heathenist

Sham-Wow?

There is no way that purple would come through. I think we might have a prankster on our hands.

Doesn't seem like something Tim Beck would lie about, he is a really well respected artist. Also, the purple looks like it would be outside of where the original tattoo is. But still... I don't even know.

Can anyone explain how this is possible?

Tim Beck

My mom has never really said one thing or the other about my tattoos (she has a very small one on her toe), but she loved my Dietzel lady head when I showed it to her.

My dad on the other hand, if my tattoos are brought up when he happens to be in a bad mood he won't hesitate to tell me they look trashy and that I'll regret them. Of course I just shrug it off and say something like "Nah, I don't think so." Fortunately, I'm not too concerned with sharing the same opinions on everything with either of my parents.

I just realized a tattooer I kind of know (separately from tattooing) who has both his arms covered, hands, knuckles, and throat/neck all tattooed, doesn't have anything on his torso at all, and seems to have quite a bit of space left on his legs. I mean, he could just be saving those spots, but it seemed odd to me when I saw it, definitely not what I was expecting.

I mean, is it really any different than getting a big piece in one sitting?

Honestly, it's both a disciplinary issue and the institution at which I'm located. I'm a historian by training but the department in which I teach is inter-disciplinary and we've got me, criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists and theologians. We're fairly progressive politically, but it's a tiny Catholic university and the culture is just kind of... stiff. Again, no one would ever tell me not to show my tattoos, but I just know it wouldn't mesh well with the culture of the institution, and I already kind of don't fit in because I look pretty young, I'm female, and I'm not Catholic, so I already have to really "prove" myself.

I would say if you want to be an academic, the good thing is that as long as you stay off your hands and your neck, you'd be fine in job interviews because you'd usually wear a suit to those. I would never, ever have a tattoo visible somewhere like a job interview. And as a dude, you'd probably usually wear long sleeves to teach and stuff anyway. But as a woman, I often wear short sleeves and skirts and stuff in warm weather and so for now, at least, I am staying off my calves and forearms. That said, I have a female colleague that teaches at the university down the road in Jewish Studies, of all things, and has tattoos on her arms that she only sometimes covers, and has always made a point of not giving a shit, and has done super well for herself. She is kind of a hotshot in her field, even. I've even witnessed her in Jewish community meetings, with a very conservative crowd, showing them with no timidity and no one says anything. So I might be extra cautious, and we all have to make our own calls about how much these things may or may not hinder us. Hope that helps.

Yeah, I may have said it earlier in the thread, but even as TA I always teach in a jacket and tie, mostly because I like wearing a jacket and tie and it gives me an excuse to do so without people thinking it's weird. But even though I teach in a jacket and tie I can't imagine I'd always be wearing something like that whenever I'm on campus or whatever.

I don't plan on getting hands or neck done so I'm not super worried about it.

And I do think working at a Catholic institution probably makes things like that a little more uncomfortable, whereas it may not be as big of a deal at a public university.

I think in office work, yeah, these days it's often not that places have "policies" per se, but rather that having visible tattoos can inform people's unfair impressions of you and hold you back. I am an academic, and universities pretty much never have dress codes or anything like that, but culturally they can be a bit stiff. It depends on the department (more progressive departments like Fine Arts or Literature or whatever are way more likely to have visibly tattooed profs), but my department is pretty conservative and I am very, very young in comparison to most of my colleagues. So I am careful to cover up while on campus, because I am already a young-looking woman and have trouble getting taken seriously as a "professor" to begin with. I tend to dress more formally than my colleagues, and I don't show any tattoos. This is absolutely one of the reasons why I am being careful about how far down my arms I go in the near future (also I am avoiding anything below the knee right now, so that I can comfortably wear dresses and skirts). Again, it's not about not being "allowed", it's about people, without realizing, forming shitty and unfair impressions of me because of them.

On the other side of the coin, I often joke but not really that sleeves would be a great tenure gift to myself. :) I think a lot of the office anxiety stuff is, like Therinx said, stuff you need to worry about early in your career; once you have established yourself it is probably easier to push the envelope.

If you don't mind answering, what department are you in that is conservative? I'm going into academics, so it's relevant to me, however, I like to think of sociology being somewhat liberal, at least politically speaking, but I sometimes wonder how culturally liberal sociology departments really are and if many would be accepting of tattoos.

I would like to point out that exactly 7 months later, I now have a chest tattoo. Never say never ;)

Out of nowhere about a month ago my girlfriend just says, "You know? I wouldn't hate it if you got your chest tattooed." It seemed particularly odd because A)We weren't talking about tattoos and B) I've never really mentioned wanting my chest tattooed. (Not because I don't, but because I'm just focused on working on my arm for the time being and it'll likely be a while before I could even get to my chest.)

When I think of classic tattoo design this pic comes to mind. I have a web on my arm, but have not done any jail time in my adult life. But if someone was thinking about starting shit with me and didn't because of my tattoo I wouldn't be offended.

That picture is the first thing I thought of.

And I've never heard of them being a racist thing, but there's a lot of shit I don't know/never heard of, so that doesn't really count for much of anything.

i think the panther is over played... and kinda stupid in my own opinion. everyone has the traditonal panther that is like super conceptual and old timey looking... idk i just feel like its played out.

What is super conceptual about a gnarly panther? And why is "old timey looking" a bad thing? I mean, obviously don't get that because it's clearly not what you want, but I just don't get that logic.

Well for me, I'm trying to work my way down my left arm and have it finished over the course of the next year or so. I have 1 big spot on the outer upper arm left and then a medium size spot near the armpit. After that, it's down to the forearms. I'm only 23, however, I'm working towards a PhD (well a MA now, then next year I start PhD work). My thought process is this: I'm seeking a career in academics and honestly with a PhD in sociology, I won't have many other options anyways, as it's a pretty limiting degree, and the other options that are available aren't something I'm interested in doing. Academics, I think, are a bit more liberal than the corporate world in terms of things like this. Every department I've been a student of had most of the teachers teaching in t-shirts and even sweat pants and gym shorts at times. While I don't personally know of professors who are heavily tattooed, I know they exist. And even as a TA, I prefer to teach in a jacket and tie anyways, and for any job interview I will absolutely be wearing a suit, so what's the difference if my lower arms are tattooed vs my upper arm down to my elbow being tattooed? They are both visible in a short sleeve.

I'm actually holding off on the big stuff (torso/back) for later on in life.

Chris, that spider is super cool.

Just wanted to throw a recent experience in there to throw some perspective from a non-tattooed person (not me).

I was at the doctor since I just totalled my car late last week. The nurse doing my normal blood pressure, height, etc, kept staring at my tattoos. It was not subtle at all. After awhile I made a joke along the lines of "my face is up here", and she got embarrassed. This broke the ice, so she asked me where I got them and that she was actually looking to get something soon but she always see stuff that looks terrible on her friends. She pointed to the lady on my arm and said "How do they make the colors look so amazing". I just told her go to a good shop, after which I told her where I go and would go. I then understood she was just amazed after seeing her first well done tattoo up close. She actually wrote down all the information I told her on a Rx notepad!

This is awesome.

I had 2 younger guys (maybe 18-19) comment on my Desa dagger while I happened to be in Chicago about 2 months ago and were asking me where I got it, who did it, did it hurt, etc. Of course I told them to go visit Mario at CTC in Boystown.

ain't nothing wrong with that. there are plenty of peonies, panthers, skulls, roses, snakes, eagles, dragons, lady heads, blah blah blah, and yet they all still make awesome tattoos. you don't need to have the most unique tattoo in the world to have a good tattoo!

Honestly, if you have the most unique tattoo in the world, it's probably not a good tattoo. There is a reason all those things you mentioned are popular and fairly common tattoos.

My girlfriend has one tattoo and it's behind her ear. It's just roman numerals, her favorite act and scene from Hamlet, III.IV I think. Unfortunately, she says she regrets it, she got it on a whim when she was like 19 and now tries to keep it hidden for the most part. I hardly ever even see it honestly.

Skulls, daggers, lettering, he has a different touch with everything he does, I can't really out a hand on it, but he puts his own twist on everything he does.

And he's a scam artist like Nick Colella-truly a nice guy.

Absolutely, he has such a weird unique style, so glad I have a skull from him now, I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

And Dan, the lettering was the first thing I commented on when I saw the stencil, he did some lettering on my friend back in March and it's fucking killer as well.

Picked this up from Mario yesterday at CTC. I love it.

I second that. I just want to make sure I'm not fucking myself up with the sunscreen.

I've heard that some sunscreen contains chemicals that are carcinogens, however, they still protect from sun damage. Also, sunscreens with zinc oxide are free of carcinogens, so just look for those.

Horseshit. I just typed a long ass reply about sunscreen and why I don't wear it and what it has and hasn't done to my tattoos (I live in the sunshine state). Fucking Macs with their swipey finger screen change thing loosing my damn message.

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Horseshit. I just typed a long ass reply about sunscreen and why I don't wear it and what it has and hasn't done to my tattoos (I live in the sunshine state). Fucking Macs with their swipey finger screen change thing loosing my damn message.

I'm pretty interested in why someone wouldn't wear sunscreen.

heathenist, who are you getting tattooed by? go with an eagle! i'm so damn glad i got one in may.

Either Mario or Nick at CTC, depending on who is available will change what I decide to get.

eagle!

Funny enough, that's one of the options, I bet you could guess the other 2 as well.

Get all three!

If only the funds permitted...

Plus healing 3 tattoos seems awful.

You know what you want.

I'm torn between 3 things, and every time I think I've decided on something, I'm like "wait, actually, I think I'll do that instead." It doesn't matter too much because I'll be pretty stoked on any of them, I'm just an overthinker about stuff like this.

Battle Royale.

Gnarly man, both of those are awesome.

Fuck, I'm stoked about getting tattooed Tuesday, but I still have no idea what the hell I'm going to get.

I've never had strangers say anything about them, but my dad told me that he thinks tattoos are trashy and that I'll regret them one day. Had I been 5 years younger I would have argued about it, but instead I just shrugged and said "egh, I don't think so."