Jim Payne

A belated hello LST!
I’ve been posting here for over a year, but I realized that I never did the obligatory introductory post. So here goes...
I’m a female, in my late 50s. I started getting tattooed kind of late, around when I turned 50, when my husband suggested I get a tattoo because he thought it would be attractive. I was reluctant, but finally said “what the heck! It will be an adventure, and he will be happy. I’ll get one, and that will be it.” So I got a well-hidden tattoo. I loved it, and wanted another. I was hooked! I wanted another one, and then more and more. I now have eight, including half sleeves, and I’m thinking about a back piece.
I’m otherwise pretty conventional, and work in a professional business setting, and have something of a mental block about showing my tattoos in public, even though I love, love, LOVE them. Old lessons are hard to unlearn, and I fear being judged or stereotyped. LST folks have given me support, and partly as a result of that, It hink I’m getting to a point where I can more comfortably go public with my ink.
I joined LST because I have no, none, zero, zip friends (except my husband) with whom I can share my tattoo enthusiasm. I really like being part of the tattooed community, among people who are accepting, supportive, and enthusiastic about tattooing, people who “get it,” who know what it is like to feel the needle, understand the near addictive attraction, and have stories and experiences to share. I love to talk about tattoos and tattooing. I love being tattooed, it matters a lot to me. It is an essential part of who I am now, both physically and mentally.
LST is my outlet!

There are a lot of good shops in Minneapolis. Most people here will recommend Aloha Monkey which is a great and reputable shop but not located very well for a visitor as it is out of the way and sort of isolated in suburbia. My favorite shop is Leviticus which is in a great neighborhood in south Minneapolis near Minnehaha Falls and lots of great restaurants. Many people also like Uptown Tattoo which is also in a nice visitor friendly location.
Have fun. I think you will find that this is a pretty great city with wonderful food and a lot to do. Also, you have picked the perfect time to visit. Hopefully some others will chime in on shops they like as there are quite a few around these days.

check out aloha monkey

Hey :)
Well, I have tattoos and I'm also a psychologist. Truth be told, we have an entire chapter to check about how our client looks like, and this of course, includes tattoos. This looks "chapter" is NOT as important as the others, but it is a source of information about our client - and any information we can get is helpful to better understand the client.
Some tattoos have meaning, some don't. We are interested in those with a meaning for the client.
Imagine a woman coming to your office, and she has a portrait tattoo in memory of her dead son. Maybe that's the reason she's there (the death of her son) and you'll want & need to find out more about it, and even if it's not, nonetheless it was an event that shaped your client one way or another.
And what if tattoos could talk? What story would they say? These are very good questions to ask the client once you have established a relation with him. Some people really like to talk about their tattoos!
There's also could be the case when a certain tattoo is related to a gang, to a rite of passage or even has a medical purpose (a tattoo which warns others in case of emergency that you have diabetes or certain allergies etc.) and it's important to find out the symbolism of these because it helps us, as I already said, to better understand the client.
I could go on and on, but the basic idea is that there's nothing wrong with your psychologist wanting to know more about your tattoos :)
P.S. - English is not my native language, so sorry for my mistakes.

Placement is, in my opinion, the hardest thing about tattoos to understand, and it is also often the factor that distinguishes good tattoos from great tattoos. This probably isn't the most satisfying answer, but I think to really understand placement you need to look at real tattoos on people because pictures, especially the tightly cropped Instagram photos that make up most of what we look at these days, really give no sense of placement. Half the time you can't even tell what body part they're on.

Whatever date you get the tattoo...your first at that...will become significant in it's own right.
I got my first tattoo on May 6, 2003...a week after my last university exam, 3 days before my birthday. May 6th is now a really important date for me which I celebrate every year. Just this last May, I broke my 200hr mark on the anniversary of my first tattoo 12 years ago :)

I've actually never heard of the date you get tattooed having special meaning. You should focus more on the artist and the design. If both of those are right, then the day you get tattooed will be special.