Pugilist

I am so sorry for your loss, @Jnvlv

Hippie dippy alert (that comes partly from not yet having had a kid!): I kind of like the idea of my tattoos changing due to childbirth and other significant life events. They won't be perfect forever, and they shouldn't be, and so I will be happy for their transformation to be tied to my own.

Y'all should see me when one of the cats has a sneezing fit. :)

There are always a good number of people guesting before and after, so I am sure you will be able to take advantage!

That's all I could think while I was reading this too!

@Rob I - thanks!!

Liked this for the treats, not the hyperthyroid. Poor kitty! :(

Do it!!!!!!!

How could anyone NOT be a sucker for those pleading eyes???

I would love a Monmon tattoo thread! Man, @Graeme and I like to plan a mythical trip to California which I am sure will happen someday, but I don't know how we will fit in all of the tattoos that we will just neeeeeeed to get.

I forgot to post this awesome little tattoo I got over the weekend. It's from an old piece of Ralph Johnson flash that I found in the amazing book Flash from the Past. It was tattooed by the lovely and talented Cat Bijou at Tattoomania in Montreal (photo stolen from her instagram). Not only do I love it, but by some strange miracle, it is healing amazingly and didn't swell at all, despite being on the back of my goddamn thigh.

A friend just posted this blog post on Facebook - I thought the ladies with kids might appreciate it! Why You Should Never, Ever, Ever Get A Tattoo (but Having a Baby is Fine) | The Ugly Volvo

Is the one in the top of the head for stress? I have that one done most times, and I love it because I feel legit stoned (but super functional, just... chiiiiiiiiiiiiiill) afterwards.

Yeah, I think that betrays that the principal market for such products may be people with no point of comparison...

Derail away, @irezumi ! My husband can attest to the fact that talking about the miracle of acupuncture is like one of my favourite blowhard topics, as it has done more to help with a minor chronic health condition of mine than some very expensive medication (which I no longer take) ever did. I often talk with mine about the anesthesiologist type work - totally amazing! I went in this week for a regular treatment, but I also happened to have a cold, and she put a couple of needles in under my nostrils that instantly cleared me up for hours. It's like sorcery.

Dude, I am so jealous of you it's not even funny.

My acupuncturist has told me that they try to avoid putting needles in coloured ink, but she said that's from a total "cautious to be cautious because we actually don't know" perspective, especially because most points have parallel points elsewhere on the body so it tends not to be too hard to do. She said she thinks it's a totally baseless caution though, and she has done work on heavily tattooed clients where she really couldn't avoid putting needles through ink, and she just told the client that it's a thing the profession worries about, but no one ever cared. People just worry about liability, I think, but there tends to be no evidence at all that these things are problems.

Hahaha the "What have I done?" is normal, @growltiger ! Can't wait to see it.

Oh hell yes!

Y'all, I have not been getting tattooed for that long. I have learned a TREMENDOUS amount over the past few years that I have been getting tattooed consistently, which has been almost entirely thanks to the super kind and open tattooers I have been lucky enough to spend time with. I know very little about tattoos, but what I do know, is thanks to them, and I am so grateful for that. And since I went from one tattoo to three to "there's no point in counting anymore", what I have learned is that there is a lot that I thought I knew when I first started getting into this, and I had so, so much enthusiasm about it! I had a lot of pretty innocent assumptions that I've had to unpack or add nuance to as I've moved forward. As I keep going, I realize I am just scratching the surface. Tattoos are about process, which is part of what I love about them. We are always learning, and like in any good pursuit in life, the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know. So when people say that a tattooer knows more than an experienced collector who knows more than someone new to tattooing, that's not the "forum police" (seriously this is so juvenile) or people being snobs; people BEND OVER BACKWARDS on this forum to give good advice to novices. What it is is having some goddamn humility, and realizing that you know some stuff, but you don't know much more stuff. And you have that humility because you love and respect this thing that you are into, and the people who have thus far guided you into it. I hate that I keep making sincere posts on this godforsaken thread, but seriously; stop feeling persecuted people, and have a shred of humility. We all have a lot to learn. Literally every other tattoo forum on the internet, as far as I can tell, is a free-for-all where people can spread misinformation and feel like kings of the virtual tattoo castle. All people try to do here is respect the tradition and promote responsible and beautiful tattooing. That does require taking a step back every once in a while to ask if a conversation is productive, and it also means that sometime people are going to get told they're wrong. In my experience, people try really hard to be nice when doing stuff like that, and only get snippy when someone has been purposefully obtuse or offensive or arrogant repeatedly, because we all lose patience eventually.

Love it @TrixieFaux! So beautiful.

@Tesseracts - I don't think anyone is mad at you! You asked an innocent question, were totally cool when people pointed out the problem with discussing that stuff online, and the shit show only started after. As an educator, something I try to help my students understand is that not all opinions are equal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but opinions based on research, experience, evidence, thoughtful reflection, etc. have and should have more weight than others. Informed and uninformed opinions have different values, and a large part of my job is teaching people how to formulate opinions that are substantiated, credible and worthy of sharing with the world. I am as anti-snob as the next girl, but I also think it's nuts to say that the opinions of experienced tattooers and the opinions of people who just started getting tattooed have the same weight. They don't. If it's my opinion that the world is flat, I'm allowed to think that, but that doesn't mean that my view is as legitimate as an astronomer's who has devoted their life to understanding the way our solar system works. There is a difference between opposing snobbery and denying that experts are, well, experts. I'm a historian. I know more about the people, issues and events that I have devoted years to studying than you do. @irezumi is an experienced tattooer. He knows more about tattoos than I do. That's not being the tattoo police, it's just recognizing that expertise exists, and that it carries important weight with it. And that's a more sincere reply than this shit show probably deserved.

Have fun @growltiger ! I think most of those rituals are just us trying to feel prepared, and have nothing to do with anything. I am sure it will be awesome, even if it is always preceded by nerves. :)

@irezumi - I appreciate your ability to think critically about this while still trying to stay positive. I get what you're saying and what I wonder about a lot is how this space can stay educational in the important way that it aims to be while not becoming a "this is the same as my job" drag for folks like yourself. I will say that my own concern with the advice-giving part of a forum like this is exactly what you can see in this thread - the internet makes all advice seem equal. But "hand tattoos are no big deal" is not good advice at all, and I get panicky when I see people say stuff like that on here because then it's on here forever, and people googling shit about hand tattoos see it, and if they don't know the larger context (who is giving the advice? Are they a tattooer, serious collector, random dude? Etc.), then it just seems like, well, a piece of advice given on this forum. So I am very, very grateful for experienced folks who do take the time to set the record straight when stuff like this comes up, even if it does feel like they're at work.

By day three you shouldn't have to worry about gunk/sticking too much! I am sure that comfortable/clean clothing would be fine by then.