otisc

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.
 

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: 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.

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.


 
 
 

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.
 

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.
 

I'm catching up on unread items and just saw this.  Awesome with a capital A. 

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

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

I think once you have a tattoo in that area, no one will notice the beauty marks one bit, whether the ink covers them or not.

I think once you have a tattoo in that area, no one will notice the beauty marks one bit, whether the ink covers them or not.

I posted an update in the Initiation forum, but realized it isn't as widely seen. Here is a condensed version:
Session 3 on the dragon sleeve is done. I went in thinking we would color it in and I'd be done or nearly done. Nope! 5.25 hours of green and red. In the ditch. Ouch.
April:

May:

Last week:

I'm very happy with it so far, but dying to get the final touches of detail into the dragon.
I count 120 cherry blossom pedals all the way around. Given that 2 min each average is four hours, I'm doubting we will even finish next time.

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

Very nice! I'm in Austin also. Kinda want the artist completing my first sleeve (Scott Ellis, Triple Crown) to do other arm. Kinda want to mix it up Jason Brooks is definitely on the short list. Like this a lot. 

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

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

Keep in mind that you will probably need to cover this with something 4-5 times the size to really hide it. And you'll likely need a design that can work in/around this tribal to hide it effectively, unless you fade it further with lasering. Luckily there is enough negative space that a creative and clever artist will have plenty to work with. 

Iowagirl -- love your large piece, especially the back portion... but your husband's tiger/cherry blossoms kicks ass. Can't wait to see that one come to completion. Classic.

I like the first two quite a bit. Definitely go in to an artist you trust and let that person help you with the perfect placement. What may look awesome on one person's arm in one place may look horrible on the exact same place of a different arm.

Iowagirl -- love your large piece, especially the back portion... but your husband's tiger/cherry blossoms kicks ass. Can't wait to see that one come to completion. Classic.

My big piece was finished last night. Sooo now becomes the deliberation of what I want to do next, where I want to do it. I'm stumped. Was going to talk to my artist last night but I was so focused on pretending it didn't hurt..
Husband has put his leather armor on hold and went w/a new artist, starting this tiger. He loves the new artist so that's great. A dragon is going on the back of the calf there and everything will be in color.

Hell yeah! Photos?

Hell yeah! Photos?

One thing you could do is put a little line under the W and the E. Both lines would be on the outside and would re-orient the eye to make the W and E appear correct. See attached bad photoshop