tattooedj

@sighthound I've been emailing him about a ONI face on my chest but I also really want a dragon from him (I think his are the best)... We'll see how it goes.

Beez, your post could have been written by me - I feel almost exactly the same way!
Once I got past hubby's request that I get a tattoo and got my first one, I started to become almost obsessed with tattoos. I researched them, learned about their history, and constantly sought out for pictures of them. It was like I had jumped off of a cliff - I was in a free-fall.
Like you, I love looking at my own tattoos - I don't think it is weird to admit (at least to folks who understand!). It has been years since I first got tattooed, but at least once a week when I'm getting dressed or showering, I look in the mirror and say "Wow!" I think my tattoos are beautiful, and I love them. I marvel that my bare skin is no longer visible, has been transformed in to something colorful. I remember the day I started my first half-sleeve, I looked in the mirror and thought "This is the last day my arm will look like this." It sort of gave me goose bumps. I really like that I have made my body the way I want it (well, with my first tattoo, I actually made my body the way my husband wanted it, but I then took over the driver's seat and stomped on the gas).
I also realized that I found his tattoos very attractive - something that I had sort of been denial about before he nudged me into the tattoo world. I think that when I first saw his tattoos, they sort of subconciously cemented his physical attraction to me. I'm really sad that he decided to stop getting them.
Like you I notice tattoos immediately. I find my self looking at untattooed people and thinking thinks like, "Wow, she would look beautiful with a half-sleeve." I really think that a lot of people - particularly women - look incomplete without tattoos!
I really like your scene about "the big reveal!" That would be delicious! Since I'm married, that is not really going to happen with me like that, but we do play a little reveal "game" sometimes. We might be out at a nice restaurant and I might make some movement that exposes part of one of my sleeves, and he will say, "Oh my, I see you are tattooed." And I will say something like "Why yes, as a matter of fact I am...quite extensively, actually." and he will say, "Well, so am I." I say, "Oh really? I'd love to see." And he will say "And I'd love to see yours too." And on and on and we have a lot of fun with it, and sometimes it leads to...ahem...interesting things!
I'm really hoping I can convince my husband to restart getting tattooed. I'd love to see him get at least half sleeves so we could share the experience both ways as I continue on my tattoo projects.

Rodney Raines posted this yesterday. It's a good example. Not the oldest tattoo in the world (17 years), but it shows what is going to hold everything together.

Sounds like he just wants to fuck you over and get your money and go party!
Or.. sounds like he's nervous about doing a sizable tattoo and has been getting some guidance on the drawing along the way and maybe chose a time that his mentor is free and can give him a little coaching. If he's an apprentice (or still super green) he may be sweating it. I doubt it's some grand, money-making scheme. If you like the kid's work, work with him. Also, sometimes you have to get tattooed on days that aren't 100% convenient.

thank you for the link, very entertaining read. Too many things I would quote, but it would just showcase my utter ignorance of tattooing in Japan throughout the ages.
"The history of body modification in Japan is long and vibrant, dating back to the Jomon Period (roughly 10,500 B.C. to 300 B.C.), when clay figurines were molded with marks that modern historians interpret as either tattoos or scarification. Later in the third century, Chinese records noted that all Japanese males bore heavy tattoos on their faces and bodies."
"Today there are an estimated 3,000 tattoo artists working in Japan, compared to approximately 200 in 1990."
I just think that these two facts are just too awesome. 200 tattoo artists in 1990. I can't imagine how difficult it was to find one as a newbie without connections.

Today, The Japan Times is running a revisionist history of Japanese tattooing calling for Japanese people to (re-)embrace their long&proud tattoo culture.
Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture? | The Japan Times
"Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Historically, Japanese prohibitions against tattoos have been aimed at the working classes, women and ethnic minorities - and today the bearer of a full-back tattoo is increasingly likely to be a sensitive salaryman rather than a punch-permed thug."
The story goes into bans on tattoos for women from Okinawan and Hokkaido minority groups - as well the future of tattoo culture in Japan vis-a-vis the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
Enjoy!
jm

Today, The Japan Times is running a revisionist history of Japanese tattooing calling for Japanese people to (re-)embrace their long&proud tattoo culture.
Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture? | The Japan Times
"Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Historically, Japanese prohibitions against tattoos have been aimed at the working classes, women and ethnic minorities - and today the bearer of a full-back tattoo is increasingly likely to be a sensitive salaryman rather than a punch-permed thug."
The story goes into bans on tattoos for women from Okinawan and Hokkaido minority groups - as well the future of tattoo culture in Japan vis-a-vis the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
Enjoy!
jm

Today, The Japan Times is running a revisionist history of Japanese tattooing calling for Japanese people to (re-)embrace their long&proud tattoo culture.
Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture? | The Japan Times
"Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Historically, Japanese prohibitions against tattoos have been aimed at the working classes, women and ethnic minorities - and today the bearer of a full-back tattoo is increasingly likely to be a sensitive salaryman rather than a punch-permed thug."
The story goes into bans on tattoos for women from Okinawan and Hokkaido minority groups - as well the future of tattoo culture in Japan vis-a-vis the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
Enjoy!
jm

Today, The Japan Times is running a revisionist history of Japanese tattooing calling for Japanese people to (re-)embrace their long&proud tattoo culture.
Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture? | The Japan Times
"Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Historically, Japanese prohibitions against tattoos have been aimed at the working classes, women and ethnic minorities - and today the bearer of a full-back tattoo is increasingly likely to be a sensitive salaryman rather than a punch-permed thug."
The story goes into bans on tattoos for women from Okinawan and Hokkaido minority groups - as well the future of tattoo culture in Japan vis-a-vis the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,
Enjoy!
jm

I got a tattoo of Snoopy Playing saxophone. I was just graduating college at the age of 27 having put myself through on my own dime by enlisting in the military and serving in Korea and working part time in restaurants and factories welding and forming steel power distribution equipment.
I still didn't know what I was ever going to do with a Music degree, but I knew I loved it enough that I was never gonna stop having fun with it. It was 10+ years before I got another tattoo.

Ha ha these are awesome stories!
Here's mine.
I was 18 (2005) I had just torn my acl skateboarding. I had a drawing of a pair of trucks that i had drawn while laying in bed on painkillers. I got tattooed by my buddy guido baldini in Santa fe nm. Just walked in and gave him my design. He ate some pizza and tattooed the design on me in about 20min. Still love it. I got it hooked up by marie sena a couple years ago. Not as cool but figure I could share.

My first one was done on my 19th birthday, February 13th, 1985.
Because my Dad has a tattoo, I always wanted one and knew I'd get one as soon I got legal age to do it.
Since I grew up in bum-fucked western North Carolina there was only one shop within a 100 mile radius then. It was named "J.B. Davis Tattoo & Tavern". The tattoo shop was in the back of a biker bar in Waynesville N.C.
I was way more scared of going in the biker bar as a skinny, long haired punk kid than I was of getting the tattoo, but I went through with it.
Wasn't as bad as I though it'd be, so I kept getting more as the years went by. Now I've turned 46, my arms are covered to the wrist, and I'm fixing to start a backpiece.
I never had it covered up, cause I love it to this day, but I did have it touched up in 2010. It's the spiderweb with the creepy skull/spiderlegs thingy.
P.S. I was able to keep it hidden from my Mom for 2 weeks...
She saw it and slapped the shit out of it!

I'm assuming it was the image of Buddha, not that she has a tattoo. I think this article pretty much sums it up:
Why I have little sympathy for the Buddha tattoo tourist | Amantha Perera | Comment is free | theguardian.com

I do not know the source, but I thought this was awesome.

The beardo on the left is a fireman. The bold letters on his front identifies him as being in the "Chi" group of firemen. The text on his right identifies where he's from Sensoji in Asakusa, Tokyo. I believe it was common for firemen to get tattooed for id purposes if they died on the job.

on my Uncle-in-Law. artist unknown but done on Market St in 1955:

Polish Prison Tattoos
Look what I found! These tattoos outlasted their owners. There's a cool skull and snake, a random guy on a bike (no mustache), some very interesting couplings...pretty cool tattoos. :)

I have a lady head in the ditch of my right arm, and it's really well designed so that there is minimal distress in the hot spots.

I read an article a while back about a surgeon who had an appreciation of tattoos, and felt bad when he had to operate and cut a tattoo. He said that if he had the time, he would spend an extra half hour really working to line up the edges of the tattoo when he closed. I don't recall much about the article, but I got a real sense that he respected the work and wanted to honor the work and take the extra time to address the art as well as the medical procedure. Pretty cool. Makes me think that could be a consideration if it came down to two docs and you had to choose one!

I completely agree. I've been getting acupuncture done on and off for the last 10 years or so, and I'm definitely in the 'can't avoid it' category. I've never had any problems.
Can I derail for a second and say how awesome my last acupuncture guy was? When I was on my first visit to his office I was looking through his portfolio in the lobby (when have you ever seen a doctor with a portfolio before) and on one page it showed pictures of a surgery being done in Japan when he was working in a hospital where one of his roles was being an anesthesiologist. This patient was getting brain surgery done while he was awake but with receptors being blocked; literally cap peeled back but fully alert and smiling as he sips some water or eats a bite of apple.
Mind blown, no pun intended.

Derail away, @irezumi ! My husband can attest to the fact that talking about the miracle of acupuncture is like one of my favourite blowhard topics, as it has done more to help with a minor chronic health condition of mine than some very expensive medication (which I no longer take) ever did. I often talk with mine about the anesthesiologist type work - totally amazing! I went in this week for a regular treatment, but I also happened to have a cold, and she put a couple of needles in under my nostrils that instantly cleared me up for hours. It's like sorcery.

Fucksake dont get tattooed then if your shitting it from the ingredients

Great article. Thank you!

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

I keep getting site under maintenance messages :(