Cork

Part of me wants to be the asshole and say "Damn man your art is insane, let's schedule an appointment." just so I can see how everyone else responds to it, haha. I won't do it... but I am tempted. :P

I've tattooed helvetica in helvetica font on 4 people in the last couple of months. NOT a cool tattoo. They all seem to think they are very original with it too.

Next one you finish, you should say "Damn, that's the 10th one I've done this week!"

That's actually a pretty good idea too. Start thinking of your favorite characters. You've got some skin to cover!

Are those hearts on your forearm?

Whatever you decide to do with the sleeve, you should get an artist to keep it looking like pixel art. I feel like that would look amazing. It would probably be quite a challenge to the artist, having to do little squares for edges instead of lines, but it would look badass.

Horiyoshi III is basically retired. He is just finishing up the clients who he still has more work to complete. His son is continuing on after him but he also trained a German guy, Alex Reinke, or Horikitsune.

Tebori takes a loooong time. If you want a full body suit, it would take years. I can't even imagine how much it would cost. I'd guess in the $10ks.

I don't know who did this one, but it's one of my favorite insect tattoos.

So wait, you guys aren't tattooing smoking hot babes 24/7?!

There is also this website of irezumi from Horiyoshi III, and it goes over every item on the suit and its meaning.

TATTOO/IREZUMI/ART/'Oukoshisei' - the traditional Japanese art of Irezumi(tattoo)

Alright well I'll just keep posting in this thread since I'm not limited here, haha!

cc13, I wouldn't ridicule you for that. Some people take tattoos lightly, and can go in and grab some flash and be done with it. That's just not my style, and it doesn't seem to be yours either. Don't be ashamed to do it your way, haha.

There is a decent website for checking out meanings of things, I'll link that at the end, hopefully you'll learn a lot. For example, did you know that dragons are actually koi that made it up Longman Falls and through the Dragon Gate? Too bad probably 3/4 of the people with koi on them have no idea what it means.

In Japanese history, Onis were almost always the bad guys in the story. They were the demon antagonist who the hero always had to kill. An oni, with a club specifically, is a metaphor for an unstoppable force. For me, I made the club special. Like I said it's Diakokten's lucky mallet (it has another name but I can never remember it, Uchide-no-kazuke, or something like that). It can grant the wishes of those who hold it, among many other things. Have you ever read the story of the 1 inch Boy, Issun-Boshi? It's a kids book that I loved when I was younger, and the mallet makes an appearance in that story (granting the wish of the 1 inch boy to become full sized).

On top of all this, since Buddhism started to penetrate Japanese society, onis have taken on an almost gargoyle-like representation. The oni was supposed to scare away evil spirts. That's why things like oni tiles exist. It's a roof tile, which looked like an oni mask, that was put on a lot of temples to keep away ghosts.

Anyhow, so to me the oni and the mallet are kind of like my good luck charm to keep evil away and bring me wealth and goodness. And the part about it being an unstoppable force reminds me to kick my ass and always drive for what I want.

Here is a sight to brush up on Japanese, Chinese, Taoist, and even Buddhist figures and imagery.

Diakokuten

Dragons/Koi

Is there a certain amount of time, or a certain number of posts I need so that when I make comments, they won't need to be screened by a mod? I tried to post in the back piece thread, and it said my post would have to be approved first to make sure it's not spam.

I'm getting to know names around here, but awesome back pieces started by the actual members who posted their own work. Asradin, that looks like a great start.

This thread makes me want to get started on a back piece immediately. Too bad that's not going to happen within the next 2 years. I do want something full back, and it'll probably be Kanga Yaksha Myo-o. He is the god protecting the North. 3 Faces, 6 arms, you know... the norm, haha.

How can there be a full back piece thread that has gone 11 pages without a single mention of Hiroshige?!? Or did I miss that page? Anyhow, these are some of my favorites of his.

Hi Cork- welcome to the forum, I am also a newbie here.

Nice work there - there is a great thread on japanese back pieces that may blow your mind as much as mine was.

I'm going to go check that out now. Once I saw some of Shige's work, I told my fiancee that a trip to Japan and a back piece was going to be my midlife crisis, haha.

Certainly a good start dude! Welcome to LST

Welcome, and thanks for sharing that great tattoo.

Thanks!

Ha! That face is so Dave Fox. Nice start and welcome. That's exactly how I started out too. Two shoulder pieces from Dave.

Awesome, you have pics of those? I can't wait to give him the rest of the space on my arm to finish up.

Congratulations on finding an excellent tattooer for your first tattoo.Maybe you won't have to get any bad tattoos since your starting off so good.I was just at that shop for an art gallery they had for Scott Smith.Nice shop,and good guy's.

I really do a lot of research when I make decisions. It took me a long time to even realize what kind of tattoo I wanted. Apparently, before I started researching I've only seen shitty tattoos. I didn't know how awesome a good tattoo can look.

I have only my left pec done for right now. It was bad close to the armpit and around the nipple. I'm going to agree with cfgsteak (and anyone else who commentd on the nipple in the last 12 pages that I skipped over reading :P), that the nipple was straight up awful. Collarbone area and sternum weren't so bad.

Tattoo enthusiast here from the East Coast. Got my first peice from Dave Fox in Philly this year and I'm scheduled for color at the end of October. When that happens I'll get a better pic.

I still have a ton to learn about good tattoos and I'm looking forward to more art in the future. I'm pretty much in love with the Japanese style, and I'm looking to get decent coverage in the future, money permitting.

So what I have so far is an Oni with Diakoku's lucky mallet. It has multiple meanings to me and I'd gladly explain if anyone is curious. The plan is to take the chest peice and continue it to the shoulder and down the arm, but right now money is tight since I'm saving for a wedding and a house >.<