KYboy

just be respectful. yes tips and cupcakes are awfully nice, but thats not what gets me to work on time everyday. just be nice. leave your tuff guy attitude at the door. dont try to impress us, just be nice. if you know some jokes, please share. if some crazy shit happened to you earlier in the week, tell us the story. if you are coming to us because you saw how awesome we did of a job on your friends japanese sleeve, dont be surprised when we are bummed that you want us to do your celtic armband. haha
come in clean and with a good attitude. thats all i can ask for. anything extra is frosting on the cake

George burchett flash dragon done by Cheyenne Sawyer at Atlas Tattoo in Portland

Hawk wrapped around my forearm by Timothy Hoyer

I got started on this tattoo by Ron Henry Wells last while he was guesting at Tattoomania in Montreal and we'll finish it at a later date. Sorry for the not great photo, it wraps a bit so it's tough to get a good one. As always, it was a real pleasure to be tattooed by Ron, and the Tattoomania crew were very gracious hosts. I love tattoos.

Finished my half sleeve done by Nick Colella, love the filler. Turquoise is my favorite color
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I just got this from my friend Matt Brotka at Salvation Tattoo in Richmond, Virginia. However his full time gig is at Left Hand Black in sunny San Diego. Pic pilfered from his instagram
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I decided to add a little bit of color to my elbow. I have been piecing togather a traditional sleeve. I wanted to add a skull into the mix without it looking to deathly and dark. So to brighten it up a bit added it to a little floral arrangement. No better place to put it other than the elbow. Done by Tony D at Chronic tattoo in Elyria Ohio.

Just got these two from Dusto at Tower Classic in St. Louis as a Christmas present to myself

Got this from Kirk Jones yesterday, birds wing look distorted but it is just the photo.
Awesome guy, it is a shame I don't have another shoulder to get tattooed, easiest spot so far.

Hi - long-time stalker, first-time poster - I just posted this in my intro but wanted to share it here too.
Done by Tattoo John at San Jose Tattoo (still healing):

Me and @Pugilist got matching tattoos again. This is from Doc Forbes flash and was done by Chris Hold at Sacred Heart Tattoo in Vancouver, BC. It was a super fun one and Chris was a great dude to get tattooed by. Couldn't be happier with the tattoo and the whole experience.

I posted this in my intro thread, but I wanna partake in the fun over here!

by Beau Brady

Saw this on FB today.. Kick ass piece and awesome to see it getting recognition!!

Morning LST, after a long trip I made it home. As promised here is a pic of my finished (for now) back. Not the best pic but I'll see if I can get a better one ASAP. Completed over 5 sessions by Horinao at The Catclaw Tattoo-z Kyoto... I'm going to go pass out for a bit lol.

Popped into The Pearl this morning to catch a session with Tim Pausinger before he left for the Xmas holidays. He basically finished my chest piece. In January we'll link the shoulders and arms to it. He is also going to do some spider webbing between the tattoo and the bottom of my pecs.
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I kept mine covered for so long, it just got to be too much. I got tired of wearing long pants, long sleeves, and keeping my hands in my pockets. Your mom will always look at you and still see the baby she first held at the hospital; it's what moms do. Change is difficult for a parent to accept. I know I look at my kids and can't believe where the time has gone.
I went to my parents and had a very upfront talk with them about tattoos. I thanked them for raising me to be the person I am today, accepting and open minded. I explained why I do what I do. I think while they may not have wanted me to wind up heavily tattooed that they now understand it better. But a mom will always be a mom to her kids. My mom still pleads with me, "No more skulls".

This is a great topic since I've been wondering the same about what others go through.
I'm visiting home soon, and got a lot more covered on me this year. I didn't mention anything to them, since I came to the conclusion that it's completely unnecessary.
I really don't appreciate that feeling of them having a 'hold' on me, or at least that's what italian parents make you feel like is happening.
Surprisingly my mom thinks their beautiful, but yea she also wants to hear an extravagant story as to why I got a certain piece.
Then somehow twists it into a negative spew once more... Conversations turn so awkward with their silent disapproval.
So the only thing I can do at this point, is train my brain to not give a shit. I would say I'm 80% there..
And to just keep my own thoughts positive, and use my great attitude to keep the negativity away.
Cause the last thing I need is for them *try* and make me feel guilty about these decisions.
But yes it's very hard and not looking forward to it........
*sigh*
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Yea I personally cover them as much as possible. It's respectful around family gatherings.

I don't make any special efforts to keep them covered around my parents, no. My parents live on the other side of the country from me and I see them once, sometimes twice, a year, so it's not a huge issue.
My in-laws, on the other hand, don't know that me or my wife have tattoos, and they will not react nicely when they find out that we do, and so we both keep them hidden from them at all times. We live in the same city as them and see them often enough so the situation is getting pretty absurd. For example, this summer we were walking back from the store after grocery shopping and my wife spotted my mother-in-law standing at the corner of our street from a half a block away. She'd stopped by to drop off some vegetables from her garden and was waiting around to see if we would show up. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt. So we turned around, went down another street, waited around a corner until we were sure that she had left, and then returned home. Is this better at this point than having a huge fight, dealing with it, and eventually moving on? I kind of don't think so, but it makes for funnier stories.

My mom's reactions to my tattoos have gotten worse as I've gotten more. She was never crazy about me getting tattooed to begin with but when it was one or two she could pass it off as, I don't know, a passing phase or a temporary moment of bad judgement or something like that. I didn't stop at one or two though. My parents were staying with me and my wife during the most recent Montreal tattoo convention and they'd spent a few days in NYC and got back a couple of hours earlier than expected...just as I'd finished washing a new tattoo on my shin. And yeah it was a day old and still really fresh and my leg was all kinds of swollen and she saw that and nearly burst into tears and tried to make me say that that would be the last one and all that, which I wouldn't do. And at this point I don't even know what difference it would make if I stopped now because unless I tattoo my hands, neck, or face--which I don't plan on doing--I can't really get them in any more visible spots than I already have. My dad isn't crazy about the tattoos either, but he's kept quiet about it and has said that it isn't his body and so it isn't his decision.
For better or for worse, I've been fairly open with my parents about my tattoos. I told them that I was getting my forearms done before I did them because I didn't want them to be surprised by it. I called my parents after I got my first one, again because I didn't want to surprise them.
I should add that I wouldn't say that this has put stress on our relationship. My parents still love me no matter what, they know that I more or less have my shit together, and probably most importantly, that I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions even if they wouldn't make those decisions themselves (I think it was my cousin who said once that you raise your kids to be independent but then you get hurt when you realise that they actually are), but the tattoos still do really bother and upset my mom.
This stuff is hard. Good luck.

Tattoo shops smell like the best smells in the entire world. Aaahhh, I miss the shop!

On my recent trip home I had the usual light-hearted debates w/my mom over tattoos.
We were talking about me wanting to change schools and she said I couldn't get a job at another school w/these tattoos. I said that I keep them covered w/long sleeve shirts. She said, "You can't wear long sleeve shirts all the time in LA!" I explained that yes, I already do...we have air conditioning. Blah blah blah.
So then later, she tells me that Adam Levine was voted the sexiest man alive. I asked her if she agreed with that assessment and she said, "Yes." I said, "But he has tattoos!" And she goes, "He's an entertainer, not a kindergarten teacher." Oh lordy. I knew she already had a double standard about it being more ok for men to have tattoos than women. Now I see, it's also ok if you are an entertainer. I told her he is a grown-ass man and I am a grown-ass woman and that my job requires me to be an entertainer most of the time, too.
Then MIL told my hubby that if we keep getting tattoos we won't be able to move back to Boston.
Oh parents. They are so silly. We are in our forties and these are the conversations we are having!

Obvious comments about people getting the infections...errrrr...tattoos they deserve aside, this guy is an idiot. Given that it's a pretty nasty feature of contemporary capitalism that it's even harder to make a living as an artist, illustrator, photographer, musician, writer, etc. because increasingly fewer people want to pay for that kind of work--not to mention the number of other careers that now practically require countless hours of unpaid labour in the form of internships--there's nothing at all "refreshing" about working for free. Maybe if these people actually valued artists and paid money for art that instead of complaining about how they, the oh-so-romantic-Jawbreaker-is-my-favorite-band perpetually starving artists, don't have money for things like tattoos (but please don't ask them how much money they spend on drugs), they would have money for things like tattoos. Maybe they'd have to live on tighter budgets, pick up extra shifts at work, wear clothes and shoes a little longer, and so on, to save the money to get tattooed and that it would be worth it because if you love tattoos you'll find a way to make it work even if it doesn't mean instant gratification. Not to mention that if you have a respect for tattooing as a craft, or shit, for crafts and craftspeople in general, that you should understand that this stuff always comes at a price and that the craft isn't less "pure" because of it. I can't wait for the hipsters to be eradicated by a plague of hepatitis.

Just got back from a trip to the Bay area and my appointment with Freddy. Ya'll were right! Awesome shop, awesome tattoo, and awesome dude, and not just Freddy but everyone there. I would highly recommend getting tattooed at Temple or just meeting Freddy if you ever get the chance.

One time I was tattooing this girl's ankle and she meowed her way through the whole tattoo as her 'pain management.'
It was a trial.

@Graeme, scoot on down to Virginia and get you a Bruno!