otisc

Update May 20....
Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day.
Before:

After:

UPDATE: Well, today was the day!
What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in the shop with Scott (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign.
However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it.
Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me:

I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck.
Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot:

It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session.
Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

Update: Aug 31.
Scott Ellis is finally back in the US, so we put in five more hours dropping color into the dragon. I am so relieved to have the ditch of my arm done! That was probably the worst part.


 
 
 

Update May 20....
Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day.
Before:

After:

If punches could damage tattoos, the UFC would be out of business.

Finished!!!!
If anyone ever asks you for tattoo advice: "get enough sleep" needs to be at the top of the list. I've barely slept but a couple hours each of the last three nights.... and I could barely make it through the final 4 hours of tattooing needed to complete my sleeve. After about an hour, everything just hurt bad, and I had very little tolerance for pain this time around.
Here's a pic of the final sleeve. Some of the oranges are really yellow but inflamed... and there is actually no red in the swirling spiral on the back of the arm -- just red from the work.
Going back in a month for some touch-up work (not a lot of green held in the dragon's head first time around) and I will post healed photos in a few weeks.
 

Update: Aug 31.
Scott Ellis is finally back in the US, so we put in five more hours dropping color into the dragon. I am so relieved to have the ditch of my arm done! That was probably the worst part.


 
 
 

Update May 20....
Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day.
Before:

After:

UPDATE: Well, today was the day!
What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in the shop with Scott (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign.
However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it.
Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me:

I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck.
Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot:

It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session.
Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

Just had some line work done in the sunny Highlands of Scotland to cover up a 20yr old snake and some random Celtic flashes.  It's a big raven that's going to have a good bit of leaf and flower colour surrounding her in neo trad fashion  I note that four days in, the lines in my upper shoulder neck area have blown a bit.  May heal a little better but I'm trying not to stress and think that the colouring will sort it out... The area was a bit nippy and maybe my skin, maybe the depth, who knows.  I think it can be remedied in the completion - she is a big black bird after all.  Fun and games.  Colour going in on the 19th.  Quite excited about having this large raven shoulder with me!  
Stephen

Well, that was brutal. I tapped out after an embarrassingly short time, but whatever. He was able to finish the outline for the face/head and flames, which is great. Eyes on the prize: it's a long-term commitment, a journey, so I'm not worried. I'm in it, now.
But goddamn that hurt: especially the left hand side of my back, for some reason. Involuntarily tensed up every time. Not looking forward to that. Also difficult is that he pushes down on your back the whole time, making it harder to breathe.
Music helps, and talking. Talking really gets your mind off things.
Well, even though so little was done, it looks amazing already, and next appointment's in a month.
Thanks!

Hey --- great topic!
So I am exactly in your boat. Getting a Japanese dragon sleeve done here in Austin, Texas. Like you, I estimated this to be about 15 hours/3 sessions. But I am in that far now and we probably have 5-8 more to go.
You can read a more detailed update on how it's going here:
So, my sleeve is a 7/10th length, almost full. The first session was the linework. I don't know how your artist works, but mine the design was drawn freehand (after a lot of consultation, obviously). This took a few hours of mostly standing up. It was fascinating. He would draw it and be nearly done, then look at it and say -- no, the head needs to be an inch to the right - then wipe it off and start again. He would do multiple layers in multiple colors getting more detailed with each layer, and he erased amazing stuff many times because he wanted it to flow with my body correctly, and had to re-draw it. I think this is really important with your piece, especially with multiple elements. I was planning on tattooing to the wrist, but since I wear a watch, the 7/10ths made more sense. And putting the dragon head on my collarbone just never looked right, despite that being one of the more traditional locations. So as he is drawing it on you - think about how the pieces fit onto your body... and also.... think about what parts you want to look at all the time. If am not at the computer working, I am golfing, so what was on my top/inner forearms was important because that's the area I'll be looking at most. I had fewer flowers put there so I wasn't distracted by the pink that will go in there later.
Here are a few pics I didn't put into the other thread:

First layer. This was erased. and Re-done.

Then the linework. Ouch. We did this in about 3ish hours:

A month later we did all the shading in one 5.5 hour session:

The healing of the shading was just awful. The Y of my arm got immediately dry and cracked making moving my arm very painful for 4-5 days and mildly painful for another 4-5. Applying Aquaphor those first 3-4 days just inflamed the whole arm it and - just - ouch. I had to really baby it, and luckily I work from home and can work shirtless for a few days and wash/re-ointment frequently. If I had to put on a dress shirt (or any shirt) and go to work and move around I would have been really sorry. If you do this much coverage, wash it a lot, because I had a few areas flare up looking like they were going to get infected, but luckily just got really heavily scabbed.
So my artist went to Europe for 10 weeks, and I had to wait all summer for coloring! But like you, I was thinking 15 hours/three sessions. And I felt like one more 5.5 hours session like the shading would be enough to finish up almost entirely. Nope!
Last Wednesday we did 5.5 hours (all I could take) and only got in green and red:

Takes awhile to get some of that color in, I guess. This part on the shoulder hurt/bled a lot:

The ditch was bad. Real bad.

Healing the color has been about 60% as bad as the shading. I probably could have shirted up and worked a job with movement had I needed to... but it would have still been really uncomfortable. Healing the ditch is no joke. Those scales are all scabbed now, and I rarely scab on my tattoos. Ouch.
So now I'm hoping one more 5 hour run will do it, but I doubt it. Just the flowers - by the numbers, could take a few hours themselves (there are more on the back of the arm). So I'm guessing it will be 5 hrs next month, then another 2-3 after that (fingers crossed).
Take lots of pics, especially during if you can. I always wish I had snapped more after.
Here is a video of the shading. You can compare that spot to the above pics to see how dark we got it eventually. Takes awhile to lay down those greyish areas on the windbars/clouds:
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-znxv7VN/0/1280/i-znxv7VN-1280.mp4
 
 

Finished!!!!
If anyone ever asks you for tattoo advice: "get enough sleep" needs to be at the top of the list. I've barely slept but a couple hours each of the last three nights.... and I could barely make it through the final 4 hours of tattooing needed to complete my sleeve. After about an hour, everything just hurt bad, and I had very little tolerance for pain this time around.
Here's a pic of the final sleeve. Some of the oranges are really yellow but inflamed... and there is actually no red in the swirling spiral on the back of the arm -- just red from the work.
Going back in a month for some touch-up work (not a lot of green held in the dragon's head first time around) and I will post healed photos in a few weeks.
 

Japanese dragon sleeve by Scott Ellis is finished!
 

Ugh, you gotta wash your tattoos. Looks just like filthy scabbing to me. You're lucky you didn't get an infection. My first inclination is that either the tattoo artist has poor technique, but if you never washed it and developed thick scabbing, it's likely a lot of ink was drawn out.

Ugh, you gotta wash your tattoos. Looks just like filthy scabbing to me. You're lucky you didn't get an infection. My first inclination is that either the tattoo artist has poor technique, but if you never washed it and developed thick scabbing, it's likely a lot of ink was drawn out.

Japanese dragon sleeve by Scott Ellis is finished!
 

I follow Rodrigo on Instagram. Great Japanese tattoo artist. I would go to him and not even consider another artist on that arm. Dragon a great choice. 

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.

My latest - my grandma was a belly dancer. This is my Sailor Jerry-ish pinup version.
Rob Johnson @ All Star Tattoo
 
No idea what happened to Tornado6. It's still me ?

Japanese dragon sleeve by Scott Ellis is finished!
 

It's been awhile since we've started a new thread that goes on for pages and pages.
Let's see your American Traditional-style tattoos. From Sailor Jerry to Steve Byrne and beyond... let's see those bold classics!

Get a dragon.
A big one.

I bet that could be covered up with a panther. Check out The Cat Book for some ideas.

Had this done yesterday at 454 tattoo in Encinitas by Dave Kruseman.   There's a little warble in the line at the top, that was 100% on my twitchy leg, not Dave.  I'm super stoked about this tattoo though.  Probably my last of 2016 and my last American Traditional for awhile.  Hope ya'll like it!
 
If anyone is curious, Dave is a super nice guy, and happy to talk about winning the show/shooting the show, but also about just about anything else. Everyone at 454 was super friendly and helpful.  Great little shop.