Pugilist

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:

Hahaha @Graeme and I were just talking about this thread (and how painfully we identify with it) and one of his things was being stunned when you see a tube of Aquaphor in the bathrooms of friends who are not-tattooed, because it takes you a minute to remember that it has other uses.

...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"

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.

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.

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.

might as well have another crack, Tattoo around the clouds and Kraken is fresh/swollen in this pic.
Tristan bentley, Ocean ink Sydney Australia

I got this from the wonderful Henning jørgensen at the London Convention yesterday:

It's safe to say I am very happy with it. Very.

Just got a leopard head from Bryan Burk during his guest spot at Black Heart. I couldn't be happier. He's one of my favorite artists and I finally scored a little piece from him.

I got my last one a couple of days ago from Alvaro Llorar, who is now working out of Barcelona Electric Tattoo (in Barcelona, obviously). Awesome work, very creative and a good balance of different styles. His paintings are unreal too. Clicking on his name links you to his blog, but it hasn't been updated in months, I guess his FB has more recent stuff.

Of course they're totally worth it, it's not so bad, blah blah blah, but I thought it might be nice to have a space to bitch about one's healing in whatever stage it's in, as we all know that all there really is to do, beyond the basics, is wait.
Today the tattoo I got on Saturday started flaking en masse. I have never quite seen anything like it with my other tattoos, which usually go from stage to stage much more gradually; it went from nothing to the entire thing (and it's the entire front of my thigh) flaking off at one time. It felt so dry and uncomfortable under my work pants that I kept locking my office door to secretly strip down and give it a little moisturizer. The inside of my pants looks like I'm some kind of dandruff hoarder. Oof.
Whine away, folks.

Thought it might be appropriate to break my lurker status by joining this thread. Here's my in-progress kitsune by Claudia De Sabe at Jolie Rouge, London.
Didn't want to outright swipe the photo but here's a link to it on her facebook page
Claudia De Sabe's Photos | Facebook

Rib of beef. This was amazing, I'm not going to lie. Bearnaise and roast veg by the Missus.

There's nothing a panther won't fix, is there?

Got this little guy from Nick Rodin at Black Heart last week! Always wanted a tattoo with tattoos. We all know it, but I'll state the obvious here: great shop, great dudes, seriously great time.. I got the cute tattoo and my lady got a super tough eagle from Cody Miller, which I'll have to get a picture of once it's healed.

Boom! fixed:

I was at my local tattoo shop last night getting some work done on my backpiece and got to witness an 82 year old lady accompanied by her grown children get her first and probably only tattoo. She got "DNR" in small fancy script over her heart. Turned out she has a bad ticker and wanted a Do Not Resuscitate tattoo. She took it like a champ.
It was awesome!

Dennis from Providence Tattoo

When I catch people staring at my hand tattoos on the train I'll slowly move my hand towards my crotch and then pretend like I caught them staring at my dick and give them a disgusted look. That or just lock eyes and don't break for a solid 3 count, it freaks the shit out of people, actually had someone switch train cars after that once.

some bert grimm flash from dan santoro

Dagger done by Valerie Vargas yesterday

Yeah i got that one done right before you

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.

yeah, why would you want someone help you to properly take care of a large tattoo that you've invested your time, money and pain into?
One that's physically impossible to reach by yourself with any level of consistency? :D