BrookR70

My three-year old daughter loves my tattoos, especially my sweet and sour babies. She likes wearing temporary tattoos. I sleeved her up one time and we had a blast. A very small part of me getting tattoos is to teach her not to judge people by their appearance. My father was heavily tattooed (WWII vet) and my mom would sometimes express her disapproval of them. My wife is the same way so I sort of see myself as balancing out those prejudices.

If she expresses interest when she gets older, I will be there to help guide her. I will not encourage her nor discourage her from getting them but at least try to teach her about some of the potential consequences of getting them.

I don't think I would bring her into a shop out of respect for the artists. She would have to be much older before I brought her in.

I'm not looking forward to my ribs or my lower back. My ship tattoo encroached on that area and I felt like I was being tasered. No amount of "ohms" (see what I did there?) helped.

had a 6 hour session on my left ribs last night - i'll get up a pic once its healed up

the pain was mind blowing - exhausting session both physically and mentally

even today i was still wiped

much credito to you guys banging out 8 and 9 hour sessions getting full backs, etc

anyway...

Please forgive the terrible pic. Still one more small session to go. By Papa Joe.

This is Sophie, my wife's Persian. She likes to yowl at 3:00 am. I like her the rest of the day, but I hate her at 3:00 am.

Next week I'm scheduled to get my lighthouse/ship finished. This will be the 4th session.

I'm really itching to get tattooed by different artists and have already planned out my next 4 tattoos.

I already have a parrot tattoo. I want another one by a different artist. I don't want to be teased mercilessly by the kids at school. They'll call me parrot boy.

I recently saw an image of a guy on Instagram that had his chest done with nothing but swallows...all the same size and style. They were just flying around his chest. Skulls I can understand because they are just bad ass.

Do you guys get certain tattoos just because they look good and you don't care what they are, or do you purposely mix it up?

I once pointed out a flaw in one of my tattoos. The artist seemed cool at the time, but during the next session he tattooed a 4 foot penis on my back...that sonofabitch. Now every time I go back to that artist, I just keep my mouth shut.

...I embellished a few small details, but you get the gist.

My artist charges a small amount for custom work. Small changes are no big deal, but if the whole tattoo is changed, then he charges again.

You could offer $20-$50 as compensation for their time (if they've started it). Seems fair to me.

I dreamed that I had 4 facial tattoos. A small nautical star, a straight razor, a purple teddy bear that ran down my neck, and a circle. I kept thinking how could I do that to myself. I was trying to accept them, but couldn't. I was really bummed.

I immediately thought about a couple of small roses, but I really like the rays idea as long as they are lightly shaded. Or maybe one larger rose placed behind it.

I'm still relatively new at getting tattooed, but I've visited most of the shops in my area and this is what I've noticed. People walk in and all they want to do is ask an artist if they can tattoo XXX custom piece and ask how much it will cost. They never bother to look at the artwork on the wall or even pick up a portfolio.

The guy I've been getting tattooed by runs a street stop. He paints his own sheets and has them hanging wall to wall in his shop. He says that at his shop, about 50% of his clients want custom pieces and 50% of his clients will take something off the flash wall. At the other shops, it's probably more like 75% custom/25% flash. One shop that I visited had hardly any flash and the guy told me he does all custom work. He handed me a bunch of loose outlines to look at. It's like their customers have one design in mind and don't care about anything else.

I was checking out flash at a place that does mostly traditional pieces, and a guy came in and rushed right past the flash and portfolios and asked the artist behind the desk if he could do a skin rip, bio mech, circuit board of a guitar amp and then asked how much it would cost. The artist told him it was too much for a single tattoo, so he rushed out to find a shop that would do it.

Very cool. I don't think I've ever seen wings done quite like that, but I like it.

I still can't get over the fact all that only took 6 hours.

That is a super nice fish. I especially love the detail in the fins and face.

The more you fight the needle, the more it will hurt. Call me a wuss, but I take one Advil before the session and whenever I need it. It helps me relax a bit. Also, I pretend like I'm trying to sleep. I've never fallen asleep, but I was nice and relaxed. On Saturday I was in the shop for 8.5 hours (7.5 hours tattooing time). I took 3 Advil total.

Another 7.5 hour session done yesterday. Papa Joe went over a few areas of the outline (darkened up some areas of black). Interesting color palette...one I wasn't quite expecting. I trust him, though. I think I have another 3-4 hours left on this one.

It only took me several sessions, but I finally learned how to really sit well. I was sitting on table with my arms hunched over a padded bar and my legs hanging over the side of the table. I basically had to relax as much as possible and focus on not tensing up my back. Just "accept" the needle and try not clinch my back up. I could have gone longer, but it was getting harder and harder to find my happy place, especially after breaks.

Sorry for the bad pic. I had just gotten out of the shower and applied some Lubriderm.

Time travel.

I thought you might like that one @pidjones. While I didn't make a career out of it like you did, I was in the Navy and was drawn to the symbolism when I started getting tattooed 2 years ago. At some point, I'm going to get this to commemorate my time:

Getting this one colored in this Saturday after 4 months of waiting. I'm already planning my next piece and will probably travel out of state for it.

Every workplace has its own dress code and guidelines. Looking at the big picture, it may be wise to hold off on getting heavily tattooed until you establish yourself in your career. Chances are, you will work for many different companies until you find yourself. Are you willing to wear long-sleeved shirts for the entire time you are at X company? Will you be dealing with external clients that may (right or wrong) pass judgment on your company because of the tattoos you have?

I've been looking for an image to go on my center upper back. I've been scouring images of snakes vs. tigers for a few days, but I keep coming back to this one. I've seen some amazing tigers done by some amazing artists. For some reason, I keep coming back to this one. It's cartoonish. The nose is funny looking. It's not particularly detailed.

But what I like about it is that it's bold, simple, and has a very 70s feel to it...like my other tattoos. It was done by Papa Joe in Boise.

What say you?

I sat for 5 hours getting the outline done on my mid/lower back. Went home, hardly slept, and then went in the next day for another 6 hours.

At some point during the lining session, I learned that the left side of my back is way more sensitive than my right side. It felt like an electric knife going through my back. I had no troubles with my right side.

About halfway through my second session, I started complaining. My tattooer told me that there are some people out there that are dying/dead and never say a word about the pain. I told him he was right, so I shut the fuck up and got through it. I was wincing the whole time, though. My back muscles were really swollen and throbbing, and two days later, I'm still really sore.

I have another session or two of shading before I'm done, but it won't be for another month or two. I wish I could have just sat for the 11 hours without taking a break. It was much worse going in on the second day as a sleepless zombie.

It's my mid/lower back. Papa Joe Dawson is the tattooer.

@BrookR70 - I can't tell what part of the body that's on.

Or who is doing it . . .

Here's a tattoo that's still in progress. So far, I've had two sessions (11 hours) in two days.

Tattoo flash is sold by artists to other artists all of the time. It sounds like Kristen is trying to sell her work to clients directly.