Lance

@TrixieFaux I need to get on my game and try to get a monmon cat. Otherwise I can't maintain my rep as a crazy cat person. Cheers @TrixieFaux! Looks STELLAR on you!

Yes! Yes, you of all here, need to get a monmon cat. Especially with that cool cat of yours. One day!

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@TrixieFaux, awesome cat! I think it'd be cool now if you one day get one of Tomo to match. Black cat on one side and white on the other. And c'mon your cat's name is Tomo! How cool is that?

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@BrianH, French bulldog Monmons! What a great idea! Oh dang!!!

My deepest sympathies @Colored Guy. I'm so sorry for your and your family's loss.

Holy Crap @TrixieFaux!!! What a frightening experience to have. I'm glad you were there to get him away from the outlet and @DJDeepFried was able to get him help quick! Sounds like good news, he's home and doing well. Phew!

On a lighter note now, I truly hope when you see your monmon cat design tomorrow, it will have Raijin swooping about banging on drums with lightning bolts being tossed everywhere. I mean with that story, how could it not?

I botched it, guys. I thought I picked an image that didn't have a 13 on it so I didn't even worry about it. Didn't see the 13 in the smoke til after the tattoo. And...I'm...not...new...at...this.

But whatev, it's a cool tattoo. Pic shortly.[ATTACH]10878[/ATTACH]

The artist drew "15" wrong :-)

@mmikaoj, that is amazing. I have my back tattooed but it's nothing compared to what I imagine you went through or will be going through. 2 guys tattooing at once. I can't. I just can't. And all those long lines too. Cheers to you!

but perhaps that part of the problem, soooo much to choose from :)

Ha! I guess that’s part of the problem. There ARE so many options. Let’s not even start my munewari vs. chest piece/torso decision process. My back piece is of a historical Warlord from the 1500s. I once remarked to Jill Bonny, the artist I go to, that if I had chosen a specific mythological story, it would have been easy to figure out what else could work to pair with it. Got “Benkei” on my back, then “Yoshitsune” would be a natural pairing on the front, right? She in turn pointed out that by not doing so I actually freed myself to pick pretty much from everything.

I did talk with Jill though. I originally wanted *2 other specific samurai , munewari style, since the figure on my back is popularly known as the first of a trio who consolidated the lands under 1 rule. She didn’t dig it. She likes the image of Nobunaga to stand strong on its own, rather than have other samurai dilute it. Makes sense but I still have that idea stuck in my head to some degree.

She mentioned I did have a theme going for me. I have water elements on my lower body, and as you move up transitions to earth, then air elements. Also I have a “real life” theme going on with the back portion of my body. I have a koi on the back of my right leg. Namakubi on my back thighs and bum, and Oda Nobunaga on my back. She also pointed out I have “mythological” stuff on my arms so why not have the back/ back legs have “real” things and arms/torso have mythical things.

With that I’ve thought perhaps tengu as it relates to warrior aspects that play off the back piece although there is no direct story link between tengu and nobunaga like there is with Yoshitsune and tengu. I’m being too anal about that. Or tennyo to completely disassociate and contrast things like the real vs mythical and brutal warrior vs heavenly messenger. I do already have yin yang monmon cats on my feet, and dragons and ho-o are yin yang-ish pairings as well. There’s Fujin/Raijin as a potential too. Or there are Buddhist deities/Myo-o figures. Shinto ones too. I’m neither Buddhist nor Shinto so I'm not intimately familiar with subjects from that source. I’ve been thinking mainly in terms of finding stories to depict or guardians/deities or human-like figure oni types. Hannya may actually work, not the mask, but the creature. Perhaps creatures like a baku will work too if I can't find a 2 legged subject.

Thanks for the suggestions @DevilMan & @misterJ. Anyone else, keep ‘em coming as I know I think too much and am being too anal about wanting things to relate. Or PM me since I don’t want to de-rail things too much. I am grateful though. I’d like to get this dang thing started by Fall, but if I can’t decide I’ll wait. No use rushing. Thanks again.

I just got back from another fun-filled session. 3 hours of stabbing on and around my spine....fun fun fun :)

This time a lot more black went in (coat and bow mostly), a bunch of purple in the coat and bow and some pink in the Kitsune's feet.

I have another 2 sessions planned (in 2 weeks, and the last one in 4 weeks), and the piece should be done then! :cool:

I love the legibility and solid colors in this! A LOT!! I've really found myself liking the less detail cluttered Japanese stuff these days. Like ones you see in books from +30 years ago and older photos from the early 1900s. The clarity of the subject is very powerful.

These posts really inspire me to begin work on my torso soon, but I'm still wracking my brain trying to figure out what to get. As an aside if anyone has suggestions on what works with a samurai/namakubi backpiece and dragon/ho-o sleeves by all means feel free to shout out. Suggestions more than welcome.

@beez, Friday the 13th tattoos are so passé. Now, Sunday the 15th tattoos are where it's at. Be a rebel ;-)

This completely flies in the face of all the talk of sobriety here, but it looks like I'm going to be teaching a course on beer tasting in the fall.

Sir! I salute you!

Damn @semele, that thing is so legible I can read it from a few states over. Did Grez run out of black ink after finishing? Stunning work. I tip my hat off to you.

Who's gonna be the first to get a monmon cat backpiece?

I don't know if the guy is on here or not but I actually recollect seeing someone on IG getting a monmon cat back piece with a Fudo Myo-o back piece. Yeah, it was pretty jaw dropping incredible.

Congratulations Trixiefaux! Awesome news.

<<< Japanese ;-)

@Eilin, you are the envy of Last Sparrow! That monmon, crazy good in itself, but paired with your panther is amazeballs!

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A little in-progress shot my wife posted on Instagram of the peony on her elbow from Martin Lacasse at Olde City Tattoo. You can see the back of the snake as well. That's also the first peony that bloomed in our yard this spring.

Here's an in-progress shot he posted of the snake. From @lacassetattoo.

Finally, here's the ditch peony.

Those colors are amazing! It almost tempts me to switch away from black & gray ;-)

Seriously though, those are great!

Dang! I may change my mind. I just might go despite the price. I found out Hiroshi Hirakawa from Three Tides is releasing a book at the convention. I love that guy's paintings!

This is how I'll think of Seattle now.

But I still love the weather there. Vitamin D deprivation and pasty skin and all.

@TrixieFaux, Horitomo! Horitomo! Horitomo! Can't wait to see it.

Hey Everyone. I'm heading up to Ink-n-Iron next weekend. This will be my first time at this one. Looks like fun. Anyone going, tattooing, or getting tattooed?

I probably won't attend since I don't know the artists attending this year, but it usually has a decent list of people. As @ian pointed out, it's pretty expensive if all you're interested in is checking out the tattoo portion. By the time you factor in entry, parking, and food you've spent a lot of money doing nothing. If you're getting tattooed it's fantastic just for that reason alone though. Slightly better too, because they refund some of the fee back to you. If it's your first time, you'll have fun though because it's a very visual thing with all the characters, art, cars, etc. take it all in and enjoy it. It's kind of a been there done that kind of thing. Do it once have fun and you're good.

Again, like Ian said, the Bay Area convention is just a few months after and personally the money spent on flights and hotel rooms to go to that instead is worth every penny if you've never been or even if you've attended every one. It's a not flashy but for it's size has the absolute best artists attending it.

Talking out of my ass because it's not a thing one can simply decide to do out of the blue, but going to this years London Convention will probably be awesome! That's got some of the flash of INI in that it has performers but who really cares about that stuff. That show also has some of the best artists attending. This year will be insane since it's the 10th anniversary. That's a convention worth saving up for. Also it's in LONDON, so that doesn't hurt.

2nd tattoo completed this past friday by brian bruno, richmond, va

Sorry for the not-so-good phone picture quality...

Man, that is so good! Congratulations on your second. Not an easy area to get it too.

Congratulations @TrixieFaux! Absolutely beautiful tattoo.

I was bored, and I Googled "forehead koi tattoo."

The Tale of the Carp Transforming to A Dragon - General Chinese Culture - China History Forum, Chinese History Forum

: Koi Fish Legend?? TattooNOW :

I'm not really convinced by either of these, although I bet the second one is closer. It's probably related to the Buddhist concept of the third eye.

I see this Buddha Eyes (Wisdom Eyes) Symbol - ReligionFacts used in Jondix's work a lot. I've seen similar symbols in Japanese tattoos.

Thanks! I figured it had to do with enlightenment or a Buddhist philosophy or some such.

I agree though, I think there's something funny about some of what the descriptions say. There are a few contradictions I think. I'm sure there are more than a few depictions on people too, where even the artist didn't really know what it represented and mixed elements up unintentionally and just added it in because they'd seen it somewhere and thought it was cool. Not that it would bother most. It really just bugs me because I like learning about the stories and little details like that and it drives me nuts not understanding.

I haven't had a chance to fully read it yet ( because it's 12am and I'm getting tired and lazy) but it looked interesting and runs along a related line to this post:

BBC News - Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos

@BrianH, you should be able to get both feet done at the same time. Afterwards, just do the obvious. Relax, keep them raised, and don't run around too much. Also "white willow" capsules were recommended to me and it seemed to work in reduce a lot of the swelling.

Ahhh, good ol Neutrogena! A few years ago my friends temporarily nicknamed me "SPF 100", when I brought a bottle of Neutrogena spf100+, with us on a wedding/vacation to Maui. I was the only one to bring sunblock and also the only one who didn't bring board shorts. I have an extreme distaste for direct sunlight and tanning. I'm paranoid of turning into a walking handbag. ;-)

Since Horitomo posted my arms on Instagram I thought I should share them here. All shading is done. Next session color begins!

I thought that was you. Congratulations on the progress thus far. They look absolutely amazing! I hope to see them in person next Convention. Have you begun tying in your back piece background with it yet?