sighthound

Go for it. The way I see it, if the way your tattoo looks is your biggest problem once you get to that age, then you'll have lived a good life.

Go for it. The way I see it, if the way your tattoo looks is your biggest problem once you get to that age, then you'll have lived a good life.

DO IT
i had a friend who years ago made the comment "tattoos only look good on really fat dudes and really skinny dudes"

Pushed as long as I could with Johan Svahn to get this far. Will finish on Johan's return to the States. Had a great time at the Kings Ave in Manhattan, very cool shop. It was great to see @ironchef and his incredible tattoos in person. I know you guys want to see more, slightly blurry, ass.

Thanks a lot!!!
The tattoo artist name is Nil Marqués Coll, and I'm super happy with my decission! He is so talented!
Unfortunatelly I just have bad quality mirror auto-pictures of it (since it's not finished I won't worry about taking good photos, yet, hahaha), but I can show you at least these pics :D
First session, just drawing the outlines

And this one is from the second session

Just got this from David Parker at Black Heart Tattoo in San Francisco. Do I really need to say how I feel about this tattoo?

Here is my newest piece......done by Chad Lambert at Revolt Tattoos in Las Vegas. It fits so nicely next to my Trash Polka style Tie Pilot!!

Just got this reimagining of a Rock of Ages by Aaron Hodges at Spider Murphy's. Stolen from his instagram:

Knee zapper from Chad Koeplinger the other day in Denver

Many people have seen this all ready I guess. By Jondix, 11 days ago. Had such a great time. Stayed at the shop past midnight, talking and eating after the session.
Everybody should get something from him. Super good heart, attitude and knowledge of tattooing and art.
Wrathful offering of the five senses by Jonas Nyberg from last year.

I sit here, sore, swollen, in a daze... but I have to share my story. I am an apprentice tattooer and have been in my apprenticeship since September of 2014. I have always had a deep respect for tattooing, but it has now been solidified even deeper. Last year at the Lady Luck Tattoo Convention, my teacher was asked to receive a traditional Samoan tatau by Sulu'ape Si'i Liufau of A-Town Tattoo. My teacher has known Si'i for about 10 years through the convention circle. We were sharing a booth with A-Town, so I was preparing for a pretty close view of the event. As they were preparing, Si'i came to me and told me that he only had his apprentice, Genesis, available to stretch skin for the tatau and they would need my help. I have a previous post describing the experience, so I won't elaborate further on it here, but it became one of the biggest honors of my life to be involved in that tatau on my teacher.
Fast forward to this past weekend: We were working the Lady Luck Convention again and had a pretty slow schedule of clients. My teacher intentionally did so, because he wanted to hopefully help stretch on a tatau. It is a huge honor to receive a tatau, but it is an equal honor to assist in one. Saturday night, we are all in the bar, relaxing and having a good time. It was a group of about 20 tattooers from all over the country. Talk of the process of tatau began and I took the opportunity to interject and publicly thank Si'i for asking me to assist on my teacher's tatau. I told him it was one of the biggest honors of my life and I would never forget it. He nodded to me and said, "What are you doing tomorrow?" I said, "No tattoos, just working our booth." He said, "I should give you tatau tomorrow." Without hesitation, I stuck my hand out and said yes. We shook on it and he went over to discuss it with his apprentice. They were making gestures around the lower thigh area and kinda laughing a little. I jokingly said, "You guys are laughing too much! You gonna fuck me up tomorrow?!" Si'i responded, "We're gonna try something new on you, Nate. You're not gonna like it... but you're gonna like it."
The next morning, I went over to the A-Town booth and Si'i had me remove my shoes and put on a sarong. Without discussion, he started shaving my knee area, all the way around. He drew on a couple reference lines, where he then called over my teacher and told him he would be assisting his apprentice with stretching of the skin. I've already written a lot, so I will skip along. It took 3 hours of, by far, hands down, the most painful tattooing I've ever received. Almost my entire knee, and all the way around back, through the ditch. At the end, I was congratulated. I didn't move. I didn't squirm. I made no sounds. Inside my head, it felt as though they were cutting my leg off, but I knew I had to show my respect and gratitude by being silent. It was incredible. To be a part of my teacher's tatau and for him to be a part of mine has bonded us even closer. We are both so humbled and blown away by it all. As he did a final cleaning of my leg, I asked Sulu'ape Si'i what I needed to pay him for this (I was actually kind of worried, because I'm a broke apprentice). He said, "Meaalofa. It's a gift for you. You earned my respect when you sat for hours and stretched for your teacher last year." He also said, "Now Nate, this tatau has the ending placement of a traditional Pe'a, so when a Samoan sees it coming out of your shorts, they are going to question you. When they do, you tell them it was a gift from Sulu'ape and if they have any more questions, they can come talk to me." I'm still in awe. I look at my leg now and it is so much more than a tattoo. It is history. It is honor. It is respect. I just wanted to share my story. Thanks to all that read it. Here are some pictures of the whole thing.
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@Padji Chris is an amazing tattoo artist. If you check his instagram, I got the pineapple drinking a coconut craziness not too long ago from him. You couldn't ask for a more humble and considerate artist. He is one of those old school guys who can really do it all (not saying he's old). You'll get something awesome I'm sure.
Also, depending on how long you stay, if you want some tips for shit to do in Charlotte just let me know.

I got these two recently as gap fillers. Both pretty spur of the moment. Paul was guesting with us, I really wanted to be tattooed because I liked his work and I buzzed off him as a person, but didn't want to be tattooed just for the sake of it. Was flirting with loads of designs but then I saw the design (dagger and rose) and thought it fitted perfectly in an awkward spot on my leg. Fits like a glove, I was buzzing so hard off getting this one done, I was on a high all night!

The kittycus is just a cute idea I came up with after seeing similar things and I knew Sam would nail it. The pic is fresh but I can assure you it looks exactly the same healed. Solid. This is by far and away the cutest tattoo I have. It makes me smile everytime I see it!

Booker in with Chris Stuart on 1st June. Flying into Charlotte from Dublin on 30/31st May on the way to an extended vacation in Boston.
Getting a start on the chest with a traditional eagle - he's done a few super cool ones lately.
Can't wait!
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A little twist on a classic. Picked from the incredibly twisted, but amazing, sketch book of Matt Kerley.

Hello!
Finally decided to register and make a first post after lurking here for at least a couple years now. :)
I'm a lawyer by day and tattoo lover by night. Also, cats. :D
I got my first tattoo on my 18th birthday, and never looked back.
Here are my two most recent tattoos:
The cat matryoshka was done at last year's Minneapolis Tattoo Expo by Shawn Patton. The photo was taken immediately after completion.
The next two are of my space cats. These are cartoons of my four fur-children. Of course, prior to finishing the piece, our family expanded to add another cat and a dog. Good thing there's space on my forearm. That was done by Dan Dittmer. One photo is after my second to last sitting, and the other is after the last sitting. Finished this about 6 months ago. No formal healed pics yet.
I have some other random stuff, but probably nothing else worth posting pictures of.
I'll be at the Minneapolis Tattoo Expo this coming weekend possibly looking for something to fill some blank space on my upper outer arm. :D
Given my occupation in particular, getting any potentially visible tattoo is a fairly large commitment. I'm more or less restricted to always wearing long sleeves at the office, although on quiet days, I can get away with partially-sheer sleeves, or 3/4 length sleeves. I know for me, deciding to get a half-sleeve marked the point in time where I decided I was going to be a tattooed person rather than a person with tattoos. I'm curious if others - particularly other tattooed women - had this experience - that of knowing that they were committing to being a "tattooed person."
Thanks all!

A little twist on a classic. Picked from the incredibly twisted, but amazing, sketch book of Matt Kerley.

I have time coming up with Marina Inoue at the Elm Street Fest. More work on the squidpants. I came up with an idea for a Marina and the Diamonds inspired tattoo that she should be able to make awesome. So it will be a Marina tattoo by Marina. I've already floated this by her and she thought that sounded great.
It is gonna be a long wait until May.

A little twist on a classic. Picked from the incredibly twisted, but amazing, sketch book of Matt Kerley.

A little twist on a classic. Picked from the incredibly twisted, but amazing, sketch book of Matt Kerley.

Maybe the contest could run every so often, once there are a certain number of entries, which are then revealed all at once. I like the idea of not posting the artist's name until afterwards.

in my honest opinion, I think it does tend to sway people.

A little twist on a classic. Picked from the incredibly twisted, but amazing, sketch book of Matt Kerley.

i stand corrected lol

@sighthound Better than this? https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c1/98/7d/c1987d6810c24192576556a92273bc2e.jpg
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@sighthound Better than this? https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c1/98/7d/c1987d6810c24192576556a92273bc2e.jpg