Tesseracts

This is my dog Ginger, she's a labradoodle. First picture is her as a puppy, she's 5 now.
The grey dog is Bia, I dogsit her sometimes.

@bongsau You look very excited about introducing your opponent, those flowers, or all involved, to the velvety darkness of encroaching death. I'm pretty sure you have perfected the art of kung fu.

Squid stance and all the glory of being a foreigner busting out kung fu steez in front of the famous Beijing Shi Cha Hai Sports Institute (where Jet Li trained):

Art school.

Hello and welcome to LST!
Pfff.... Your English is great, and you know it! ;)
First off I would advise you to poke around this site for a while. Check out the gallery section, watch a couple interviews, work your way through a chunk of the http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/15-latest-tattoo-lowdown.html thread and get inspired! I'm sure you'll eventually find something that strikes you.
When you stumble across a tattoo that you like, then look up the person who did it. Chances are you'll like more of that person's work as well. Finding the right tattooer is just as important, if not more so, than picking the right design. If you tell us where you live I'm sure the community here will be more than happy to suggest some great tattooers in your area.
In my humble opinion there's also no need to force a meaning/story/"reflection of one's personality"-type deal into a tattoo design. A lot of first timers may feel a little anxious because of the permanence aspect of getting tattooed, and they think that linking it with some personal meaning will help take some of that pressure of (at least that was the case for me back in the day. Lots of thought went into the design, none in the execution).
If the idea works, then great, but if not there's no shame in getting a tattoo simply because you like tattoos. I suspect that a zipper design or a lightsaber might get old real fast, but who knows? Maybe if the right person did it, I'd have to swallow those words. I have definitely seen a lot of cool Star Wars tattoos over the years. This awesome Seth Wood piece suddenly sprung to mind:

But anyways, I really hope you post it up once you get it done. If I were you I'd keep that scar, and just surround it with good tattoos. This is of course unless it holds some kind of negative association for you.
And remember, the internet is great and all, but nothing can ever replace or equate to a good old-fashioned consultation :)
Good luck!
Is this where I'm supposed to write "or just get a crawling panther...."?

I admire your tenacity in researching this! I had no idea it could be so complex. Thank you for taking the time to post your findings.
Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

More on my sunscreen quest. I thought I was done, until I saw Consumer Reports 2013 Guide to Sunscreens. I couldn't understand why Consumer Reports and EWG ratings were so different for the same sunscreens, until I figured out how they rated relative ingredients for effectiveness. Most of this is based on effectiveness of UVA. If the UVA is good, the UVB protection is also good.
Note: EWG bases ratings purely on what's in the ingredients list and the stated SPF. Consumer Reports did a test with humans.
My findings smell of marketing and politics. (Although I think I smell much better.)
<tl;dr>: To get a good or top score, CR wants avobenzone (non-mineral based) and EWG wants zinc oxide (ZnO) and/or titanium dioxide (TiO2) (mineral based). Each seems to think the other is full of crap.
Consumer Reports:
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- rates every product with avobenzone with the highest UVA rating (5/5) if it's >3%. It's avobenzone or the highway.
- rates products with ONLY TiO2 as bad (1/5) for UVA. If TiO2 is ~11% or higher, it will bump the rating to 3/5. ZnO doesn't seem to be considered useful even >14%.
- If oxybenzone is included, it wants >3%
EWG:
------
- Wants ZnO > ~20% for top UVA rating. Has to be at least 13%, many sunscreens are only ~4%. Will give a top rating even if only ingredient is ZnO.
- any product that uses avobenzone as primary UVA blocker (with no ZnO or TiO2) gets no more than "moderate" for UVA protection.
- if using non-mineral ingredients, wants homosalate >10%, octinoxate>7.5%, octocylene >10% for UVA and I didn't see any with a rating better than moderate.
This doesn't take into account the EWG "Health Concern" rating. I only looked at the individual ratings for UVA.
Since Consumer Reports is by subscription, here are the ONLY ones they rate 4/5 or 5/5 for UVA protection. They are all non-mineral based.
- Coppertone WaterBabies SPF 50
- Equate (Walmart) Ultraprotection SPF 50
- Banana boat Utrla defense max skin protect SPF 110+
- Neutragena Ultimate sport SPF 70
[Edited: adding spray products]
The above from the Consumer Report list are all non-spray, since spray is already suspect due to coverage issues and some other stuff I can't remember. Below are the spray products with good or best CR ratings for UVA protection. Again, ALL are avobenzone-based rather than mineral based.
- Bullfrog water armor sports instacool SPF 50+
- Up and Up Target Sports SPF 50
- Well at Walgreens Sport SPF 50
- Coppertone Sport High Performance SPF 50
- CVS Sheer Mist SPF 30

These are really nice figures and everything, but I don't understand why artists have to talk like this.
???????????????Anyway... this reminds me of a Barbie that actually has really cool tattoos. Oh, no! Barbie has a life! - Alysha

These are really nice figures and everything, but I don't understand why artists have to talk like this.
???????????????Anyway... this reminds me of a Barbie that actually has really cool tattoos. Oh, no! Barbie has a life! - Alysha

These are really nice figures and everything, but I don't understand why artists have to talk like this.
???????????????Anyway... this reminds me of a Barbie that actually has really cool tattoos. Oh, no! Barbie has a life! - Alysha

Recent shot with the Flatmo sleeve completely healed! :D Visiting a friend who just got a bull terrier puppy!

i met this man at a friends 21st birthday, Tony"The Face"Cronin he is the former bodyguard of Chopper Reed a famous criminal we have here in Australia, despite his appearance and history he is a really nice dude, he was cool enough to let me look all over his head at the little details within his tattoos.

Great thread. love it! I´m going to add some stuff to the collection in October. Jeff Rassier is going to do a good-sized filler in crazy style on the calf, between the Horimasa and Garver tattoos. Chris O´Donnell a skull/snake on the other thigh, and Timothy Hoyer the other calf with ladie/demon/tiger hybrid (based on a painting he did last year).

I had a weird dream last night and don't know what thread to post it in, so here it goes. I scheduled an appointment with Valerie Vargas (IRL I've never met her, currently have no plans to get a tattoo from her, she doesn't work on my continent, and I don't think she has ever done the style or kind of tattoo I wanted in my dream) to get a tattoo of a pink flower. She was really late so another woman with impossibly tiny hands offered to do it instead. I agreed to it but she started painting on me with body paint. I told her I wanted a tattoo and she left.
1 out of 5 stars.

Sorry for my absence! Been so busy moving, traveling and getting tattooed! haha :cool:
Here's some healed pictures of my dragon-koi by Lehi, and monmon cat by Horitomo!
And a tiny lil memory-cat by Mary Joy at tattoo city! Had the best trip ever, even got to see Ed Hardy's studio!

Here you go guys! Sorry for the wait :P haha

Awesome thread. I never keep my progress photos, and for the first time asked myself why.
Anyway, the only one i do have. Some line work on my left upper leg. Ill get some other shots up later.

Found some shots of my blue dragon, lower left leg and outside left leg straight after having that lizard smashed into the arse cheek. (apologies for the arse cheek shot. Good thing it's tattooed).

This is my dog Ginger, she's a labradoodle. First picture is her as a puppy, she's 5 now.
The grey dog is Bia, I dogsit her sometimes.

This is my dog Ginger, she's a labradoodle. First picture is her as a puppy, she's 5 now.
The grey dog is Bia, I dogsit her sometimes.

The scab I was complaining about fell off yesterday, and there's no damage to the tattoo. Itchiness is 90% gone. The tattoo is 12 days old and it looks great, although I only have one other tattoo so I don't have much to compare it to quality wise, this one was definitely less of a hassle to heal because of Saniderm. I'll take more photos in a couple weeks when the onion skin is gone.

This is my dog Ginger, she's a labradoodle. First picture is her as a puppy, she's 5 now.
The grey dog is Bia, I dogsit her sometimes.

Just posted my twigs on Instagram this morning, but figured I'd repost 'em here too.

Many of them are hard to see / are on the other side of my legs, but of what's visible...
Right Leg:
- Foo Dog by Mike Rubendall
- Punk Rock Girl Head by Nick Oaks
- Pyramid by Eli Quinters
- Dragon Head (peeking out) by Steve Boltz
- Rose Girl Head (peeking out) by Kirk Sheppard
- Snake Head by Nick Oaks
- Wacky Ankle Tribal Band by Paul Samplonius
Left Leg:
- Hindu Demon Goddess by Freddy Corbin
- Devil Woman by Hillary Fisher White
- Skull Mosque by Chris Stiles
- Pyramid Palm Hand (peeking out) by Jason McAfee
- Wolf Head and Snake by Bailey Hunter Robinson
- Hammer by Nick Oaks
- Dr. Teeth by Cody Zeek
Not visible:
- Oni Head by Dave Cummings
- Dagger through Tiger Head by Jeff Rassier
- Mom Heart by Steve Boltz
- Higgs Druid by Nick Rodin
- Demon Head by Todd Noble
- Panther by Matt Arriola
- Wacky Husker Du Mandala by Keith Stewart
I think that's all of 'em for now, but I'm wearing pants so I can't double-check. :)

Jeez, you guys know phone cameras have timers right? Prop that thing up and set the timer.

The scab I was complaining about fell off yesterday, and there's no damage to the tattoo. Itchiness is 90% gone. The tattoo is 12 days old and it looks great, although I only have one other tattoo so I don't have much to compare it to quality wise, this one was definitely less of a hassle to heal because of Saniderm. I'll take more photos in a couple weeks when the onion skin is gone.