OutOfIdeas

I take most the responsibility for my shitty tattoos. The rest I blame on alcohol, and head injuries at a young age. Both my parents are smart, so it can't be bad breeding. Must've been the ice hockey.

Just downloaded this, really cool so far. I can't wait to see more traditional artists added, but just FYI it's going to be your fault when I'm broke all the time now. This is perfect for me as I constantly travel around America so now I can always find where to get tattooed. Thanks!

Two daggers and two roses, and I could easily see myself ending up with more of either.

Sorry for the late reply, I broke my phone shortly after posting this. I appreciate the replies very much, but in typical fashion the company has now changed plans again and I'm headed the other direction. Thanks again, I'll definitely keep Mike Fite in mind as I've actually seen his work before and really like it, just didn't know where he worked.

I might be stuck in Memphis this weekend due to a scheduling snafu. Does anyone know of any good shops there? I tried searching on Google but came up with about 7000 results, and I'm not quite sure how to go about sorting through them. Don't have the best service here in the Midwest, but once I get east of Cheyenne I should be able to get some more research done. Appreciate any help in advance, not so excited that the company put me in this situation again, so I would like to come out of it with a new tattoo if I could.

That's the best way to do it! The more control you give the artist, the better. Also, the site was down for maintenance.

Yep, I agree with xcom. I always get ingrown hairs, and haven't found anything that helps. My thinking is: if I try and shave before, I'll get ingrown hairs the day of the tattoo. If I let the artist do it, then they don't show up till they're done. Seems the better option to me.

I'm only 22, so I still feel like a baby most the time. I did ask my dad to explain more about 401ks and how they work the other day (none of my past jobs offered one). Felt like the beginning of the end.

Im ashamed that us 90's kids spawned things such as "bae" and "doe" (instead of though). I guess even with touch screen smartphones, "babe" is just one too many letters to bother with.

@RYANNN very nice! That came out amazingly.

Thanks for the heads up! I came to this party a little late, but now I have some stuff to nerd over for a while :)

Must have sent that to the wrong person, I can't see a single tattoo!

I didn't listen to the earlier link cause I knew I would hate it... but then I figured, ya know, "don't judge a book... don't knock it before you try it..." all that good shit. It was only a little worse than I expected.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking most of the ones that I see use blue ink with no outlines for the tiny tattoos, so I could see those fading significantly in the future. Now that you mention it though, they would all still make good tattoos without the miniature tattoos so it doesn't really matter. As a bonus, when you run out of room for tattoos, you can get the tattoos on your tattoos tattooed again!

I don't even know who that is ^ but the fact that the nerdy lookin white dude has a BET☆ tattoo really cracks me up. Not in a "laughing with him" kind of way though.

Really? I don't have any, yet, but I love tattoos with tattoos. When they're done well I think they look awesome, but I'm curious how the tiny blue tattoos hold up over time. Different strokes, and all that.

The more I get tattooed, the larger my idea of "a lot" becomes, in regards to coverage. As in, it takes more and more coverage for me to consider someone heavily tattooed. So im gonna keep working on your plan @Graeme cause so far im getting better. Maybe by the time I'm ready for neck/hands, in 30 years or so, I'll have it figured out.

The freehand and marker sessions were all done by the same artist, with the totally freehand piece being the first he did on me. I had seen other completely freehand work he'd done and been comfortable trusting him. After that, I had no worries discussing an idea for a few minutes, and letting him marker it on, on the spot. Every other artist I've been to has used a stencil, and I've only gotten one tattoo per artist besides the freehand guy. So it is definitely nice to see the stencil if it's not an artist that you know or have a rapport with.

There's the occasional joke or reference on here to your "happy place" and that you need to go there to forget the pain. I don't know how serious others are about it, but I do actually have a happy place that I visualize in tough times getting tattooed. Its a beautiful stretch of coastline, sand beach with a rocky point that the surf crashes on in South Africa (traveled a bit after high school). When I need to distract myself I picture that place; as the surf comes in I breathe in, as the surf goes out i breath out. It keeps my breathing regular, and relaxes me. Sorry if that sounds rediculous or doesn't make sense, but that's how I het through the really bad parts.

Most of my work has been drawn on with marker, freehand. I do actually have one piece that was tattooed completely freehand, no stencil or marker.

Stencils are for wusses.

I found both shins to be super easy! Both the tattooing, and for the most part healing. They got fairly itchy at points, but not nearly as painful as other leg tattoos.

You people rock.

Yep, flight for me as well.

I mean, I'm fairly sure I'm not an actual creep. I've never stalked anyone so that's a good sign, right?