Synesthesia

I experienced hell on earth the other day when I got my butt crease tattooed (where your butt and leg connects). We hit tons of bad spots that day: knee, back of the thigh, hip...bit none as awful as the butt crease. Literally felt like I had a white hot sewing needle being jabbed into my butt! And he just kept going back into it to add details...

In my experience, every one of my tattoos turned out bigger than I thought it would be haha. So that "3-4 inch" design could easily go up to more like 6 inches. Maybe he's preparing for that possibility. Just bring way more cash than you think you'll need.

Somewhere between 5 or 6 hours of outlining today with Sam Warren. He ended up going just the tiniest bit bigger than I thought he would, but I am so stoked to get this started. Oh, and this goes into the dreaded butt crease, which had me seeing stars.

I got one pretty bad on a butterfly tattoo I have. It's in a sensitive spot, near my elbow ditch. I'm not too worried about it since I plan on surrounding it with more tattoos anyway and the negative space between them (where the blowout is) won't be as noticeable. It's also faded a little with time. Most of the time, it's not worth trying to "correct" a blow out because it ends up just drawing more attention to it.

Tattoos are going to have "mistakes"...I don't think any of mine are perfect, but that doesn't mean I don't still like them. The best thing to do is try to accept that and just keep getting tattooed.

^ Should not your artist be doing the drawing...?

I have an appointment in 2 days with Sam Warren in Lancaster, PA. It's been too long! I gave him the attached picture as my inspiration and suggested he could put both the rider and horse in some kind of armor. He does excellent skeletons and excellent armor, so I can't wait to see what he's come up with. Going to be on my thigh, which is a whole new area for me.

EDIT: And I REALLY need to figure out what to put on my right shoulder, all that imbalance is driving me crazy. I finally have a plan for my chest piece too, which is exciting. Thinking about getting John Rippey to do a Pharaoh's horses design. https://www.instagram.com/johnrippeyv/

You can sketch the picture, please and thank you :)

As much as we all want to spend hours drawing something for a stranger who doesn't even know what he wants...that's best left for your artist. That's one of the talents you're paying them for.

From the pictures posted, you seem really set on getting either your chest or your face tattooed. I vote for the face.

I have no idea what to tell you to get tattooed, you kind of need to figure that out for yourself. What kinds of things do you like? Color? Black and gray? Realism? American traditional? Look at tons of pictures of tattoos to get some ideas, I don't know what else to say.

I'm concerned about socks and healing. Any tips or advice?

I had one of mine done the summer between my senior year of high school and my first year of college. I didn't have a job at the time so walking around in flip flops for a few days was no problem. I think your foot would probably be fine in socks as long as you change them frequently and take them off whenever you get a chance to let the area breathe. Putting a strip of Saniderm/Tegaderm/etc would work great for keeping the tattoo from sticking (just do a test spot to make sure you're not allergic). I always re-wrap my new tattoos in plastic wrap for the first night or two (because I'm too cheap and lazy to get the previously mentioned products when I only really need them to minimize leaking/bleeding in my sleep) and that's also fine as long as you change it frequently and wash the area often. After a couple days, the bleeding/oozing and swelling will start to get more under control so it won't be such a big deal by then. I would just take a couple days off work if you can and really baby it at home.

Feet tattoos suck and it says a lot that 6 years later, I still don't have the other one done...

1) A lot of people say they're only getting 1...you'd be surprised. :)

2) Pain is temporary, awesome tattoos are forever. After some particularly painful sessions, I have fleeting thoughts of "Why the hell am I doing this? No more!" but they don't last long. Typically, I'm already thinking about my next one while in the chair.

3) Definitely not the worst start to being tattooed. It's one of those spots that's discrete when you want to be, and highly visible when you want to be. Big enough to give you a good taste of what it's like, but not so big that's it's overwhelming to sit through. Plus everyone is nervous for their first (I'm still nervous about every one) and nervousness can throw you off your game and make it harder to sit through.

Sounds like you have some tough "grandpa style" tattoos, would love to see pics.

Hi. Poland and the surrounding areas has tons of fantastic black and grey/color realism and surrealism artists (if you're into that sort of thing). I'm jealous of the amount of talent close by you guys over there!

Some recent art stuff I did for fun. The first one is a pencil sketch from the drawlloween prompts, they give you a topic for every day of October. I'm woefully behind, but really liked what I did for vampire day. The second one is an acrylic painting of different unusual crustaceans. Paint still wet in the photo, whoops. The last one is a horrible pic of a colored pencil design I did.

EDIT: Damn, I just realized I posted an old pic of the painting instead of the final version. Some of the blue lobster isn't done in the one I posted. Oh well, you get the gist, not worth reposting.

Fuck, I missed Tatu Baby on Redemption. Goddammit, I am so sick of seeing her.

I would rate the backpieces thusly: Kruseman > Matt > Chris. Chris's girl was orange and her face was butt ugly. And he put so much detail into the road instead of doing something good with the background. I thought Matt's was okay, needed more black and just overall some more intensity. Kruseman's was one of my favorite things I've seen on the show. Yeah, it's exactly what I expected from him, but it's solid as hell.

I thought it was bullshit the way they had people vote for the live tattoo before you even saw them. You didn't even see them until like a minute before the polls closed. You know everyone was just voting for their favorite. And the way they did it, Chris had a time advantage over everyone else because they introduced the hashtag to vote for him before everyone else! I felt bad Matt was out of the running from the get go because of that stupidity, they didn't even get to judge his final piece.

I'm just glad they're not bringing back Tatu Baby AGAIN. The new season looks like yet another desperate grab for ratings. Not interested, but I'll still watch it because meh.

Oh, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome of this season. :)

Not sure if you're just trying to be funny, but that's a little gross, dude. Women are just as capable of having faces tattooed on them as men. Their life doesn't revolve around what they look like naked, and what men think of them. It took me a long time to realize that. If that's the tattoo they want, they should get it.

Personally, I wouldn't want a photorealistic face of someone I don't know, but that's regardless of my gender. It would bug me having everyone who sees it ask me who it is.

I'm not sure what you mean...all properly done tattoos will have at worst some small patches of color come out if you were to pick off a scab or something. I've never seen one lose a noticeable amount of color unless it was applied poorly to start with (by a scratcher). The colors will fade slightly from application to healing...but they should look "settled in," not faded. If you mean aging tattoos losing their color, there's nothing you can do in the healing stages to prevent that. You just need to maintain them throughout the years and maybe get a touch up to keep them looking nice.

Generally, when I get home with a new tattoo: I unwrap, wash with warm water and soap, pat dry, apply a thin layer of aquaphor, rewrap before I go to bed to prevent mess, and after a couple days of aquaphor I switch to lotion. I've never lost significant color doing this. To keep healed tattoos looking nice, I take general care of my skin (not a lot of sun, sunblock if I do need to be outside a lot, staying hydrated, etc), and apply a tiny dab of lotion to my tattoos every now and then when I think about it. I don't have anything much older than 5 years though.

Looking at your pics, no offense, but it doesn't look like you've gone to the world's greatest artists to begin with. Some of your problem might just be from the designing stage and application...

I've been really behind on actual books, but have been stopping in to a local comic book store and buying graphic novels or compilations every now and then. So far I've read The Infinity Gauntlet (LOVED it), most of a book compiling the Stacy deaths in Spider-Man, and most of a compilation of the Black Cat Mystery comics. I'm really getting interested in pulp comics, pre-code stuff, horror, etc. So if anyone has any recommendations for that kind of stuff (either great art or great writing), that'd be great.

My boyfriend has been going with me and getting the new Invader Zim comics and just recently got a couple issues of Cyborg, which looks really cool and I'm eager to read after he finishes them.

Marley, damn that's beautiful! And fills that spot perfectly too.

I met with Sam Warren and set up an appointment: November 24th. Feels so far away! But it'll be a pretty large project so it'll keep me busy for a while. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I picked up a small one shot also before the year's end...

@Synesthesia, I guess they forgot to talk to you when they made they show.. LOL... J/K ;)

Its meant for TV and they will drive that way... I understand what you mean but you have to understand that this is to capture as much audience they can and not just tattooers/collectors...

What people like? Drama and Bullshit.... That's what all this realty tv shows bring and Ink Masters have a mixture of "game" and "reality tv" and this is where @Electric i nails the coffin...

@Electric i, +1 everything you said.

I don't know a single person who actually enjoys the bickering and contrived set-ups. Not on this show or any other reality show. I think this is just what TV producers thinks people like, or what they hope they can make people like if they shove it down their throats enough. I'm just saying I would like the show a lot better if those things were different, I don't really expect them to change anything because that would require effort on everyone's part.

I have a consult coming up with Sam Warren at Dreams Collide in Lancaster, PA...everyone at that shop is pretty fantastic in my opinion, but I think Sam is the best choice for what I want. I told him a skeleton riding a decaying zombie horse and both of them in medieval armor. So it might turn out cool. :p

https://instagram.com/sam_mso/

I've had my lingering thoughts about if I'm going "too fast." I took about 4 years between my first and second tattoo for no particular reason, started a leg sleeve type thing, waited almost another year for no particular reason, and now I'm on track for one every 2-3 months. It's been almost exactly two months since my last and I'm going in for a consult on my next one this week. Really, it averages out to about one tattoo a year since turning 18, which is totally reasonable. :D

I'm not really sure what's influencing me to think this is too fast. If I look at the amount of coverage I have, it's really not a lot and I still have tons of space. And most of my tattoos have been fairly cheap one shots done by local guys only 2 hours away, at the most, so it's not like I'm going to Paris and getting a backpiece by some world renowned artist. I guess I just keep thinking "Some day I'm going to get something and hate it and then hate myself for doing that." Just my anxiety talking, I guess. I feel like the more I get, the more I'm hurtling towards that inevitable day I screw up. I'm trying to enjoy the process and not compare myself to other people so much.

As usual, I really liked Kruseman's (fangirl, I guess). He did exactly what he should have and his was the only really readable design and would age the nicest. I was pretty bummed that the jury criticized it for being "just a rose," I'd much rather have a nice clean rose than 50 different components crammed into one muddy tattoo. People have no respect for the classics. Tyler's was shockingly bad, like scratcher level bad. And I'm so sick of his "I don't normally tattoo this subject, this skin, etc" shit...what DO you do?

Things I would love to see the show do away with: the jury, and the entire existing format pretty much. The jury adds nothing to the show and it's always pretty shocking to see them vote someone the worst of the day when the judges thought they were one of the best. Just goes to show how little the average person knows about tattoos, I guess. I really feel like it contributes nothing and is pretty mean spirited. I would hate to have my brand new tattoo dissected by a bunch of people on TV and I always feel bad whenever someone is brought to tears during it. There's just no need to make someone feel so bad about something that wasn't even their fault...most of the time they didn't pick the artist and didn't impose the time limits.

As for the format...I've always hated the skull pick thing. This isn't how tattooing is done, unless you're a world famous artist who has the luxury of declining inquiring people, you pretty much have to try to do whatever comes in the door or send it to someone else in the shop at least. I would like the show a lot better if people chose their artist. It's always kind of mind boggling when the show actually does that (like the last episode with the football players) and all the artists act like it's the worst thing ever...uh, isn't this how your shop is run back home? And if they actually got a decent amount of time to consult with them, if they broke the sittings up over more days, etc...anything to make sure the tattoos were the best they could be. Someone who isn't on the level of the other artists is still going to suck, whether they have 1 hour or 30 hours to do a tattoo. At least then it would give people more of a chance to get decent tattoos and do the craft more justice. And of course, they could get rid of as much drama as possible and I wouldn't bat an eye.

The worst I usually get is a body part falling asleep (never the part getting tattooed, damn!). Like for all of my upper arm sessions, my fingers and lower arm usually go numb from the arm rest. The first session on my leg (a somewhat longer sitting, between 3 and 4 hours), my neck got kind of sore from laying down on the table for so long. So for every longer session like that, and even the shorter ones if I think of it, I bring either a jacket to ball up and prop under me or a pillow.

Marley, I agree. I think there's been the most drama so far this season, all of it pointless. Think of how much better it would be if it was just a bunch of buddies doing the best tattoos they could with realistic constraints (instead of tattooing fingernails and incorporating people's buttcracks into the design). It always bothers me how during the skull picks, they all try to screw each other up...these are going on people forever and you guys are TRYING to give them bad tattoos.

I'm still rooting for Kruseman. He's a local artist, does solid traditional, and has one of the better attitudes of anyone there.