Steve

I was getting these messages all last night and today.
just now was the first time I could see the forums.I tried 3 different browsers on my DT and my phone.

Welcome! - great intro, and great tattoo.

Welcome! - great intro, and great tattoo.

Been lurking for a while, first post. The information on this forum is so helpful - thanks to all of you.
I've been getting tattooed for over 20 years, starting with the obligatory celtic knot on my ankle in the early 90's (later lasered off). I took a long hiatus from getting tattooed and then dove in with a large back piece from Greg Whitehead in 2014.
I'd been considering getting something more visible for a while, but needed to wait until I could fully commit mentally. I'd been following Robert Ryan for a few years on Instagram, love all of his work, and knew I wanted him to do my tattoo. Finally took the plunge last weekend and couldn't be happier. The design is taken from one of his paintings, Bardo Thodol. We left the bottom of the tattoo intentionally open-ended so I can add to it later. Wonderful experience at Electric Tattoo in Asbury Park, great people all around, and VICE was there shooting a documentary on Robert for the Tattoo Age series. My tattoo might be famous! We'll see if it makes it into the final cut.
Anyway, great to be here!
 

OK folks, I was able to restore the thread, but unfortunately the most recent backup that contained it was from March, so we have lost the past 5 months or so of posts there. very sorry about that.
I'm going to take measures to both prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and improve the backup retention system.
Thanks for your patience and understanding with this, I'm sure it's frustrating for those of you who had posted there recently.

I was able to restore posts from March through June.. unfortunately many of the images are missing and unable to be restored.

OK folks, I was able to restore the thread, but unfortunately the most recent backup that contained it was from March, so we have lost the past 5 months or so of posts there. very sorry about that.
I'm going to take measures to both prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and improve the backup retention system.
Thanks for your patience and understanding with this, I'm sure it's frustrating for those of you who had posted there recently.

Thanks for your efforts!

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

OMG...I'd totally spam this thread if I posted all my new tattoos since March. LOL.

Bumping this for others to re-up their latest tattoos.  Here's one on me by Jeff P. at Art Work Rebels from earlier this summer:

OK folks, I was able to restore the thread, but unfortunately the most recent backup that contained it was from March, so we have lost the past 5 months or so of posts there. very sorry about that.
I'm going to take measures to both prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and improve the backup retention system.
Thanks for your patience and understanding with this, I'm sure it's frustrating for those of you who had posted there recently.

OK folks, I was able to restore the thread, but unfortunately the most recent backup that contained it was from March, so we have lost the past 5 months or so of posts there. very sorry about that.
I'm going to take measures to both prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and improve the backup retention system.
Thanks for your patience and understanding with this, I'm sure it's frustrating for those of you who had posted there recently.

That does seem to be the case. Stand by while I see what I can do to restore it. 

OK folks, I was able to restore the thread, but unfortunately the most recent backup that contained it was from March, so we have lost the past 5 months or so of posts there. very sorry about that.
I'm going to take measures to both prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and improve the backup retention system.
Thanks for your patience and understanding with this, I'm sure it's frustrating for those of you who had posted there recently.

OK folks, I was able to restore the thread, but unfortunately the most recent backup that contained it was from March, so we have lost the past 5 months or so of posts there. very sorry about that.
I'm going to take measures to both prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, and improve the backup retention system.
Thanks for your patience and understanding with this, I'm sure it's frustrating for those of you who had posted there recently.

That does seem to be the case. Stand by while I see what I can do to restore it. 

Here are the pics. Both are from fresh. I'll try to snap some healed ones soon!

Miah Waska from early 2014...it's mellowed so beautifully! (Pardon the mange, It was fresh!)
 

Got this one from Heather Bailey at Black Heart last year. This is her photo right after it happened.
 
 

I applaud the initiative, @Dan! Here's a little filler rose I got from Tim Hendricks at last years London Convention. 
 

so entries are open for the UNOFFICIAL  June 2017 tattoo of the month contest,
for June it's "rose" tattoos,
please post entries in this thread ,be sure to include artist name.
I will make another poll thread around the 20th or so of the month to vote in,
let's keep this alive,IMO it's fun.
post your entries through the 20th.
I will post a "Poll" on the 21st to start the voting.

My dreams come true!! I'm now a TOTM winner :)
Merci à tous! and thanks Alix Gé!

Polls are closed, and the winner of Tattoo of the month April is @Manu Manu with this killer Hannya tattoo by Alix Gé. Congrats!!
 

Got my first tattoo about a month ago, everything seems to be healing well, and of course I've got a million plans for future tattoos.
 
I've been lurking at LST for a little over a month, and just wanted to say thanks for all the advice in the old threads. I'm the kind of person who needs to obsessively research things before I do them I order to feel comfortable in a new situation, and this forum is the best thing I found to get an idea of what I was going into.
 
Story: showed up to my session, I'd sent the artist a couple of reference pics, but had no idea what he'd come up with. All I knew is that I wanted an ankh with an overlaid eye of Horus, and if he could also possibly work in some mandala design. So he showed me the outline he came up with, and while I absolutely loved it, the size was a little bigger than I expected, and I waffled a minute. But I remembered all threads at LST I'd read with experienced people saying "go big or go home" and "thou shalt trust thy tattoo artist if you want their best work" - so I let him pick the right size and placement, and two hours later I had my lovely tattoo!
 
So anyway, that's me, looking forward to participating a bit more now that I know it's definitely a thing I want to do more of.
 

 
 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Time for another contest.
RULES:
The tattoo photos posted in this thread will be submitted for polling of Last Sparrow's Best JAPANESE MASK (Hannya, Tengu, Kappa, Noh etc) tattoo. This is all in good spirit and fun of course. The submission process opens on the 1st of the month and ends on the 20th of the month. After that there will be an open poll for one week, which will close on the 27th, and the tattoo with the most votes wins.
Your tattoo picture must be posted in this thread (both tattooers and tattoo customers can win) in order to qualify.
Include tattoo artist name & tattoo shop with your photo/post. You MUST be the one who has the tattoo or did the tattoo. It MUST be a finished tattoo. It MUST fit the theme of the contest. Each member may submit up to 3 tattoos for each contest.  
This month's theme is:
JAPANESE MASKS