Fala

this reminds me of the funniest things i remember Garver saying on Miami Ink (i apologize for being a tattoo TV watcher). anyways, he was tattooing a tiger with cherry blossoms on some 18yr old kid and the kid's mom was there the whole time. as he was coloring it, he said he added the surprise of an all pink cherry blossom for the kid's mom. the mom thought it was cute and they were all laughing it off and Garver slips in, "what's wrong with pink?! some of my favorite things in the world are pink." The mom and kid didn't catch it and Garver just had a sly smile.
OK.. back to the topic. i was kinda interested to know when koi swim upstream, so i asked lord google and this was the first link: http://jamesthen.com/the-rules-of-the-japanese-tattoo/ there's a lot of information out there online, but as @Cork mentioned, the right tattoo artist will know these answers.
One of the right tattooers just so happens to write books. This is a good start for $20... Bushido: Legacies of Japanese Tattoos: Takahiro Kitamura, Katie M. Kitamura: 9780764312014: Amazon.com: Books
when i got my dragon koi from Jill Bonny, she let me know that it is actually a Chinese legend, not Japanese. makes sense, since the legend takes place in the Yellow River in China. mine has maple leaves.
you can try to find pics of body suit pics from reputable traditional japanese tattooers and see what kind of themes they stick with and what kind of themes they mix.
but again... find the right artist and trust 'em.

The best tattoos are the ones that are tough and pretty. You got one of the best ones.

piss poor excuse for a picture of the actual tattoo, I'll get you guys a better one when it's healed and not completely crusty.

Freddy Corbin, Temple Tattoo Oakland

Luckily this has only happened to me on a relatively small tattoo. There is actually an action shot of it posted here already.
I had little choice but to grit my teeth and bear it. I took any short pause in tattooing to move my arm a bit and relieve the pressure. In the end though, the pain/discomfort in my elbow really did mask a lot of the pain in what is a pretty sensitive area to get tattooed (inner arm). And it makes for a good story to go with an excellent tattoo.

I do, too. It's a nicely executed black and gray rose--one of the most iconic tattoos around. And I think that your complexion is perfect for it.

Hello Everyone,
My Name is Marc Taylor, I am the owner/operator of Gold Mine Tattoo in historic Jamestown Ca. looking forward to all the good to come put of this board

#Eevee - good luck with your decision. I certainly understand. The tattoo I got last month was the same deal - waited over a year and was told from the outset that what he designs is what I get. That made me pretty nervous, but I like his art and I shared a LOT about what I was looking for, and then I just took the leap of faith. I didn't know what to expect and what he came up with is probably not what I would have drawn. But I am not an artist, and what he did was amazing. I'm pretty type a on some things, so it was a big leap for me to relinquish this control. But I liked putting that control on someone else because I wanted HIS interpretation. I suppose if I hated it then we would have to have a conversation, but luckily that did not happen. It's also on my thigh, so it is easy to cover. That probably made it a lot easier, too. Fox - that is cool. I like foxes. Sometimes they run in the backyard but screech like banshees when the boys start territory battles.

Session 6 done, just the shark mouth, some more detail in the shark itself and dropping lower down my ass to go...hopefully be wrapped up in one more session.
Photos not as flash this time sorry folks...

Second session with Kelly:

@cltattooing - I've been making a conscious effort to not get tattooed around the time Aunt Flo is due in town to avoid a more painful session, mostly because I get tattooed so rarely that I want to enjoy the experience as much as possible. I'm glad I've been able to avoid it until this past time. Aiyeeeeee, I can't imagine what having my back done at that time would be like.

I also got tattooed whilst in the middle of a visit from Aunt Flo like.. a month ago, and it was a backpiece session, and yeah. It sucked. u____u
Dunno how I went so long with that never happening before though -shrug-

@SeeSea - I almost fell asleep getting tattooed by Horizakura a couple years ago. I liked the sound of it, and the quietness. It's made me rethink how I want to continue getting tattooed: more tebori!!!

Yeah @beez, real shitty! I even got a cold this time around, I never get sick (or even the tattoo flu) when I get tattooed! Totally sucked...

Welcome Chuck. I gotta say that looking at some of the supposed examples of preserved skin on the savemyink.com website that they don't look like any tattoos I've ever seen but they do look an awful lot like coloured pencil on paper. I'm thinking especially of that "new school" flower. What do you say to a skeptic?

So I went for my appointment with Tomas Tomas today.
Trying some different styles :)
Had me toes done lol, wasnt a lot we could do really with just toes but I think once it settles down and its the same colour as the snake, should fit in great.
He showed me a vid and said this pattern is from some tribe from the Amazon. Now all I need is some animal skin leather pants ;p
Hes a fucking awesome crack :)

At last, a picture with color. The lines are healed and the color is fresh. After it's all healed I'd like to take a photo in better light. This was done by the amazing Gilda Acosta at Fatty's Tattoos in Washington DC, working from photographs of the actual flowers. They are botanically correct!

Thinking of adding a bird to the other shoulder blade next. Or continuing the flowers across my arm. Or both...

Session two with Dave C. Got a lot done in about 2 1/2 hours. I was nervous going into this sitting as we had just done the outline last week. I was a little worried my psych wouldn't be there, but in the end it went pretty well. Glad not to have more ribs after this though.

meh ok here is a pic :)
from the amazing Steve Boltz
totally good time talking mostly golf
turns out Steve is an avid golfer and pretty good
I'm neither but I love stogies and beer with friends
and lets face it - thats more important than a decent backswing ;)
anyway - funky fish on my bicep...

That shit is REAL.

I know a few ladies posted about getting tattooed before/around having their period and I have to say that it DOES make a difference! If you can, I recommend NOT getting tattooed the day before your period is due... Will be a much more pleasant experience if you are mid-cycle.

I bring a neck pillow with me, otherwise I'll be very uncomfortable in the chair. Some shops have pillows around and I've used them at times to get more comfy. I wear sweat pants and take my shoes off too.

Gakkin and Guy Le Tatooer...the heavy black bodysuits are blowing my mind. Especially the recent one that Guy Le Tattooer is working on that French gal, with the dots, ornaments and big peonies. The layering is crazy, the results are beautiful.

I have never seen a thread for this anywhere on the forums, but sometimes I see a tattoo somewhere and it makes me go OH MY GOD THAT IS SO AMAZING and I want to share it with you guys, but since it isn't mine, I can't put it in the Lowdown thread. So, I thought I would make a thread for posting pictures of killer tattoos that don't belong to us, just to share them and 'oooooh, ahhhhh' over them.
...As I type this I'm realizing that probably 6 out of 10 rad tattoos I see on instagram turn out to belong to somebody here, so maybe this is redundant, but oh well! If it dies, it dies. :)
And I'm going to contribute something, because my regular tattooer just did a thing that made my eyeballs pop out of my head, and inspired me to make the thread in the first place, because I needed people to squee about it with.
Picture on greggletron's instagram
and, video: And here's a video.

BUMP.
Re-reading this thread and then reading several recent threads made me realize that the level of discourse has fallen around here. I didn't start this site, but I've been here since the beginning, and everything that @SacramentoDan said in this thread's first post is what I loved/still love about it. If you wanna find strangers being rude to each other on the Internet, go to literally any other forum. LST is different, and as a moderator, I'll ask that you respect and help to maintain that difference. I've met several of you in real life and have really enjoyed getting to know you a little better. Some of you are now real world friends (imagine that). If one of us had made a shitty comment to the other online, we'd both be less inclined to want to meet in the first place.
If there's a poster you don't like, put them on ignore. Have a snide comment typed out that is guaranteed to lower the level of discourse/add nothing? Feel free to delete it. If someone's really out of line, trust that the other mods and I will gladly swing the banhammer.
Thanks.

@SeeSea - I almost fell asleep getting tattooed by Horizakura a couple years ago. I liked the sound of it, and the quietness. It's made me rethink how I want to continue getting tattooed: more tebori!!!