Graeme

Welcome Steven. I am curious why you would want to represent their dates of birth by something other than a tattoo of their dates of birth or their names? Since you asked, I think the idea of planetary positions is goofy, would probably be inaccurate unless you're an astronomer (not to mention that the tattoo aging would shift the alignment of the planets anyway), and just wouldn't have the strength that a simple but well-executed name tattoo would have. Interesting or unique ideas are often overrated when it comes to tattoos. Classics are that way for a reason.

Welcome Shane and feel free to post pictures of your tattoos!

This shop is in the Little Rock area and it looks like they're making great tattoos there.

Rambo with a banner saying "THEY DREW FIRST BLOOD".

Welcome Jaime! You'll find that nobody here minds that you don't have any tattoos yet, and I think it's great that you've found LST because there is a wealth of knowledge here that will help you to be informed about tattoos so that you can get great ones straight out of the gate. I would suggest starting with this thread and watching the artist interview videos.

@SeeSea That is spectacular and such a wonderful tribute.

@bongsau Was it one of the backs they knocked out in 4-5 hours each at the Montreal convention a couple of years ago? I saw two of those going down, it was ridiculous to see.

@hogg I think in these circumstances I am allowed to show off. @SStu Who are we kidding, by the time this kid is old enough to get tattoos they're going to be horribly out of fashion and he's going to be embarrassed by his dad who was tacky enough to get a large portion of his body covered in them. Until that point, however, I hope he views me as some kind of walking and talking story book.

Yeah! Welcome to the Dave tiger club!

@hogg That sounds okay, but I think I have you beat because I made this guy:

@sophistre @polliwog Thanks! I love how Dave does his tigers. Obviously. When I first met with him and was looking through his portfolio I saw not only that he's tattooed a lot of tigers, but also that each one seemed to have its own expression and personality. He doesn't just draw them in one way. The paws are one of my favourite parts. They're huge. The only thing I don't absolutely love about this tattoo is that it's on my back and so I can't see it.

Welcome! I would start by finding a good artist in your area. If you let us know where you're located we can recommend some people. As far as representing the bond between you two, you're completely wide open in terms of your choices. That you're both going to get the same tattoo, presumably together, speaks volumes about that bond and so I don't think it's necessary to try to force additional meaning into the tattoo. I tend to lean towards classic tattoo imagery so I could see something like a Homeward Bound clipper ship being a nice idea, but what appeals to you and your dad is really entirely up to you. If you have a shop nearby or within travelling distance that has nice, hand painted flash on the walls, you could pick something from the wall together. Lots of tattooers have sketchbooks full of designs they'd like to do, you both could go through one of those and find something you both like. The possibilities are nearly endless.

So those memories take a long time to go away, huh? Because while I love this video and the backpiece it made me really glad that I don't have to go through that again.

@Blaue That's not bragging at all, it's what this thread is for. You absolutely do have to post pictures of the tattoo though. Have fun and I can't wait to see what you get!

Welcome Beli. I would suggest looking at tattoos by Ron Henry Wells. He's based in Providence, RI but he travels a fair bit. I have a skull from him that has a path winding its way through the woods in it, and he's done a few tattoos with a similar theme. He's also a great guy. There's a video interview with him on this site too.

I have enough going on in my life at the moment that I'm not going to waste any effort on morons. Though if the person running the "school" mentioned by the OP suffered some unfortunate calamity that caused severe and permanent damage to his or her hands, I wouldn't be very upset about that.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, you are finding it difficult to get an appointment with him but you haven't even asked him for one. We're not talking about getting tattooed by Greg Irons here.

For reasons that some of you may be aware of, it looks like I won't be attending the convention after all and I'm not going to be able to organize the customary LST meetup. Hope to see you folks next year.

Some of you have already seen this, but we finished my back yesterday. Some of it is still fresh and angry, so I'll get better pictures when it's healed and settled in. Dave Cummings at PSC Tattoo in Montreal did this. Dave is the man, get tattooed by him.

I'm finishing my back tomorrow, then getting a small tattoo from Robert Ryan at the Montreal convention next weekend, and after that I have nothing planned. I've been getting tattooed on an at least monthly basis for over a year so having nothing coming up is going to be weeeeiiird.

@kvaz Have you looked into getting the tattoo treated with laser? A lot of posters here have lightened old tattoos with laser before getting them covered and a lot of the results have been nothing short of spectacular.

Hello. This isn't the community you're looking for.

Welcome Kate!

Welcome Zach. You're heading in the right direction by being careful about the artist you choose, and if I can offer further advice, you should listen to what the artist says about the design. I've seen tattoos of that tree before and they look terrible: to begin with, the picture you posted is a photoshop and not a real tattoo and so you can't expect an actual tattoo to look like that, it's upside down, and the design just isn't very applicable to tattoos so it will look aged really quickly. Something like that will be very hard to cover up if you become unhappy with it. The wolf is a cool idea though. Good luck.

Yes, it will stretch with your skin and since your skin is unlikely to stretch in a uniform way, it will deform your tattoo. But that's the nature of tattoos, whether or not you work out. You will gain or lose weight over your life, hopefully you'll live long enough to see your skin slacken and sag with age. Your tattoos will do the same. Living is going to "mess them up", as you put it. You can somewhat compensate for that by getting large tattoos by quality artists that fit your body well, avoid perfect circles or straight lines, and things like that, but it's ultimately unavoidable. I think that's part of what makes tattoos beautiful.