dari

I'm thinking about sweet eagle tats, and possibly having one, or three, on me. Are there any ladies out there with some good strong eagles on them? I do think of eagles as more of a masculine back piece/ chest piece, and I'm no tougher than a geriatric miniature poodle. To be clear, I'm not asking for opinions of what to do with my body. I'm wanting to get feedback/pics regarding eagles on chicks, from chicks with eagles, or dudes that love chicks with sweet eagle tats. I'm also not opposed to finding out whose eagles are so good that they make you mad.

Interesting discussion, kinda wish Dan Higgs would weigh in.....

Also, @HaydenRose, get that rose re-done! You don't need to walk around with that reminder.

@WideOcean, can't you just go back to the polite and serious plumber? I think humility and sensitivity go an awful long way. If your chinese is terrible, maybe he could speak with you in private instead of in front of other customers? I also expect my tattooers to know which elements will and won't work. My husband (who won't tattoo me 'cause I'm a pain in the ass) will be the first person to tell me if I'm "trying to shove 3 lb. of shit in a 2 lb. bag." Or he'll ask "How big do you think your arm is?" when I'm telling him my ideas. I'm sure the tattooer meant no harm, maybe it was a culture/language thing, maybe he misunderstood what you were asking about the added element? Either way, I'm not sure it matters if he's pompous or you're paranoid, you need to be comfortable. Customer service matters. I've never gotten a tattoo from someone I didn't like, enjoying someone's company and conversation make the time go faster. (Unless you're married, then dinner and a movie will go much better than a tattoo.)

I say go back to the plumber or find another plumber. You don't need a souvenir of an unpleasant experience covering valuable real estate. That's like hanging a picture on your wall that you don't like from someone you don't like just in case they visit your house. How about just not letting them in? Go get the positive experience you deserve.

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@HaydenRose, that color thing would've made me insane. Mr. Color Guy should know what looks good. I made a tattooer back out some lime green on something and replace it with pink, and you know what? The lime would've been cooler. If my dentist asked me to pick the shade on a fake tooth to match the others, I'd find another dentist. Of course I'll ask for certain colors/ color themes, but it's their job to know their stuff, my job is to shower, brush my teeth, and not jump around all over the place.

@Fermin, please do not use citronella on your skin. Don't use it on your dog, either, some dogs can have a very bad reaction. There are many, many, many essential oils that can be used neat, but most would be too harsh for a fresh tattoo. The only oil to ever put on a tattoo is lavender, and that's mixed with a carrier oil. And do make sure it's actually lavender, from a reputable company like Oshadii or Simplers or Young Living. There's 70% more products on the market that say "lavender oil" than there is lavender grown in the world. I have used this to heal a tattoo, but dryer always seems to be better for me. There's a reason everyone hates the word "moist."

Best intro heading, too. Welcome!

Here's the latest from @Stewart Robson from yesterday at Black Heart. Left thigh yesterday and right thigh today. That is a really nice pice from Grez @dari snuck a peek when you were showing Stewart.....

Damn, wish I knew we were practically family! I would've come gotten a close up look at your butt!

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I think we're in the golden age of the "Latest Tattoo Lowdown" thread.

It looks like SFO is the new Xmas.

There was a lot of discussion about not talking about finances on LST in the early days, can we consider this thread respectfully semi-closed? Every shop/city/local tax board has different customs, you can always ask helpers if unclear.

The Tim Lehi tiger wraps around the front of my shin and the tail goes up the front of my thigh. I love Tim's tiger's so much, they make me angry. Grez did that Durga on me earlier today, I'm waiting for the swelling to hit. He's real light handed, so I'm sure tomorrow will be worse than getting tattooed. I know pic isn't amazing, I took it myself with iPad, heels touching, and toes turned out. If I just stood straight on, they could see each other, but we couldn't see them.

That picture really does a disservice to the tiger, you can't see the awesomeness of the colors of the face or how it flows, but it's probably better that way. I know it would only make @hogg angry.

exactly as you described! it sounds normal enough. gravity makes the swelling travel to the ankle most of the time. take over the counter anti inflammatories and drink plenty of water to help circulation. any time you get to rest keep your leg elevated. sometimes i may keep the new tattoo wrapped up for the first day (will wash before wrapping up in the morning and if possible re-wrap during the day, take off completely as soon as you get home) to help against swelling and overly weepy tattoos.

the above is for longer sessions but usually your normal routine should work fine

So funny to me that I'm reading this now. I've dry healed a few things, mainly because I'm busy/lazy, but I got an awesome new lower leg tattoo today and I don't want to fuck it up. I've had trouble with a lower leg tattoo before so I thought I'd check out aftercare advice here tonight. I even went to Walgreens and bought Dial soap and some creepy Lubriderm type lotion (creepy to me 'cause I don't generally rub petroleum products on my body.) I do, however, love the smell of Dial soap, and we only use green/organic stuff around here so I'm super excited about that. I'm pretty sure my husband would tell me to keep the plastic wrap on for now, but he's not home so I'm getting in the shower. He always leaves the wrap on until the next morning, though, I have noticed that, so I will try to re-wrap afterwards. I am teaching a yoga class in 12 hours so I hope it doesn't swell too much.

I just want to say, I love LST. I was talking to Valerie earlier today, it never would've occured to me to ask for aftercare advice, and here's everything I could possibly need to know in one thread specifically on the lower leg tat. (100+ posts!) Go LST!

That's jewish law and is one of a long list. Plus the original hebrew makes no reference to a "tattoo". Its carving your flesh for the dead.

Leviticus also says a woman needs to marry her husband's brother if her husband dies, that people should be stoned to death if they break the sabbath, and a whole bunch of other wacked out ideas. I'm pretty sure that book was written by a homophobic meth head, just disregard that whole shitshow.

I shouldn't ever click on this thread. Spoilers all over....

Seriously! I can't be trusted.

SPOILER ALERT! - go watch your stories so we can chat, K?

I'm thinking that Daryl will have to kill Merle sometime soon. But what will Merle finally do to deserve it?

I love quoting myself. Seriously though, fuck. Didn't see it going down like that.

From what I gather, is everyone absolutely sure that (lets use my pieces as examples) all my tattoos will look like blobs? Do we all have to get traditional tattoos to stand a chance of having some nice looking tattoos in lets say ten years time? I don't like the sound of that really.

Some people have better luck than others with how their skin holds pigment. I still have some white holding strong from a tattoo by Jef Whitehead from maybe 1999/2000, I think it'd be gone for most people by now. I also still have something on my palm from 97/98, which at the time was something people said wouldn't last, but it was Dan Higgs, so execution played a strong role in its longevity.

I also have to say, I know plenty of people with backpieces 3 layers deep, who's to say the option to retouch or completely cover tattoos gotten in our youth is a bad move? Not that I'll get to find out ever again, any one I get work from now only does tattoos that are built to last. But isn't everything temporary, really?

Just walking from inside the house out in the sun feels different than it used to. Its almost an instant little sting thing goin on. Anyone else notice that?

Yes. I know I used to get burned as a kid, but I was trying to get sun back then. I now have a 10 minute window, then I'm burnt.

... I am currently trying to talk my wife into letting me make an appointment w/ Freddy Corbin! We're ballin on a budget so not to sure if ill be able to swing it but I'm going to try like hell.

You should really try and make it happen, even if it's just a little bit of lettering, getting tattooed by Freddy Corbin is a not-to-be-missed good time. How about a little something for the wife?

Do you guys watch Talking Dead afterwards? I enjoyed listening to Lori talk about Andrea's character, and how everything she does is in Dale's honor. And what about Michonne's pets? Explains how she could decapitate them so easily.

Nice, she's a lucky gal. Pics please!

@David Flores and @Graeme, I loved what you both had to say. I was never on a forum before this one, so of course I took it very seriously, but there are lots of people who join all kinds of forums for things they're only moderately interested in, it seems. I remember Bubbleberry mentioning that he was on lots of forums and that none of the others were as serious or hostile as us. (Clearly my interpretation of his words.)

I recently joined a gun forum because I needed info on something any gun enthusiast would consider rediculous. But guess what? Someone else had been foolish enough to ask the question, and there amongst the "I smell a troll" and "show me a picture of the gun and the blonde" jokes, my answer was there. I won't be posting there, but I might go back and sniff around for already posted answers when I have more really, really, really dumb questions.

I kinda sound like a dick in my previous posts.

Um, no you didn't. And I hope I didn't sound condescending or bitchy, either. That's the funny thing about the internet, without seeing someone's face, and hearing their tone, things that are meant as positive can read neutral, and words that are meant neutral seem negative. That's why emoticons are supposed to be used in forums, but we all seem to same the emoticons for our bodies. Plus they make me feel like a teenage girl.

@David Flores, I think you're right about cleaning/consolidating some of the threads. And you're right, there would need to be an actual tattooer mod if that section existed. Our mods work really hard and spend a lot of valuable hours on here, I don't know what tattooer is ready to take that on for us. The politics of who's accepted sounds like a nightmare. Talk about sounding like a dick!

I'm sure there's a place in this world for a tattooer-only forum, and there are tattooers with enough free time to moderate it, but that's never been the intention for LST. From the newbie guidelines - "The goal of LST is to create a positive and respectful place where both tattooers and collectors alike can access a wealth of information about Tattooing, share their own experiences and perspectives, and cultivate valuable relationships within the tattoo community." However, the feature to set up one's own group on LST has alway been there, under the forum tab. Go to the community section, then groups, then create a group about anything you want, set the type to invite only, then invite, discuss, and moderate away.

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@JAllen, of course, we very much appreciate your contributions. And I can't imagine how much it would suck to be away from your family. Your wife must be much nicer than I am.

Regarding technology glitches, the p key and the backspace key on our keyboard were broken for a month before we finally replaced it. So annoying.

@JAllen, I'm on here a lot less too, due to my work and remodeling the house and general life business, too. I used to read every single word ever put up on this forum, but it was much smaller then. Now I might not get around to reading something until a month or so after it's posted, but I try to get there eventually. I don't think I was on much or at all during the incidents you mention. Our internet was even off for 10 days at one point last summer, it's ridiculous how far behind one can fall from something like that. I don't mean on just the forum, I mean with life's daily business and correspondence. I know it's no giant secret that the whole "instant access" has it's trappings, but it was more debilitating than I'd like. I've always enjoyed your contributions, and I remember you were trying to sell your house and move to Atlanta, right?

Obviously, I'm not a tattooer. But my husband is one of the founders of this site, and his intention was never to be on the forum everyday answering questions about bubbling and bleeding outlines and whatnot. It's not that he's not interested or entertained here, he's just busy. Since we've been remodeling our house, his time online has been generally spent researching building radiant heating systems and studying siding installation instructions, or just checking the local lumberyard hours. I also see him on craigslist looking at fishing boats, small ones that won't provide shade for easily sunburned women or hold a lot of noisy children. Every minute of his non-tattooing/drawing or family time has been spent either working on the house if the sun is up, or building machines when it's down. He also made a roses line drawing book, I think the e-book version of it will be on LST any minute now. But he is at the Reno convention right now, and if there's someone he thinks need to be interviewed for LST, he'll bring it back for us. Or maybe he'll just bring back a ton of stuff from Cabella's.

So I can answer the question "where did the tattooers go?" for one tattooer only, I'm pretty sure he went to work and will be back soon. Either that, or he's gone fishing.

.... I know "artist only" forums can get pissy and jaded and all that, but if there was artist section on here, where folks like Stewart, Deb, Scott and Mario are talking technique, reference, suppliers and stuff away from the public, I'd be here every day.

davelang, we did discuss the possibility early on, but it's not really in the spirit of what we're trying to do with LST. But you know you can PM any artist on here, right?

Funny, wrote that before seeing @mario desa's post. But Mario, don't you think if it were for artists only, there would be a ton of people claiming to be tattoo artists that many of you would say that they are anything but "artists?"

Is no one else watching this season?

We really need more Zeke Owenses.

That letter was amazing.

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This thread reminds me of when I occasionally eavesdrop on my kids from the next room. Sometimes if I don't get involved in their arguments, they figure out how to work it out themselves without me running in and yelling at everyone. I'm not saying that you're like children, I'm saying that I'm so proud of how LST has grown. You guys are awesome.