tcgjake

Finishing my left sleeve next week!

2018 was a fun one for me!
Had a tree on my right arm
My back done with my Kirin, sessions every 2-3weeks and loved it❤️
2019 I've already had a tattoo to honor my mom on my right calf.
I am hoping to start some work on the left side to even out😂

I was on a tear in 2018.
My battle royal back piece finished up (eagle, snake and dragon) in late January
2 neck tattoos, April and May
Had some empty real estate on right forearm, got a large snake in March or April
Cover up on left upper arm early January
Tiger on left thigh December
Cover up Flower left foot in December

Impressive list in general so all in one year is incredible! Would love to get a Hendricks tattoo eventually as well. I am originally from Fullerton and my parents still live there and I go back often so hopefully sooner than later.
Happy New Year everyone!

Hello,
Thought it would be fun to start a thread to talk about tattoo's you got this year and what you hope to get next year, I'll start.
This year I got 2 new tattoos, a shrunken head (pictures in gallery) and an add on to a Friday the 13th tattoo I already had (pictures to follow, still healing) and my fiance got 1 of a dream catcher on her forearm. I've had a renewed itch to get tattoo'd so hoping to complete my left arm next year. I have two medium sized spots left on that arm, the first being my elbow which I plan on getting covered with a death moth in the beginning of March. The other is my upper half of my upper arm/should area which has a decent amount of space for a larger piece although I am not sure exactly what yet. I also have 3-4 spots I can fit small (2.5 sq in or less) tattoos that I have some plans for as well. Hopefully a few more too but we'll see what the budget allows.
What tattoos did you get this year and what do you plan on getting next year?

Impressive list in general so all in one year is incredible! Would love to get a Hendricks tattoo eventually as well. I am originally from Fullerton and my parents still live there and I go back often so hopefully sooner than later.
Happy New Year everyone!

@Danlovin' yours man, especially the devil and pumpkin!
@GingerninjaI suggest we change your name to pinchusion 😉🤣
This was only my second year of getting tattooed, but I was very happy with what I got.
The beginning of 2018 was 3 sessions to get this:

Fall of 2018 was a family tribute that may not be the very best tattoo in the world, but makes me smile every time I look at it.

For the coming year, I already have an email in requesting a consult for a traditional mom/dad tribute piece.  Looking forward to that and more!

Happy New Year!
Let's see...Tomo, Dan Sinnes, Paul Dobleman, Robert Ryan, DJ Rose, Laurent, Nick Colella, Grez, Mike Rubendall, Austin Maples and Stewart Robson rounded out 2018. 2019 will be a slower year but I hope still rad. ETA: Hendricks and Bryan Kienlen!
Thanks to all of you for your support. Wishing you an amazing 2019!

boat was last year - a fair amount done this year though.... 
Happy New Year!

2018 started out with a Sailor Jerry ship at Leviticus Tattoo's annual Sailor Jerry Birthday bash and then a very small filler sparrow at the Minneapolis tattoo convention- both in January. May brought me a nice fish at Smith Street and the tattoo year finished up with a rocket ship back at Leviticus. 
2019 will bring another one from he Sailor Jerry Birthday party and then who knows what? Most of the tattoo budget will go to support my wife in getting a sleeve on her blank arm for her 40th year. 

2018 was my year for small tattoos,
one on Maui,
one on  Friday the 13th,
one on Halloween,
one at Black Heart in SF,
one from Carolyn at FTW in Oakland,
and one for Bob & Ziggy.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

cool idea.
this year it was all backpiece all the time: we finished the background and red and started the green.
this coming year I hope to finish the whole damn thing!

Hello,
Thought it would be fun to start a thread to talk about tattoo's you got this year and what you hope to get next year, I'll start.
This year I got 2 new tattoos, a shrunken head (pictures in gallery) and an add on to a Friday the 13th tattoo I already had (pictures to follow, still healing) and my fiance got 1 of a dream catcher on her forearm. I've had a renewed itch to get tattoo'd so hoping to complete my left arm next year. I have two medium sized spots left on that arm, the first being my elbow which I plan on getting covered with a death moth in the beginning of March. The other is my upper half of my upper arm/should area which has a decent amount of space for a larger piece although I am not sure exactly what yet. I also have 3-4 spots I can fit small (2.5 sq in or less) tattoos that I have some plans for as well. Hopefully a few more too but we'll see what the budget allows.
What tattoos did you get this year and what do you plan on getting next year?

Hello,
Thought it would be fun to start a thread to talk about tattoo's you got this year and what you hope to get next year, I'll start.
This year I got 2 new tattoos, a shrunken head (pictures in gallery) and an add on to a Friday the 13th tattoo I already had (pictures to follow, still healing) and my fiance got 1 of a dream catcher on her forearm. I've had a renewed itch to get tattoo'd so hoping to complete my left arm next year. I have two medium sized spots left on that arm, the first being my elbow which I plan on getting covered with a death moth in the beginning of March. The other is my upper half of my upper arm/should area which has a decent amount of space for a larger piece although I am not sure exactly what yet. I also have 3-4 spots I can fit small (2.5 sq in or less) tattoos that I have some plans for as well. Hopefully a few more too but we'll see what the budget allows.
What tattoos did you get this year and what do you plan on getting next year?

Hello,
Thought it would be fun to start a thread to talk about tattoo's you got this year and what you hope to get next year, I'll start.
This year I got 2 new tattoos, a shrunken head (pictures in gallery) and an add on to a Friday the 13th tattoo I already had (pictures to follow, still healing) and my fiance got 1 of a dream catcher on her forearm. I've had a renewed itch to get tattoo'd so hoping to complete my left arm next year. I have two medium sized spots left on that arm, the first being my elbow which I plan on getting covered with a death moth in the beginning of March. The other is my upper half of my upper arm/should area which has a decent amount of space for a larger piece although I am not sure exactly what yet. I also have 3-4 spots I can fit small (2.5 sq in or less) tattoos that I have some plans for as well. Hopefully a few more too but we'll see what the budget allows.
What tattoos did you get this year and what do you plan on getting next year?

Hi all, hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish you all a happy new year.  I still lurk the board from time to time and have had a bunch of work done since my last post over a year ago.
Here are some more all done by the same bud; Rasta @ Ink Assassins.
Mike.

Went with my fiance to get her tattoo a few days ago so I could show the artist a Friday the 13th tattoo that I am looking to get reworked and added to. He had a cancellation on the 26th so I grabbed it. Really looking forward to it as I've known since I got the tattoo that I wanted to add to it so I've been avoiding the area until it is finished. The original scarred pretty badly and a lot of the ink fell out but I never got it touched up as I thought it gave it a more rugged look. I'll post before and after pictures when it's done.

Went with my fiance to get her tattoo a few days ago so I could show the artist a Friday the 13th tattoo that I am looking to get reworked and added to. He had a cancellation on the 26th so I grabbed it. Really looking forward to it as I've known since I got the tattoo that I wanted to add to it so I've been avoiding the area until it is finished. The original scarred pretty badly and a lot of the ink fell out but I never got it touched up as I thought it gave it a more rugged look. I'll post before and after pictures when it's done.

well, squid pants getting the layers...finished my Five Deadly Venoms themed thigh tattoo collage ! 
My homie Rich Harding (Champion Tattoo Edmonton, AB) whipped in some some smoke-grey shading behind the 2nd layer black widow spider and centipede he did last month.. The spider webbing is layered on top of my 9 year old p-knee tattoos. really tied everything together and am very happy with the results. it is healing great.

 
...and then I had the very exciting, rare and unique opportunity to tattoo myself for the first time. I did the top square inch of red background behind the 5 year old yin-yang auspicious spider. Rich said, you've got all these tattoos budd, you need to fill in at least a small part of your bodysuit on your own.


Quitting my day job...SORRY BOOKS CLOSED UNTIL 2022 haha

My Cocker Spaniel, Lily. Have had her just over a year now. 

My awesome news...my new hearing aids will be in next week! F you brain tumor! I am so looking forward to the possibility of hearing people again. Then, I can ignore them if I want to. 🙂

Original was my first tattoo from 20 years ago. Met with my artist to see what would work. He took several photos, did an outline tracing and committed to drawing what might work. The old dragon was 20 years old and tired.  Got it on a business trip in Chicago at the Jade Dragon Tattoo Parlor. At the time a group of young, enthusiastic managers went downtown to see the iconic tattoo shop. 6 of us left with new ink. Many years later, I wanted something new, fresh and keeping with the dragon theme. 
My artist carefully explained what colors would work, what design would work and the size of the new piece to effectively cover the old work. Little did I know this was going to be a journey, a process and commitment of many months. Once I saw the stencil and the pc screen illustrating the color choices. I decided to take the plunge.
First session was about four-five hours for outline work.
Second session was the beginning of shading. (4-5 hours)
Third Session more color. ( five hours)
Fourth Session-almost done ( Was coming down with the flu and getting cold chills and shaking thinking I was getting cold) close to 4 hours..
Have been back for two touch up sessions and have the last one scheduled this week. If you notice the yellow areas in the whiskers and scales between the horns, a little more color saturation is needed to prevent the old image from showing through. 
Comments-Cover work can be very complex. Its a blend of design, choosing the appropriate colors that will cover light and dark and going larger to find a design that will obscure the old work. It may never be completely invisible, however the focus of the new work will draw the eye away from the previous work. Detailed shading and design is never one and done. Plan on more than visit to get the deep color saturation you desire and to cover the old areas. I waited 30 days in between sessions to allow my skin to heal and allow my artist to see what really needed to be done next. Learned a lot about what after care products I prefer. When doing a lot of shading work, some products with lidocaine do make a difference. While you might not experience the same level of relief on line work. When shading and the pores get opened up..there is a difference.  At my age-(56) five hours is longest I can sit. Four hours is much easier. Having a cool artist that understands you and the end goal are very important. I wont be doing any more cover work but I plan on lots more ink. Have had a couple more new pieces since this piece was almost done. 
Hope this helps those thinking about cover work. My artist explained he would much rather work on a 20 year old piece than one done six months ago.
Just one old guys experience.
 
 

Welcome to team Saniderm/Tegaderm. @tcgjake

First time using Saniderm and wow, what a difference! Here is my tattoo about 12 hours after removing the Saniderm. A bit dry and perky but no scabbing whatsoever. Dont think I’ll go back to healing without it. 

November 28 -- 2nd sleeve begins.
Once again, we returned to the studios of world traveling artist Scott Ellis. He's spent most of the last six months hopscotching Europe. I was happy to know ahead of time that he'd be back in Austin Texas for a few week -- plenty of time to start sleeve #2. 
Scott suggested we try a Phoenix for this sleeve. Seemed to fit well with the dragon. Here is his notebook prior to my arriving:

As before, Scott creates the design in freehand. Took him about 3.25 hours. And as before, he was ever the perfectionist -- at one point an hour in wiping off my arm and starting again because he felt the bird's head was an inch off from where he wanted it. 



As we progress, Scott goes through about four layers, increasing the detail with ever more fine brushes along the way.



Below are layer #3 and #4:


Taken in mirror:

And at least, we ink! 2.5 hours of linework. 

Unfortunately, Scott is back off to Europe... so no shading stage until April. That's okay, it is worth the wait to be worked on by a master.