Pugilist

Anyone living in or coming to Melbourne, Australia should really get amongst Fergus Simms tattoos. He has dozens of amazing tattoos from the guys at Smith St. and you can really see their influence in his tattoos.

I can't speak authoritatively to the claims re: shitty spots in this thread as I'm not that covered, but working on a mini-backpiece (ends around my hips), I have been surprised how much I find the hips/upper butt far, far, far (far!) worse than my ribs. And I haven't even felt any real butt action (pun intended).

By Chad Koeplinger at the London convention a few weeks back

Alix Ge, someone posted one of her tattoos already but I love her lady heads so much. I got one back in March.





the last one is mine, freshly done

I am the kind of asshole partner who, while my loving husband aquaphors my back as gently as he possibly can, moans "I can't wait until you see what this feels like for yourselfffffffffff." (He is starting a back piece next year.) Sore ribs make me mean.

Just set up back to back days in mid January with Grime to start my back! :D

I think the answer to your question is in how you're defining a backpiece. Yes, if it's a traditional style japanese piece that goes from neck to knees then it might easily take up to 100 hours.
However, what if it's american traditional or a smaller japanese-style piece that only goes to the waist? That'll take a significant amount of time off. If it's black and grey, or has a significant amount of negative space, then even more. I think my backpiece would fit into this category - it took around 25 hours (OK, maybe 25-30...) :-

This backpiece, by Xam (The Family Business Tattoo, London) was done in 16 hours:-

Now that does blow my mind. Similarly, I've seen other backpieces on that scale banged out in short spaces of time, attributed to people like Filip Leu.

If there was ever anything to be competitive about, getting tigers from Tim Lehi would be it.

Andrea Furci at The Family Business, London.

You can milk a cow all day long, it doesn't mean you're getting any... A time limit shows you can either get it done, or you can't...
Please read further back into the post, as most of the new topics that come up in this thread have already been addressed...
Most of the "canvases" aren't coming back for a second sitting... And who knows if they would even want to? Seriously?
And, when at a convention, and someone walks up asking for a piece, I know what is possible to accomplish, as opposed to some unrealistic opinion of how amazing Richard is, I know what can be done, and what will need more then one sitting. It's one of those don't bite off more then you can chew things...
Knowing one's limitations is a good thing.

As we watched this last night, and tried to avoid punching the TV in annoyance, I commented to @Graeme that the problem is that that grating-as-fuck moron Kay Kutta (sp? Who cares) is actually kind of right; he admits openly that it's a "game" and has little to do with who is actually skilled or talented. Only he is totally down with that reality, while the rest of us think it's depressing as hell.
Luckily, we countered our being bummed out by that fucking traditional episode (the only highlight of which was watching Richard Stell try to murder people with his eyes) by watching the new tattoo age, which cleaned some of the dirt off.

Doug Hardy! Beyond being an awesome tattooer, I thought you should know that I "like" every single one of your cat photos on instagram. :)

As we watched this last night, and tried to avoid punching the TV in annoyance, I commented to @Graeme that the problem is that that grating-as-fuck moron Kay Kutta (sp? Who cares) is actually kind of right; he admits openly that it's a "game" and has little to do with who is actually skilled or talented. Only he is totally down with that reality, while the rest of us think it's depressing as hell.
Luckily, we countered our being bummed out by that fucking traditional episode (the only highlight of which was watching Richard Stell try to murder people with his eyes) by watching the new tattoo age, which cleaned some of the dirt off.

As we watched this last night, and tried to avoid punching the TV in annoyance, I commented to @Graeme that the problem is that that grating-as-fuck moron Kay Kutta (sp? Who cares) is actually kind of right; he admits openly that it's a "game" and has little to do with who is actually skilled or talented. Only he is totally down with that reality, while the rest of us think it's depressing as hell.
Luckily, we countered our being bummed out by that fucking traditional episode (the only highlight of which was watching Richard Stell try to murder people with his eyes) by watching the new tattoo age, which cleaned some of the dirt off.

Cops? i thought it was only the robbers that had tattoos.
How am i to distinguish now.

Honestly, it has been a hellish couple of weeks in terms of work and insane schedules and blah blah blah but @Graeme and I are going on a tattoo road trip to New York this weekend and that is totally, totally, getting both of us through the week. Tattoo anticipation is a great coping mechanism during times of stress! :)

Honestly, it has been a hellish couple of weeks in terms of work and insane schedules and blah blah blah but @Graeme and I are going on a tattoo road trip to New York this weekend and that is totally, totally, getting both of us through the week. Tattoo anticipation is a great coping mechanism during times of stress! :)

Or when someone mentions a city/state/country and you immediately think of who you want to get tattooed by there.

...you feel excited and wait to hear news about the upcoming tattoos of people you've never met
...your reaction to most of the tattoos you see is "they should've just gotten an eagle"

If there was ever anything to be competitive about, getting tigers from Tim Lehi would be it.

Greg Christian is guest spotting in NYC next month. Got an appointment on the 4th of November. Very excited.

I love this thread. My girls:
This is Daisy. She's a retired racing greyhound and is the sweetest, laziest dog ever. We adopted her from a greyhound rescue about a year and a half ago and watching her go from being this dog that had never lived in a home before to being this sweet little girl who just wants cuddles from everybody she sees (except for children, she is afraid of them) has been one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced in my life.
http://distilleryimage5.s3.amazonaws.com/a5b74d08dff811e1a2ce22000a1c86dc_7.jpg
And this is Susan (grey one) and Willa (orange one). They're sisters. We adopted them from friends of friends who took in a pregnant stray off the street. She gave birth to four kittens. We couldn't decide which one we wanted so we got two. The guys who took in their mother from the street read somewhere that the best way to socialise kittens is to hold and touch them from birth so they have none of the usual cat aloofness and you can pick them up and cuddle them and rub their bellies and basically do whatever you want with them. Willa regularly shits outside of the litter box because she's an asshole.

http://distilleryimage3.s3.amazonaws.com/ee70b336e26911e1bb6a1231381f737d_7.jpg

Ok here goes. Goofy dragon by Marie Sena (who happens to be the nicest person in the universe) done at the Montreal tattoo convention yesterday. This takes up most of the front of my thigh and only took three hours! She is a wizard. It was a fantastic experience.
Inspired by the 100-year-old piece of flash that I gushed about here.

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:

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.