exume

I'm holding out for a trip to Liberty Tattoo (Seattle) in July. Probably get something small. A friend has picked up a bunch of pieces from Jake that turned out really strong. Also like Trevor Taylors stuff. So will see what strikes me for a walk-in. 
Other than that I'm holding out until the fall ... want to do a bunch of swimming and sunburnin', it's tattoo off-season right now !

Second this!

I'd go to immaculate in Mesa, you might not see a lot of this type of stuff in their portfolio but everyone at that shop is a solid tattooer and should be able to give you something you would be happy with.
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Lets go with a few more what the heck:
Becca Gene Bacon at The End is Near in Brooklyn with the fish rose morph. Becca is really nice and hit homeruns daily.
Rob Ryan with the Hand of Glory and Mandala Big Cat at Electric in Asbury NJ. Rob is a super fast and as nice as they come.
Steve Boltz with a flying fish at Smith St. in Brooklyn. What a great shop and Steve was filled with great conversation. I thought it was the coolest thing sitting down and having lunch with Steve after the tattoo. Gotta get back to Smith.
Sheila Marcello with this flying lady head on my collarbone. Sheila rocks. Electric in Asbury.
Rob Ryan again at Electric with some fish mandala knee magic.
Lastly I traveled to Maryland to the Wheaton Tattoo Paradise shop to get this fiery eyed lady from Chad Koeplinger on his 50 state tour. Got to meet a lovely LST member as well. A blast of a day (though way too much of it was spent in a car lol).
Anyway - love these picture heavy threads with cool tattoos so...lets keep going.

I'd go to immaculate in Mesa, you might not see a lot of this type of stuff in their portfolio but everyone at that shop is a solid tattooer and should be able to give you something you would be happy with.
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I'd go to immaculate in Mesa, you might not see a lot of this type of stuff in their portfolio but everyone at that shop is a solid tattooer and should be able to give you something you would be happy with.
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I had a consultation with Yutaro at Seven Doors Tattoo today and put down the deposit for Japanese cranes on my arm! He wants to do another consultation, which includes drawing on me, about 10 days before we start tattooing in two months. I love that he's taking the time to check how the idea works on my body before he draws up the actual stencil. Very excited now!

@jdberetta, dude, you're being a dick. Just stop. You feel very strongly about this product (for some weird reason) and other people feel very strongly in the other direction. Such is the nature of forums. No need for sarcasm or petulance. 

I agree with the majority that this product is stupid. Tattoos have always been permanent. If you can't handle the idea of it being permanent, maybe you shouldn't even be entertaining the notion of tattoos. This idea just exudes entitlement. You want to be able to say you're tattooed without living with it. It's spitting in the face of everyone who suffered for their tattoos (being judged, ostracized, etc) and everyone who grew old with their tattoos and lived in them. It's disrespecting the entire history of tattooing. I firmly believe that everyone who gets tattooed should suffer in some way throughout their lives because of it. You suffer to get it, and you deal with the negative consequences that come with being tattooed. I'm not saying non-tattooed people should be spitting on us everyday or anything, I like how the population has warmed up to them some and made it at least a little more acceptable. But you SHOULD encounter at least a handful of people in your life that negatively judge you for being tattooed or hate you for how you look: those are learning opportunities everyone in life should know how to deal with, it teaches you about the concept of sacrifice, and they give you a chance to learn to love yourself in spite of what others might say. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from this Ephemeral crap on that nearly spiritual level because there are no consequences.

And jdberetta mentioned people getting tattoos lasered off as being similar to this: it really isn't. That costs time and money and is (allegedly) more painful than getting the tattoo done. Most of the time, the best you can get with lasering is just getting it light enough to get covered. It's not an easy way out like temporary tattoos are.

I hope most artists (and people getting tattooed) laugh people out of the building coming to get this done. It's just so wimpy, WAY more wimpy than just saying "Hey, tattoos aren't my thing, I don't ever want to get one."

I'd go to immaculate in Mesa, you might not see a lot of this type of stuff in their portfolio but everyone at that shop is a solid tattooer and should be able to give you something you would be happy with.
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I haven't been getting tattooed much lately because I've been focused on one big piece for the past several months. I expect more traditional one shots in my near future! But here's what I've got so far when it comes to traditional style tattoos, and a little background on each:

Eagle and rose by Brian Via at Golden Ages in Lancaster, PA. I wanted something to represent my parents (still alive, not a memorial!). Brian is super laid back and the whole shop is really talented.


Also done by Brian, picked off his wall of things he wanted to tattoo. My first skull and not the last.


Butterfly done by Antonio Roque in Frederick, MD. Really cool guy especially considering he's kind of "Instagram famous" with over 50k followers...easy to book with, charged me actually way less than he should have (and got a big tip as a result), and no ego at all.


Panther and rose by Chad Koeplinger when he came through DC. He's one of my artistic idols and I was kind of star struck to meet him. Fun guy to talk to and I was amazed at his speed (this took less than 2 hours, including all the time we spent talking about movies). But wow does he hurt like no one's business! I wanted him to do this spot (inner bicep) to get it over with as quick as possible, but he's pretty brutal! Anyway, I asked him for a panther and rose and said he could do whatever he wanted with those subjects, so I got my whole inner arm blasted with this.

Here's the lowdown: this weekend my wife and I are heading to Denver to see The Cure, a band I haven't seen since 1987, and then we are each getting tattoos from Destroy Troy at Til Death. Any advice on how to survive the next three work days is appreciated. 

I went to one of those last year and had a great time! I was talking to the guys a week later and they said they put on 50+ tattoos that day! Missed it this year but it was fun.
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I guess my biggest one is just seeing some of the shit that pops up on my Facebook news feed from my friends getting tattooed. I have a friend who just got her first and was extremely proud of it. It's a tribal butterfly that isn't even symmetrical. Like, not even close. How do you even screw that up? Just draw half of it and then fold the paper over! It was a bad concept, badly drawn, and badly applied. It blows my mind to see otherwise intelligent people I know just losing their minds when it comes to tattoos. Tattoos don't HAVE to look bad, you know! And in this day and age, when you can look up thousands of tattooers on Facebook, Instagram, etc and get a feel for what can be accomplished. I just legitimately don't understand.

Ultimately people can do what they want and good for them for being proud of what they get. I just hope that they'll see the error of their ways soon for my own selfish reasons because I want good tattoos cluttering my news feed, not shitty ones. 

I'm going to try to head in to a local shop's anniversary party on June 11th. It's all flash drawn specifically for that event so I'm going to go check it out and see if anything catches my eye. It benefits a local animal charity, so I'm telling myself it's my duty to get a new tattoo just a couple weeks after finishing another. 

Finally finished this huge thigh piece a few days ago, loosely based on the cover for one of my favorite metal albums! Pictures taken a couple hours after when I was still ridiculously red and swollen. I'll be sure to post better pics once it's done peeling. Done by Sam Warren at Dreams Collide in Lancaster, PA. 

Pic from the front/side:


From the back:

Finished my lower leg with Grez at King's Ave NYC. He added the (bloody and swollen) lighthouse and ROA piece to go along with the clipper ship from Russ Abbott.  I couldn't be happier with how he was able to tie it all together. Sorry for the giant pic, I'll post healed shots in a couple of weeks, there's a video on my IG: wedge45.

 

My tattoos that like the best are the ones where I gave the vaguest ideas to my tattooer! I'd say don't worry so much about the specifics of the art - but it's your tattoo so whatever it takes for you to love it, go for it.
Who the tattooer should be and where on your body they go are both pretty important though :) 

I agree. I know I started off with some really bad tattoos and I'm sure I'm not the only one. That is one good thing that came from me spending all of my younger money on booze and drugs is that I did not get more bad tattoos than I did. Then I had kids to raise so when they grew up and i could spend money on myself again I had learned what good tattoos are and can be and now I have some fantastic pieces. 
I know the person  with the tattoos didn't start the thread. And I'm not sure that I see tattoo shaming in any better light than slut shaming (or any shaming for that matter (except Trump shaming, that is totally legit)), but I think any opportunity for tattoo education can help people. 
I wore some godawful tattoos for over 20 years so if I can be a part of helping someone to not go through that I think that is a good thing. 

so these are some cool salt & pepper shakers my wife bought for me when we were on Maui.
We travel a lot and always stop by the tattoo shops and check them out,one in Lahaina had these for sale.
http://midpacifictattoo.com/

That may very well be, but I would much rather try to contribute to a culture here that educates people about good tattoos and gives them the knowledge and resources to get those tattoos than I would just dismiss people because they have shitty tattoos and don't deserve better.  If I have nice tattoos it's because people were kind and generous to me when I didn't know a thing, on this forum and in the shops I've been tattooed in, and I would like to pay that forward.

kinda got this idea recently that I want to get tattooed in as many states as possible - I guess meeting Chad during his 50 state tour sparked something in me - anyway - I'll be hitting state #4 next week when I go to philly and as far as I can tell - I could hit 11 (counting DC) pretty easily just by car - getting tattooed by tattooers that I like in shops that I want to visit - will I carry through on this? i dont know maybe - I mean part of me says I could just get covered in Rob Ryan tattoos and be completely happy - but I also like a little bit the adventure of traveling and meeting new tattooers and seeing new shops - to be continued i guess

I've been busy recently! First up I got this really cute cat and umbrella from Wendy Pham at Brighton Tattoo convention. I've been after this piece of flash for years so happy he's now mine! 
Next up (and also at Brighton), I got the side of my knee done by  Jody Dawber. This was the most painful tattoo I have ever got. I was whimpering like a baby (and I usually never make a fuss). I had to dig deep to get through it! Thank god she's fast.  
And last but not least, my latest addition (again on the side of the knee) from my super talented co-worker Lucy O Connell. Had my eye on this babe for well over a year, so happy to finally give her a home. 

I've now been thinking of ideas for a 2nd layer...considering a black panther blastover squinched between the Dragon Eyes, incorporating the arcs into the flow so they aren't completely lost. Salty Walt did a cosmic panther recently also @Graeme posted an old Devita painting of a panther which both illustrate the vision I had in my head. Also thinking of a bright lemon yellow burst behind the falcon.
I'm not in a rush to mess with my front though. What do you cats think? Too crazy?

@CABSWell, I'm glad you're back.

Yeah, I came crawling back to the Instagram because of 1) good friends of mine asking me nicely to come back and 2) boredom at the Long Beach Airport because TSA is a breeze and I miscalculated my timing.
I told myself "no more tattoos for awhile" and obviously that didn't work out. But I'm going to make another attempt at a sabbatical after June. We'll see how that goes.
Just finished this yesterday. And thankfully no one was around to watch me die except Jason.