Graeme

I posted that during a 12-hour night shift so you probably don't. But if you really like scrubbing buckets you should give it a try.

I work as a brewer and while I'm not certain that wearing long sleeves is disallowed, it generally isn't done for safety reasons. You can't have shirt sleeves caught in motors or mills or conveyors and the like, not to mention the heat of the brewhouse in the summer, so basically if it can't be covered by a t-shirt it will be on display. Plenty of people I work with have visible tattoos and it isn't an issue at all in day to day work. I don't know what they would mean in terms of promotion to management but there is so little upward mobility in the company that I'm not sure it matters that much. They have hired people with hand and neck tattoos to work the bottling line before so there's always that ad an option if you have job stoppers. Wouldn't want to work that job though.

As my wife Pugilist said earlier on this thread I started getting tattooed last year at 32. I'd previously always wanted tattoos but a combination of not making tattoos a priority in my budget and general indecision about what I wanted to get meant that I waited a long time for my first. I have mixed feelings about that: on the one hand, it has meant that I've managed to get good work so far that I wouldn't have been able to afford when I was 18 even if I had the inclination to get something good (mostly doubtful when I think back on the ideas I had) and it means that I can also afford to travel to see tattooers who are doing work that moves me. At the same time, and this is probably stupid to say and I can only say it because I didn't do it, but I regret a little bit not getting a crappy punk rock tattoo or two that I would now want to cover.

Just booked another one with Ron Wells at the Montreal convention. I'm not sure what yet, probably something from his flash...I really love that skull with the forest path in it but there are so many things Ron has done that I would be proud to wear so we'll see what grabs me on the day. Starting a sleeve with Thomas Hooper at the end of October. Booked for a bunch of sessions next spring for a tiger on my ribs with Dave Cummings but when we have our second consultation in December I am going to see if we can change that to a back piece instead of a tiger fighting a snake.

I've been lurking here for ages and my wife recently started posting here as "Pugilist" so I figured it's about time to get myself an account. I live in Montreal and only started getting tattooed a year ago, at 32, and have been trying to make up for lost time since. This forum is a wealth of information and I hope that I can contribute something here as a member. Here's a link to a picture of my first tattoo, I'll post more of them eventually: Seth Wood Tattoo