PopsBdog

love that meal ! all sounds great !
I am making one of my fav dishes,Ahi Poke,love that stuff,when we go to maui & kauai they have so many types of poke over there.
eat a lot of sashimi grade tuna,
and I made pork back ribs,marinated them cut up in coca cola for 24 hours,then brushed on bbq sauce and slow cooked on bbq in indirect heat for a few hours, mmmmmmmmm

Just framed in two widows on our building:
so now it's whiskey, beer, plus legal recreational weed, :D
and having an all American meal ;)
ribs, sashimi (raw tuna), grilled salmon, rice, nori, salad, pickles, chips, dip, etc.
later fireworks @ the local fairgrounds while listening to folks firing guns through the night........:eek:

Very good idea for a thread, @mmikaoj and there's so much great discussion here.
My wife is as into tattoos as I am so what I spend on tattoos isn't a contentious point in our relationship. For all the things my parents have said about my tattoos, they've never really brought up money. I recall my mom once made a comment once about how they must be expensive, but when I confirmed that without offering any specifics she didn't make any judgmental comments or say that I could be spending my money on better things or anything like that. They have all kinds of feelings about my tattoos and particularly the extent to which I'm getting covered, and surprisingly not all of them are negative anymore, but they've never tried to make me feel guilty about spending money on them. My inlaws would be super judgmental, but that's why they don't know either of us have tattoos. So basically I don't feel any guilt or have any bad feelings about spending my disposable income on tattoos, and when I think of things that I spent money on before I started getting tattooed (booze and records!), tattoos are a much better use of my time and money. Tattoos given me experiences, growth, stories, and friendships that I wouldn't have had otherwise and they've enriched my life in countless ways.
I agree that tattoos are a luxury in that they don't shelter or feed you--tattooers will rightly disagree with me here--but I like what @cltattooing is getting at above about them meeting a psychological and spiritual need. I don't think they're entirely frivolous in the way that I think that, say, buying the latest electronic gadget is. It's fascinating how tattooing is something that has been around probably as long as humans have been around and yet still persists. We all have our reasons for getting tattooed but I think there must be some deeper, primal drive down there at the root of it and that getting tattooed and being tattooed is a fundamental part of what it means to be human.
I am not so sure about tattoos being a "product" though. Yes, there's an exchange of money for a service rendered, but it's not the same as going to a car dealer and driving off the lot with a new car, or buying a TV. Obviously the process is entirely different but there's something more happening there and tattoos have a different economic character than most goods. Economics isn't my strongest subject, so somebody here who does understand economics is probably going to bust my balls here and say that I am totally wrong because I am applying economic analysis of commodities to something that isn't a commodity because I'm a fool, but it seems to me that tattoos don't have exchange value and that sets them apart from most goods we spend money on. I can't trade in my old dated tattoos for the latest most fashionable ones. It's not like art collecting in that there's no speculating on the future value of my tattoos. If we want to compare tattoos to other things we spend money on, I think tattooing shares more characteristics with spending money on education than it does with spending money on things. Or maybe it's more like spending money on a vacation or something like that? I don't know. I'm thinking out loud here and poorly articulating half-baked ideas.

I've just returned home from a trip to Berlin. Brought this one home with me:

Done by Uncle Allan at Conspiracy Inc, Berlin.
I'm pretty excited about this one. A rose by Allan has been on my wishlist for a loooong time, so it's amazing to finally check it off the list.
(Picture respectfully borrowed from Allan's IG account: http://instagram.com/unclea)

"Tattoos are luxury products. It's not something that anyone really needs."
I remember reading it just like that somewhere for the first time and I have heard people expressed the idea since. I've thought about it a lot since and tried to formulate my thoughts on it. I'm not sure yet that I have a definitive comeback that I'd let people quote me on but let's explore the theme for a while.
If you talk about different sorts of needs, in most cases I'd say tattoos are not fundamental to life in the way food, clothes and shelter are. Getting tattooed probably ranks pretty close to the top of Marslows pyramid of needs for most people. Of course there is circumstances where having certain tattoos could save your life (or make you lose it), just think of prison culture in many parts of the world. Many of us have seen the sensational documentary about tattoos of the criminal Russian subculture. You could also argue that sometimes tattoos can help in sexual interaction and from some evolutionary perspective help the poor genes in your body keep life going past your death.
Then there is all the sociological aspects of in-groups and out-groups and how most people try to fit in someplace, if not in the mainstream then somewhere else. Some biologists talk about how having a sharp intellect is an aid in evolution, that it's an important factor in the sexual selection. The intellect in turn would be expressed in external symbols, status symbols, titles, behaviors, the clever words we use to impress each other and tell the world who we are. I've read people arguing that often art: both appreciating (the right) art in front of others (or symbols there of) and the performance/creation of art (or the symbols there of) is also a evolutionary strategy in order to find a mate and make children.
Of course us humans enjoy thinking of ourselves, and humanity, as something more complex than that. At the same time sex and violence/love and death is at the core of both art and the human experience. Right now I am reading a book about evolutionary theory and one of the main points the author makes is that we have to bridge the gap between biology and the humanitarian sciences. Religion and art for example, has it's roots in evolutionary processes but has in part branched out and become so complex over time that often we forget it was created by the human brain, which was in turn formed through evolution.
Maybe that was sort of a side track, decide yourself. Truth is you can not eat your tattoos, they won't shelter you from the elements and keep you warm. (But many people have in different ways made money from making tattoos or having tattoos, to put food on the table in their cave or hut) If I was really running low on cash, say I lost my job, getting tattooed would pretty quick be had to put on hold. So I could eat and pay rent. However, I suspect most people who do get tattoo regularly, especially those LST-forum members, can probably afford to live a pretty comfy lifestyle by a global standard (or even just comparing with people in their own country) and on top of that spend money on this kind of luxury.
Sometimes I can feel guilty about it, like this money could pay for "real things" that could prove helpful. I know my parents think I should be saving money for an apartment to own, and such things, as if I wanted their way of life. Or just put money in the bank for "the future". Once my aunts man asked me how much I paid for a tattoo on my arm and when I told me he exclaimed "But that money could get you a moped!". But I don't want a moped... I said. I think many are provoked by heavily tattooed people for this reason, to different extent.
A funny scene to illustrate this happened last week. By chance I ran into my friend Olle (some people might know him as @tattoo_pilgrim on instagram) outside of Systembolaget (state owned chained of stores in Sweden, the only one who legally can sell alcohol stronger than %3,5) We ended up standing right in front of the store, talking for 10 minutes. All the time people are going into the store to spend money on alcohol. Both me and Olle have tattoos showing, and right next to me sits a Roma woman, begging the shoppers for money. On my foot next to her I have a tattoo of a sleeping bum with a cloudy speech bubble containing the acronym C.R.E.A.M. I don't know exactly how it ties to what I am writing, maybe not at all in the sense of language, but I thought it was an absurd scene to be part of.
I think most middle class people, and even working class people in some countries, can afford to spend huge sums of money on objects, interests and pursuits that are not crucial to their day to day existence. One example I often find myself using is that it is not considered weird to want to spend 20.000 euro on a car, or to lust after a watch for 500 euro. In fact it's culturally sanctioned and encouraged by advertising and other instances of our society.
For me tattooing is great joy on so many levels. I would not be the person I am today without the tattoos, impressions, thoughts and experiences I've collected since 2009 when I got my first piece. I could never have imagined then what it would spiral into. I remember the first time I formulated for my father that tattoos could be a hobby even if you are not making tattoos, or to my new friend in Italy that tattooing was art. It was strange to put those words in my mouth then, I was not sure if I really had thought it through enough. But now, years later, I know that this what I think and feel is good for me.
So spending that money and effort is all worth it. In the same way people enjoy fancy cars, travel the globe to see their favorite band perform, slave away at the gym, put hundreds of euros a month on clubbing, alcohol and drugs, and all other things that may or may not be luxurious to indulge in. And maybe in a way we are doing it because we believe that in this culture it will set us apart in a way that allow our genes to live on. So even if the acts are "un-natural" or superficial, the motivation is very human and basic. It's up for debate
Hmm.. maybe this blog post-length rant is not going anywhere really. As I wrote, this is like a loosely weaved net of ideas that is still shifting in shape and content. Feel free to discuss whatever I wrote or introduce your own ideas tied to the theme.
PS. I studied sociology for a while, but probably not enough to make any sense, perhaps you can tell D.S.

Thank you @mmikaoj
I hear ya, perhaps my own thoughts would not have been articulated so well !
I get the stigma too...people look at me covered in tattoos and they think I'm a high roller with a lot of disposable income. So what if it is a luxury we spend our time and money on? That's our business! What people don't get to see is that I've got an education and a respectable profession that I've earned through focus and hard work. That's part of what my tattoos represent to me (I'll explain the root of that feeling below, about my parents ultimatum) Yes, a nice house and nice things. I've been driving my one and only vehicle for the last ten years. I know exactly how much I've spent to cover myself in my tattoos and honestly if you spread that over a decade of getting tattooed it really isn't that insane. And I wouldn't change any of it. We all probably know people that spend an equal amount of time and money on their own passions...like comic books, fast motorcycles,vintage guitars, designer clothes, $50 barber haircuts every other week, cocaine habits...
Tattoos are very interesting from a social perspective...you see lots of struggling folks (who we would stereotype as having a rough time putting food on their table and roof over their head) have many tattoos. Maybe not the highest quality, but nevertheless, a tattoo is a tattoo. Rich folk have many tattoos, good and baaaad quality, some that equate it as a fashion accessory like wearing a sleeve to carrying a Luis Vutton handbag. Through history, where royalty would have exotic tattoos made after trade trips to the Orient. Nomadic people have had tattoos made for centuries. Tattooing really transcends social class and I think the whole tattooing process - from the inception of the idea of "I'm gonna put this picture on my body" to the painful experience of making the tattoo and healing it - appeals to a lot of us and gets us in touch with the human experience. It makes us feel alive. I'm just as interested (if not more) in the scratchy old tattoo the friendly homeless guy on the block made on himself 30 years ago than the rig-worker who got a neo-Japanese sleeve mish-mashed with a samurai, hanya, snake and dragons that yeah sure looks dope but doesn't really mean anything. The jail house tattoos are as equally important as my extensive parlour made ones. Everyone has got a story, I want to hear and see your story!
I laugh to myself...when I think back about the infamous parent-tattoo-ultimatum. They said if I could spend my money on the tattoo then I could surely afford paying my own way, living at home or on my own, cover room/board on top of saving for my tuition while I was a student. Perhaps if I would have got one little tattoo and got the taste of rebellion that would have been it for Bongsau's tattoos. So I waited. And waited. And saved. And waited. And got my first tattoo days after my last engineering exam. I worked hard, got a good job and secure profession and started making bank roll and suddenly my vision of being covered in tattooing wasn't out of reach. Thanks mom n dad ! haha (my dad also said when i was out living on my own, i could sit around and smoke as much dope as i wanted, but not under his roof lol, whoops!)
One thing that has always remained very important to me about tattoos...is that NOBODY can take them away from you..(with the exception of maybe a mad man with a belt sander /jk). Once that tattoo is in your skin, it's all yours. Your parents can't undo it. The bank and the tax man can't take it away from you. The government can't take them away from you. Rich or poor that tattoo is in there! Your life can go to shit in an instant but your tattoos and the stories they tell remain.

Couldn't post pics in the getting tattood thread so I'll try here. In Copenhagen getting my leg done. Somewhat of a shamanistic experience getting tattood in the place where Nordic tattoo revival began. K

there is so much going on in this 20 minute segment. I love the world he talks about, and the digs he takes at things exploiting the culture. This was a great post, thanks for sharing it

Haha crazy. I get it though. I didn't realize what an investment it was for both student and teacher. I was fortunate enough to randomly ask for an apprenticeship from someone I became great friends with. The amount of time spent with each other is huge; if you don't get along, it will never work. My apprenticeship is 2 years of unpaid dedication. He has been honest with me that his goal is to teach me to become better than him. Like I said, it's the hardest thing I've ever done and I love it. I've learned so much about myself, life, confidence, respect and sacrifice. My teacher says it will take 10,000 hours before I feel comfortable with everything... I've got 25 hours. Haha. Thanks for the support. It truly means a lot.

Maybe.
Waves with white caps, around a big rock.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Japanese+Wave+Tattoo&FORM=RESTAB

Usually we require two weeks notice in writing as well as a doctor's note.

I like having general idea like "I want an eagle" or "I want a dragon" but that's as far as I go. I like giving the tattooer as much freedom as possible because if I'm seeking them out and traveling to their shop, I trust their abilities and I trust their advice. I wouldn't seek out an artist from a shop across the country just to micro manage every detail. I want their tattoo. Plus, I want them to enjoy doing the tattoo as much as I will enjoy having it. If they tell me "Dude, I was excited to do this thing when I heard what you wanted." That, to me, is exciting and gets me pumped up to get that tattoo. I think the highest compliment I can get on a tattoo I have is the artist that did it saying they love it. That, to me, is the best compliment ever.

My last couple of tattoos have been made under these spontaneous circumstances.
That's how I've ended up with a sweet ugly ass electric eel (sharpied on), a technicolour lizard and a sailor jerry frog.
After getting a lot of "project" tattoos as I call them (bigger multi-sesh pieces) these little random bangers really showed me a flip side of the tattoo experience. I like the excitement, live for the experience...and that adrenaline rush when you get home to the wife and say "uh so yeah i got another tattoo this afternoon"...LOL

I have a dragon, so I must be safe!

Remember reading someone, somewhere, saying that every time you get a tattoo you should ask yourself why it's not a dragon.
Don't have a dragon myself (plenty of space left though) but it seems like valid advice!

some good points made on this thread already. i agree that you definitely should not cover it up or get it removed. love it and use it as a sign post for all the future growth and learning. it's a cute fox, but there are lessons to be learned.
your tattooer, as an artist with a client relatively new to tattooing, should have provided more direction and suggestion. however, as an evolving client, you get to learn from this one.
in the future, i would:
- turn the fox around, so it's facing forward with your body
- shrink it about 15-20% so it doesn't wrap around as much.
some (lazy) artists might not care enough to go thru the extra work, but the artist and client would both be happier in the end. there may be artists out there who think of it as a business and just want to get you in and out of the door as quickly as possible so they can work on other things or the next client or the next drawing that they're really into. perhaps they don't take as much time as they should with each client. once they stencil is placed on, they just hope you're happy with it so they can get the ink in and get paid. it's up to the client to say... "nah. let's move it" or "can we make it smaller?" sometimes this can be a pain in the ass to the artist if you do it too much*. but in the end, you have to be happy with the outcome and stencil placement is about the last time you can make those decisions.
*in this case, your artist would have had to wipe the stencil, shrink the image, confirm the size, make a new stencil facing the other way, and re-place the stencil. that isn't a big deal at all. but at each of these steps, the artist should be asking if it's all good and you, as the client, have an opportunity to speak up.
if you want to read up on some things LSTers have learned on their journeys, check out this tread:
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/6025-cool-stuff-youve-learned-gotten-into-etc-thanks-getting-tattooed.html
even after all this advice that you asked for, you might still want to get it covered. consider that it might be a bit difficult to cover and the tattooer will have to go much bigger to do so. if they don't do a solid job of covering it, you might still see bits of this cute little fox reminding you of all these lessons anyways.
surround it with great tattoos and use these lessons to empower yourself.

get both! :)

A crazy old dude came up to me in the street a few weeks ago, he was pointing out his wrist to me. He had a tattoo on the top of his arm and so do I, so I started showing mine thinking he was looking to talk tattoos. Turns out he was just trying to do the universal signifier for 'do you have the time'.
I guess Decoratedskins say the darndest things too. Haha.

For me, different experiences at each shop, and also this has been spread out over about 15 years. The older ones were pretty straightforward and I wasn't particularly worried about the cost, and I honestly can't remember if I tipped or not! I didn't know any better back then, that's for sure. I didn't even know that I ought to research artists before scheduling.
More recently my artist liked to handle everything by email initially, with a plan about what I wanted, size, etc., with me sending him pics of the body part I wanted tattooed, and a lot of back and forth in an email consultation. I scheduled an appointment in person, and he had the sketch ready, and I went for it. We had already worked out the cost by email ahead of time - he seemed very interested in settling that ahead of time. He's been at it about 20 years.
My upcoming work will be done by an artist that does not want to do anything over email but wants to meet you and have a consult in person to discuss what you want, and she gave me a rough idea of how long it will take, plus how much per hour she charges, so I can have a rough idea. We then went to her calendar and I couldn't get on the schedule for 3 months. I was a little surprised at that kind of delay but I don't know what is going on in her life, since she travels and she may be away for the summer. I don't mind - I really want HER to do this tattoo, and compared to having this on my skin the rest of my life, 3 months is nothing.
I also tried to get some work done by another artist I admire but she won't do any work that she herself doesn't like and wouldn't enjoy seeing in her personal portfolio, so she refused to tattoo me. She considers her clients to be her own canvas, like if she went down to the craft store and purchased it, and hung it on her own wall, so she has to like the tattoo she's doing.
I find it interesting how different artists have wildly different approaches to how they deal with their clients. Artists are entitled to this, and it is the nature of the gift!

I don't condone copying people's tattoos, but I am not really digging this thread. One it's not really any of my business to call out people for this kind of thing. Second, I would be hesistant to do so, because there is so much reference material outside of tattoo realm, that I couldn't be sure that two people weren't copying a piece of art from another genre as a tattoo. Third I have never gotten a tattoo that I expected to be or thought in any shape or form would be custom. I like running into people that have the same tattoos I do, I like the look of traditional tattoos and I am under no delusion that I am somehow "special" despite what my mother told me. I don't worry when someone tells me they are going to draw something for me, and they really just go trace it from the Ed hardy flash book and pass it off as their own, because I know most people aren't familiar with the design. Even is someone does copy the tattoo you have, it doesn't change the fact that you have a badass tattoo that most people would be jealous of and want to wear and you will get no sympathy from me, in fact i might make fun of you for complaining about it.

Having lived in Austin since 2008, this thread is the last damn thing I need to see. Gouge my eyes out already.
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No. Because no mother is low class enough to fuck a hipster.

Authenticity is overrated.

I still can't get a handle on what a Hipster is. Maybe the generation gap lets me down.
Are we talking motherfuckers who change their style depending what the current trend is?
In Australia we have a simple term for them types. "Wankers".

Guaranteed to cover anything.