Synesthesia

This is something I've always wondered about for any future traveling I might do. It's good to read some responses and get an idea. For now, the furthest/most unfamiliar city I've traveled to has only been maybe 3 hours away. I'd been there a couple times for trips so I kind of knew the area but had never been to that part before. I ended up hiding my cash in a small, hardly noticeable pocket in my backpack...true someone could just take the whole backpack, but I was hoping they'd be discouraged by my seemingly empty backpack (just some water and a jacket in the main part of it) :rolleyes:. It ended up not even being a concern because it was sort of a tourist-y location anyway so I think I was probably safe.

Is this a page for a shop or one person? I'm confused. If it's a person, I'm not sure if it's a girl or not, but I saw a whole bunch of white ink and tumblr designs, so I was pretty put off. When he/she/they actually sits down and does a solid, black tattoo, it's not bad...not that great, but not bad. I definitely wouldn't go to this person for anything, but half of the reason is just that I don't like the style.

Spider Murphy's, Frith Street, Smith Street, Blackheart, Rock of Ages...the list goes on. Those are kind of unattainable at the moment since I don't have the money or time to travel much. It's a little more realistic for me to aspire to places within a few hours of me, right now. Someday I'd like to drive down the East Coast and maybe hit up Hot Stuff in NC, or Read Street in Baltimore, and Erin Chance and Chelsea Shoneck (both based in VA) are way up there on my list. EDIT: Oh, and the most famous shop I've been to so far has been Tattoo Paradise in DC, which was a fantastic little shop. So much great flash and everyone's portfolio is solid. I would definitely make the trip there again.

This is my biggest tattoo in a really sensitive area, so I'm kind of blaming this on that...but I'm about 75% done peeling (just two or three thicker scabs and really thin, sunburn-y type peeling in a couple spots) and noticing that the new skin is SUPER sensitive. Just my shirt rubbing against it is really annoying and slightly painful. Never had this before so I don't know what to make of it. This is also the first tattoo where actually getting it was a breeze (except for when he crept into the armpit!) and the healing has been more painful. Weird.

Hardly anyone is naturally good at anything. Someone who's observant or has a lot of manual dexterity might be more INCLINED to be a good artist, but it still takes tons of work. You don't see all the time someone puts into improving their art, so you assume it comes easy to them. I've been making art for fun since I was about 11 and decided I wanted to be able to draw pretty pictures, and I'm FINALLY, 13 years later, getting to the point where I look at something I made and think "Hey, that's not too bad." And I'm not even doing it as a career, imagine how much more work it takes for a professional artist with higher standards. In my opinion, being able to draw well is the foundation for a good tattoo artist so you can never excel without mastering that first step. Practice, practice, practice...

^ It's hard to give anyone a ballpark estimate because it all depends on your artist's level of experience, location, how you sit, if they've done work on you before, etc. Generally, anything above $100/hr is probably to be expected for a decent artist. Again, depending on where you're looking and what your definition of "decent" is. And generally anything less than $50/hr means walk out of that shop as fast as you can. There's some artists in NYC that charge $500/hr, it's impossible to tell anyone what the "normal" amount is. But a lot of artists also charge more by the piece (how well it suits their style, how excited they are to do it, etc) so that makes it even more difficult to give someone an estimate. I just recently got tattooed by Chad Koeplinger and we settled the pricing by him asking what I'd be willing to spend, and my answer was what he charged me since we both agreed that was reasonable. There's so many different methods of pricing tattoos it's really impossible to say to anyone "A tattoo should cost between this much and that much" which is probably why it's frowned upon to give out numbers. I just always brace myself for the worst when it's time to pay. :) But I've never felt taken advantage of when it comes to what I paid, and I actually think most of the time I was undercharged, so I compensate by tipping well. In short, they ain't cheap.

I'm on day 5 with my newest addition and the peeling is in full swing now. I actually had to wear a long sleeved shirt today to work because it looks so nasty. Every time I move my arm at all I get fruity pebbles flying everywhere, I like to gross out my boyfriend with them. :) Today's also the first day with zero pain, no more rawness or bruising (I had some pretty insane bruising around my elbow that I thought would never go away).

Thanks so much, guys. I'm so honored to have this on me and it's probably my favorite tattoo on myself (so far). Can't really go wrong with Chad in my opinion. :)

It actually wasn't as bad as my other inner bicep, partially because Chad is so fast. Which is why I started this arm there, to get the worst spot over with quick. :) He lined the whole thing in maybe 20 minutes. Pictures fail to show the scope of it, it fills in my whole inner bicep from armpit to elbow. I'm actually having more pain the day after than I did during; I have two really nasty bruises developing and my arm is swollen to about twice it's normal size.

There's definitely certain things I wouldn't wear just because I wouldn't want to get constantly questioned or accused. I'm not offended by much personally, but I wouldn't want to hear other people's whining every time they catch a glimpse of my tattoo. But I support an artist making whatever art they want, whether it's a painting or a tattoo, and absolutely believe people should have the right to get whatever they want on themselves. So if someone wants to get a severed samurai head tattoo and doesn't mind idiotic SJWs saying it's racist against the Japanese, they should totally have the right to. Even deliberately offensive and racist designs I have no issue with, it's just not something I would want on myself. I guess the bottom line is no one has any right to tell someone else what they should do with their body, but some people still think it's their place to "educate" people about culture, so it's something to be prepared for if you do want an "offensive" tattoo. And I don't believe in the whole idea of cultural appropriation to begin with. No one culture created everything, we all have to borrow and share from each other, and I think that's more a sign of respect than it is to say "No, I can't get that tattoo, I'm not Asian/black/whatever." I think that does nothing but create unnecessary divisions.

^ In my opinion, all of his big cats are perfect, so I knew I had to get a panther from him. I pretty much just told him "panther head coming out of a rose, preferably pink" since I already have a red one elsewhere and wanted to mix things up. Everything else was all him and I love what he came up with. Super nice guy too.

Got this from Chad Koeplinger last night in DC. Sorry the pics are shitty, it's still really swollen and bruised.

I get this a lot. A lot of people can't seem to accept "It kind of means [some vague concept, like strength] but it's mostly because I like it," and it's annoying when those people keep pressuring me for details. No, it doesn't mean anything else...yes, it's that simple. If you were to look at the "meaning" of each of them, you can actually see how I start to care less and less as I go. My last two and upcoming one literally mean nothing other than they make cool traditional tattoos and that's probably going to be true for most of my future tattoos. The more you get I think the more exhausting it gets trying to come up with something meaningful for each one, so even if you start out getting meaningful tattoos, eventually you just give up and get awesome stuff. So for someone with one or none, I guess it's unfathomable to think that way. I will say I think all those hyper realistic black and gray tattoos of women smoking or whatever kind of weirds me out. I can understand getting a cartoony face on you, but I think it's a little weird to get a super realistic portrait of some woman you don't even know and who might not even exist (created in Photoshop for the tattoo). That's the only time where my gut is saying "this should mean something, this should be a portrait of their mom, wife, etc" and it's still a little alarming to hear otherwise. But I've always been a little weirded out by portraits in general.

I'm trying to look at that eagle but all I keep seeing is that fucking perfect tiger. Who did that one?

I have a couple on my upper arm, a couple on my lower legs, and one on my foot. Plans to get at least moderate coverage. I always wore flip flops and shorts whenever I felt like it, but I used to be really insecure about my arms and never wore anything less than a t shirt. Now I've bought probably at least 5 tank tops in the last couple months and love showing my arms whenever feasible! ;) There's days when I just want to go out and do my grocery shopping or whatever and don't want to chance people bothering me, even though most of the comments are polite and curious...just don't always want to be talked to while I'm trying to do my errands. So I'll throw on pants and a shirt that covers them and no one has to know. But yeah, for the most part, I love having my tattoos visible and the attention I get, whether it's negative or positive. Positive attention is always nice, and negative attention is usually amusing. :rolleyes: But it's more than that of course. They make me feel more confident about myself, and obviously I got tattoos because I like how they look so I want to look at my own as much as possible too.

As others have said, all tattoos look unnatural when they're first applied. It takes some time for them to settle into the skin and look natural, no matter what style or size. I personally love tiny tattoos as fillers between larger pieces, or on smaller areas of the body, but you should get whatever you want (within reason, your artist might steer you a little or give some ideas to make it better). Don't worry so much what everyone else thinks, as long as you're happy.

I would! But I already got an eagle on my bicep and having two eagles next to each other would look silly (I'm sure I'll get a second eagle someday, just not right next to the first one). Still, you guys are giving me some things to consider, so thanks already!

I thought about making this its own thread, but this thread always seems to get some good responses so here goes... I've been pondering a chest piece of some kind for years and can't seem to get any inspiration. A lot of the chest designs I see on women are kind of (imo) trashy...that really dated look, crappy black and gray stars/roses/owls/pocket-watches/etc. Ugh. I'm so jealous of guys that get their whole front done, and who have all that extra room on their chest even if they don't want a huge front piece! I'm not busty by any means (solid b-cup), but I would want to keep my chest piece away from my boobs for aesthetic and personal reasons, which leaves me the dreaded v-shaped spot to fill. I'm open to any style, but both my arms are probably going to be filled with traditional pieces eventually so whatever would work as a "bridge" for the two arms... Are there any ladies here with chest tattoos that want to show off to help inspire me? :D Or just thoughts on that space?

Chad Koeplinger is doing a panther coming out of a rose for me, I gave him the go ahead to do whatever crazy stuff he might want to do in addition to that. I'm almost more excited just to see the drawing, the tattoo is secondary. :rolleyes:

^ Damn, that's a beauty. Can Paul Dobleman do no wrong? Every piece I've seen by him is flawless. Thanks for posting awesome stuff on the last couple pages so I can live vicariously through you guys. :D My next tattoo is scheduled for July 31st and it can't get here soon enough.

This is both sad and creepy. Man with 29 Miley Cyrus tattoos plans to remove some after singer calls them ‘ugly’

^ No idea, just one of the first c-shaped panther pics I found. :p I tentatively mentioned to my boyfriend my rooster/snake idea and he actually loved it, this is my first idea he was totally on board with. Always a nice perk! I found a guy a state over who would be fucking perfect for it, so I really think this might happen in the distant future. I have one more tattoo planned for next month and then I'll be stuck with at least one spot I desperately need to have filled in because it's driving me crazy (big empty spot on the back of my upper arm). The more I look at it, the more I'm thinking of doing a really goofy traditional style parrot squeezed in there. The one I'm getting next month is on my other inner bicep (knocking that out of the way first because my other one was horrible and it's going to be with Chad Koeplinger, who can get it over with ASAP!) so I guess I should start thinking of something for the outer bicep area, or else it might look weird by itself. No idea for that spot yet... EDIT: This is who I'm considering to do the rooster/snake. I love every bird and snake I've seen him do, so it only makes sense. https://instagram.com/braddoziertattoos/

I've seen this before and thought it was awesome. I always like to hear stories from older people about their tattoos.

I'm glad Craig is coming back, he did some impressive stuff when he was last on. And there's a local artist for me this season (Dave Kruseman). I'm excited to see how he does, I think his work is pretty solid. Otherwise, a LOT of what I've seen proudly (?!) posted on their Facebook page has been iffy at best. You would expect "masters" to be a little better than they apparently are...

New things I watch, all of them I'm woefully behind on: Hannibal, Game of Thrones (season finale was spoiled for me on the night it premiered, damn Facebook), Bob's Burgers...I don't really like TV much. I'm more of a movie person. I mostly re-watch old shows on Netflix or whatever when I'm home by myself and want some noise in the house but don't really want to pay much attention. And my boyfriend likes anime and every now and then will try to make me watch a series. It mostly doesn't go well because I find a lot of anime really annoying and complain a lot...but we did make it through Death Note, Kill la Kill, Parasyte, and we just started Berserk today.