Pugilist

I have been really digging kitsune (Japanese foxes/mythical foxes with up to nine tails that shapeshift and make mischief) lately. I am thinking of getting one myself and in general think they are a beautiful subject for tattoos, but I am having trouble finding great examples of them! (Warning: if you google "kitsune" you get a lot of weird furry shit. I do not recommend it.) I know they must be out there, so please post awesome examples of kitsune tattoos and art that you have come across here. Thus far I really love, of course, the backpiece that Shige did on Uncle Allan: Source Source

--Ed Hardy

It's cool. I just came back to delete that post because I felt like a tool for going on a rant like that on this board! Sorry dudes.

Edited/redacted because I got all bent out of shape about a religious issue, which I should know better than to do.

These are all great, but #1 is absolutely my fave, and if you print it, I promise you I will buy one for my husband (so save a large for me!) as he'd totally love it. So that's two customers already. :)

I think people have made this remark/complaint about every subculture ever. It's a variation on: "If goths/punks/insert subculture here all want to be different, why do they all look the same?" It is a really tired and angry teenager debate to me. Industries try and capitalize on trends. That's life. And I think the impulse and passion for getting tattoos cannot be reduced to being about "being yourself/expressing yourself being an individual". People participate in tattoo subculture for a million different reasons, and even the notion of "being yourself" or "expressing your individualism" doesn't mean one specific thing to anyone who feels it. I also think that many people who get heavily into tattoos are like me in that they don't do it entirely for some intellectually thought out identity reason; they just feel it in their gut that this is something that is right to them. And feelings in your gut are very hard to articulate in words, and sometimes come out as "to express myself as an individual" or whatever, but that is really not a true reflection of that instinct. Moral of the story: I really wish people would stop always assuming that some kind of rebellious individualism is the driving force in getting tattooed. I think that is reductive and misses the point.

I just need to say that I really, really love this thread.

Yes to the mention of kids--we both acknowledge--as folks who do want to have kids in a few years--that this is likely a pretty special moment in our lives in terms of having the motivation, disposable income, and time, that it requires to get a bunch of tattoos. We know that will change with kids. So we are trying to enjoy it together while it lasts! (And @RoryQ, we are in a similar predicament--in October we are both booked in for all day session in the same shop at the same time. Seemed like a super fun/sweet idea at the time but will likely be less so in practice.)

According to Yoni Zilber's instagram, this is the start of a dragon bodysuit he is doing. It made my heart go all pitter-patter:

Looooooooooove Vienna! Lucky!

I was tattooed before my husband had any, but he always liked the idea of tattoos due to coming of age in punk/hardcore subculture, etc. So it was never a big deal that I was tattooed and he wasn't. But as I mentioned upthread, now that we both are, it has become very much a joint venture in a really amazing and fun way, and I kind of can't imagine it any other way. We've talked about it, and we both think that were we not together and doing this whole tattoo thing together, we might both have some tattoos, but we'd probably have fewer and it wouldn't be like, a major hobby for us. So this business about balancing a relationship and tattoos is funny to me, because I feel like I come from the opposite direction, wherein my relationship is one of the reasons I am as into tattoos as I am! It's a really wonderful thing for us to share and go through together, and I have nooooo idea what my body would look like if this weren't a joint venture. I feel like that sounds weird and co-dependent, but so be it. Edited to add: this is a long-winded way of saying: ditto, @tattooedjuliet!

Looooooooooove the Dietzel piece especially! - - - Updated - - - This is a few months old, but wanted to add more Dietzel love; one of his swallows, done by the fabulous Rebecca at POL Tattoo in Montreal. The first "spontaneous" tattoo I ever got! So much fun. (Also, my introduction to rib tattoos. Less fun.)

It's cute that like, two days ago in this thread I posted about trying to hold out for my October appointment, because I am now about 75% sure I am going to try and get something done at the Montreal convention next month. Forcing myself to sit on it for a couple of more days, but my resolve is weakening by the minute...

yessssssssssssssssssssssssss!

The "like" button cannot adequately convey how much I love this, as it is such a perfect combination of two of my great loves, cats and art. Fuck, I should get this tattooed on me, to take its brilliance to its logical extreme.

This is awesome. Good luck!

I have recently become obsessed with this sheet of E.C. Kidd flash (from 1912! 100 years old!!!) which I believe is from the Hardy book Flash from the Past, and am very seriously considering getting one of the beautiful dragons off of it. Love love love everything about them.

Four appointments! Both awesome and terrifying at the same time! I too have my next appointment in late October, and after my last one (in June) took a lot out of me, I thought I'd be set until then. Ha. Within like two weeks I was ready to go again. So we'll see if I make it to October; the local convention is in early September and I have a Big Life Event happening probably in mid-September that I will almost certainly feel the need to mark. Normally I am better with the patience, but this time I am struggling!

Yep. I'd just point out that if you're beginning an academic career, you can't know where you'll end up (especially with the job market as horrible as it is!). I never would have thought that I'd end up in a place where half my colleagues are priests and nuns, but I did, and I even like it there, and in fact I took the job OVER a prospect at NYU, of all places, because this one was better (tenure-track). So we all have to make our own decisions about how cautious we are about this, but it is worth remembering that you really never know where professoring is going to land you. (And if you want to chat about this further, do feel free to PM me. I have lots of *feelings* about being an "unorthodox" sort of professor.)

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.

Dudes, sometimes I feel like it would be nice to date someone who wasn't into tattoos, because as it is, my partner and I feed off of each other in the worst ways possible. He only started getting tattooed recently, but caught the bug hard, and initially I thought that watching him get tattooed constantly would take the edge off for me, as I'd be living vicariously through him. As it turns out, it doesn't work that way--each time one of us gets work, it leaves the other jonesing for more--such that I think we're both acquiring tattoos at a much quicker rate than we would if we were not in relationships with total enablers. We brainstorm ideas together a lot, so in that sense we do "approve" of each other's tattoos, but it's not really so much about asking for permission, but rather that we trust each other's opinions and rely on each other to work through ideas together. And of course I am totally joking in "complaining" about this--it's actually pretty fucking awesome.

ThaliaCamille, sounds super fun nevertheless! I love the technicality of printmaking precisely because even if my artistic abilities are whatever, the whole process of doing something so mechanical is still so satisfying. It sounds cool. And AlannaCA, a good friend of mine did that 5k and it seems awesome--the photos on Facebook of her covered head to toe in mud were epic.

ThaliaCamille, I am super jealous! I got to use a hundred year old press (that was historically significant to local printing) while doing litho last year, and I thought that was cool. How does it run? And Posterboy, congrats on going back to school! Speaking as a prof, I love students who have returned (and teach many of them at my university) as, like PhilB said, y'all tend to be more motivated, less whiny and entitled, and get shit done. I hope it's a super rewarding experience, and PhilB, I promise that not all profs hate teaching! This is probably not that awesome to normal people, but my big thing this summer has been finally learning how to drive, at the tender age of 31. This is what happens when you grow up somewhere with great public transit. I am taking my exam next week and while I feel really proud of how confident and competent I've gotten behind the wheel, I am nervous as all hell. (I will admit that part of the motivation for finally going for it, though, is to be able to share the driving with my dude on upcoming tattoo-related road trips.)

Guys! The OP is over a year old!

You are right on the boxing front, but I am still a wuss. :) Love the cover-up, and while I was born and raised here, totally hate the winters too.