AverageJer

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

artist: Jess Yen JESS
shop: MY TATTOO
a friend notified me two weeks before and told me that Jess Yen had a last minute opening,so I ended up getting an 8 hour one shot piece from Jess on 08/16/13 !
here is the original art he drew for me & my body size & weight ,he signed it and dated it for me.

and here is the stencil which he also gave me,

here it is the day after,he used saniderm on it,

here are the healed pics

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I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I saw this on Mario's instagram the other day. Very nice indeed. Such a great shop.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

I just got home from an weekend in Chicago where my wife and I both picked up some pretty cool souvenirs at Great Lakes Tattoo. Beautiful shop. Mine was done by Mario Desa. Here's a picture taken minutes after it was done.

This is from Henning Jorgensen.
done at Royal Tattoo.
enjoy!

That's cool.....I just wondered if for some people they saw 1985 as some pivotal time in tattooing or something and my first professional tattoo was done in 1984 by Juli Moon.....
- - - Updated - - -
I don't really know why or what got into my head one evening BUT.....I just decided that I wanted to seek out some of the people who had been tattooing 30-40 years and begin to add their work to my body! At the time I was not even thinking I would ever pick up a machine and tattoo but to me it truly was my way of being able to honor those people who had put their time in to the craft and community I loved since I did not tattoo!
It really hit home to me that this is what I felt I should do once I was tattooed by Dennis Watkins....the hubby of my now mentor Gale Watkins! Dennis apparently was dying at the time unknown to anyone but himself and had really stopped tattooing totally. I asked a friend to see if he could convince him to do something small on me....and he agreed to do something!
That one tattoo turned into three.....Myself...my hubby....and my son have his last three tattoos!
After his death I asked a few well known tattoo artists who I was fortunate to be friends with who were others who had this kind of time in and got back a wonderful list I have been chipping away at for some time now!
I try not to really draw a lot of attention to myself because I am really no one special.....I have just taken the time to have been tattooed by a lot of really wonderful people who love/loved what they do.....
I really would urge others to do this as well if you are just going for smaller pieces here and there on your body rather than larger mural style pieces!

Interesting thread.
I'm not really a ritual guy but I do have some preferences. Ideally I would get a good nights sleep and have time to get to the gym for a workout a few hours before the appointment. After this I like to eat a good meal- not to big but enough to tide me over. I also like to take a shower right before I leave home if possible. Then it's all about relaxation and distress tolerance skills. Like others have mentioned- focused breathing during the tattoo is important. It works at the dentist too.
Afterwards I will be pretty pumped up so I like to party. We have had friends over a few times on tattoo day and that works well (especially when my wife and I both get tattoos on the same day- which is very fun). Beer will be involved. It's a day I have been looking forward to so I like to make it fun all around.
My wife and I have appointments at Great Lakes Tattoo in Chicago next week while on vacation so it will be difficult to adhere to a specific routine. We plan to be pretty chill the night before but I'm guessing we will have a lot of fun afterwards. Obviously I am looking forward to it.

This?

Interesting thread.
I'm not really a ritual guy but I do have some preferences. Ideally I would get a good nights sleep and have time to get to the gym for a workout a few hours before the appointment. After this I like to eat a good meal- not to big but enough to tide me over. I also like to take a shower right before I leave home if possible. Then it's all about relaxation and distress tolerance skills. Like others have mentioned- focused breathing during the tattoo is important. It works at the dentist too.
Afterwards I will be pretty pumped up so I like to party. We have had friends over a few times on tattoo day and that works well (especially when my wife and I both get tattoos on the same day- which is very fun). Beer will be involved. It's a day I have been looking forward to so I like to make it fun all around.
My wife and I have appointments at Great Lakes Tattoo in Chicago next week while on vacation so it will be difficult to adhere to a specific routine. We plan to be pretty chill the night before but I'm guessing we will have a lot of fun afterwards. Obviously I am looking forward to it.

Dude, sentences and punctuation please.

Would like a mixture of these
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