PopsBdog

Had another great adventure in Chicago this weekend including a very successful trip to Great Lakes Tattoo. My wife had an appointment with Mario Desa for one of his very cool folk birds and I was lucky enough to to find Nick Colella available for me to get a walk in dragon. I can't recommend this shop (and Chicago in general) enough.

@pidjones
cmon man you're not stopping
how about some good old american traditional
on the topic in general i dont see myself ever seeking out the touchups
each tattoo
special time
special place
the aged lived in look marks that
does the touch up take away that magic
its up to the individual of course but i wonder about that
i kinda dig blastover a bit
but i kinda would expect to be completely covered to consider that
just get more cool tatts @pidjones!

I've thought about this too @pidjones but moreso at the 10 year mark. Then I hit the 10 year mark and my tattoos look better now that they have aged (and been lived in) than fresh!
I asked my tattooer about recolouring parts of my sleeve eventually. He said, well yeah but then parts will look fresh and the rest old, so where do you draw the line and just rework the whole thing? The body can only hold so much ink before it over saturates and turns to mush. Part of what makes a good tattoo is design, placement and execution to age gracefully.
There are some cats that are starting to laser off 10 year old sleeves just to get new sleeves made. That being said in the coming years I will probably be going for 2nd layer pile ons with parts of my bodysuit. I have no regrets. People always comment I have no space left but I keep finding little nooks and crannies to insert fun little momentos ;)
Enjoy your pieces for now, new ideas and placement will keep coming to ya!

Thanks to everyone for their replies! I emailed the original artist, and told him the shop had informed me he was no longer working with them. I asked him about setting up an appointment to finish up the peacock feather that he started, and thanked him again for his work on the stunning Bowie tattoo. (Photo coming next.)
Will explore another option with the shop if I don't hear back from him in a week or so. But, that's where I'm at right now.
Cheers!
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The Bowie tattoo I mentioned. I adore it.

well,I guess I'm weird then,I like the attention and questions I get about my tattoos,I just am nice to people and enjoy talking to them,especially plainskins,but then I like to talk to strangers,I am pretty outgoing that way,I love talking to people about my tattoos and tattoos in general and artists I have been to,etc,etc
none of mine have any really deep meanings,I will explain to people that ask or I talk to maybe what the art is and where,when,I got my cool art/designs.
as for you,my advice is,when you get questions about the lion tattoo,you already answered your own question,just tell them "i feel it just looks badass and i love lion tattoos".
just my .02

we have found the perfect tattoo for your empty torso!

Yup. I never really planned how it would all turn out and placement would have been different if I did. When I started I just wanted to be able to get tattooed by my favourite artists (and didn't want to go below the elbow) I do plan getting some backgrounds added though.


Sorry for the crappy picture quality.

That Cripwell suit is beautiful and so perfectly executed, but I find it a little too perfect for my tastes. Looking at those tattoos, I don't know if I get much of a sense of the person who has them. I guess aesthetically I prefer a more organic mish mash of tattoos where you get tattoos of different ages complimenting and clashing with each other and you get a whole that transcends any individual tattoo.

I am slammed at work, yet I just read this entire thread. And I'm glad that I did, because there's some great back and forth in it. Thanks to everyone who posted something good here.
I don't count my tattoos, but I do keep a list of who has tattooed me. Two weeks from today, I'm getting something from someone who's been on my wish list for a few years now. He'll be artist #42 for me. Then again, I started getting tattooed 20+ years ago. Some of the names on that list are very well-known. Some of them are complete unknowns. One of them is no longer alive, two of them have since stopped tattooing, and three of them were shit on in the this thread's first post. ;) Not a single name on that list makes me better (or worse) than anyone else who gets tattooed. But every one of them is a part of a story--my story. Just as every tattoo I have comes with a story of its own. I love meeting people and sharing stories, which is part of what I love so much about getting tattooed and hanging out with awesome people like so many of you.
I'll stop rambling now, but thanks again to those of you who made this thread worth reading.

I want to get tattooed by people who do tattoos that I can feel in my gut, which is to say that when I see an artist's tattoos, or look through their portfolio or on their instagram or whatever (though more and more for me I want to see the tattoos, and not just pictures of them) I want to have a deeper reaction than just thinking that it's a good looking tattoo, and I want to have a good time getting those tattoos. I've been tattooed by some "big names" and I've travelled a fair bit to get tattooed, and to be honest, I feel a little self-conscious about it because--and maybe this is only in my head--I fear coming across as somebody who buys into that kind of almost celebrity culture that sometimes goes along with tattoo collecting that I think @Pugilist articulated very well. Because for me it's not about that and it was never about that. I just want to get rad tattoos.

I wouldn't say that man. You're just new around here. Alot of us are not new to tattoos at all and we spend alot of our time around them. I think honestly, if we knew a little more about you, and the things you like and don't like, that would be a much broader and less trolley approach. I've been tattooed by Eli Quinters, like a lot of people on this forum (and people here have been tattooed by Shige and Horiyoshi 3) so it's a little like slapping us (and some really rich tradition and history) in the face.

This thread really makes me only want to get tattooed by people older than me like Bob Roberts and Eddy Deutsche. I realize it wasn't your original point (I too am wary of the star culture in tattooing) but your misinformed dismissals ('there are limits'!) are so offensive to me that I can't get over it. In the end I realize it comes down to different sensibilities and what I'm looking for in tattoos is obviously very different from yours. BUT, if I can add my 2 cents as a person who's been tattooed by both Eddy Deutsche and Bob Roberts, Eddy is the most 'PMA' guy ever (if that's what you're after). If you're looking for an 'experience' or stories, Eddy and Bob have plenty. The flash at Spotlight has bullet holes. (The fact that the stencil is made from the original flash push pinned on the wall alone makes it almost worth getting the tattoo to be a part of the history.) Nothing 'soft' or 'squiggly' about my Bob Roberts tattoo. There's no question about Eddy's technical ability. I think every respectable tattooer would disagree with you on this point. I think people with 'perfect' tattoos look uptight--not what I'm going for (not interested in putting computer graphics on my body either). Any imperfections will add to its beauty.

I have things to say on this thread that will have to wait until I'm done work and have the time to write a proper response, but in the meantime can we try to distinguish between seeing tattoos and seeing pictures of tattoos? Because the two are not the same at all.

I'd choose "tattoo mojo" over technical perfection any day. It's like music man... It needs soul! I think Deutsche, Roberts and Horiyoshi's work has plenty, and then some.

Lynch mob on the way. Eddy Deutsche is in my top 5 favorite tattooers of all time.
I'm getting to the point where I don't care who has a bigger name or the most Instagram followers. People like Mike Adams and Amanda Wachob have thousands upon thousands of followers but I could care less about their work. (YES, I AM PUBLICLY SHIT TALKING.)
I'll take Mike Roper over just about anyone everyday.
Edit; I'll also take Joel Long, Mike Dorsey, Andrew Conner, Mike Rennie, Will Lollie, Virginia Elwood, Bart Bingham, John Henry Gloyne, Josh Arment, Dave Regan, Matt Brotka, Katie Davis, Ishmael Johnson, John Rippey, Eric Brooks, Jason Phillips, Carolyn LeBourgeois, Sean Perkinson, Chuck Kuhler, Aaron Coleman, Josh Brown, and a gazillion other people who are well known or completely unknown that kill it constantly.
Tattooing is a rich community. There are so many people that do good things that it is impossible to narrow things down like people were able to 20-30-40 years ago. There used to be like 2 conventions a year, and now there is one every weekend.
I suppose what I am saying echoes what @CABS had to say. The experience and the radness of the person will trump just about everything. I'm a young tattooer, and I fully realize I'm not very good at this right now, so I will do my best to make sure my friends get a cool experience and can always look at those blownout lines and holidays and smile saying "That was a good day."

holy crap! thats a cross between ET and beetle juice when he was in the form of a snake

I thought a lot about if or how to respond to this comment. At first I drafted a nasty, sarcastic response, but I thought better of it and decided to be more charitable.
I can say with absolute certainty that I did not make the wrong decision to get tattooed.
I got tattooed because I wanted to, for my own reasons. I happen to absolutely love my tattoos. The only regret that I have is that I’m not totally covered.
When I first got tattooed, I had no idea what was ahead. I was going to get one tattoo, hidden, even when wearing a bathing suit, and that would be the end. It was to be a private thing. That was the way I wanted it, and I was happy with that. I never imagined that I would get more than one tattoo, much less several. And even as I got more tattoos, I intended to keep them private. The were to be for me and my husband. Even when I completed my half-sleeves, they were calculated to be coverable.
But I never imagined how much I would like being a tattooed person, I never anticipated how much I would come to love the way I looked with my tattoos. I never imagined how happy they would make me. And I never thought that I would love my tattoos so much that I would sometimes like to share them with the world.
This whole discussion would never have happened if I had decided to keep them private, so to suggest that I made the wrong decision simply because of my concern about what people would think is rather unfair and uninformed.
I’m not a person that is saying “Hey, I’m thinking about getting my first tattoo. I will cover my whole forearm and back of my hand. But I’m worried about the reaction of others.” in that case it might be appropriate to ask if the person if they are sure that they are making the right decision. But I am a person already happily tattooed and am now simply trying to become comfortable with letting them show in public.
I like LST because most people here are understanding and helpful. They are (usually) not judgmental of the tattoo decisions that others make. If a woman posts that she is getting a backpiece and want to wears something that will not be too revealing while the work is being done, you get dozens of helpful suggestions from women who have already dealt with the issue. No one says “If you are afraid of showing you body in the tattoo studio, then perhaps you shouldn’t get a tattoo.”
Quite honestly, the comment is exactly the kind that I might expect to hear from a rude person who is a tattoo hater.

As others have said, the quality artist you choose will be just as safe and clean no matter where they're tattooing you. There has to be a slightly (tiny) increased risk of an infection, just because you're getting tattooed around hundreds of other people instead of 5-10 people in a shop, but your own aftercare is infinitely more important a factor.
The reason not to get a tattoo at a convention has nothing to do with safety, it's about the atmosphere. I found getting a tattoo at last years Montreal convention to be WAY too loud and hectic for my taste. It was very difficult to have a conversation with my tattooer - essentially we were shouting half the time (booth quite close to stage).
Afterwards I told myself I'd never get tattooed at a convention again...
...I'm getting my next tattoo in a couple weeks at the Montreal Convention.

Two ideas that I'm pretty set on is a Dan Higgs's Druid on my wrist, and this Amund Dietzel work as a possible chest piece:
Eventually I'd like to get the brokeback skull girl (think that's what it's known as). And my deep ambition is to get a full traditional japanese leg sleeve that will go up into a backpiece. I may need a few piggy banks started for that one.

sorry, couldnt resist :p

I put both my sleeves on my arms! My artist said that was the best place for them. :-)

Placement is, in my opinion, the hardest thing about tattoos to understand, and it is also often the factor that distinguishes good tattoos from great tattoos. This probably isn't the most satisfying answer, but I think to really understand placement you need to look at real tattoos on people because pictures, especially the tightly cropped Instagram photos that make up most of what we look at these days, really give no sense of placement. Half the time you can't even tell what body part they're on.

Hey :)
Well, I have tattoos and I'm also a psychologist. Truth be told, we have an entire chapter to check about how our client looks like, and this of course, includes tattoos. This looks "chapter" is NOT as important as the others, but it is a source of information about our client - and any information we can get is helpful to better understand the client.
Some tattoos have meaning, some don't. We are interested in those with a meaning for the client.
Imagine a woman coming to your office, and she has a portrait tattoo in memory of her dead son. Maybe that's the reason she's there (the death of her son) and you'll want & need to find out more about it, and even if it's not, nonetheless it was an event that shaped your client one way or another.
And what if tattoos could talk? What story would they say? These are very good questions to ask the client once you have established a relation with him. Some people really like to talk about their tattoos!
There's also could be the case when a certain tattoo is related to a gang, to a rite of passage or even has a medical purpose (a tattoo which warns others in case of emergency that you have diabetes or certain allergies etc.) and it's important to find out the symbolism of these because it helps us, as I already said, to better understand the client.
I could go on and on, but the basic idea is that there's nothing wrong with your psychologist wanting to know more about your tattoos :)
P.S. - English is not my native language, so sorry for my mistakes.

Guess we're crazy.

sol you're overthinking this - who cares who likes it - if its trendy blah blah
you need to like it - thats it
get what you get
but dont get upset