Kurse

This. Reading Michael Pollan made me consider this more carefully. "Bread" for example, should not have 25 ingredients.
If there is real concern, do a baseline urine/sweat/hair/fat (I think they would show results differently depending on the substance concerned) test for heavy metals and then you can see if it increases over time/tattoo coverage.

@goldocat Don't beat yourself up though, it's all part of the learning curve.
Judgeing by your choice of artists I'd say you've got 99.9% of your research spot on. I must admit you've now got a really tough choice.
My advise. Don't offend either book both of them. Sorted :)

50 years and it doesnt matter what who where. its all going to look like shit

@spyro Have you checked out the Dragons thread on this forum? There's a dragon sleeve I posted by Grant Cobb done in the style you are looking for , or check out the art of Boris Vallejo and select something of his you like and take that to your artist . Conversely if you mention Frank Frazetta or Greg Irons in your consultation Tim will know what you mean ,
this is the stuff you should look at and also something the tattooer will be into . I'll post some of Vallejo's stuff but I'll let you do the rest to save my haggard hands .

And a time to be a douche, apparently. I'm not forcing anyone to give feedback here, Pal. I've done everything that has been suggested. Or, started doing it.
Don't want to filter? Don't. Don't want to help me? Don't. Think I'm helpless, and not want to waste your time on me? Don't. Fucking simple.
It's one thread on a forum, not a dog scratching at your door. It hurts nobody. So again; think I'm a helpless moron? Cool. Don't bother with me then. Life is better when you act nice towards people though.

Plenty of room trust me. You have to remember your arm curves around so essentially you have the distance equal to the circumference of you arm as tattoable space and obviously however long your arm is. So even if your pythons aren't the size of Hulk Hogan's you should still be able to get a nice sized tattoo about the size of a sheet of copy paper on your upper arm.
You might not hear that the idea sucks because they want to make your idea into a good tattoo. The guys at Pearl Harbor won't bull shit you, I am sure they would rather turn you away than put a bad tattoo on you. But they can turn a questionable design into a kick ass tattoo if you give them the leeway to do so

My opinion is if a person doesn't get tattoos because they are too picky, they are just making excuses to not get tattooed, which is fine, it's not for everyone. My sisters are both artists. My older sister is a Art Director and very picky. She has two tattoos, that yes did take a lot of direction but still got done. My younger sister is still trying to get that "perfect" tattoo aka not ready yet.

slayer answered the question perfectly, but i have a thought to add. as someone who knows graphic designers, i know many get very frustrated, very quickly, when their clients won't listen to their suggestions and take advice on what they, as experts, know will work better. if that friend is anything like that, then he needs to realize tattooers feel exactly the same way. sometimes, people need to understand that they don't know better than the person they're hiring to do a job for them, and understand that it's generally for their own benefit.

A few months prior to my 18th birthday, I began talking about how I would get a tattoo when I could legally do so. Knowing that I would get a tattoo whether they liked it or not, my parents decided to take me to a local tattoo shop a few days early to talk to the tattoo artists and schedule an appointment on my birthday so they could make sure I went somewhere they thought was safe. They even paid for the tattoo! I really appreciate my parents' openness.
Although, they also didn't think that I would develop a serious interest tattoos. When I started getting more tattoos, my mom would get mad and ask when I'm going to stop while my dad would just shake his head. Now they understand that I'm not planning to stop and are accepting. I don't think it's necessarily something they like though.

I don't know how serious you are about the cover it up part, but if he's thinking about covering it up, his wrist is the wrong place to get it. He should write the script on his wrist with a magic marker and spend a few days seeing how he likes it before he gets it permanently tattooed on.

I was 14 years old when i received my first tattoo, it was on an old futon bed, in a living room of a house party we were having, i was big into punk rock and hardcore music and skateboards that was pretty much my life, so i figured what the hell lets put something on my leg. so i got "skate & annoy" on the back of my leg, the kid ran out of liners and lined it with the side of a shader (ouch) whip shaded it with black and filled the letters in green. the letters are all oozy and drippy looking with the design and i was so pumped on it. well hiding it from my dad and mom was the hard part, i never wore shorts. during the summer every beach trip my family ever had was avoided, i did a damn good job at hiding it. i hid it all the way until i was 18 years old and finally got one legally. i showed my parents my new tattoo, and they loved it. I then started off with "theres one more thing i have to show you" i pulled up my pant leg and told them the story about how i got it when i was 14 and how i had dodged them with it for 4 years. my dad is a very southern working class man, one of those dont talk much kind of guys, he looks at my leg and stares at me and goes "why didn't you tell me? i wouldnt of been all that upset." so all that family time i miss i could of been apart of, but we all know how life works, you live and learn. its still one of my favorite tattoos to this day.

I got my first tattoo right after graduating from college when I was 23. I was living in the Bay Area and rode the BART over to Oakland to visit Tattoo 13. Chummy tattooed my upper arm with an scene of St. Michael. Not long after it healed I was visiting home and having a drink on the back porch with my mom. I told her that I really needed to talk to her about something, and rolled up my sleeve. She starting yelling and slapped me, while I was laughing at her reaction. After about a 5 minute rant she asked to see it again, and commented that it was really pretty. My Dad just told me to keep them where they could be covered in a suit. Every time I visit LA these days I end up getting tattooed. My parents have slowly become more accepting of them. They used to say "that's the last one right?" after each tattoo, but even that has stopped. In fact my Dad just texted me about getting his first tattoo at age 60. I honestly thought he was messing with me, but he was dead serious. I guess my point is that parents attitudes can change over time. Mine go so far as to show off my tattoos to friends when I'm on vacation.

Both of my parents have tattoos, so telling them about my own ink was never a worry (I was honestly more concerned about telling them I was moving across the country with my boyfriend- now fiance- for school). As a kid I remember taking markers to my dad's arm to color in a piece that he only had the outline of (after it was healed of course), he was my living breathing coloring book! I think my parents were actually slightly disappointed that I didn't ask them to come with me and be part of my first tattoo experience.

My mom didn't seem too pleased when I told her I was getting a tattoo. She said, "well you'd better ask your sister about how much it hurt!" I think to try and dissuade me. As if I'm going to not do something that my little sister was able to do twice because it was going to hurt a bit. So of course I went ahead with it.
I mean, really. I was 34 years old. She's not the boss of me!

Welcome! What kind of work are you looking to get done? You can choose either traditional Japanese or traditional Japanese.

Dave Quiggle is a rad illustrator and tattoo artist. He sells pretty awesome tattoo flash in his online shop.. as well as a sketchbook. He's a Christian and his work is really unlike most typical "Christian" tattoos. I would love to have a custom tattoo by him. Actually my first tattoo is based off of one of his deisgns. Check him out!
* Artwork by Dave Quiggle *