Hogrider

I just put 4 fingers on my wrist and had my artist draw the line there for my right arm. Going to do the same 4 fingers length for my second sleeve. It works fine for me. At work I wear a dress shirt and tie but my ink never peaks out of my shirt.

Too late, I had him "fix" it and now it goes to mid wrist bone :-)

The only problem is that now i need to find something else to fixate on!

I wouldn't sweat the elbow ditch. My lower back hurt way worse. I didn't think the ditch was that bad.

You are a saint, good sir. People who adopt seniors or dogs who are otherwise difficult to adopt out have larger hearts than I have.

Thanks but the real saints are the ones that run these rescues. You need the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon and the strength of Hercules!

We have had our second rescue/adoptee dog coming up 10 days now , he's a five month Staff x .

I mostly foster the seniors. I've lost three over the last several years and have three more that no one wants so they will be here until they pass too. I also have one that was so abused she's still scared of me after four years of constant love and patience. I'm not a violent person but God help anyone I ever see abusing an animal because I don't think I could stop myself from beating them senseless.

I have a spot by my collar bone that itches if I don't use coco butter on it regularly. I would try that or vitamin E for a few weeks and see if it helps.

These people don't think it through when they get the tattoo and don't think it through when they want to get rid of the tattoo. Why would anyone pay for laser removal if these creams worked? My one problem with the article is that I've never heard that 27% of people with a tattoo want it removed; all the numbers I've seen are in the 18% range.

This doesn't sound good.

There's not a whole lot of middle ground with tattoos. You either have them or you don't. And most people either like them or they don't. My wife likes my sleeve, but I had my back outlined last week and it's taking her a while to get used to that (me too).

I just started my back piece last week and got the outline done in one session. One week in - who knew that a tattoo on your back would ITCH while healing????? :cool:

I have a daughter and get asked by people who, you can tell, don't like tattoos "what are you gonna do if she wants one?" Um....really? Like you think I'd be against it? I have 15 and counting. What the hell do you think? I'd rather her consult me and go somewhere good than to some crap hole and not tell me. I don't know if they're implying that as a parent my mind would change or since because she's female I'd be against it? I dunno. Weird assholes who think they can control people. They weird me out sometimes.

Tell them that if your 15 year old daughter approaches you about getting a tattoo, you'll sit down with her, smoke some weed and talk it over! :-)

Be sure to take a pic of the look on their faces.

Then tell them that when you need parenting advice from a judgmental ass-hole, you'll call them.

I wouldn't call them the blues, but when I first got my sleeve outlined to the wrist I had a "holy shit" moment. I had my back piece outlined yesterday and when I got home I had another "holy shit" moment. Not buyers remorse, just a "I can't believe I did this" moment. That's turned into a "fucking A!!!" feeling this morning. :-)

Now if I could only stop looking at them every time I pass a mirror ...

First session with Jessie Tseronis from Sakura Tattoos in Winchester, VA. We were going to do a Kapala Skull but when I showed up he suggested this. I'm a "go with the flow" guy and I'm glad I did.

If I was Netflix I'd give him a free lifetime subscription to keep it covered!

I'd just like to say something about taking on strangers as apprentices as well. By teaching someone your craft you are creating competition for yourself. In my cyber investigations into tattooland i have read of a couple of cases over here in the UK where an artist has apprenticed an aspiring tattooer, only to have them open up their own shop in the same town and take their client list with them.

!

I don't know about England, but in America you can put a no-compete clause in an employment agreement. I've signed several of them myself. I don't know why you couldn't do it for an apprenticeship. However, since I don't tattoo and have no plans to start at my advanced age, I really don't have a dog in the fight.

Jesse's Japanese is heavily influenced by Filip Leu and Kurt Wiscombe, which is a good thing -- and his Tibetan Skulls are always killin'!! Can't wait to see it!

Me too. You've got that killer tibetan skull from Chad Koeplinger, right? I'm thinking about getting a lady head from Nikki Balls from Tattoo Paradise, I thing Chad works there too.

We'll be tibetan skull backpiece buddies!

Kool! I was apprehensive at first since I've seeni so many bad ones, but I looked at a bunch of the ones he's done, plus he did my sleeve and chest panel so now I'm stoked.

matthew gordon in sweden

Holy shit! That is incredible.

OK, this guy needs to go on some FBI watch list!

I think it's pretty easy to tell. i was kicking around ideas with my artist. I could tell he wasn't excited about a Koi back piece, but when I asked for suggestions, he got very excited about a Tibetan skull. He was so excited that I got excited and now guess which one I'm getting?

I wish I hadn't seen this. I love her stuff, and now I need to get a tattoo from her.

I'm always conflicted on stories like this. On one hand, nobody likes to see someone get an abomination like that on their body. On the other hand, how much thought went into this before he ran out and got the tattoo? He probably spent more time deciding what shirt to wear the day he got the tattoo than he did on who would put the tattoo on his body that he could potentially have to wear for life.

Thanks. Some great recommendations so far!

I would like to get a recommendation for an artist to do a Japanese back piece in the DC and surrounding area. I looked on the forum and viewed the profiles of some of the recommended shops in this area, but didn't really find anyone that thrilled me. I found someone I like, Josh Egnew at Three Kings, but would prefer not to have to drive all the way to New York. However, my prime concern is getting a good piece of work, so I'm somewhat flexible about how far I go.

Note to self - do NOT read this forum while eating lunch!

Pain is something that has actually been a big concern to me when getting my tattoo. I'm in the process of getting my first one, and it will be a fairly large peice extening from my upper army to shoulders. I guess my biggest concern is that I'm going to somehow move and cause the artist to "screw up". How does an artist deal with that?

They give you a good, hard bitch slapping. Don't worry, no one ever moves again :-)