ghostknife

I agree and do the same--if you know the tattooer well it's fun to give a personalized gift on top of a cash tip. I have done most of the above, particularly prints (ukiyo-e is my go-to), but I also frequently give tattooers reference books that I think they'd appreciate, whether it's on a particular style/region or a different medium/art form that I think they'd like. It's always hard to predict what's already in their library, but based on chatting with them I try to get books on art that they're stoked on that I think they might not have yet.

This is so strange. Do people not realize that you are changing the texture/appearance of your actual skin when you get a tattoo...? Even if you didn't care about tattooing tradition, I mean...it's not like your skin is a whiteboard that you can just erase and re-tattoo over and over again.

Unrelated, but I have a plugin for chrome that replaces millennial/millennials with snake person/snake people respectively, and it never fails to entertain me. 

This ONLY works as a start-up, because there are no photos of what it looks like when it works.
Because it's not like you get to have your tattoo for three years and then one day it is gone. No, you get to have your tattoo for a short period of time and it takes three years until you can't see it anymore. Which means halfway through, when it is 50% faded, it's going to look like garbage and the last year and a half, you'll be counting the days until it's gone.

Hi!
I decided to bite the bullet and register since I have been lurking for so long! I got my first tattoo when I was 17 (which is covered now, thankfully) but got seriously into getting tattooed and the whole collecting thing over the past few years. Looking forward to filling up my empty spaces and meeting awesome people along the way.
I am currently a social worker but have also spent time teaching and doing various other things...hope to further diversify in the future. I am definitely in the long sleeve forever club, which in Southern California can be upsetting but it's also worth every second of enduring the sweltering heat. I have uploaded some of my collection to my gallery...mostly the stuff on my legs or stuff I already had good pictures of. Once I enlist help with photography I will upload the stuff on my arms (or upload them in respective threads). I take pretty bad pictures, so my apologies in advance for that.
My most recent addition was by Johan Svahn, and it's still healing...before that I got tattooed by Chris Conn. Both allowed me to cross something off my bucket list!
Hope to see you all around, excited to be here!

A dream catcher seems like it would be a tough fit. I'd imagine flowers would be totally doable. Like others said, do your research and go to a reputable shop.

My eventual goal is everything that pants and shirt will cover to be tattooed I'm about half way there. I think it looks a hell of a lot better than my body before cause I was nothing to look at and now I'm proud of my body. I never thought I would be excited to show people my ass but this neck to knee piece gets so much attention!! LOVE IT!

BAM

It is way in the bowels of his instagram.
That is a good thing to not have comparisons! I have mad respect for anyone with large work from Greg for that reason, haha.

Love the turtleneck idea!
At work I cover them, so I don't really think about it then, but out in the world I do the same thing, solid colors and things that don't clash too much. White and black are great for contrast. I have noticed that my clothing preferences have actually changed a lot! I have ditched crazy prints for simpler things since my arms are so colorful now :D I also wear a lot of either short sleeves, half sleeves, or sleeveless...3/4 sleeves interrupt the flow of the tattoos so I tend to avoid those.
I think a fair amount about placement but I also want to resist planning out every last detail of where every tattoo will go because then it takes a bit of the fun and spontaneity out of it for me. So far I have been building as I go and I like how it looks. I have set aside different themes for different body parts (right arm is smaller traditional pieces, left arm will be a neotraditional "sleeve" of sorts, legs have some Japanese work and little bits and pieces, thighs are larger panels, etc.) so there is a bit of planning ahead. I suppose if I happened to be in the same place as an artist I like my previous plans could all go out the window, but that's what makes it fun.

It is way in the bowels of his instagram.
That is a good thing to not have comparisons! I have mad respect for anyone with large work from Greg for that reason, haha.

Different person and different body section, obviously, but to give you an idea, my s/o had his chest done by Greg (the Kali riding a lion chest piece) and Greg lined it in around 4.5 hours (!). If there is one blessing it is that that man is a speed demon, like you said. He also is pretty heavy handed in my experience, but there's the trade off! :) I remember at struggle points he was always very encouraging. Eat lots of lollipops.
Best of luck, stoked to see what you get!

Thanks! I am eternally grateful to Aron for rescuing my back...the lotus tattoo was actually originally a little crooked and the two symbols under the crows interrupted great real estate, so I am so glad he was up for the challenge and could turn it into something so awesome :)

Nice collection!
oh, yeah - and welcome, too!

Very nice tattoos, indeed!

looking forward to it! awesome tattoos so far.
welcome!

yep ! that back piece is rockin' ! love it.

Welcome, great tattoos! Particularly diggin the kitsune fugu and your back :)

welcome from a former SF valley person(chatsworth),I am now in northern cal.

welcome fellow social worker

Welcome and great tattoos!

I don't know,that could be kinda fun ! LOL (watching my wife scooping) :D

I honestly think that everyone heals differently, and different techniques are better for different sizes and placements. Plus everyone has different skin! I feel like there are a lot of voodoo magic myths about healing..."if you do x y and z, it'll be great!" When healing it any of the different ways would have probably been fine anyway. I have also totally babied tattoos and they scar up a little because the skin got overworked. No one's fault per se, just the way it goes.
For me, when I get anything done on my legs I swell like crazy so sometimes I wrap it for the first few days to avoid friction if I have to wear shoes/pants. When I get super detailed tattoos I tend to leak more lymph because there is more trauma to my skin, so wrapping for a few hours at a time when I am out and about can prevent it getting gross and crusty from letting lymph dry on it, and I wash it and let it dry out a little when I get home. Other times and places, I just use lotion and let it air dry and it heals like a dream. Not a big ointment fan myself because it clogs my pores but others swear by it.
Basically, Dr. Bronner's, unscented Aveeno, and the occasional plastic wrap wrapping if it's called for. I also dry with paper towels for the first few days instead of a bath towel because I am paranoid about infection.
Keep it clean, moisturize it a little, don't swim, don't stand around in the sun, don't scoop the cat box naked, and don't wear anything that rubs on it and I think it's usually fine! :)

Some of you may have already seen this on Instagram, but I wanted to wait till I had some healed pics before posting here.
Seth Wood @ Memoir Tattoo in L.A., Started 1/14, completed 12/15.

I got this from Tony Nilsson at Blue Arms Tattoo in Oslo today. It's based off an old Percy Waters drawing that Tony had wanted to do for a while, and I had no specific requests so we just went for it.

I'll admit that I did cheat a bit, after the outline we did use a numbing spray or something like that, which basically made me not feel a thing until we started doing the colors. Happy we did, since then we got to finish it so I don't have to wait until the next time I'm home.

Started my sleeve w/ Jason Brooks last Saturday... First new project in over 5 years... and first visible ink :)