graybones

Inspired by Bradley Tompkins' BRIGHT_AND_BOLD takeover, I decided to make an account that features good, healed and settled in tattoos.
It's really niche I guess, but I have always enjoyed seeing tattoos that have been lived in, and I'm sure there's a few others out there like me. I am also hoping to maybe get some enthusiasts to do takeovers and show off a few of their tattoos, accompanied by stories about their experiences getting them.
The account is called "Lived in Tattoos" (@livedintattoos). Check it out!

Somewhat along those lines, I really love the NASA instagram account because they post a lot of really incredible photos and they also explain what's happening in them. They posted a picture a couple of weeks ago from the Hubble of gravitational lensing, which is spacetime being warped around galaxy clusters because of their immense gravitational pull, and if I can massively understate things, it is really fucking cool. There are a bunch of other good space-related instagram accounts too. The International Space Station is worth following, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is cool, and there's a great account of pictures taken by the Hubble though I don't think it's an official account. So much great stuff out there.

Added onto my arm yesterday with Clare Hampshire.
Could not get a decent photo at home, so pic is from her IG.

I'm with pretty much with @Graeme on this too.
I'd never planned to have any reference to my children in a tattoo, wasn't something that even occurred to me, but as it happens I ended up with one anyway.
Amongst the reference I took in before we started my arm was a copy some old botanical type drawings of eggs and nests, they weren't meant to refer to anything in particular - I just like the images. So, a few sessions in he pulled out a stencil he'd drawn up of a nest with 2 eggs in, 'you have got two children, haven't you?' he says... Well, if he'd not said that I'd probably never have associated it with them. But he did and now I have a progeny centered tattoo, which is nice. No names though.
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The only photo I can find is quite blurry and possibly not fully healed, here:
reference:
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uurg - curse of the massive photos. Sorry. This is maybe better. Maybe.

My Raijin and Kirin by Dave Cummings at PSC, in Montreal. It's all don except for some background to tie in my rock of ages below it. Stokes.

This is my frontpiece by Marius Meyer. We finished it about a year ago. Two sessions and a total of seven hours if I remember correctly.

Thanks for looking. In progress neo-traditionalish Japanese sleeve. Done by Shawn VanOven at the Shamens Den Binghampton NY.

The internet is kind of a shitty place to find tattoo design references. I would recommending buying some tattoo books instead, and then consulting a tattoo artist when you have an idea of what you want.
Check out the "Tattoo Designs, Books and Flash" subform here. Here's a recent thread that might be helpful:
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-designs-books-flash/5944-post-your-book-collection.html

Or better yet. Go to a shop and look at the flash/paintings on the walls.

The internet is kind of a shitty place to find tattoo design references. I would recommending buying some tattoo books instead, and then consulting a tattoo artist when you have an idea of what you want.
Check out the "Tattoo Designs, Books and Flash" subform here. Here's a recent thread that might be helpful:
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-designs-books-flash/5944-post-your-book-collection.html

The internet is kind of a shitty place to find tattoo design references. I would recommending buying some tattoo books instead, and then consulting a tattoo artist when you have an idea of what you want.
Check out the "Tattoo Designs, Books and Flash" subform here. Here's a recent thread that might be helpful:
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-designs-books-flash/5944-post-your-book-collection.html

The internet is kind of a shitty place to find tattoo design references. I would recommending buying some tattoo books instead, and then consulting a tattoo artist when you have an idea of what you want.
Check out the "Tattoo Designs, Books and Flash" subform here. Here's a recent thread that might be helpful:
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-designs-books-flash/5944-post-your-book-collection.html

Welcome. Your arm is looking awesome. It's so great when you find a tattoo artist you really click with.

Here's a teaser. All the linework on my left leg is complete, and some of the dots/shading - but quite a bit of both remain. I've got another 10-12 hrs booked for April and June - so I'm hoping by end of summer I'll have a completed and healed half squid pant.

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Whoa. Sorry about the huge photo.

It's been a while, but I just recently got back to reading the forum and looking at what other people are posting as far as new work. By way of jumping back in, it seemed like posting what I've been up to since I last participated in this thread is the right way to go.
This might be a bit of a long one. Sorry.
Sometimes you're in New Orleans. Sometimes you end up with a butterfly. Brent at Uptown Tattoo did this one:

Jake Miller from Cathedral Tattoo in Salt Lake did this little ditch guy for me:

I did a bit of a run of appointments at Great Lakes Tattoo. Erik did this one:

Nick did this one:

And Matt did this one on my calf:

Javier Rodriguez at LTW in Barcelona made this crazy tiger head for me:

John Raftery, who is also at Cathedral in Salt Lake now, did this snake while he was still in New York at Fun City:

Ben Haft at Fun City did the tops of both of my thighs with a sinking ship and a rose of no man's land:


And finally, Mike Suarez at Hand of Glory in Brooklyn was able to squeeze me in on Saturday and do this on my shin:

I picked up a few little bits of filler here and there, too.
Next up is getting my left knee done, I think. All of this has really just motivated me to start thinking about back/chestpieces.
Further down the rabbit hole.

my baby, Blaze.
hubby was nice enough to do a photo shoot with us today

Let me introduce myself, my name is Laetitia,î m a french tattoo artist, i own two shops in Nice France,with my husband and my daughter.i started Tattooing over 25 years ago,and opened my first shop 19 years ago That i run alone for Few years, It mâkes me one of thé first female tattoo artist in this country cause we were only 4 back then.My husband is américan from Arizona,we just bought an Old existent shop in Tampa Fl ,and planning working over There sometimes,as well as guesting some of thé artists of our team to France and some of good french artiste will be guested in Tampa as well... You can Check our works on thé Fb page thank you for Your time. Laetitia

Had my 2nd session with Thomas Hooper yesterday. Mostly dot shading and mostly sat okay for it. Much easier than the line work during our first session.

@Tuchaka I wouldn't hesitate talk to call up your tattoo artist before your appointment and see what s/he thinks about both the prescribed product and the condition itself. EDIT: Just read your first post again and saw you already did that. D'oh!
Also for anyone who has had a reaction to a certain color before, bring it up to your future tattoo artists as well. I have 3 tattoos with red in them but I've only had a reaction with the first one, different ink will have different ingredients and your tattoo artist can work with you to avoid the issue in the future.

Here's my hand by Rudy Fritsch, made at the London Tattoo Convention.

@Tuchaka I wouldn't hesitate talk to call up your tattoo artist before your appointment and see what s/he thinks about both the prescribed product and the condition itself. EDIT: Just read your first post again and saw you already did that. D'oh!
Also for anyone who has had a reaction to a certain color before, bring it up to your future tattoo artists as well. I have 3 tattoos with red in them but I've only had a reaction with the first one, different ink will have different ingredients and your tattoo artist can work with you to avoid the issue in the future.

I'd advise you to hold off on hand tattoos for now. Start on your sleeve; maybe your tattooer could even incorporate your hand in a way as awesome as this Seth Wood piece.
Personally, I think hand tattoos with no sleeve just kind of look like a hand stamp you get at a club, or something. Unless we're talking mehndi-like design, then it's whole other thing.

Post your devils/demons/etc!
Planning to get one from Craig Boxcar Chazen next week, but for now here are some of my favorites.
Luke Jinks


Theo Mindell


Chris Marchetto


Boxcar

Well I am fairly impressed with the result when you consider the amount of tissue I had removed. Now I have to wait for pathology and hope for clear margins!

@graybones --Reading your post made me smile. This may sound kind of dopey, but I get a nice warm, happy feeling when I find out that someone I have had an ongoing interaction with (like you with your gyno, or like a colleague) has a tattoo. It's only happened with me a couple of times, but when it does, it's a great feeling.
I found out our accountant who has done our taxes for years has a half sleeve, and when I first saw it peeking out (she clearly dressed to keep it covered) I got really excited! I didn't want to be that person and make a stupid comment, or violate her privacy. But I really wanted to connect. So I nervously said something like "So...I think we have something in common - tattoos." She was sort of shocked, but immediately dropped her professional guard and we had about a half-hour chat about tattoos and living with them in a professional world. It was sort of like a mutual "ah...someone who understands!" Funny thing is that I always thought she was a cool lady - very competent and professional, but with sort of a carefree streak that I admired.