joakim urma

This thread made me learn what a "comforter" is!

So this is what happened yesterday, last tattoo of the year and until scottish convention in march (if I got extra cash by then)

Tattoo by Iain Mullen, original design by myself. It is super strange, but it makes me super happy, that some tattooers that I REALLY like pressed "like" on this tattoo. When I checked yesterday it also had Thomas Hooper and Greg Christian on the list. I mean, who am I?

I decided to extend my trip to Chile in the coming spring to also include Japan, New York and Barcelona. Feels like a very exciting decision! Except for Barcelona I know people that I can stay with :)

edit: that is, if you want to go from Japan to Santiago you need to transfer some place, NYC is the cheapest. To fly back to Europe it is less expensive if you land in Barcelona. Basically I get three more destinations for the same price as my original plan. Nowadays I make sure to plan my trips out with Rome2rio: discover how to get anywhere, very practical!</shameless plug)

@real meta

Ok, it comforts me a bit, thank you! It's going to be interesting for sure.

(Clever name huh? Also my surname starts with the letter M)

I had said to myself that I wouldn't do any more tattoos at least until the scottish convention, perhaps not even until my planned trip to New York in the spring..

BUT then I got a text yesterday from a swedish tattooer that I respect a lot, asking if I wanted to get a discount tattoo from him so he could work overtime on friday instead of waiting around for a concert.

Aaaaand that's how good I keep my promises to myself! So Friday evening now spells "tattoo of Joakims left foot".

We're going to do a rendition of one of my own drawings that he likes a lot, he even wanted to get it tattooed on himself. I am slightly scared, I hear it's a horrible spot.

@Mark Bee @Gregor Thanks guys! Iain is such a rad tattooer and person. Even besides the art he is very inspirational. Anyone who has a chance should get at least one piece from him. He's coming to the scottish convention ;)

edit: to early for spelling

Back in Sweden. Thank you to @Mark Bee, @cltattooing, @chrisnoluck, @Johannes and all of you others who enjoyed the Rudy Fritsch-piece I got.

Today was one last tattoo and then I am taking a break until spring at least.

By Iain Mullen, the one and only.

Back of the knee, two hours of not so nice feelings. Very happy that it's over and with the result of course!

This is what happened to me today:

Rudy Fritsch, of course. I encourage anyone who as a chance to get something from this man, very inspiring and unique in every way. Well worth the trip to Trieste (nice town!) where his studio is. I think that's it for me, no more tattoos until spring. Ciao!

edit: not really necassary to comment on how much I love this tattoo. I do. A lot.

What a convention! It was amazing just being there and seeing all these artists that I have known the work of for a long time, read interviews with and seen in clips. I spent about 5 hours at tobacco dock each of the days and took the night bus to Amsterdam with 4 new tattoos. Apart from my appointments with El Carlo, Deno and Jaclyn Rehe I also managed to wedge myself into getting a custom palmsized baboon head from Matty D'Arienzo who was officially only doing flash pieces. (Alex Binnie talked him into doing the tattoo anyway)

As for getting 4 tattoos in 2 days while also being on the road I suggest being as careful with the hygiene and aftercare as you possibly can, sleep well, drink a lot (no alcohol!), eat healthy and do get some prescription painkillers like paracetamol to ward of sneaky infections and reduce the swelling.

Now in Amsterdam: wanted to see the tattoomuseum but it is closed. Went to the pop up-shop/studio that they have instead to look at books and spontaneously booked myself in with Henk Schiffmacher himself to get a small tattoo. That's happening in a few hours :)

So for those of us that aspire to cover most if not all of the body in tattoos from different people I am interested in how you and I think about

how fast to get covered. It also deals with the concept of why we get tattoos and from whom.

Starting points:

- Would you rather get the tattoos you want as quickly as possible, or wait and spread it out over a longer period of time?

- Do you have a plan as to which areas you cover in which order? Saving the hands for last or getting the worst spots first, maybe getting the visible spots first and save back of the thighs for example?

- If you consider yourself a collector, do you keep areas of your body untouched for fantastic tattooers to appear say 20 years from now?

- Anything else you would like to add or discuss

I am really interested in hearing your perspective on this!

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As for me, right now, I am spending a lot of money, time and pain on getting tattoos. I know what I want and I know from who, so when the opportunity comes I have nothing stoping me. I live very cheaply (my rent is about 1/3 of what I spend on grocerys a month, and I am vegan and eat pretty economically) I just think that tattoos, for me, is one of the best values to have spent my money on, instead of partying or buying expensive material objects.

So the problem for me is I need to get more picky, or else I'd be covered in 4 years from now going at this rate. (I'm 26 by the way)

Some tattooers that I really like I get prints from instead of tattoos. Also I think I am constantly refining my taste because of being exposed to so much great work through the internet everyday and talking to people.

I am beginning to think that I do away with the worst spots before I turn 30, as I've heard your tolerance to pain drops quite a bit after that. But I am also saving my back until I turn 30. Other than that I am saving my shins and inside of the calfs for later because I get so many injuries there from skateboarding. Hands, neck and face is out of the question and perhaps I'll get the top of my head tattooed.

For me getting a tattoo because of pivotal events in my life or because of personal sentiments are less important, I do photography for my memories. I'm not the kind of person who save a spot for my children's name or for a memorial tattoo of my parents or stuff like that.

The thing that hit me some time ago is that for the short peroid of time that I've been interested in tattoos (5 years perhaps) I've discovered a lot of great tattooers, some that I later ended up not liking as much. But in the coming years, like the rest of my life, new amazing tattooers and new "styles" in tattooing will develop and I will want to have some room for that.

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I emailed Deno about trying to get something when he's in NY... pretty sure I was way too late. Has anyone that emailed him gotten a response?

From my experience he is really late with replying to e-mails. I waited almost a month for a reply about an appointment at the London convention, and last year at Stockholm Inkbash was almost the same. Hold on!

What JoelRhys above me said is very true, about the mindset. I was getting the back of my knee tattooed and I wasn't ready for how bad it was going to be. Then it healed really shitty and I ended up having to do it all again, now I knew what the pain was going to be like and the second time it was not a problem.

About rotary vs coil. I think I've had the shading done by rotary for the past 5-6 tattoos at least. Today I experienced a lot of needles in a coil machine. Damn, that thing is loud! It's like a angry pack of bees wielding chainsaws. I am sure the sound made me feel the pain more.

Got this namakubi from Caio Pineiro today:

Horrible horrible times but worth every second. He is a super nice guy too. On his first euro-trip now, normally works in his own shop in Sao Paolo, Brasil.

Really stoked about this! Flying to London tomorrow with my younger brother. We've rented a place just 10 minutes from Tobacco Dock and we've got tickets for the whole week end. Ready for tattoo overload. Also got booked with Deno at last

3 week tattoo-bonanza to come:

London: Mole eating planet, side of underarm, El Carlo. Lady head sleeping under starlit sky, inside of thigh, Jacyln Réhe. Eel eating it's own tail, around another tattoo on front of thigh, Deno.

Trieste, Italy: Heart/factory-thing, front of other thigh, Rudy Fritsch.

Back in Stockholm: Tibetean UFO in smoke, back of knee, Iain Mullen.

After that: chill time for a month or three.

edit: (checked bank balance) ... or six

I get what you mean with the ditch of the arm, I had blow outs for the first time ever (25+ tattoos) and I was like "wtf is this, mate?!"

Hmm.. dry healing. Might have to try that. Keep the original wrap for 24 hours, re-wrap 4-5 times a day for the first 2 days after taking of the first and then all dry, but make sure to keep it clean?

I am going to the back of my knee with Dane Mancini about 5 weeks from now. Got to make sure it heals nice, can't really travel back to Italy for touch ups

Hmmm that's interesting. I just always used the same method and now I hear people are doing it in so many ways. Going to talk to some tattooers that I know and see if they are as varied in their recommendations.

I thought the point of using moisturizers was to keep the scabs as thin and soft as possible so they don't fall of prematurely? But maybe if you keep the original wrap on for the first 24 hours and then wash of all the goo you won't get those thick scabs. This is a science to itself..

Welcome to the forum! I hope to see more great work on you in the future :)

I read an earlier post of mine in this thread, where I mentioned using bepanthen for a few days early in the healing process... How times change, I wouldn't touch the stuff these days.

How come? I've always used bepanthen for the first 5-6 days and except for the slight blow outs on my two newest ones I've never had any problems from it.

I am going to try the 24-hour original wrap next time then. I'm glad you liked the piece! Can't wait to see it healed :)

The "weeping" moisture in your tattoo is very good for it!

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I don't know, I am a little bit put of by this whole re-wrapping thing now. Got some blow outs on my knee now and being the perfectionst I am I think it really sucks. I did "normal" healing on my other knee and it healed up just fine. Luckily, this time it's mostly on the outline so maybe I can just make the line a bit thicker and it will look less bad.

Doing my first re-wrapping healing now since I'm travelling and only had one pair of jeans (unwashed and a couple months old) going to keep wrapping untill tomorrow and then resume with my normal healing procedure: washing 4-5 times a day, thin layer of bephanten and then normal unperfumed and clean handlotion for day 5-10.

I'm a little freaked out by all the moisture and shit coming from my body at this stage but I hope it's allright.

edit: tattoo is about 24 hours old now and from tomorrow morning I can use a pair of washed pants that I borrow from my brother, so no more wrap.

Saraswati by Adde Ramstedt, travelling swedish tattooer and great person. Had a lovely time together.

The positioning is great on this one, if I bend my knee the face changes but still looks pretty.

edit: forgot to include link: http://web.stagram.com/n/adderamstedttattooing/

I work as a care giver at a group home for people with downs syndrome and similar handicaps. One of the inhabitants has a father who must be close to 80 years of age. EVERY time he comes to visit and I am there to greet him he will comment on my tattoos. Every. Time. He is probably senile and not aware of this.

Last time was different though.. he usually opens up with saying "those are hard to get rid of..", like it is a question. I usually just say Yes, and smile at him. Then he asks me if it hurts, I tell him Not anymore, and smile some more. But this time he also said that he had tried (to get tattooed), on his hand, but that it had faded over time. And then he told me that (my tattoos) where prydsamma, which is a swedish word that translates to "something thats proper and enhances the beauty of a thing/someone".

I was flattered for the first time. I didn't know that he liked my tattoos, just that he would always comment on them.