Cork

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth.
This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana.
I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time.
I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club.
And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

@hellamuch Yeah, keep it to yourself. I think it's clear that no one would be interested in an freaking back piece by Freddy Corbin are you crazy post pictures now!

@hellamuch Yeah, keep it to yourself. I think it's clear that no one would be interested in an freaking back piece by Freddy Corbin are you crazy post pictures now!

Just got this badboy on my shin from Daryl Hart. Super stoked on it!
https://instagram.com/dhart_fbc/

@Cork I will once I figure out how to upload a photo!
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/gallery/uncategorized/18703-almost-finished-back.html
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@hellamuch Yeah, keep it to yourself. I think it's clear that no one would be interested in an freaking back piece by Freddy Corbin are you crazy post pictures now!

@hellamuch Yeah, keep it to yourself. I think it's clear that no one would be interested in an freaking back piece by Freddy Corbin are you crazy post pictures now!

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth.
This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana.
I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time.
I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club.
And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

Well I've always been of the mindset to give the people what they want.
It looks like I can only bundle 20 pictures per post, so here you have the first half.
Of note in this set of pictures;
My back is really only my third tattoo, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I always had an interest in this type of stuff, and it was something I had to do. The very first lining session reminded me of the pain of my previous tattoos, but the worst part was the hair. I distinctly remember clutching the table as the 5th hour rolled around and it was time to start the hair. 30 minutes later, soaked in sweat, I can say I did what needed to be done. After that session, Dana says that he is notorious for pushing his clients, and that if I really needed to take a break, to just let him know. The guy is a machine and just rolls on forever once he gets started.
Once that love handle got hit, I knew I had to turn to chemical relief. The average session was 4-5 hours and I didn't want to let Dana down by tapping out early. That may be frowned upon by those who never turned to relief, but anyone who has turned to pain killers will tell you that it hardly does anything. It just takes the edge off and lets you breath a little. Make no mistake, you definitely still feel it. Kudos to anyone who goes through the ass without any assistance. I don't think I could have managed sessions any longer than 2 hours if so.
We did a ton of lines and shading. We both got a little bored with it and decided to color in some fire before finishing the shading. We were both itching to see color and it was a great change of pace.
One major thing to note, and I want everyone to take notice about how a tattoo changes and you just roll with what works. At first, Kongo Yasha was going to have a nice yellow aura, and the lines were down to lay the path, but that changed once the fire got started. Since Kongo Yasha is an angry ass dude, we decided a full fire aura would look the best. Dana put some lines down and I think it was a change for the better. You can hardly even tell what was originally intended.

@taaarro, I didn't hear back in the end from horitoshi 1, but I managed to book in with the equally brilliant Horimitsu. He is my favourite of horitoshi's protégés I think, so I couldn't be more excited!
In terms of time I think Horimitsu reckons we should be able to finish the tattoo in 2-3 sessions, because it is only the lower half of my forearm. I'm gonna be there from the 11th-18th November, I don't know where you are located in Tokyo but if you feel like getting a beer or something I would be super keen!

Hi Cork
No body suit, I started with a traditionnal sleeve ('till the middle of the forearm), with half chest panel ("Kantobori") style. I'll do the other sleeve after that, and if possible, a full back piece ("Kame-no-koh") later, hopfully from Horitoshi's hand, maybe from one of his disciples. I started on arms because, unless you live in Japan, a full back is a looong way to go. A friend of mine had one, lasted 8 years and so to complete, he travelled from France twice a year for two weeks each time... Gives you an idea. That's tebori. If you check Horitoshi 1 instagram, you will see a pic (4th right now) of a sitting guy, with a Brown-orange dragoon back piece, this is him. The two first pics are my arm, getting background completed these days.

Awesome thread! I would post mine but it's unfinished ....done (almost) by Freddy Corbin.

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth.
This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana.
I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time.
I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club.
And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

Hi everyone
I started here my reseaches for a tebori artist to get serious irezumi done on me, and tanks to this thread and you guys, I'm getting tattoed by Horitoshi 1 sensei since two years now
I had left this forum after the beginning of my japanese journey and went back few days ago, and saw that a lot of you may have some questions about the Horitoshi familly, how to get in touch, how is it like and so on. I feel I may be helpfull to some of you, and repay a bit of the help I found here, and the nice time I'm having now so... anyone, feel free to ask, if I can help, my pleasure.
Mata ne!

@cltattooing It's wizard stuff for sure. There are a lot of great things about tattoos and social media, but one of the bad things is that it's so easy to be overexposed to them. Being able to open Instagram and flick through literally hundreds of great tattoos means that most tattoos become more or less forgettable. Yours is exceptional though. I can't think of seeing anything quite like it, and that is so rare. I guess one of the nice things too is that it takes such a high skill level to pull that off that you're unlikely to see many imitators anytime soon.

@Cork why, cause lol ass? :rolleyes:
also @Graeme, thank you! That is my favorite part about it, I have no idea how he put this together and will forever remain a wizard in my mind.

I guess I'll join in on the sharing fun (even though most of you have already seen this on Mike's instagram). Progress from my session at Pagoda City Tattoo Fest:

About 31 hours total so far. So maybe we are about 1/2 done?

@cltattooing that is incredible. So awesome, and obviously @BrianH's is coming along perfectly. @Cork, thanks for posting that progression. I did somethings similar when I got my whole arm done, but it just doesn't photograph as well as the back to see the progress.

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth.
This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana.
I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time.
I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club.
And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

Well I've always been of the mindset to give the people what they want.
It looks like I can only bundle 20 pictures per post, so here you have the first half.
Of note in this set of pictures;
My back is really only my third tattoo, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I always had an interest in this type of stuff, and it was something I had to do. The very first lining session reminded me of the pain of my previous tattoos, but the worst part was the hair. I distinctly remember clutching the table as the 5th hour rolled around and it was time to start the hair. 30 minutes later, soaked in sweat, I can say I did what needed to be done. After that session, Dana says that he is notorious for pushing his clients, and that if I really needed to take a break, to just let him know. The guy is a machine and just rolls on forever once he gets started.
Once that love handle got hit, I knew I had to turn to chemical relief. The average session was 4-5 hours and I didn't want to let Dana down by tapping out early. That may be frowned upon by those who never turned to relief, but anyone who has turned to pain killers will tell you that it hardly does anything. It just takes the edge off and lets you breath a little. Make no mistake, you definitely still feel it. Kudos to anyone who goes through the ass without any assistance. I don't think I could have managed sessions any longer than 2 hours if so.
We did a ton of lines and shading. We both got a little bored with it and decided to color in some fire before finishing the shading. We were both itching to see color and it was a great change of pace.
One major thing to note, and I want everyone to take notice about how a tattoo changes and you just roll with what works. At first, Kongo Yasha was going to have a nice yellow aura, and the lines were down to lay the path, but that changed once the fire got started. Since Kongo Yasha is an angry ass dude, we decided a full fire aura would look the best. Dana put some lines down and I think it was a change for the better. You can hardly even tell what was originally intended.

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth.
This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana.
I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time.
I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club.
And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

Well I've always been of the mindset to give the people what they want.
It looks like I can only bundle 20 pictures per post, so here you have the first half.
Of note in this set of pictures;
My back is really only my third tattoo, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I always had an interest in this type of stuff, and it was something I had to do. The very first lining session reminded me of the pain of my previous tattoos, but the worst part was the hair. I distinctly remember clutching the table as the 5th hour rolled around and it was time to start the hair. 30 minutes later, soaked in sweat, I can say I did what needed to be done. After that session, Dana says that he is notorious for pushing his clients, and that if I really needed to take a break, to just let him know. The guy is a machine and just rolls on forever once he gets started.
Once that love handle got hit, I knew I had to turn to chemical relief. The average session was 4-5 hours and I didn't want to let Dana down by tapping out early. That may be frowned upon by those who never turned to relief, but anyone who has turned to pain killers will tell you that it hardly does anything. It just takes the edge off and lets you breath a little. Make no mistake, you definitely still feel it. Kudos to anyone who goes through the ass without any assistance. I don't think I could have managed sessions any longer than 2 hours if so.
We did a ton of lines and shading. We both got a little bored with it and decided to color in some fire before finishing the shading. We were both itching to see color and it was a great change of pace.
One major thing to note, and I want everyone to take notice about how a tattoo changes and you just roll with what works. At first, Kongo Yasha was going to have a nice yellow aura, and the lines were down to lay the path, but that changed once the fire got started. Since Kongo Yasha is an angry ass dude, we decided a full fire aura would look the best. Dana put some lines down and I think it was a change for the better. You can hardly even tell what was originally intended.

So here is the remainder. Kongo Yasha Myo-o in his full glory from Dana Helmuth.
This was pretty much the home stretch at this point. Once all the shading was done, the color was only about 1/3 of the remaining time I spent with Dana.
I love Dana's snakes. Once mine got colored in, I couldn't stop staring at it, I still can't. Also everyone loves the blue, and so do I. It's bold, and it'll be awesome for a long time.
I spent a lot of time at Read Street Tattoo in Baltimore and it was a great shop. The final session was in Dana's tattoo lair at his home in Maryland and it's a true honor to be a member of his back piece club.
And the final obligatory baby picture, because I want to be as cool as @hogg.

Well I've always been of the mindset to give the people what they want.
It looks like I can only bundle 20 pictures per post, so here you have the first half.
Of note in this set of pictures;
My back is really only my third tattoo, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I always had an interest in this type of stuff, and it was something I had to do. The very first lining session reminded me of the pain of my previous tattoos, but the worst part was the hair. I distinctly remember clutching the table as the 5th hour rolled around and it was time to start the hair. 30 minutes later, soaked in sweat, I can say I did what needed to be done. After that session, Dana says that he is notorious for pushing his clients, and that if I really needed to take a break, to just let him know. The guy is a machine and just rolls on forever once he gets started.
Once that love handle got hit, I knew I had to turn to chemical relief. The average session was 4-5 hours and I didn't want to let Dana down by tapping out early. That may be frowned upon by those who never turned to relief, but anyone who has turned to pain killers will tell you that it hardly does anything. It just takes the edge off and lets you breath a little. Make no mistake, you definitely still feel it. Kudos to anyone who goes through the ass without any assistance. I don't think I could have managed sessions any longer than 2 hours if so.
We did a ton of lines and shading. We both got a little bored with it and decided to color in some fire before finishing the shading. We were both itching to see color and it was a great change of pace.
One major thing to note, and I want everyone to take notice about how a tattoo changes and you just roll with what works. At first, Kongo Yasha was going to have a nice yellow aura, and the lines were down to lay the path, but that changed once the fire got started. Since Kongo Yasha is an angry ass dude, we decided a full fire aura would look the best. Dana put some lines down and I think it was a change for the better. You can hardly even tell what was originally intended.

@idyllsend WOW! that is really beautiful. I can't wait to see that finished.
Here are a few pics from my last session with Chad K. We are essentially finished but he does want to do one more session in November for some touch ups and stuff. For all intensive purposes though, here is my finished back! I am so stoked!!! It is so vibrant and bold and I think you can read the image from a few miles away :)
Chad put in some really neat little details in this last session. Not sure they will be visible in these "just finished" pics, but I will try to remember to post a healed pic. He did some really cool things with the tongue and the teeth that I am pretty pumped with.. LOVE the eyes as well. I am super grateful.
rob
attaching pics from gallery as that seems to be the only way for me to edit them from being sideways. If they look sideways at first, just click the pic and it should right itself.