cltattooing

Little awesomeness from Robert Ryan @ Electric Tattoo in Asbury NJ

Rose banger courtesy of Franz Stefanik of The Okey Doke in Toronto

Pigs might fly!

I got a souvenir while my son spent his Christmas gift certificate.

"There was a gap. It fit."

Alright folks, here ya go

That's weird..

Alright folks, here ya go

Alright folks, here ya go

Long story-- I wanted to get it in 2013, then I started doing paperwork with my recruiter, who said "don't get any tattoos, that will make this harder." Then it took me until 2014 to get to boot camp. I wasn't going to get it on leave after boot camp, because there was no time.
Since it's a memorial tattoo, I didn't want to get it without my other siblings. So I didn't get it at my first duty station (and there was only one tattoo artist within an hour and a half drive anyway, and not many more in two hours).
After my first unit I was at A school, and I could have got it then, but life was busy enough with school. Then I only took a week of leave before my next unit, and again no time. Then I got sent somewhere with 1 (seasonal) tattoo artist within a three and a half hour drive, and again my siblings unavailable. (Note: There are now two tattoo artists. Yay.)
This is my only leave between now and August at the earliest. I've been procrastinating for going on three years since I made the decision that I actually wanted the tattoo. So I just said "fuck it" and pulled the trigger. Which yes, is a lot of factors completely unrelated to my tattoo design, artist, shop, etc. Probably foolish of me. But it WILL end with me actually having my tattoo, so there's that.
That would make sense. They were initially saying I would have to come in, talk to them, and make the deposit just to make the appointment. They let me do it all over the phone when I said I was coming in from Alaska.
I'm not sure if Bethesda counts as a military town, though. I mean, sure, the Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed are there, but it's always seemed more like "Pricey DC suburb #164/50 billion" to me.
To everyone else, thank you for the rationales. They do make me feel mildly better. I'm a cheap SOB, so I'm still kind of uneasy, but on the other hand... when someone is sticking needles in my skin to make permanent artistic alterations to my physical appearance, being cheap seems like an AWFUL idea.

I knooowwww, man. I think that's the closest I've ever seen to the perfect tattoo, no joke. Those are going to hold FOREVER, too.

Thou shalt tip your artist on a job well done!

Opaque grey is actually black mixed with white pigment, diluted black is just greywash.
greywash:

opaque grey:

I can't explain why this one had such an impact, but it really struck me. By Troy Trujillo

Old left knee and new right knee from Chad Koeplinger. If feels good to finally have this shit out of the way.

got this dietzel-birdie last week from the nice dude johann. https://instagram.com/sign_of_the_wolf/
healed - not settled.

pretty excited to have booked appointments for my GF and myself to have quite a bit of chair time with Freddy Corbin. This dude is such a standup guy. He answers my email, calls, etc... within hours. I have messaged many of the harder to schedule artist and have never heard from them in 2 years. Living in Portland, I am hoping to make one trip from Portland to Oakland, then going to my hometown and having Tim Hendricks due a piece all in the same weekend. But for now, Freddy is a lock.

I can't explain why this one had such an impact, but it really struck me. By Troy Trujillo

@ironchef WOW!!!!! Congratulations!! That is truly incredible, you must feel so accomplished and proud. What an endeavor! That is truly a bold, dynamic, impressive, powerful, and intricate work you have. Truly amazing. ?

Opaque grey is actually black mixed with white pigment, diluted black is just greywash.
greywash:

opaque grey:

Finished all of the linework today. 4 hours on the ass and ribs was super cool. u______u
But on the plus side it is the most gorgeous tattoo ever and I could not be more thrilled about having gone through with this. Also I met Ed Hardy today and I was pretty much naked except for a drape sheet and my socks so that was awesome haha :rolleyes:

@ironchef WOW!!!!! Congratulations!! That is truly incredible, you must feel so accomplished and proud. What an endeavor! That is truly a bold, dynamic, impressive, powerful, and intricate work you have. Truly amazing. ?

Well it's been a year since I've had my back worked on and per our usual fall schedule, Henning was in town and this time we FINISHED my back! Some of you might have seen the updates via Instagram. So happy with this collaboration between Henning and Rubendall being completed! WARNING, PIC HEAVY!!! Put your browser on FULL SCREEN!
The master himself, Henning Jorgensen. Such a great artist and humble man.

Filling in the phoenix...tail feathers, breast, head and a few touch ups here and there.

Such a pleasure watching Henning work. I was so stoked with the zebra/tiger striped pattern he chose for the remaining tail feathers.

Touch up on a tender spot...the spare tire.

Slowly getting there.

Details details details...

Close-up of the phoenix...beautiful!

Full view from my right side. There was poor lighting inside since it was dark out, so they propped me up on a table and surrounded me with lights.

A quick reminder of the work Mike Rubendall did on the lower half of this collaboration. LOVE his water!

Another angle of my lower half.

Here's the finished top half.

Finished full back in all it's glory. My back is a sea of colors! Hope everyone enjoyed my show and tell! (don't mind the feet on the left or right, hahaha)

Wrapped up my collaboration back piece with Henning Jorgensen and Mike Rubendall this past Tuesday. I posted up a ton of pics in the Full Back Piece thread. So happy to have it finished and amazed by the final product! Enjoy!

Some from the past year. I think I did them in this order too. Watercolors and black marker.
It's fun to look back and see what you keep doing over and over again, and what you would do different now.

I got the Gorilla Fudo Myo-o from Marc Nava last Friday at the Bay Area Convention. Definitely a nice addition to my squidpants.