spookysproul

When I first went home after moving out, I was nervous about showing my mom my first visible tattoo (my first tattoo was inside my lip) - a zombie pin-up girl on my forearm (by Kahlil Rintye of Tattoo City, then of Mom's Body Shop). I decided on wearing short sleeves and to not bring it up and hope she wouldn't smack me silly.
She just looked at it and said "Well, at least you can't see her nipples."

Are the tattoos in the game as bad as in real life? I don't know what it is, but professional athletes seem to get exclusively tattooed by the worst tattooers available.

I definitely wish I hadn't gotten tattooed as rapidly as I did for a period of about three years. I had a good relationship with a few good artists and that made it hard to stay away, but I really wish I'd fleshed a few of these ideas out a bit more before committing to them; there's a few good tattoos that had the potential to be REALLY good.
I'm about 60% to 70% covered, which seemed really cool a couple years ago but I wish I'd been a bit pickier.

When I first went home after moving out, I was nervous about showing my mom my first visible tattoo (my first tattoo was inside my lip) - a zombie pin-up girl on my forearm (by Kahlil Rintye of Tattoo City, then of Mom's Body Shop). I decided on wearing short sleeves and to not bring it up and hope she wouldn't smack me silly.
She just looked at it and said "Well, at least you can't see her nipples."

I do enjoy ass, but have I been missing out on payment opportunities?

Legitimately 16 hours? Kudos to you, if so. How awful do you feel at the end of that?

I'm around 20% myself. If the tattoo goes 2 sessions, I'll tip $50 per session. I bring them garden stuff in the summer and I always pick up cookies when I show up. Of course anyone that wants to go out after for anything, its on me.
Rob

Cash is the best tip.

Thanks Amok :)
Yeah I had my first tattoo beginning of 2012.
To the OP, as above bigger is better in my opinion. Go as fast as you want but make sure you get great artists and designs you will love forever. I will probably be 80% covered by end of next year and I will save my other sleeve for awhile as I really want to see whats about in a few years :)
Nothing more annoying than running out of room, so I would say don't go as mad as I did as you will learn stuff as you go which will help you decide your next tattoos, plus you will have many years to fill your body if you plan :)
I think I went fast because of my age (41) :)
Good luck mate :)

I was Living with My Dad at the time and announced I was going to get a tattoo. He just scoffed and said " If you get one, I'll get one". I said rightio and when I came home he cockily asked if I went through with it- I proudly showed it off.... to this day he still hasn't got a tattoo ;)
Nothing has ever been said directly to me about tattoos but there have been passing comments along the lines of not approving too many tattoos etc. but it hasn't and wont stop me :) I just let them (Dad and step Mum) discover new ink . Mum doesn't care.

I must say now I am in a financial position to get more tattoos I am making full advantage of it, the thought being that in say 5 years I won't have as much money to spend on tattoos, hence why I am starting my backpiece in 26 days (not that I'm counting. haha) All my tattoos are traditional so I guess it makes it easier just to go get a one shot when I can afford it after that, that's the plan for the rest of my left arm!
I have a list of people I want to get tattooed by, I really like the old way of thinking, or not thinking should I say, and going and getting a tattoo without an idea of what I want when the opportunity arises. That's how I've inadvertently started my left arm in the last month. I see something, I like it, I get it. (be impulsive!) Maybe its easier with traditional? But for sure some of my favourite tattoos were impulsive decisions (well, when you walk in to a shop and Valerie Vargas has a cancellation, its a good idea to take it!)
I must say that in the last two years I've really made headway with my arms, I had always imagined myself with sleeves from when first started being interested in tattoos all those years ago, I'm now finding myself considering my chest/stomach/legs something I had never considered before. Even up until a year ago I had never considered my back, now its happening!
Once my back and chest are done, i'll slow down and end up getting covered piece by piece.

Some shops actually do this. At Idle Hand in SF, they have a "Get What You Get" day. You pay $60 and get a little plastic bubble from a gumball machine. Inside, there's a flash design. And you get what you get.

I wish this style didn't have a name. As soon as a style is given a name, it seems to give others the impression they can do it too.
The reason I don't do this stuff is because I like Hooper, Jondix and Albrigo as people and friends.
They each seem to take direct influence from each other while still retaining some individuality and nuances of design and layout that make it possible to identify which one of them did it. The same goes for Binnie, Xed, Tomas Tomas, Mike from Athens and Curly. I love the work of each of those guys.
I can't say the same for anyone else doing these styles. It seems to be a "Me too" attitude. They let the first few guys take all the risks and learn what works and find select clients who want to trust in something new. Then they make technically clean but hollow facsimile of something that was interesting.
Maybe thats a bit strong coming from someone who doesn't have a style of his own, but I try to work in existing, classic tattoo styles and sometimes have a little fun with them. The reason I don't do this pattern/skull/mandala/pointilist stuff is the same reason I don't do Biomech, Pacheco painterly colour or straight-up cholo tattoos: They are styles that were developed by people with a specific set of interests and inspirations that managed to filter them into a style of design and execution. Also those pioneers are still alive and working.
Maybe I've opened a nasty can of worms... How soon is 'too soon' so imitate an iconic style? Do we have to wait for the pioneers to die before crotchety fucks stop complaining? To be honest, I'm not interested in the answer. I just notice that every week the internet spits out a new guy who sticks a skull over or under a doily and it's held in the same regard as work by Mike, Jondix and Hooper.
The same as we distinguish between Aaron Cain or Guy Aitchison Biomech, we shouldn't try to coin new phrases and just refer to Thomas Hooper, Jondix or Tomas Tomas Blackwork, dotwork or whatever.
Use the name of the guys that made it what it is. We at least owe them that if we're gonna encourage other people to try it and get it tattooed from the rest of the pack.
note: I'm certainly not anti-new styles and I'd like to say that I'm eagerly awaiting the second generation of artists influenced by these guys who take it somewhere new, now that there's a body of work by a group of artists. That could be exciting!

After going big, I go home; I prefer to shower there.

i don't think there is any such thing as getting too big of a piece as your first piece, but i would consider that you may want some of that space further down the line if you discover other artists you like. that's the advantage of having a bunch of smaller pieces in certain areas (or all over if you fancy) as you gradually gain more work, but have more opportunities to have different people tattoo you and different ideas that develop over time.
then again, what do i know? i got my chest done as my first tattoo so sometimes, you just gotta say "fuck it."

I feel like it's a lot of witchy witchy stuff. I don't know. I love seeing these though.
This is my Mucha's The Moon done by Kyle Proia.

I just realized that most of the color in her face and hair has disappeared over the years. That's a bummer. But her starry garment is still lovely.

Done by Charlie Cung in San Diego.
Instagram

Here's mine tattooed by Jondix last year.
Painful is an understatement. I broke out into a sweat the moment the needle first came into contact with my palm.
Jondix is such a nice guy though and has a really calming persona.
The healing and aftercare is a bit different as well. I was told it was important to keep the fresh tattoo well moisturised, to stop it cracking. As it heals the dead skin, which is quite thick starts to peel and you've got to be careful not to catch the edges.
Planning to get the other done in the new year.

Why? Because in tattooing the customer usually isn't right. Because tattooing isn't the sort of democratic activity where you have an equal say to somebody who has spent years or decades constantly working at his or her craft because you read something on the internet.

I took the original post to mean more like the tattoos Mike Adams is doing (I am sure I've seen other people doing stippled Americana tattoos too, but Mike Adams is the first person to come to mind) than Hooper, Jondix, etc tattoos. I think those Mike Adams tattoos look cool, but I do feel that it's something that people are going to play around with a bit but that probably won't stick around for all that long. Time will tell. When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter either way. Get the tattoos you want to get.
I also think that part of the problem with all the information about tattoos being available on the internet is that there's just too much out there and not enough good sense about it. It's absurd that somebody with no tattoos could go into a tattoo shop and ask for a tattoo to be applied with a specific technique. Find a good tattooer and trust him or her to know what is best for the execution of the tattoo.

You can't learn to swim by reading a book.
To expand on that again, tattooing is best experienced first-hand. Many times, here on this forum, in the shop I work at and conventions etc, someone has mentioned that they wish there was a book that had all the information they were looking for about a particular subject at that moment. It usually doesn't exist. You have to find it yourself.
With regards to tattooing and "tattoo culture" We're living in a folk art culture. We should embrace the folk art tradition of oral storytelling and first hand knowledge and be relieved that we not (yet) shackled by the literary bounds of other art movements, cultures and historical societies.
But to be more on topic, in a general sort of way...
I'd stick my neck out and say that any style of tattooing (until maybe around 2000-2010) is influenced by the popular culture surrounding the people who get those styles. Sailor Jerry cribbed movie posters and other advertisements for many of his designs between the 40's - 70s. Mike Malone used objects and paintings he found in Chinatown as reference for many of his popular designs. It stands to reason that Charlie Wagner would have used Edwardian style filigree ornamentation (from a variety of sources, jewellery included) in his designs.
The dotwork thing is slightly separate. During the first decade of the 21st century tattooing entered a more post-modern, referential phase where most styles of tattooing referenced or were influenced by earlier styles of tattooing. Except dotwork. I consider the work of Thomas Hooper, Xed Le Head, Jondix (I'd extend that to Duncan X) to be the only "new" style of tattooing since biomech in the 90's - but that didn't seem to catch on outside of tattoo culture the way their work did.
That's why I still bother to get involved when someone refers to dotwork as a "fad".
While it is imitated ad nauseam, we've alive to witness the birth of a new tattoo style that was influenced by disparate artforms outside of tattooing to the point where it works and it's possible to have a coherent bodysuit of that style. Pretty exciting stuff.

There was a thread about "dotwork" a while ago and I got fairly involved and possibly upset a few people. Check it out, I think I already answered the question posed by your thread title.
Also, the word "fad" is inherently insulting in modern usage - but you knew that already.
While researching tattoos, tattooing, tattoo styles, tattoo history and tattooers is interesting and probably fun. It's still kinda like researching swimming. Most of it's value comes from being involved, taking part, doing it, getting it done and having it be part of your life.
Then again... On a long enough time scale, ALL tattooing since Ed Hardy opened the first appointment-only studio is a fad. Sailors going to war, getting tattooed in Honolulu was a fad. High-Society Europeans shipping esteemed Japanese irezumi artists over to tattoo dragons on them in the 1800's was a fad. Internet forums will be seen to be a fad. Finally, tattoo customers stressing about being period-correct like vintage clothing aficionados will be seen to be a fad of the early 21st century.

Here are some ideas:
There is a "tattoo shops" link above. Click on it and see if any shops near you are reviewed.
Instagram-when you start following one or two artists you like, a world opens up and you start discovering more and more artists to follow and you start to see so many good tattoos every day you have to realize you can't get tattooed by them all but you have so many choices.
Watch the video interviews on here plus Gypsy Gentleman and Vice's Tattoo Age... Some of the artists you see in these places might not be in your area but many of them travel and do guest spots. You'd be surprised who you could end up getting tattooed by if you look around more.
The TAM blog has a directory and monthly (or maybe weekly?) featured artist with pictures.
Do you live in Chicago? Chicago has a ton of good shops/artists... What comes to mind is CTC and Great Lakes Tattoo...don't think you could go wrong there... Great Lakes Tattoo
I would not rely on google searches or yelp reviews. But that's just my 2 cents. Good luck!

Duh, the water pushed the lines out and made them shakey. Science.

I just got my first palm tattoo, an homage to the incredible motion picture Dark City.
Yes, it's supposed to look wobbly, lop-sided and uneven.
edit - sorry for how ginormous the image is. I'm less competent than anticipated.