Graeme

@Pleadco You're making swift progress! Looks great!

Haha

No outline, no black shading...they're not going to have those tattoos when the kid grows up.

You're going to have a lot of fun. I loved getting tattooed by Chad because he has this great, warm, big personality and you just get stoked spending time with him.

To be fair to @herewego he was disparaging about the octopus tattoo too. To not be fair to him, he seems like he's a jerk who doesn't know how to talk to people and considering that motherfucker doesn't bring much to the forum that can't be easily found on instagram, he's about worn out his welcome.

Bienvenue Flo!

Welcome and I'm really sorry that happened to you. Wishing you all the best.

How about we stick to tattoos instead of gossip.

Maybe we could welcome new posters instead of ripping into their tattoos?

Haha no. I did not rank in the top five but because this is a public forum that is all I'm going to say.

@sourpussoctopus Thomas utterly kills it with placement. He did the sleeve on my left arm and there are a lot of things that are really impressive about the tattoo, but the thing that I maybe enjoy most of all of it is how well it's placed and sits and moves. I think it's the tribal influence showing through.

I endorse this sentiment 100%. The issue here has very little to do with the actual tattoo and almost everything to do with self-confidence. @2bacanvas if I have come across as a dick on this thread it is because I am a mean and hateful bastard, but you have mentioned that "people say it kinda looks like an alien", that you "get allot of mixed reviews on this tattoo. Some like it and some criticize it." If you get hung up on what other people think about your tattoos, you are ALWAYS going to be unhappy with them. Fuck what other people think because 1) it's on you and it's permanent (you're never going to laser off a little bit of it and have the guy rework it so let's just drop that notion); 2) most people are stupid and uncreative and have no idea when it comes to art and don't especially care either, so if you ask the average non-tattooed or lightly tattooed person what they think of tattoos they're probably going to prefer the bird silhouettes that are contorted into their children's initials and look like a pile of shit over a beautiful Japanese tattoo that has no overt meaning. So basically nobody with any sense should give half a shit about their opinions. And that includes the people here. If you're not going to be confident in the tattoos you get you probably shouldn't be getting tattooed anyway. Tattoos aren't for everybody, and that includes a lot of people who have them.

Tattoos are too good for some people.

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.

I'm not saying any of this to be a dick, but you've posted elsewhere on this forum about the difficulty you have with keeping appointments, so I am guessing that your artist is afraid that you're going to flake out and they're going to get stuck without work for the day. Yes, of course things come up and sometimes we need to cancel or reschedule appointments, and that happens to both artists and clients, but don't get a reputation as somebody who habitually misses or cancels appointments because tattooing is a very small world and word gets around.

Junii Salmon Jill Bonny Katja Ramirez

Welcome! I am seven sessions into my back piece, and I will say that your family is right in thinking you're crazy, and you're going to feel that way at some point, maybe during many points, during your back piece. But then you'll catch a glimpse of it in a mirror and it will be worth all the pain, the annoyance and misery of healing, the considerable expense of it because there are no tattoos more striking than full back pieces. So yes, you're crazy, but you're among good company here. Who are you getting to do it and what design are you choosing?

Could be, I'm not confident saying that they come from a pre-internet civilization though because, well...how would the Picts have found out what they mean without the Internet?

I am not sure why you said you were intimidated to join here in your first post. You have a lot of excellent tattoos and know how to get them, you want to be part of the community, and you're an intelligent and articulate person. If only we had more people joining like you! I hope you stick around.

Cro Mags. Hardest tattoos ever. This is what tattooed people should look like.

Our tat-cycles are aligned because I have my next back session then too.

Welcome Laura! Nice intro. I am sure I'm not the only person here who would love to see pictures of your tattoos.

The best person to ask about healing is always your artist.

@ironchef Dave kills it. Because I obviously can't see what he's doing it's always cool getting up to switch positions and seeing how much he filled or lined. @SeeSea I think I have mentioned it before on here but the design is referenced from a photo of a Horiyoshi 3 backpiece that was printed in one of the early TAMs. I always liked tattoos where you see the tiger's back because there's so much power in it's spine, and I thought I wanted something more along those lines, but I kept on going back to this positioning because there's just so much strength there. The paws and claws are super tough. I love the markings on the tiger's head too.

Banjo frog is always a classic. I don't have any specifically music-related tattoos on me and I'd one day like one. A banjo-pickin' frog is a likely contender as is the Rollo guitar-playing catfish design.