Duffa

by Alix Ge https://www.facebook.com/alixgp

@Lance - very, very nice work and welcome to the forum :cool:

Sorry Dan... *leaves with sad puppy look on face*... ;)

I'm still laughing, @dcostello thats my 'call of the week' thus far dude

Can't remember where I found these but they are stoled from the interwebs :D

^^ THIS PLACE LOOKS AWESOME. Can anyone confirm or deny its existence?

^Good advice.

^aaaaaaaaaaaah... only if he buys me dinner first.

I'm not fully sure what this guy is trying to say about himself... I figure if I keep looking long enough I might get it... One thing I can tell straight off the bat is what an upstanding citizen he is ;)

Since I'm on holidays, bored and have a few mother loads of horrible tattoo stashes floating around the interwebs, I figured I'd share some more wonderment. lol enjoy

I'm one of the few people left on earth that don't do facebook so I love looking at artist blogs.

Doesn't it feel great!?! Best Club Ever ;)

@Raskolnikov - that shit above had me in stitches, and slightly concerned lol

Yeah, you guys are pretty cool ;) Seriously though, thanks to everyone who set the forum up, and for everyone that contributes and makes LST what it is. Wish I was in the bay area to actually meet peeps, but alas, Australia is a tad far. One day though... thinking I might have to make a trip to the San Diego convention in the near future...

Here's to the next year and all that follow!

My first tattoo was some kanji. Yes, I can admit it lol. It would have been 12 years ago and I got this in a local biker shop near where I grew up. The place was a classic walk in shop. Flash covering the walls (not the best flash but everything they needed for their clientele) The guys in there where rough as guts, but to their credit the shop was pretty clean... even if they where smoking up a storm in there. I had got it thinking it meant "Good Luck" or "Good Fortune"... I was wrong... (kinda)

As most kids are, I was stoked with it and went around showing my friends and all was going well until I showed my chinese friend Alex. He asked "What's that say?" to which I replied "Good fortune", to which he simply replied "No it isn't." and starts laughing until he's almost in tears. I asked him what it meant and he refused to tell me. He said "if you went and got a tattoo without doing the research then you can live with it". Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

At the time I worked night shift in a internet cafe/online gaming centre which was rarely busy, so for the next 3 nights straight all I did was try and find out want it meant. That and trying to convince Alex to tell me.

Third night, it's 4am and I am loosing my shit. I could find one or the other character but not the two together. (I admit I probably wasn't looking on the best sites but eh).

Anyway, its 4am and this cafe was below a few English language schools in the Brisbane CBD. There weren't may people in there but I noticed that there was one asian guy sitting playing Counter Strike so I walked up, tapped him on the shoulder and just said "excuse me, are you chinese?". Poor dude shit himself (not literally) and cautiously answered "y...yes". "Awesome!", I pulled out the chair next to him, sat down and said "whats this say?" He breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and tried to figure out how to explain it to me. My heart was in my throat thinking the worst all I could think was this is going to be bad - Alex was laughing so hard its going to be really really bad...

The young chinese guy looked up and said "it means 'Better Life'... its a really good symbol. we say it at new year and for luck". My response was "so its a good symbol? its ok??" he smiled and nodded. I was cheering to say the least. I gave him his time for free on the machines, and then went upstairs to see Alex who was working in another shop. And told him what I'd just been told. He looked at me and said "I know. I just wanted you to shit yourself for a little while until you learnt your lesson"

So kids what have we learnt? Your chinese friends can be real assholes sometimes ;)

@RoryQ haha kind of. I have been lucky enough to get over 3 times in the last ten months (thank you Jetstar haha) but that was everything I was able to get done last trip (Hannya second trip, nothing on the first) But i'll either get my ass back over asap or wait until the crew come to Australia next year.

I missed getting work from Chad also when he was here in Brisbane recently at Westside... one day dammit.

@jade1955 - dude, that Dietzel piece from Chad is gorgeous. How long did it take him? (guessing 20mins/half an hour? haha) and your lady got some beautiful work also, very jealous! How did your appointment go today?

@Tim Burke - that wolf is tough, nicely done

I finally got photos of the rest of what I had done in Kyoto, not the best lighting but better than nothing for now :) two more sessions should finish it up me thinks

^^Sorry for the crappy photo but I really like these finger waves and wind bar

@Texkota you asked for it...

@Gregor - gold.

I have found some new contenders people:

^^ The 'cat' (I use the term loosely) looks like it could be from the same artists that brought you the mighty tapeworm as shown to use by @slayer9019 lol

I think @Ursula wins this round.

Not only did @Ursula win the round, she completely dominated! I'm still lol'ing...

Great update @RoryQ! Sounds like you had a blast ;)

I had very similar experiences in regards to my tattoos - kids/young people & older peeps where cool and middle age where mostly indifferent. I should say most elderly people, as going to and from Nara i had a couple of occasions when I had older gentlemen just starring and they didn't seem happy about it. At all. Probably the only time I have ever felt slightly uncomfortable in Japan.

The ladies at the Ukiyo-e Museum in Osaka LOVED my tattoos and we had a really good talk about tattoos and ukiyo-e. (Thankfully I had a Japanese friend to help translate)

Also in Osaka there is a suburb called Ameri-murra (america town) where all the kids get dressed up on Sunday, hang out and hang with the cool kids. I saw the highest concentration of visible tattoos on Japanese peeps here. Nothing to big, but a lot of one spots and more fashionable type tattoos. I did see a guy walking around Kyoto pretty covered, but to be honest I wasn't sure if he was Japanese, he looked Thai...

I know what you mean about taking photos inside studios and not feeling right in posting them. I took a bunch the first time I went to Cat Claw of nothing in particular just the shop and thought nothing of it. My friend mentioned to me outside after i got my Hannya that he didn't take many photos while I was getting tattooed because there was a sign there saying "please don't take photos". Lol, thanks for telling me now!

Either way, Rory, it sounds like you had a kick ass time (as you should!) and glad you made it home safe. I can't wait to get back there and I bet you can't either!! :D

@slayer9019 - ^^ I don't see what's wrong with it? Its one of the best tape worms I've seen! lmao nice find ;)

@Ursula - Congrats!!!!!!

@Johnny - ah, say no more my good man! Preservation of said marriage sounds like the way to go, so hopefully someone from your area will see this thread and be able to give you a heads up on where you should be heading. Good luck my friend, and welcome again.

@Johnny - Hey man welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I can't give recommendations for artists in your area, but what I would suggest is finding the artist you want, the idea of the tattoo you want, get the two together in the same room, AND THEN figure out what the budget will be ;)

Wait until you have the money for what you want, from whom you want it and the end result will be a lot better. Utilise the board as a really good reference for quality images and amazing tattooers and your first tattoo is going to kick some ass!

I give those bugs two thumbs up, Jade.

Buddup Ching!

@RoryQ - cheers mate, I'll get pics up of the second session shortly when I'm not on a friends computer. Hope your enjoying Kyoto as much as I do bro!

@jayessebee - Nice! that looks like it would have been fun ;)

@jade1955 - those tattoos are truly excellent, but those waffles... damn!

Tummy wasnt as bad as I thought. Not pleasant though.

What did you end up getting Dan?

Also

;)

I wasn't going to post these until it was completed, but I thought "fuck it, why not" and now you guys can see how the cover up progresses :cool:

These are the best photos I could get after the first day in Kyoto (6hrs) I still have to get photos of the second day, which completed all the background on the upper arm. Everything is now nearly healed so I'll get some new ones soonish. Apologies for the dodgy photography but I'm pretty sure I was still vibrating haha