AverageJer

okay sorry.. maybe i'll have something new in a couple of months..
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Okay here is one of my older tattoos. Not finished..
By Phil Szlosek at Kingsave NYC

Awesome! It is an honour to win against so many tattoos that I would love to have myself and given what people have lined up in September, I can't wait to see what next month's competition brings!

Looks like @Graeme came out on top in the August contest! Such a tight race between him and @Wilhell all the way to the end. Can't wait to see what this month brings!! Congrats @Graeme!! Your arm is fucking AMAZING!!!!

Something a bit different to the tattoos you usually see on here. I know you guys love the Traditional stuff, but I like too many different styles to stick to just one :)

Tattoo by Remis Cizauskas who works out of Dublin Ireland, but is currently "On The Road" guest spotting and attending conventions worldwide.

I got my first tattoo at age 38 and I'm kind of glad I waited. I'm not saying it's a mistake to get them younger- just that it has been fun for me the way things have turned out. I have about 10 depending on how you count them and I still have plenty of room for more.

If it had it to do all over again I would take time to enjoy the experience of being tattooed more. When I started years ago everything seemed rushed. I would get a tattoo and that would be that. Now I really like the process; anticipating the appointment, the social aspect of being in the shop, seeing the progress over several sittings. I definitely appreciate the overall tattoo experience more now than I did in years past.
But I would still have all the same tattoos.

As a kid I always had low self esteem and no self confidence.
That has carried over into adult hood and it's a constant battle with myself.
When I started getting tattoo's I always kept them hidden. For the first 8 years of my tattooed existence I could cover them all up by wearing a tank top.
No one knew I really had any and always assumed I was the type of person who wouldn't have them. I often enjoyed letting them in on my little secret and watching their face change shapes.
I had always wanted a full arm of tattoos but never could decide on something. I knew it had to have some sort of meaning and it had to encompass who I was. It was going to be my first full view piece. I was so scared of what people would think. What they would say. Would I be treated differently? How would I like myself with a large tattoo showing. Up until this point my tattoos were all hidden from the world.
It was a HUGE deal for me.
I kept envisioning this work of artwork on my arm and wishing for the day I could look in the mirror and gaze at it.
I kept wishing for the courage to say "F you" to the world and just do what I wanted to do with my own body and not care.
I have spent my whole life worrying and caring what other people thought about me. Letting their negativity shape the way I felt about myself.
I came across a Jeff Gouge piece and instantly knew.... that was my reference piece. I finally found the look and feel I was going for.
So I contacted my artist and we started tossing ideas around.
I was sooo scared to take the plunge. October 13th 2012 I sat down in the chair and we chatted and drew out the whole image on my tiny arm. I looked at all the marker lines and smiled. I gave the go ahead and the line work started. I remember that feeling of the first line on my forearm. There was no going back. I was ecstatic.
I remember looking in the mirror after the first line session. I remember thinking that it didn't look right on me. I didn't think I looked like it belonged.
10 months later and we have mostly completed 3/4 of it. We still need to do my inner bicep area and I have decided to continue down to my wrist (we stopped 3/4 originally).
I now look in the mirror and see it as part of who makes me, ME.
I take pride in my artwork and who it has helped me become. I am now much more confident with who I am.
I am not concerned with other peoples thoughts anymore. I did something for me, and me only. I am proud of who I am becoming and how this tattoo has helped it happen.

If only these people would spend as much time LEARNING about their religion as they do TALKING about their religion.

Time for a bunch of pinups buddy!

A coworker once asked me: "aren't you afraid of what will happen in hell?" I asked for some clarification on this and he said " I was taught that what you have tattooed on you will be what you're tortured by in hell".
At the time I had only an anchor and a flaming lantern, which I guess you could come up with some pretty inventive torture ideas with. I know some Christians are quite against tattoos, but that's some superstitious craziness right there (and I'm a christian!).

my wife and I talk about this a lot and more and more I am finding that whatever plan or rule I come up with get's quickly broken as I think of new ideas for both content and placement. I do have some larger spaces (such as my whole left arm) that I am purposely saving in case I ever end up with a really good tattoo opportunity.

What the heck.
I know many of you have already seen this. Anyway, it's almost healed and was done by Papa Joe Dawson.

My grandmother and I were chatting yesterday. She's 90 years old and is one of the most important people in the world to me. Well, we were talking about life, work, and how my apprenticeship is going. She looks at me and asks "Would you tattoo me? Right here, a big butterfly, and you can use this mole as the head of the butterfly."
I'm still grinning over that.

I wish all the bastards scratching up my 14-16 year old students asked themselves this question. I know it's a totally different issue than you raise here, but I'm so glad your ethics are in the right place.

I think the "meaning" issue is a real barrier for people when it comes to getting tattoos. At least it was for me. Before I had any tattoos I kind of didn't bother because I didn't know what I would get that would have enough meaning to have it written into my skin. My first tattoo was about my family a couple of years after the birth of my daughter. With my next few tattoos I was still kind of over thinking it and coming up with wild stories to tell myself about why what I wanted was a good idea. Now that I am more comfortable with tattoos in general (I've realized that nothing horrible has happened) I am more able to find enough meaning in just thinking it's cool.

Interesting question. I'm not sure what the legal and ethical ramifications for a tattoo artist are and good for you for having a line. Still, as a person who works with youth who have a variety of mental health and developmental disabilities I do think they deserve as normalized of an experience as possible. My instinct is that if the request was for something tasteful in terms of content and body placement it would be fine to go forward with it. I'll be curious to see what others say about this.

This is not something that has explicitly been said but I get a strong sense that my family thinks my wife's tattoos are cool because she is an artist but my tattoos are dumb because I'm just a regular guy who suddenly started getting tattooed at age 38.

Interesting question. I'm not sure what the legal and ethical ramifications for a tattoo artist are and good for you for having a line. Still, as a person who works with youth who have a variety of mental health and developmental disabilities I do think they deserve as normalized of an experience as possible. My instinct is that if the request was for something tasteful in terms of content and body placement it would be fine to go forward with it. I'll be curious to see what others say about this.

Interesting question. I'm not sure what the legal and ethical ramifications for a tattoo artist are and good for you for having a line. Still, as a person who works with youth who have a variety of mental health and developmental disabilities I do think they deserve as normalized of an experience as possible. My instinct is that if the request was for something tasteful in terms of content and body placement it would be fine to go forward with it. I'll be curious to see what others say about this.

I don't have a problem with tattoos meaning things, I just hate the way how most people who want "meaningful" tattoos can only think of meaning in the most heavy-handed and literal way. For example, I have a swallow that I got on my birthday a couple of years ago because I was feeling pretty bummed because it was my birthday and I was feeling sorry for myself about aging or whatever. My wife got the same flash from a different artist a couple of weeks later around her birthday. When I think about that tattoo I remember having a super fun time getting it, I remember how my wife got hers done on a miserable snowy day and how we went out for poutine afterwards, etc., and the same goes for all my tattoos (albeit I don't have a lot of tattoos and I haven't been getting them for so long so maybe the details and memories of getting those tattoos is going to become less distinct over time). So those tattoos have a huge amount of meaning and significance for us, exactly none of which has to do with swallows.

This is not something that has explicitly been said but I get a strong sense that my family thinks my wife's tattoos are cool because she is an artist but my tattoos are dumb because I'm just a regular guy who suddenly started getting tattooed at age 38.

I think the "meaning" issue is a real barrier for people when it comes to getting tattoos. At least it was for me. Before I had any tattoos I kind of didn't bother because I didn't know what I would get that would have enough meaning to have it written into my skin. My first tattoo was about my family a couple of years after the birth of my daughter. With my next few tattoos I was still kind of over thinking it and coming up with wild stories to tell myself about why what I wanted was a good idea. Now that I am more comfortable with tattoos in general (I've realized that nothing horrible has happened) I am more able to find enough meaning in just thinking it's cool.

I agree. Eagles, wolves and badass roses need to explanation other than "Because its cool".

I think the "meaning" issue is a real barrier for people when it comes to getting tattoos. At least it was for me. Before I had any tattoos I kind of didn't bother because I didn't know what I would get that would have enough meaning to have it written into my skin. My first tattoo was about my family a couple of years after the birth of my daughter. With my next few tattoos I was still kind of over thinking it and coming up with wild stories to tell myself about why what I wanted was a good idea. Now that I am more comfortable with tattoos in general (I've realized that nothing horrible has happened) I am more able to find enough meaning in just thinking it's cool.

This is not something that has explicitly been said but I get a strong sense that my family thinks my wife's tattoos are cool because she is an artist but my tattoos are dumb because I'm just a regular guy who suddenly started getting tattooed at age 38.