can see it is fine. Cool thing is he's getting an education about healing tattoos from me, since he has zero understanding about any of it, lol. 

Inner bicep/pit area done last night to complete upper arm sleeve. 3.5 hrs or so and pretty much murder, done at a convention, but I knew this location sucks, and I took it like the boss I am, lol. Tattoos hurt, and that's all there is to it.
Trouble sleeping from the residual pain, and today my upper inner arm is swollen, red, and hot to the touch. I've never had any of my tattoos react this way, but this is a very sensitive area and I think that's all it is. Tegaderm on board, and I'll get there! 
The whole upper arm is now connected and it almost looks like it was done at the same time, not a year apart. #worthit #conventionartiststalker

I actually found my artist telling me, "almost done!" or "just another 10 minutes..." to be less helpful than intended, because it never wound up being what I interpreted to be the predicted amount of time. If nothing was said at all I would have much preferred it, and would have been less cranky, lol. I also agree with @Synesthesia, and prefer as few breaks as possible. Fortunately, the artists I have worked with thus far have required remarkably few breaks, if any, and I didn't, so the starting back up again after a break was minimized. Just power through, please....

I actually found my artist telling me, "almost done!" or "just another 10 minutes..." to be less helpful than intended, because it never wound up being what I interpreted to be the predicted amount of time. If nothing was said at all I would have much preferred it, and would have been less cranky, lol. I also agree with @Synesthesia, and prefer as few breaks as possible. Fortunately, the artists I have worked with thus far have required remarkably few breaks, if any, and I didn't, so the starting back up again after a break was minimized. Just power through, please....

I'm curious about this too. I have had a 6.5 hour session as my longest, and it honestly wasn't bad until about the last 45 minutes when I started to really have to concentrate on keeping myself in my zone. It was at a convention and I was sitting in a folding metal chair, so not even close to ideal circumstances, but my artist lives across the country from me, and this was the time - either sit or not finish the work at all until next year. Breathing was really the thing that helped the most. This time I found that when my husband, my best friend in the whole world, was there sitting with me, I couldn't concentrate on getting to my proper place very well, and I did much better when he wasn't there. 
My most recent work was only about 3.5 hours (I thought it was 3, my husband, who was waiting for me, said it was 4, so I'm splitting the difference - it could NOT have taken that long!) and was on my inner bicep and this was way more uncomfortable, and I'd trade it for the 6.5-hour session any day. I pretty much had to concentrate the whole time. This time I was lying down on a nice, cushy massage table, but I was still at a convention. Overall the environment was much better. However, this time, shorter but more painful overall, I needed my husband there to offer support, and it was easier to zone out and count the dots in the acoustic ceiling tiles, lol. 
I'm interested in how the folks do it when they're being worked on for hours and hours by two artists, say, or, like you, @Charles.M, for a super long session, where your body starts to betray you. As a 50-year-old female who has had her share of babies and made it through various injuries and painful experiences, I feel like I'm pretty stoic, but I don't know how I'd handle some of the tattooing sessions I have seen others endure. 

Every session of my thigh piece got worse somehow. I did about 7 hours for lining and that sucked, but things were just downhill from there. The last session we did was some more background and touching up and was only maybe 2 or 3 hours, but I was spent by the end. I'm sure some of it was psychological from all the other painful sessions and some of it was just being in bad physical shape (not eating enough, not enough sleep, etc). I find there isn't really a "trick" to getting past the wall, you just have to make yourself do it and do your best to prolong the wall by being prepared...because with a long enough session, it will come, it's inevitable. About the only advice I can offer (it's true for me, anyway) is to try not to take a lot of breaks because it's always worse coming back into it after the adrenaline wears off and your skin has some more time to process all the irritation it's going through.

I'm curious about this too. I have had a 6.5 hour session as my longest, and it honestly wasn't bad until about the last 45 minutes when I started to really have to concentrate on keeping myself in my zone. It was at a convention and I was sitting in a folding metal chair, so not even close to ideal circumstances, but my artist lives across the country from me, and this was the time - either sit or not finish the work at all until next year. Breathing was really the thing that helped the most. This time I found that when my husband, my best friend in the whole world, was there sitting with me, I couldn't concentrate on getting to my proper place very well, and I did much better when he wasn't there. 
My most recent work was only about 3.5 hours (I thought it was 3, my husband, who was waiting for me, said it was 4, so I'm splitting the difference - it could NOT have taken that long!) and was on my inner bicep and this was way more uncomfortable, and I'd trade it for the 6.5-hour session any day. I pretty much had to concentrate the whole time. This time I was lying down on a nice, cushy massage table, but I was still at a convention. Overall the environment was much better. However, this time, shorter but more painful overall, I needed my husband there to offer support, and it was easier to zone out and count the dots in the acoustic ceiling tiles, lol. 
I'm interested in how the folks do it when they're being worked on for hours and hours by two artists, say, or, like you, @Charles.M, for a super long session, where your body starts to betray you. As a 50-year-old female who has had her share of babies and made it through various injuries and painful experiences, I feel like I'm pretty stoic, but I don't know how I'd handle some of the tattooing sessions I have seen others endure. 

The only time I have ever felt like tapping out was the first shading session on my ribs. After having it lined out for the first session and being complimented on how well I was sitting by the artist and the shop manager I think my ego got inflated a tad bit. My next session was scheduled for three hours and it was time for shading! Going in I didn't have a good night sleep and due to traffic I wasn't able to get a solid meal in beforehand but still fetl pretty confident I'd be okay. The majority of the work was along the bottom part of the ribs and lower part of the stomach/oblique. The first 2.5 hours sucked but I was able to get thru it and then I hit that proverbial wall. Once that I happened it didn't feel like I was getting tattooed anymore but rather carved with a knife very slowly. I was so close to saying "fuck it" and cutting the session short but I was able to pull through and finish. Somehow hearing that I had only "ten minutes left" when I had about three times that had helped me out greatly. 

Finished my upper arm this weekend at the Richmond convention with the (holdout) inner bicep area. Thanks, @darcynutt! She did the outer/shoulder portion of it last year at the convention, and I booked her Saturday to go ahead and finish all the way around. She made it look like it was all done at the same time, and I'm thrilled. She once again used my own aquarium fish in the design. 

Update:  Redness and swelling all gone now (started improving last night, 48 hours after) and I emailed my artist, who assured me that this can happen in the upper inner arm, especially after having been worked on for so long. Now the tattoo is healing normally under my trusty layer of Tegaderm (that has been on the whole time, since a few hours after getting it done) and we're back to what I'm used to.
My poor boss (a surgeon - we see so much MRSA and other difficult infections) was CERTAIN I had a terrible infection and was terrified for me yesterday, insisting I start antibiotics, but I reassured him, and now he can see it is fine. Cool thing is he's getting an education about healing tattoos from me, since he has zero understanding about any of it, lol. 

Same. Not looking forward to getting the line work. But can't wait either.


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Wow, thanks for the honest responses everyone, I wasn't expecting this!  After giving it some serious thought I've decided to leave well enough alone. You're all right, I am over analyzing this. Maybe it's because I've got some sh*t going on right now that's giving me a lot of stress, plus I've always been like this, over analyzing things and having unrealistic expectations. And while I'm still not sure about returning to the same shop, I really do want to continue collecting. But next time I will put more though into design and placement, and when I'm sure of what I want I'll give it even more thought. I look forward both to getting more tattoos and to sharing them on here with you guys. Thanks .

Finished my upper arm this weekend at the Richmond convention with the (holdout) inner bicep area. Thanks, @darcynutt! She did the outer/shoulder portion of it last year at the convention, and I booked her Saturday to go ahead and finish all the way around. She made it look like it was all done at the same time, and I'm thrilled. She once again used my own aquarium fish in the design. 

Finished my upper arm this weekend at the Richmond convention with the (holdout) inner bicep area. Thanks, @darcynutt! She did the outer/shoulder portion of it last year at the convention, and I booked her Saturday to go ahead and finish all the way around. She made it look like it was all done at the same time, and I'm thrilled. She once again used my own aquarium fish in the design. 

Finished my upper arm this weekend at the Richmond convention with the (holdout) inner bicep area. Thanks, @darcynutt! She did the outer/shoulder portion of it last year at the convention, and I booked her Saturday to go ahead and finish all the way around. She made it look like it was all done at the same time, and I'm thrilled. She once again used my own aquarium fish in the design.