bongsau

@hogg haha thx mon WHA GWAN COL-O-RING BOOK ! "Mi skin a run outta space / But mi have plenty more fi go a-ha a-ha" LOL this is the funnest time though in my tattoo journey...got some plans for small tattoos and tattoos-over-tattoos to make everything even more dense haha

Thanks for your comments and input gentlemen! Keep em coming ...

what is everybody's experience and opinions on armpit tattoos? I have collectors telling me positive things...armpits aren't pleasant to get tattooed but an easier sit than you would expect. That they heal very quickly and smoothly (moisture?) and no adverse side effects. On the flip side, I have had a couple of my most respected tattooers tell me that they don't particularly like tattooing armpits because the potential to affect and damage the sweat glands. Much with the same argument I've heard as to one of the reasons the Japanese leaving the strip down the torso open. Is it healthy to be running a tattoo machine over the armpit, essentially scarring over the sweat glands, especially when you have a lot of other coverage? I've heard that it takes a couple years for your armpits to reset to normal after tattooing i.e. a bit more smell and sweat buckets until the tattoo is truly settled in. I'm not sure if I want to walk around with my arms glued to my side hiding sweat moons. I'm not in high school anymore. This came up at a tattoo party on the weekend, I had a couple people encouraging me to tattoo my armpits and my feet. I dunno...I've got it in my head that it will make me smell like a pencil crayon but am warming up to the idea ... what's really amusing is that I will consider placing tattoos in my armpits but I cringe whenever it's suggested i tattoo my feet lol comments? experiences? (there are these short LST threads from a couple years ago...) http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-after-care/1604-armpit.html http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/3580-tattooing-armpits-nipples-page2.html

jesus bud ! ribs, kidney and lower back session...you are the dragon warrior ! the lower back still blows my mind how bad it was...like one of THE worst spots...how did that spot ever become popular ? it gave me a new found respect for the shy ladies with hidden rebellion, women with questionable morals and men with really sexy tastes alike!

Nah, I wouldn't call it interference, I would call it a design variable. Think of it like framing the top of the backpiece. Or you can tile the background underneath the neck-dagger or whatever. The tattooer has to fit/cut the tattoos on your body and that fit/cut will depend on your body type, the look you're going for and the other existing tattoos in the area. I got my neck / tops of shoulder pieces completed before I started my back. Check out the pic in my gallery, you can kind of see it what I mean by framing. My blackground doesn't pop out of my shirt and now I've got this sweet gap (or maybe two?) on the back of my neck that I will fill in...now to chip away at my wife about how high that gap tattoo is going to travel up into my hairline hehehe...

Lucky Strike Tattoo in Edmonton, AB hosted their annual summer slam party this weekend !! It was a super fun time. Lots of tattoo show n tell, good tattoo talks with fellow collectors, jello shooters, moonshine, parking lot burnouts, picture machine flash jokes and got drunk with some new buds. I hadn't even cracked my first beer (4pm) and Scotty's like "it's a friggin tattoo shop take your shirts off". Got to check out some wicked tattoos in the flesh...Lucas Ford fudo backpiece, Steve Moore backpiece, a bunch of Steve Batt tattoos, a Steve Byrne ROA in progress backpiece (!), Bailey Robinson, Koeplinger, OllieXXX, Smilin' Dave and of course lots of fresh and aged tattoos from the Lucky Strike cats of new and old (Sam Sheinin, Bobby Tripp, Miles Kanne, Scott Rusnak, Brent Smith, Chris Iwaniuk, Myke, Julie). Anyway, got this super dope photo of Scott Rusnak and some fellow clients in the bodysuit club. from L-R ... Steve(?), Scott Rusnak, Derek, myself. Too bad we didn't get a backside shot... IG @ scottrusnak one of the most underrated young tattooers in Western Canada...he does really bright and vivid Trevino-esque Japanese style tattoos with attention to the details. Highly recommend him. IG @ lucky_strike_tattoo great local shop, quality artists and a really fun place to hang. some bongsau facts...30% of my tattoos have been completed at Lucky Strike, 40% if you include the Electric Tattoo days from 10 years ago!

It's in the skin now, too late to second guess the placement! But you've expressed you are more or less happy with it so don't overthink it (which is totally natural, but stop yourself). There is no such thing as a perfect tattoo... Don't cover it, get tattoos around the fox and adjacent area on the forearm.

what's up man, i'm from Edmonton too :) are you the cat you messaged me on Instagram? good luck trying to get in with Steve, it's well worth the effort and wait. -eric

Agree, good for her that she really likes her tatts. I like mine too. But how come you are posting photos of her tattoos ?

A reminder, every backpiece is different. Design, subject matter, linework, colours, details, finer details, ink saturation...your stamina, that tattooers stamina, your height/weigh, your skin and health, the tattooers' experience, work flow, skill and speed, the needle clusters used, how many smoke breaks you take, the frequency of sessions...a lot of variables at play.

32 hours so far with maybe one more touchup in the fall...back, butt, 1 thigh. I already had rib tattoos so it did make my back canvas slightly narrower. My guy works like lighting though and has optimized his tattoo process for efficiency.

I guess this a thing to be mindful of whenever uploading our pics to IG, FB or even LST. Because eventually those tattoo photos you had the courtesy to share with the internet may end up on the websites like Pinterest, Shock Mansion, tumblr, buzzfeed and many other clickbait sites that do NOT credit the artist, collector or source. I wouldn't get too worked up. Your tattoo has slightly better placement on the hand and looks like a cleaner execution, not to mention it was made by a world-class tattooer. The other guy, well he's a hard looking hoodie metalhead who wasn't original enough to get his own thunderstorm. Don't let him rain on your parade!

My buddy (a tattooer) said there was a period where he used a Hillary Duff picture as a reference for every girl head tattoo he did, hilarious!

Bit of heavy heart this week. As I'm sure some of you have figured out since I've been hanging around LST that I'm pretty heavily into kung fu (duh, I got a Shaolin monk tattooed on my back). Well, there was something pretty tragic that happened in my city earlier this week. Some nut-job who had a hate-on for jews fired 50 bullets into a west end neighbourhood (where I grew up), through a door with a high powered rifle as the police were kicking down the door. He ended up killing the officer who was at the front of the battering ram before shooting himself and setting his house on fire. yeah i know crazy. The killed police officer happened to be a student and friend from our kung fu school. Anyway, we were approached by media to put off-duty-Dan into context and share our memories of him. Our Dragon Team will be using our blue Shaolin robes and blue belts as a tribute and way to honour our friend Dan. Dan had actually just joined the dragon team a few weeks ago. Anyway here is the story CBC news just ran: Const. Daniel Woodall remembered fondly at martial arts school - Edmonton - CBC News News Edmonton (Late Night) - June 11, 2015 - News Edmonton (Late Night) - CBC Player I've had a pretty negative opinion of police when I was younger. Because the only interactions I've had is when the police say "you can't skateboard here", "where's the pot boys?", "pour it out, you can't drink beers in public", "here's a ticket for running that stop sign". Yknow petty dumb young stuff. But Dan showed me that a copper has an off-duty side too...someone who I could talk tattoos with (we had both been tattooed by the same guys and he was gearing up to start a Guan Yu backpiece), talk soccer with (he was from the UK, he said "ya can't cheer for 2 teams from London mate! Arsenal FC all the way!"), have beers with and talk about his tales from the Hate Crime and Gang Units, talk about awesome kung fu movies (The Lost Bladesman!). We were a bunch of punk rockers training kung fu with a cop and having lots of laughs in the boys locker room. He changed my perception of the police. So maybe that isn't a shitty thing I've been doing recentley but a positive thing moving forward. Anyway wanted to share, thank you.

Shaolin Session #9 - 3 hrs (32 hrs total, wtf?) This was actually a very difficult session. It began with some drawing on the detail patterns in the monk's robe trim. Tattooing started with a 7 liner. Followed by a really tight shader for all the edging. The trim ended up being these lil singular flames going from a rich green to black to a rich blue, light blue flames. Very tight details. Then white in the sleeve cuffs. And finish it off with skin tones, the shaved head and the expression in the eyes! It was a very sharp session. Steve had to jump all around a lot and he is quite heavy and his machines hit hard maan (I like it !). These remaining spots were direct spine hits and bbq back ribs. Felt like he was tattooing my lung at one point. Brutal, but hey, keep your feet relaxed and the body will follow, find the clarity. Yeah man, this tattoo shit friggin hurts now, I've used up a most of my 'tattoo credits' over the years. So...my back tattoo is substantially complete. A bittersweet feeling, however I'm so pumped at how it all turned out. Size of the image, the blackground, the fine details, the colour palette, the butt waves. Nailed the expression, especially the Shaolin eyes. Most excellent. Steve Batt is the god damn guru. Full donburi bro !!! Pictures will come once the bruising and redness in the skin tones and white come down. Now time to relax, heal, enjoy the summer sunshine and lakes. I'll be back on the table in September for Session #10 to re-hit all the black and saturate the shit out of it and clean up the transitions into the other tattoos in my suit. Then the mini-banger and tattoos over tattoos begins. Booya!

She is what I refer to as a god-damn TATTOO TOURIST !!

The pain creates vulnerability, it reveals your true self. Through the pain you can receive clarity. My tattooer and I were talking about the tattoo pain threshold yesterday actually. We were discussing how everybody receives 'X' amount of tattoo credits, some receive more than others. But once you're credits are used up, they are used up and tattoo pain will be worse for you moving forward. So tattoo and spend your credits wisely!

I LOL'd The article is written by a person who clearly does not understand tattoo and is whining because tattoo wasn't made as accessible as she would like it to be. Christ almighty! Putting your kids name in micro-font on your neck...isn't about "art". Go have another cab-sav and slag off !

Teenager conversation at the grocery store... Teenage Girl Cashier: "Like OMG this lady I know, like, she got a tattoo of a cobra snake ON HER CLEAVAGE. Like, OMG, you could see EVERYTHING. I mean, like, she was wearing clothes but OMG, like you could see her tattoo. Why would you get a tattoo so everyone could see it?" Teenage Bag Boy/Bro: "Yeah, well I heard you can get a tattoo for $100." Me: "Try double per hour" TGC: "Well, like, how long did your tattoo take to finish?" Me: "12 years so far" TGC: "Like, OMG that is sooo expensive." Me: "Would you rather be covered in cheap tattoos or nice tattoos?" TBBB: "Yeah bro, when I'm gonna get my tattoo, like, it's going to be the most expensive tattoo possible."

Catholic Saints

The first time I saw tattoos, or counterculture for that matter, was on some spiky punk rockers. It would have been the late 80's. My parents told me not to stare and locked the car doors.

Back on Steve's table next week for backpiece Session #9 ... likely the last !

I just had an apple turnover and a chocolate milkshake. It was glorious. But I'm lactose intolerant, so I may be posting an update in the "Post shitty things you have been doing recently" thread LOL.

...and other images that truly matter !!!