keepcalm

Dennis at @ProvidenceTattoo again.

Just got this lady put on me this afternoon by Mina Aoki at Fun City.
Now I just need to figure out what to cap my shoulder with and I can start filling in the smaller spots. Three hours out and already planning the next steps....

Got it done on Friday - very happy!
Scott M at Tattoo Paradise in DC did it. He is moving to Florida, which makes me sad. He's great! He got these done faster than I anticipated, and the healing seems to be going well so far. Please forgive the lines from my sports bra in the picture - I'll be wearing racerbacks for a few more days, haha :p

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

My recent pair of tattoos are the first ones I've been able to heal without having to keep them covered for the first week or so because of clothing complications (ribcage - bra strap, and hip - underwear/waistband). That alone has made this a better healing experience, haha.
I kept the bandages on overnight, and since then have washed and lotioned up twice a day (Aquaphor a couple of times, Aveeno mostly). Mine never swell, get red, or feel too sore, but they flake like mad and itch fairly badly.
I'm at the itchy part now. :(
This post brought to you by the need to do something else with my hands other than be tempted to scratch.

I was going to call it quits and postpone tattoos until after summer, but today James McKenna posted up on instagram that he is visiting Stockholm on the 8:th - 10:th of june. So now I am getting an androgynous african shaman with some kind of predator cowl, head only and perhaps a hand, on the inside/front of my thigh. So amazingly stoked that this is happening, one of my absolute favorite tattooers who usually works on the other side of the earth.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

Got it done on Friday - very happy!
Scott M at Tattoo Paradise in DC did it. He is moving to Florida, which makes me sad. He's great! He got these done faster than I anticipated, and the healing seems to be going well so far. Please forgive the lines from my sports bra in the picture - I'll be wearing racerbacks for a few more days, haha :p

Got it done on Friday - very happy!
Scott M at Tattoo Paradise in DC did it. He is moving to Florida, which makes me sad. He's great! He got these done faster than I anticipated, and the healing seems to be going well so far. Please forgive the lines from my sports bra in the picture - I'll be wearing racerbacks for a few more days, haha :p

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

Those came out great! Very solid. They work great together and separately. Congrats!

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

I finally got my ship + lion on Friday. I put this picture in my post about the design, but I will put it here too because it will probably be my last opportunity to contribute to this thread for a little while. I totally love these, but I am going to give myself some time to get used to having such plainly visible tattoos (compared to my other, well-hidden ones) before I start thinking about getting anything else. This was a big step for me, haha!
Scott M (I can never remember how to spell his last name) at Tattoo Paradise in DC did these for me. He is great, and he did my elephant, too, so I was very sad when he told me he was moving to FL.

Got it done on Friday - very happy!
Scott M at Tattoo Paradise in DC did it. He is moving to Florida, which makes me sad. He's great! He got these done faster than I anticipated, and the healing seems to be going well so far. Please forgive the lines from my sports bra in the picture - I'll be wearing racerbacks for a few more days, haha :p

Im kind of feeling this. Everytime I look at my leg, I realize it's marked forever, with a really big tattoo. I didnt really think it out that much. Not to say that I dont love it, Im enamored of it, but I feel a little bit like a took a big leap, idk how to explain it, but when I look at my leg, I finally feel really tattooed. Not like heavily tattooed, but like I feel like a tattooed person for the first time. The other ones are no bigger than my palm to my first knuckle of my hand, so they didnt make me feel like I was that tattooed. It's scary. I realize I'm going to look like this for every day of my life, until I am an old lady. And while I love my tattoos, I want to really think hard about getting any more. It is a big commitment to be tattooed. One that shouldnt be taken lightly.

On Saturday I had my left inner forearm tattooed from elbow ditch to wrist, and I keep doing double-takes at it now! Someone else has said it's worse in the mornings and I definitely get that.
The piece was a long time in the planning and it turned out better than I could have expected, it's just the permanent reality of it on my arm I'm adjusting to! It doesn't help that I'm the only person I know with visible tattoos; I know I'm going to get critical and sometimes startled reactions from family and friends, so I suppose I'm just going to have to be able to deal with that.

I've had moments where I haven't regretted my tattoos but I've looked at myself in the mirror and kind of been "WTF have I done". This has always been really early in the morning when I'm underslept and waking up for a 6am start of my workday so I'm not fully in my right mind and I find that as I get more tattoos I experience this lot less. Tattoos are a really big deal in many ways and I don't think that it's necessarily weird or abnormal to sometimes have complicated feelings about them.

I've experienced this before. It's usually a very fleeting feeling, but I think it has to do with getting used to the change. I know I'd be a lot sadder if I woke up and a tattoo was missing.

Here's my entry!!
Done by Joseph (Jet) Diprojetto at Love Hate Tattoo in Rochester, NY:

Peony from Nathan Kostechko at Will Rise in LA. Based on a design from an Ichibay book (I think this one if anyone is interested, looked awesome).
To be honest, though, I hope that El Monga cat wins...that thing is insane!