Dan S

Colors can be adjusted, and you have plenty of room to add foliage or whatever suits you to the top of the Tree. I would suggest researching pre-christian art from Northern Europe-I've been able to find some killer plates of old finds, and it wouldn't surprise me if you could find earlier illustrations of Yggdrasil to work with. yggdrasil - Google Search

Yggdrasil with people kissing on Him...hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Hope you get your lines of commo straightened out with your artist-I know exactly what you mean! You may THINK you have every detail covered, only to find when you're done that it didn't quite hit the mark. Good luck! (tell your artist that this Guy is watching!)

Here's where I get flamed... So, no, this isn't an intricate, beautiful piece, but the style and execution were hot stuff in the street-club "Greaser" culture of the late sixties. This one was put on with a sharpened shoe-nail and boiled ink from a BIC whilst in a "youth home" around 1968 or so. I've thought about having it covered or removed, but for some reason, just can't bring myself to do it. It was the third tat I put on myself, the other two are long covered. Oh, and if anyone here is into old watches, let me know-always open to buy/sell/trade for Elgins and other good quality old watches.

At 54, you've had the experiences you need to know what you want for a sleeve, I can definitely see that. Guess my post was more aimed at the 23 y.o. that goes out and has it all done at once.

Just my little 2 cents... I'm 57, put my first tattoo on myself when I was 12. For me, every piece has had a meaning, whether it was jailhouse hand-needle, or sitting for one of the greats. I never went for coverage, and some of the pieces I got along the way are fairly pedestrian...for someone else! What I mean is, I do have a few pieces of flash from the wall at the original location of Chicago Tattooing Co., but even the panther head cover-up on my wrist has a special meaning for me...the roses I got when I was engaged to my first wife, the dragon and dagger I got during a particularly iffy stretch of running and gunning, they all meant something TO ME, even if they were "just" flash off the wall. Other pieces I got with varying deegrees of thought, but always for a reason...mostly cover-ups of jailhouse work, but always with a meaning to me. The demons head on my left forearm is a cross between a standard Japanese demon that was pretty common in the '70's and the album cover of King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King". The cloud dragon on my upper left arm is another cover-up, lots of black, and pieces of a dragon from flash, along with a LOT of hand-drawn stuff from Dale Grande. When I did finally, about 6 years ago, decide to finish up my right arm, it was with designs that I researched and picked for their relationship to me ancestors. The Runes tell the story of my lifes journey, the knotwork shows the complexity of life, the world-serpent is there, and Wotan supervises it all. To tie all that together with the work I already had took, if I recall, 5 sittings of 5 or 6 hours each. Thing I'm getting at is I can't even come close to understanding someone who would go out and toss a few grand on the table and say "sleeve me up" to an artist. It's kool, if that's your gig, that's your gig, but for myself, I want to be able to look at every inch of inked skin and remember... That said, yeah, I have plans for more, but money, don'cha know!!! 6 kids...it really cuts into your ink budget! I have a full backpiece planned, and some other, smaller pieces for my chest, then who knows, maybe someday I'll get ambitious and have Nick take a look at that left arm, see what else could be had there. As far as keeping fit, well, it doesn't cost anything! I still teach and work out at least 3 days a week. Can't lift as much as I used to, a long life of martial arts and motorsickles has seen to the arthritis thing being there, but I can still get in a ring with the youngsters and hold my own. Give it a try-nothing like the martial arts to keep you going! .02

Any updates on this? Nick, I'd be happy to help out with some type of fundraiser if an exra pair of bodies would do some good.

Always have tried to be clean n str8 when I get inked, and it always has amazed me how many funk-bums go in au natural to get worked on. The ones that really amaze me are the people that can't sit still for a tat, always jumping and crying!

Thanks Bunny... Found some more pix of (fairly) new work I have, while it was in process. These were all done my Miles Maniaci, while he was still at Chicago Tattooing Company.

Well, kick the boy inna ass and have him put up some more! Come on, Nick...don't be holding out now!!!

Thanks hogg, 'preciate the welcome.

Someone probably already came up with this-I gave up looking after page 17. Here's the skinny on Mr. Kool Ice. Mr. Cool Ice

Signed up here after hearing that Nick Colella had posted a few pix of old tats of mine. Looked around, saw lotsa good stuff, and thought I'd stick around and maybe throw in my two cents now n then, so feel free to flame! I put my first tat on myself when I was 12, I'm 57 now, and it hasn't stopped. I did a good bit of old-skool hand-needle jailhouse stuff way back in the day, and most of the work I have now covers old jailhouse pieces. What else can I say? I like to visit and watch at other parlors, but I get all chauvinistic and shit about who tattoos me...I've never gotten a professional piece anywhere but at Chicago Tattooing, and I can't see that changing now. I first went in there to gawk, man, mabye around 1966, 1967, something like that, and got my first electric tattoo done in there by Dale Grande in something like 1973 or 1974. That's me-hope to get to know some of y'all.