dari

Bubbleberry, please stop.

I'm all for people getting whatever style of tattoo appeals to them the most, it's about personal taste and self-expression and owning your own body. There's not much point in getting tattoos because other people will like them, although that's obviously very common. I'm glad that there are all kinds of tattooers out there, "lid for every pot" and all that. Personally, I like tattoos to look like tattoos, even if you only see a little peek. If this girl were fully dressed and her shirt rode up a little, the glimpse of tattoo might look like scars from a terrible accident or surgery gone wrong. But I bet she loves it, and god bless her for that.

OMG and LOL.
What's going on with his face? What's he thinking? "What the hell is going on? What the fuck happened to me?"

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.

It doesn't happen that much in San Francisco and Oakland, and I'm pretty good at blocking it out when it happens to me, but it seems to bug me more when it happens to my girlfriends. Once while hiking in Bryce Canyon in Utah, my friend Liz was accosted so many times, including complete strangers grabbing at her arms, that we almost turned back. Another time, at a restaurant in Vegas, an entire table full of men had turned their chairs and were not trying to hide, at all, the fact that they were staring at my friend's tattoos. I was talked out of going over to speak with them. In both situations, I believe it was their mostly covered arms that were what were drawing them in.
Another time, I was eating at the bar in a restaurant with a girlfriend who has a strong chest piece of irises. An older man came by and Asked "Can I ask you a question?" She freaked, "No you can't, I'm trying to eat my meal, get the fuck away from us..." I though her reaction was a little strong at the time, now I understand where she was coming from. He sure as hell wasn't going to ask any men about their chest pieces.

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.

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.

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.

I've never gotten a tattoo as a 'show piece'.. infact some of the tattoos i have that I love the most are in areas only the people very closest to me ever see..
and FYI we all know what the human body looks like... posting photographs of your body parts isn't gonna get you better tattoo advice ;)

no superman, no numbers. full on eagle across the chest. you won't regret it.

this isn't your first season is it? Then you surely know about ringworm and the legion of other skin diseases you can get. I wrestled 125 at your age, and a healing tattoo is not something you want while in season.
Don't get your weight class tattooed on you, that's dumb. If you continue to wrestle your weight will fluctuate and you will end up in different weight classes. And once you stop, say when you start college, you will gain weight - lots of it. Forget 103.
Personally, I'd say no to the superman logo. It might be funny to you and your friends now. But just imagine explaining that to strangers out of school. Or ripping your shirt off in front of them.
Anyways, everything that's been said is solid advice - follow it if you want to

1) wait till off season when wrestling and training won't fuck up a healing tattoo
2) wait a month before prolonged sun exposure
3) eagle
4) Panther
5) eagle fighting panther
6) eagle with superman logo on its chest
7) 'Supereagle' fighting Bizarro Panther
Damn I could go like this for hours

Hey dudes, maybe listen to women when they say they find something insulting, instead of telling them how they should take it. It's an infantilizing, objectifying and therefore misogynist thing to say, even if you "mean it" as a compliment. And I agree with @SnowyPlover, it's a nice reminder of why being a woman into tattoos can kind of suck.

I really, really hope they play VH at my funeral!

Well, the good news is that I can't see whatever it was that you were trying to cover up. I honestly don't see any way to improve it, although maybe some else can make a suggestion. But do pick a better artist to start with next time. So sorry you got a tattoo that you weren't happy with twice!

I don't have time to read this whole thread, although I am glad that it's been brought up on LST.
My two cents: I 100% understand that symbol was around and used in several cultures long way before that delusional psychopathic meth head chose it to represent himself and the drugged up soldiers fighting his Blitzkrieg. I understand that it has a powerful meaning, completely unrelated to death squads, extermination camps, gas chambers, mass graves or burning emaciated bodies, but that's what it means to me. No matter how nice the tattoo or painting, even when I want to see past it, it's there for me. Jondix had drawn some beautiful designs incorporation the symbol for my husband, who had the courtesy to ask first, and I had to say no, too much baggage for me. But if it means something completely different for you, go for it. I don't care what the rest of you do with your bodies, but I just can't have it in my own house.

i love them, too.
Gia, there's so much about this site that makes me want to say "I love you guys," but I've held back, so far.

dat dere hooper.

To wait a long time for a notable artist like Grime or Filip is understandable,but I have seen artists that aren't even very good that are "booked solid" for several months. Like Deb said some artists only book 1 appointment a day.That equals out most times to be a little over 20 tattoos a month,while other artists do that many in a couple of days.Being the "hardest artist to book" may mean that they are very good but it could also mean that the artist has no work ethic.I think a lot of times artists do this to stroke their own egos and seem more in demand than they actually are.
I get a lot of customers saying that they went to other shops for something small like a name or something and they are told that they can't get it done because everyone at that shop is fully booked,but the customer says that there were like 5 artists there and none of them were tattooing or drawing custom pieces,but instead just hanging out and playing video games or watching TV.
It is a lot like people in the 1970s waiting on line with a few hundred people to get into an exclusive club like studio 54 or something,only to finally be let inside to find out that there are only a handful of people inside the club.What I am trying to say is that while for a great artist it is worth the wait,in most cases it is just a manufactured waiting period and a marketing gimmick to charge more and act exclusive........just putting on airs.

grime's at three years?! dang. id really hate to know all the shit ill be doing for the next three months, let alone years!!!!!!!!!
glad i only waited like three months to get tattooed by him.

Man, everybody already used my smart-ass answers but the Greg Irons quip was funnier than I could have come up with.
But back to the original question.
This is one of the newer approaches to tattooing that makes me slightly uncomfortable to be honest. Myself and a few tattooers I know and work with have noticed the trend of customers finding a sense of pride in how long they had to wait for their tattoo. As if that makes the tattoo more worthwhile.
With some of the currently living/working tattooers mentioned in this thread, I personally know people (not even on the internet) that have tattoos from all of them. Filip, Horiyoshi III, Shige and Mike Rubendall. Yeah, they had to wait a little while for some of them but not as long as you'd think for others. Mike Roper is a different situation because he makes it deliberately difficult to get in touch with him, which answers the question posed above. But that wasn't really the question that was asked and it's rarely the question that gets asked. The question, or at least the implication, is "who has the longest waiting list' or "who has appointments booked furthest into the future". If I were to be snarky "who gives me the most bragging rights".
For me the hardest people to get a tattoo from are the tattooers who are located furthest away from me. The ones where I have to get off my ass and do something about it. Time is easier to overcome than distance although patience is a different matter. It astonishes me that people call our shop from the outskirts of the city expecting us to change the way we work because they are catching a train to get here. On the other hand, we are humbled and honoured by the people who cross seas and continents to get tattooed regularly with us.
But that's aside from the issue.
Why is it a trend that makes me uncomfortable?
Because I've heard people brag about how long they had to wait for 'x' artist and wear that information like a badge of honour. It feels almost as distasteful as bragging about who charges the most. Yeah, tattoos are for tough guys and tough buys like to brag and maybe that seems harmless, but it makes me uncomfortable and I have trouble clearly explaining why.
Maybe it's because it's a phenomenon spurred on by the internet and the gossipy world of hearsay. Nobody calls and checks with the artists or shops they want to get tattooed at. Nobody travels down to the shop to ask the question. They just ask random strangers on the internet who have a lot of time on their hands and like to talk about something they know nothing about. Then the reality gets lost or twisted and in the end the real information is lost. I see this a lot with regards to the shop I work at. Forums are (or certainly used to be) bursting with 'facts' about how much we charge, how long we take, how far 'x' and 'y' are booked or how long their waiting lists are. Nobody calls the shop to ask and nobody suggests that the person calls to ask.
I know that happens with a lot of things but it seems like this is starting to have a real-world effect, however small. People who wanted tattoos that we would love to do heard that we wouldn't tattoo them at our shop because we were so cool and busy and booked up for decades and rolling around in money 'n' bitches or something. We've heard of this a few times and it seems to be happening more. Yeah, we're busy, you may have to wait a little, maybe not. If someone has contact information, especially a phone number on their website it means that they want you to call.
I'm not really going to touch on the tone of the "are they a fad or are they really worth it?" comment, except to say that if you have to ask, the answer is "no".
Sorry to jump on this fun thread with a rant. I look forward to more witty quips.

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?

You're telling me! I'm hoping to once I knock off some new tattoos that I cannot wait to get :)

There are no secrets on the internets...
Rob

I'll second this. And I'll add yet another echo of "If the shop doesn't have the flash, you shouldn't be getting tattooed there." @Synesthesia I personally don't see any qualm with you bringing in a print-out just in case, especially if you're going to a shop that would most likely have it anyways.