Colored Guy

Done last week by Gina at Studio 69 Tattoo on Long Island, NY. On my right shoulder.

I tell everyone, when in doubt, get a dragon, bigger the better. Panthers are always in as well. Panther and a snake is another one.

Done last week by Gina at Studio 69 Tattoo on Long Island, NY. On my right shoulder.

Done last week by Gina at Studio 69 Tattoo on Long Island, NY. On my right shoulder.

I tell everyone, when in doubt, get a dragon, bigger the better. Panthers are always in as well. Panther and a snake is another one.

Husband went back to get more work done Wednesday. His artist is now transitioning to doing mainly nipple tattoos in a medical center for breast cancer survivors. He will not be in the shop full time now, it will be more a part time (sounded *very* part time) side job, so my husband was frantic, wondering how he'd get his leg finished and what he would do for continued work in other areas and the artist was like Nah, now I just get to pick and choose what I want to do-and I want to do this, so you'll never have a problem getting in to see me!
The dragon will go on the calf and he's going to run it over the front of his leg, like his knee and bottom of his thigh there...I burst out laughing when he came home and told me that.

I have one that the green was lined in a darker green and it has held up. I have had older black-lined tattoos spread out over time. Ones that were close together almost touched after 20 years. I agree that the sun is a tattoo's worst enemy. I know one artist, she has some nice water color work on her, no outline but she is almost an albino compared to me and never sets foot in the sun. Her work still looks perfect years later.

I think how you take care of it is a factor too. If you are a sun worshiper, they will likely fade much quicker than if you always keep them covered up when it's sunny.

My husband has no tattoos, just because he doesn't really know what to get or cares enough to put the effort into finding an artist and booking an appointment. He is alright with mine, he probably wishes I wasn't so obsessed with getting more, but I wish he wasn't so obsessed with MMOs and we can't always get what we want :P
My husband appreciates the fact that I research artists and pay for good work, I don't think he'd like my tattoos that much if they weren't good. I'm hoping one day he does decide to pull the trigger and get a tattoo, he has a couple of good "if I did get one, it might be this" ideas.

This was done last night by Gina at Studio 69 tattoo... on my ribs. Came close to tapping out. The mark on the upper left is a drain from my heart surgery.
 

Been away for a while, had issues with my account and had to open another one. We got a new kitten in May, his name is Ivan. He's a feral rescue at 5 weeks old. A bit of a handful, but everyone loves him.
I got my old Ford insured and registered in July, have about 1200 miles on it. Running well and still de-bugging it.
 

My first was 2 hearts and a banner with my wife (at the time) and my name in a banner. Actually pretty well done. This was in 1977. By 1979 her name was inked over. In 1980 the whole tattoo was covered with a snake and rose. In 2011 that tattoo was covered up with a big peony. I think it is now covered up enough.

Been away for a while, had issues with my account and had to open another one. We got a new kitten in May, his name is Ivan. He's a feral rescue at 5 weeks old. A bit of a handful, but everyone loves him.
I got my old Ford insured and registered in July, have about 1200 miles on it. Running well and still de-bugging it.
 

Shoot.. I work for a Fortune 100 company and I have 17 tattoos to date. I cover them at work, some people know I have them, some don't and it doesn't matter to anyone it seems. I would just go full speed ahead and book those appointments, life gets short by the time 60 comes around.

Shoot.. I work for a Fortune 100 company and I have 17 tattoos to date. I cover them at work, some people know I have them, some don't and it doesn't matter to anyone it seems. I would just go full speed ahead and book those appointments, life gets short by the time 60 comes around.

I find that dealing with the same shop and artists over a long period of time, they treat me right. Nothing is ever free, but is what some people seem to be looking for. A good experienced artist will work faster than someone with less experience. I have known artists that would purposely drag a tattoo out longer than it should have, just to make extra $$.
I've noticed that some shops are not that busy, it seems that at least locally here the winter is off-season for tattooing. And big in the summer. I want all my tattoo work in before mid May. So an artist will appreciate the work a little more in the slow season.
I now spend what I want on tattoos, but before I would save up for one. Put away $20 and $10 there and it adds up quick.

It was terrible, I can imagine what the home life was like. My ex-wife was there when I got a large tattoo and she was fine, just watched, not a peep. Regardless, we were done as a couple in the next 6 months.

If you want a tattoo, you need to warrior it up. At a minimum, it's going to be uncomfortable. Read the link that @SStu referenced above and you'll see that people's experiences are all over the place. The net is if you want it badly enough, you'll do it.
For me, that spot wasn't too bad. I have my own pain scale (I call it the suck factor) that goes from 0-5. My right hip, thigh and butt for two different tattoos in that area had an average suck factor of 2.5.

Henrietta is a spammer. 

Been away for a while, had issues with my account and had to open another one. We got a new kitten in May, his name is Ivan. He's a feral rescue at 5 weeks old. A bit of a handful, but everyone loves him.
I got my old Ford insured and registered in July, have about 1200 miles on it. Running well and still de-bugging it.
 

I've seen some ugly husband-and-wife dynamics at tattoo appointments, but this was decades ago. Take separate cars in case one of you wants to leave before the other. Craziest thing so far... wife sat in the car blowing the horn outside, she was out of patience I suppose... what a poop mist it spread over the shop vibe....
 

Why not get another small tattoo as well? It would spread that $150 out a lot better.

Shoot.. I work for a Fortune 100 company and I have 17 tattoos to date. I cover them at work, some people know I have them, some don't and it doesn't matter to anyone it seems. I would just go full speed ahead and book those appointments, life gets short by the time 60 comes around.

Bumping this topic - interesting reading!
I’ve only got one small tattoo from 40-odd years ago, but I’m planning a back piece. Even though I haven’t started the actual tattoo yet, I have already learned things as I’ve made my decision and started planning. 
I’m learning that tattooing is a process and that for me most important part of the process is not in the studio, it is in the brain. 
It took me over 30 years to decide to get my second tattoo. Even though I wanted one, I didn’t think it fit my professional image, and I was afraid of being judged negatively by friends and colleagues. I waffled between “should I or shouldn’t I?” for decades. Over time my desire to get a tattoo grew stronger and stronger. And to complicate matters, my interest evolved from “getting a tattoo” into “getting a very large tattoo.” 
I couldn’t understand why I was unable to make a decision. I spent a lot of time analyzing it and ended up writing down the whole history of my interest in tattooing, as far back as far as I could remember — every incident, what I saw, what my thoughts were along the way, and what was going on in my life, my feelings of conflict— everything I could think of (condensed, but still fairly long version here). Ultimately that led me to the realization that my indecision was not really about whether or not to get a tattoo, but was really an expression of my inability to be the person that I wanted to be in life. 
I came to the realization that I had lived my whole life trying to fit into an image of what I perceived that others and my profession wanted me should be, while completely burying what I wanted to be. I realized that I had unwittingly gradually reprogrammed myself to believe that by “fitting in” I would become the “right kind of person.” 
That may have been one of the most important things I learned about myself in my 60-odd years on the planet. Once I acepted that, it was easy to decide to go ahead with my tattoo project, but more importantly It helped me start to live my life more as I wanted, and move toward a better balance between the professional me and the private me. 
It was only through trying to decide to get a large tattoo that I was able to find that out about myself. I’m not sure if I could have gotten to that realization any other way. I think that for me it took a confrontation with a desire to do something that in my world was really radical, extreme, and beyond the norm (getting a huge tattoo) to jolt me into exploring and learning something deep in me.

I got my first rib/stomach tattoo (still in progress). The ribs are bad, but the stomach is worse, IMHO. It was the first time I've ever said stop and I've got well over 100 hours work including sleeves, chest panel, back and legs. He hit it with some Bactine so we could keep going, but it was pretty bad.