Cork

Look's great @Mush and @Graeme. Chugging along! Isn't it crazy how a little background really makes the image jump out.

I just went with a plain white sheet fabric. Now it looks like a rainbow though. Mostly red.

There is a lot of stuff if you just search #mikeroper on instagram. People seem to have been tagging stuff for a while.

Thanks to the internet and places like this, my first was pretty damn good and they've only gotten better. If it weren't for the internet, I would not have been so lucky. I started getting tattooed at 26, so I had a little more wisdom and focus on what I wanted. My first was my chest oni by Dave Fox that is in my gallery, and avatar.

I like this, but not I'm not going "like" this. Jerk. And look at all that open space around it, what an amateur.

I will forever recall the video of Oliver Peck getting his hand tattooed by Hooper. So funny. Imagine Mick jumping around like that.

@DragonFanSa Ah I see what kind of situation you're in now. The guy seems to have taken some liberty with poor choices. I'm sure it can be fixed and turned in to something you are proud of. I'm not sure I would return to the original artist. He has already made some poor decisions, you can't be sure he won't make more.

I don't know, you wanted a water color skyline and then you say it looks muddy? That's what you asked for. Throwing in random blue dotted lines would confuse the whole thing. Instead of trying to have so much control over it, why don't you get your artists opinion on what he would do. I'm not sure why you would give him a reference picture of cotton candy coming out of a volcano and then be angry at the result.

Love handle? Mine bruised like crazy too. Looks great!

If I were in your shoes, I would try to truly understand why your mom hates them so much. She hates them just because they are trashy? It must be more than that for her to act so serious about it. I'd sit my mom down with a bottle of alcohol, and I would force a clean answer out of her (my mom prefers avoidance of issues). And you have to ask the right questions too. This might seem silly but root cause analysis is a valuable life tool, use the "5 Whys". "Why don't you like tattoos?", "In your mind, what makes them trashy?" I'm not going to role play this whole thing out, but I hope you get the idea. Then explain your side, why you like tattoos, how tattooing in this day and age is very different than tattooing in hers, etc. In my own experience, I see a lot of it come from pressure from our parents own peers. If your mom's friends hate tattoos, then that makes her look horrible as a mother that she raised some miscreant that likes tattoos that would embarrass her in front of her friends. You have to see it from her side. If you were on her side of the fence, what would it take to change your mind? I can tell you, sure as shit, if I were to go to the beach with my mom, she would immediately be fearful of what the people around us would think about my tattoos. She can't help it, she is a mother. She wants all her kids to be seen in a respectful light, and that is her opinion of what respectful means. My older brother rocks a mohawk. It looks good. My mom hates it and it embarrasses the hell out of her because her friends see her son with a mohawk and she feels ashamed.

Haha, well done @daveborjes! Inside the cheeks is the best.

My brother has a tattoo on his shoulder of a tattered american flag behind a battlefield cross, with text that says "Freedom isn't Free"

I finally get to give this a shot! Dana Helmuth, 95% completed at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore, the rest done in his private studio.

Those wind bars need more black! Looks fine otherwise.

Great tattoo for an awesome movie.

Drew Flores is pretty bold.

Graeme looks about exactly how I pictured. Grats on your peonies @Pugilist, they look lovely.

Holy shit, kudos to you! Tough as nails.

@Graeme @Mick Weder @ironchef Thanks guys. It was only semi bittersweet, he sent me home with a print, a shirt, and a black light poster. Beware December Tattoo of the Month Contest, haha. It's too late in the game to try and take it away from that amazing Lehi piece on Wilhell.

It's done. It's actually done. The last session was the worst one I've had to endure. Major touch ups to the wind bars/clouds, double lining, basically every soft spot got hit in one day. By the end I was definitely spent, but so stoked. Dana was very pleased with how this came out, and that makes me happy too. He wants me to show up to the Baltimore or Philly conventions and do the back piece contest. This took a year and a half, and it was an amazing experience.

Sorry no pics. I got a chance to look through a pile of Dana's secret stash of Roper pics, some are pretty good. I also got a chance to scroll through Bloodwork Bodies. Man, that book is amazing. The green dragon is in the book, I had to steal a clean pic for you guys. Not to mention it was good to catch a glance at @hogg's ass on more time.

Not to make you all jealous, but to make you all jealous, I'm forcing Dana to show me his entire torso tomorrow. It's all Roper.

Is that who is on this tenugui? I don't think so. Does anyone know who this guy is? Japanese American National Museum -- Museum Store Online @Kinglambert that shading looks great so far.

First pass at a label. I think I am going to go with Horibrew or I just thought of Irebrewmi.