Pugilist

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.

Looooooooooove the Dietzel piece especially!
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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.)

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:

Looooooooooove the Dietzel piece especially!
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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.)

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.)

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!
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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.)

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:

This is my back. Can't believe its all done.

Sounds like a good balance. My husband is not nearly as into tattoos as I am, but he is far more than the average person! He loves conventions, doesn't mind checking out shops either. It's something I love being able to share with him, because he is my best friend. I love spending time with him. No one else I would rather be around, and luckily he feels the same. :)

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.)

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.)

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.)

@Tim Hendricks gold rush tattoo
TITS!

I'm traveling to New York to get tattooed this Saturday by Eli Quinters at Smith Street, then I have my first session for my right arm sleeve the first week of September with Hugues Lauzier at Imago, and it looks like I'll be getting a piece from Chad Koeplinger at the Montreal Tattoo Art Expo the 2nd weekend of September (fingers crossed!).
Needless to say, I'm incredibly excited/impatient.

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.

Bought my copy this morning! Tattoo Elite International

yessssssssssssssssssssssssss!

You double posted. Thats a banning... ;)
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And @Pugilist - your lucky you typed that out loud or we could have been showing up to the same event wearing the same tattoo lol but you got dibs

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!

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.

I got this from Ron Wells when I was in New York a couple weeks back. Had a particularly awesome time getting this one. Picture nabbed from Instagram.