tattooedj

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

It started with an old piece of Huck Spaulding flash from the 70's.  Where it ends up is yet to be determined.
 

I did a search but didn't see anything more than "getting/just got my first tattoo" type threads. 
Wondered about everyone's first ever tattoos. Do you still have it? Do you still like it? Do you feel attached to it? Etc. 
I got my first two days after I turned 18, on Halloween, 1992. My best friend and I got matching tattoos-a rose off the wall. Hers is teal, mine is purple. We were the only tattooed students in high school, and were considered huge bad asses. People remarked about how large it was and I thought, really? It didn't seem large to me, but, yanno, then party dots became like the "cool thing" to do, so if you put my rose next to a party dot it looked like I had a full bodysuit to those people I guess. 
As I've gone along in my tattoo adventures, I had one of mine covered, which ended up turning into this big Japanese wind/water deal, and now I'm looking at my first few from my 18-21 year old self and wondering if I want to keep them like they are, rework them, incorporating them into something new either way..or remove/cover them w/something else that fits me now. 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

Yesterday, I started my full back piece with Rei from Inkrat, Tokyo.
Three-and-a-half hours of lining was pretty prickly in places - but some good blues music, a howling spring wind outside and the stoke got me through it unscathed. And there's something mindboggling about a Japanese tattooer doing an American old school interpretation of how a Japanese tattoo should look.
Colours are coming in a few weeks and I'll update then, j
 

My dude Matt Brotka drew this and posted this on instagram a bit of a time ago. Very relevant. Photo, obviously from his account.

I've never liked the idea of being tattooed getting called an "addiction." Too much negativity for that word to associate to something so primal, beautiful, and positive as tattooing. Why would you liken something you love so much to the reason that guy down the street has an insatiable need for sweet, sweet heroin?

me and my girl made a daycation to the netherlands on saturday and i got this from jelle on my left food (Instagram).
we also had some frikandel speciaal with fries, stroopwaffels and vla.

My first tebori by Horitoshi 1--just finished and still a bit bloody

A review of Wrecking Balm from Amazon. Classic
354 of 434 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Don't get it in your eyes, January 2, 2012
By Amy L. Brown (WOODBRIDGE, VA, US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wrecking Balm Tattoo Removal & Fade System (Health and Beauty)
I bought this for my wife who wanted to remove a tattoo from just above her buttocks. I believe they call it a tramp stamp. The tattoo said "Ronnie", which is the name of one of her ex boyfriends. So you can understand how I decided to spend the money on getting that damn tattoo removed.
My wife didn't really want to get the tattoo removed. Although she denied it, I think she was still into this "Ronnie" character. She would always visit him in jail, as well as send him letters and pictures.
So I found this product at a local Wegmans. I didn't tell my wife what it was, instead explaining to her that it was tattoo enhancement cream. I told her it would sting a little, but that was just the stuff doing its job.
Now, you have to understand that my wife is a big girl. Let's just say that she constantly wears jogging pants and refers to them as them as her pants. So she couldn't really see the tattoo herself. Even when she tried to use a mirror, it was hard to make out. So I thought everything would turn out okay.
Well, the cream worked. Every evening I would apply the cream for her, telling her that the tattoo was looking better and better. When in fact it was fading more and more. I told her that the micro dermabrasion thingy was actually a tattoo polisher. And so I would spend a good 15 minutes every night grinding away at that damn tattoo. And it was almost gone entirely.
Then Ronnie got out of jail. It turns out my suspicions were correct. My wife still had a thing for him. I came home from work one evening to find Ronnie and my wife hanging out on the couch. And boy did they look pissed. And Ronnie was a pretty tough looking guy.
Apparently, and I'm not trying to insinuate anything here, somehow Ronnie had noticed the now bare space just above my wife's buttocks and had asked her about it. And now he was pissed off because he had bought her the tattoo to begin with. And she was pissed off as well because I had tricked her into having her tattoo removed.
Long story short, I had the option of getting my ass kicked, or of buying a new tattoo. So we went to the tattoo place, shelled out the cash for a new tattoo, and winced the entire time as Ronnie and my wife watched me get the words "Ronnie's Bitch" tattooed on my chest.
Since then my wife has kicked me out. And Ronnie is now living in my house. And me, I'm on my second tube of wrecking balm tattoo fade system. I can't tell you enough how much I like this product.

I have recently become obsessed with this sheet of E.C. Kidd flash (from 1912! 100 years old!!!) which I believe is from the Hardy book Flash from the Past, and am very seriously considering getting one of the beautiful dragons off of it. Love love love everything about them.

I was in my last year of high school and really wanted a tattoo, I went to a shop and made an appointment for after my 18th birthday. I even got birthday money to go towards my tattoo. I was (is) very much into art, and particularly surrealism. So I got the elephants from "Les Elephants" by Salvador Dali as I had a large print on my wall for years and it's my favourite painting of his. It cracks me up as apparently it's a (relatively) popular tattoo, but I don't care. I still like it, and I especially like how it's framed by my sleeves. It was done by Scott Veldhoen at Eternal Image Tattoo in Calgary (Canada).
First photo is after I got them done in 2003 (I was doing hair modelling for a hairdresser pal hence the cheesy photo)
Second photo is at my wedding in 2011

I was 18, it was three days after my birthday and i was finally at the legal age, my artist is an old family friend who works at tattoo paradise. I'm part Irish so i wanted something uniquely Celtic that few people would get and found an old drawing of a Celtic warrior with a la tene tattoo sleeve and thought it was perfect so he designed a variant for the first piece to go on my shoulder. I wasn't scared, mostly excited, but i didn't know what to expect. The guy is great with first timers, he explained everything he was doing and when he started he told me he was going to do a quick line so i knew how it felt and then when i was ready he'd really start. It was very painful, naturally, but he helped me get through it and we had some great conversations so all in all i had a great time. i have to say the worst part was the healing afterwards being sore and having to be careful when i slept, and i survived the dreaded itching and was able to carefully scratch the untouched skin in and around the tat. To me it's very special because it was my right of passage to become a man.

ET looks like he has a certain *ahem* apendage

Completely off topic here.
Remember when my brother (RIP) had his DRI tattoo smashed into his bicep.
That night, he's in the pit at a local HC gig.
Some dude literally dug his nails into his tattoo and virtually ripped the fuckin thing from his skin.
After I shook my head in compete disbelief that Robbie was even in the pit to begin with, the damage to that tattoo was unbelievable.
And nails, should of seen the infection that set in.
It healed an absolute mess.
He thought it added character.
I thought he was a fuckin idiot.

I hate those things! They remind me that those people were cool because they didn't need tattoos to be cool and that I might be barking up the wrong tree with my obsession. Ha!
The thing about ideology/fashion is you can't see it for what it is when you're in it. Look at any photo of yrself from more than a decade ago. You look silly but at the time you thought you looked great. At the same time that's what's great about tattoos--you're committing yourself to something for life when it's obvious that nothing is "timeless"--it's inherently stupid and in bad taste.

@JAllen I'd buy that for a dollar! :eek:

Chromed out panther.

http://instagram.com/p/jXmpkuMVAH/#

Well, Horitoshi sensei was not obstinate or scary. Super friendly and kind. I may have signed up to get rib dragons in addition to a chest ONI (*_*). ONI will start mid July.