Colored Guy

That shop's work is scary, some of the work in the galleries looks okay.. some not okay. Agreed that the quality had a vast range to it. I'd never get a tat from anyone with a shop ran out of a garage, is this even legal?

I know of one local shop that has good artists working for it, but I'd never let the owner even touch me.

CG

Well I think that the foot will be one of my all time least favorite places to get tattooed. While getting tattooed isn't so bad, the healing sucks. Was told to keep it cleaned and wrapped for the first few days, and I am. But I can already see a few places I will need to get touched up. And I'm not looking toward to having a swollen foot again.

I had the one on my foot heal badly too. I had to go to work the day after it was done, meaning wearing socks. I loosely taped a wound pad over it with some after care ointment the artist gave me then put on my sock. The tattoo must have creased from sitting so much and it got infected, a first for me. I kept it clean, used neosporin on it and it healed up. I did have a blank area where it was infected, which I did have touched up at a later session.

CG

I'm outside a lot in the summer so I use a sun block product on my ink. It takes a bit to get it applied and re-applied but worth the effort. I use nothing less than a SPF 50.

CG

I was in a bar many years ago and someone I know walks in with a very fresh tattoo on his forearm. A rose with a scroll and "Mom", nothing huge. He shows it off and shortly after, gets into it with someone outside and winds up knocked on his ass in the parking lot. Of course the tattoo is dragged across the asphalt and is scraped up. None of us are tattoo experts at that time, so he goes and lets it heal up. I see him like 3 weeks later and the tattoo looks perfect. I would have guessed it would have needed some sort of touch up.

I own a machine shop and had some fresh ink on my forearm 2 months ago. It was about 2 weeks old and I was changing tools on a lathe and dragged it across a boring bar. It was a 2" long scratch, bled for a bit, scabbed up and I didn't mess with it. It healed up fine, no sign that it was ever cut.

CG

I agree that infection is the most important thing to be aware of. If I have fresh ink in an exposed area, I'll put some neosporin over it, go to the gym and wash it off once I get home. I've had some discomfort lifting with my shoulder and chest tattoo work, so i just took it a little easy for a few days.

CG

I was in a local shop about 1980 or so, just shooting the shit with the owner on a slow night. This guy walks in and wants a tattoo on his dick. The owner quotes him a $100 "handling fee" on top of whatever the ink cost was. The guy doesn't bat an eye and agrees to the extra $100. The owner reaches under the counter and pulls out a piece of 1" x 6" board with all sorts of rusty nails sticking out of it and a claw hammer. The customer asks, "What's that for?". The owner comes back with "I ain't touching that thing, you'll have to nail it to the board yourself.". The customer turns and leaves without saying anything else.

CG

I was 6 at the time. I was on the bus going home from 1st grade, the last day of school too, so it was memorable. Our regular bus driver had been replaced by this guy who was not in his happy place. He was yelling at us to keep quiet and what not... he was wearing a wife-beater shirt and had a couple of tattoos that I could see. I got a glimpse of one that was military related.

The only thing that most of us knew about tattoos was the "prize" tattoos that came in boxes of Cracker Jacks. You know the box I'm sure, with the sailor on it that was probably inked from head to toe under his uniform.

CG

I think Joseph Conrad said it best: "the fascination of the abomination."

Same as with the rubber-necking associated with bad car wrecks... sometimes ya just gotta look...

CG

This was just on MSNBC last week, a must-see from a technical as well as the human level.

CG

I'm in Suffolk County and my recent work was done at Studio 69 Tattoo in Ronkonkoma.

Studio 69 Tattoo - Home

I guess they were flush with FREE labor to do the volunteer work. Pretty sad...

I work for a big Fortune 300 company and cover my tattoos up. A few people I work with from around town and the gym may know, but its not general knowledege. My one son has to cover his up for work, he waits tables in a popular restaurant and thet's their policy.

CG

I'm a long time tattoo fan that just found this forum. Had most of my work done over 20 years ago and in the process of having it freshened up and new work done as well.

CG

Panther or peacock.

Koi are commonly used as the scales can be made dark, or the whole tattoo done on the darker side. Some artists specialize in the art of the cover up.

CG

Back in the '70's, just about any shop was crammed wall to wall on a Friday or Saturday night with people lined up to get those $25 "hot stuff" devils on their arms. I'm glad the times have changed for the most part.

CG