real meta

speaking of man bits.... Dragon: Not Safe for Work ‹ Stewart Robson

***this not me. i have no dragons any where on my body.

Humor and novelty aside, I would like to say that @Stewart Robson did a really great job with that tattoo. Seriously, it's the best genital tattoo I've ever seen, and I used to frequent BME.

I've had a similar experience. I was at a neighborhood bar and ran into the apprentice from a local shop where I've been tattooed a couple times. While we were talking she referred to me as a "collector." I said something about only having four tattoos, but she just shook her head and said, "You're a collector." I'll take it.

As plenty of others have pointed out, the term can come off as uppity at times, but it's also useful to describe a certain approach to getting tattooed.

here's a hint...

proper picture to come (as soon as I can poach it from IG ;) )

Love it!!!

I was just thinking you were overdue for some new tattoos...

Also, after looking at the previous page...holy shit. You people are killing it. I've seen so many of these tattoos on IG and been pumped on them, only to get on here and see that they're on LSTers, it's great.

Just made tentative plans to get my foot tattooed by Antonio Roque next month!

You are assuming that everyone out there has a creative mind and/or appreciates art.

It ain't so.

Honestly, this is ultimately what it comes down to. I don't claim to have a genius, creative mind, and I'm sure none of the other non-tattooers do either, but at least we have the sense and/or taste to give the tattooers creative freedom. They know what's best, leave it up to them.

One of the reasons I'm glad I didn't start getting tattooed at 18 is because if I did, I'd be covered in a bunch of band symbols and other bullshit. Being open to tatooers' ideas is literally one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

God damn I am drunk.

I'm hoping to get something from Horitomo one day. Maybe a hawk or one of his whimsical tattoo cats!

I was JUST about to say how badly I need a tattooed cat on me. Great minds...

To be honest, though, I hope that El Monga cat wins...that thing is insane!

This could be cross-posted to the http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-after-care/1043-lower-leg-tattoo.html thread, but I'm remembering the joys of getting a tattoo--even a small one--down by the ankle. The dull, throbbing pain is still there three days later. At least I got a decent night's sleep last night (for the first time). There's just no good place to put your leg at night, is there?

So getting my inner thigh tattooed was not nearly as bad as I had worried - it was fine. HEALING my inner thigh, however sucks. At least @Graeme is enjoying making fun of my hobbling.

Hoo boy, I can relate to both of these. Except I would say that getting the inner thigh tattooed also sucks really bad.

Super nice, @MJH IV!

This. Back of the calf is just fucking awful.

I'm kind of relieved to read this. I just got almost the entire back of my calf tattooed a few days ago, and while most of it wasn't too horrible, the last 30 or 40 minutes (of a ~3 hour tattoo) were pretty brutal and left me completely worn out. I've never claimed to sit like a rock, but I was/am starting to feel like a wimp.

Thank you for the kind words, everyone. All credit goes to El Monga.

I love the cats boots .

Aren't they awesome? They're one of my favorite details in the tattoo. In fact, they're a testament to how great a tattooer El Monga is: I mentioned that I liked medieval themes in tattoos, so in addition to putting the castles, etc. in there, he also gave the entire tattoo sort of woodcut-from-the-middle-ages look, and I feel like the boots are ripped straight from that sort of imagery, as well. They really round out the overall aesthetic of the tattoo in my opinion.

...hopefully that made sense. I didn't sleep much last night.

There's already some seriously stiff competition, but here's my entry for this month. Done yesterday by El Monga.

Just got this put on me by El Monga. Picture stolen from his instagram.

I'm sitting in the shop waiting to get tattooed by El Monga. I just saw the design he drew up for me and I am SO PUMPED. It's incredibly awesome.

Walk in style by Wade Hex at Port City Tattoo in Long Beach, CA.

I had no idea what I wanted to get. First thing that popped into my head was "geisha lady head".

What a stacked crew over at Port City. Vastly underrated. I'd love to get tattooed by anyone at that shop... Eric Jones, Tom Moser, Uzi, Jack Mauk, Renan, Wade Hex... heavy hitters.

The shading and color on that are so smooth, it's kind of blowing my mind right now. There have been so many good tattoos posted in the last couple days.

I came here to post my IG account name, but @irezumi already posted a screencap from my feed.

...but really it's real_meta_shit. More tattoo pictures pending.

Really? I dont know the protocol about talking about prices on hre, but I was under the impression that frith st were upwards of 120 per hour?

You should probably nip that in the bud.

Got this one from Mr Desa at frith street yesterday. Hope he doesn't mind my lazy ass borrowing the pic from his instagram

Yessssss

Oly Angers work looks good to me if thats what style you like.

Personally I like Jftattooer, this is his instagram name not to sure of his real name, he also works at Oly Angers shop.

That guy does some awesome work, but I don't know his real name either. He posts a good amount to his facebook as well.

My first tattoo was a completely impulsive decision. I woke up hungover one Sunday morning and thought, "What should I do today?" The idea to get tattooed popped into my head, it felt right, and I pretty much immediately decided I wanted a traditional diamond because I've always liked the design. There's a shop really close to my house and I had heard good things about one of the guys who worked there, so I walked over and sure enough, he was working that day and had walk-in availability. The rest, as they say, is history.

The only one I can comment on personally is the Philadelphia convention. It's huge, and I would definitely say it's worth visiting if you have specific tattooers you want to see/buy something from/get tattooed by. But a word of warning: although it brings in a lot of amazing tattooers, it also attracts tons of garbage tattooers, as well as companies from industries that latch on to the tattoo community as a way to make a buck (e.g. stupid clothing companies, body jewelry companies, apparently there was even a porn star selling DVDs this past year).

Basically, as long as you have an eye for quality work and a high tolerance for dumbasses, it's worth going.

Here's a pic of my tubby ass getting a surprise tattoo from Scott Wiecek at @acmetim 's 1 year celebration of Acme Tattoo Staunton. A good time was had. I also was able to hang with @jayessebee all day. Which was awesome as always. It was super fun to get a tattoo and not know what it was until it was over.

So...what was it?!

Unless something goes horribly wrong between now and this evening when I plan on leaving a deposit, I got a spot with El Monga in about 3 weeks. I just threw a couple ideas at him in an email (medieval stuff, mystical stuff, sword-wielding animals) and he seemed to be into it. Super excited.

In the context of getting tattooed, I always enjoy music as a topic of conversation. Whether or not it's something that's playing at the time, I find that I have a similar taste in music to many tattooers (read: heavy stuff), which helps forge a little bond between us. Plus, a good conversation can do wonders for getting your mind off the pain being inflicted upon you.

I just found out that El Monga will be tattooing here in Philadelphia in a few weeks, and at a shop that's quite literally down the street from my house, no less. I want to call in and book a spot with him (he is a guy, right?), but I have absolutely no idea what I want or where I want it. Help.