SeeSea

Well, I only like "pretty" hinges. Yours is probably, like, rusty or something. Yawn. :rolleyes:

Hinges in the ditches - love it! Don't forget to oil those babies.

Thanks for all the likes, folks! I'm having trouble comprehending that it's over. I thought of it in the past tense yesterday and surprised myself. @Bmore - yeah, sharks. Sharks are many times misunderstood creatures. Most we encounter either don't care for us and just leave (often because photographers and videographers are chasing them for the shot), and others either ignore us or check us out with a drive-by and wander off. I only had one near-wetsuit-soiling event but hey, we're in their ocean and not the other way around. @Mush - thanks! Yeah, I'll take your vote going up against all those spectacular Japanese pieces! There are just soooo many awesome pieces around this place. If I had another back I'd love a Battle Royale, and if I had another back I'd love something with a lot of negative space that included my butt, and if I had another back ... I have learned so much here. @KBeee - funny! It took me a couple tries to accurately list all the critters in my last post. I kept leaving things out so I had to stare at the tattoo to list everything! Thanks! @pidjones - if I continued around and did a torso, that 3D app thing would be really cool. Thanks! @OutOfIdeas - ::SMACK:: Smartass. :p @Pugilist - yeah, holy hell is right. This finished in a thundering climax of 4 long sessions in 7 weeks. I'm not yet right in the head. Thanks! @graybones - thank you! @HettyKet - thanks! Actually, I didn't know Zee was Sea in Dutch. An online translator even says it means a large body of salt water. Wow - I had no idea, but the irony is wonderful! Thanks for sharing that. @marley mission and @sophistre - yeah, I know? Is this the year of the back or something? @scubaron - thanks! I didn't originally think about the stories, I just chose a bunch of pictures because I loved them. It was only after it was completed that the deeper meaning of the entire piece came through.

Welcome! I have paw prints from my little girl who passed, too.

Finished my back on Friday night (well, Saturday at 5:30 am). It was a hell of a ride - it took almost exactly a year of sessions every 2-3 weeks. We'll do a final session after this heals to tie the bow on it. This tattoo was made by Sean Zee out of Brick, NJ from pictures I've taken while scuba diving. I gave him 50-some pictures and a wish list, and he selected about 15 shots to create this scene. These pics were taken on 4 continents from 1998 through 2013 using (mostly) a Nikonos V underwater camera with an SB-105 strobe, UW Nikkor 35mm, 28mm, and 15mm f2.8 fisheye lenses, Sea & Sea (no relation) macro kit and Nikonos closeup kit. Sean is a great guy, dedicated and amazingly creative. It boggles my mind how artists just "see" stuff like this and make it happen. He put up with a lot of questions and "what ifs" and "why nots" from this nearly virgin canvas (as he likes to say, "this woman only had lil kitty paw prints on her shoulder before this"), explaining to me all the ways this tattoo would NOT work, and ended up just putting it on the table that it really needed to be a full back if I wanted so many references. And to prove it, he designed the whole thing superimposed on a picture of my bare back and emailed it to me. I remember the moment I saw it for the first time and it shorted out my brain. I committed to the full back about 20 minutes after I got the email. (And I admit at the time I did not understand in the least what I was in for...) Kinda funny, thinking back on it, how all the chatter and uncertainty and 14 years of wanting some sort of tattoo with my eagle rays were completely silenced and resolved in a heart beat. Anyway... So, the critters making appearances, starting at the top right and going clockwise are: two moon jellyfish, two Moorish idols, two clownfish and anemone, a batwing coral crab and mustard tube sponges just behind him, a leopard moray eel, two squirrelfish hiding in red sea fans that cross my lower back, a sea snake in lettuce coral (very poisonous, which I didn't realize until after I'd crawled up in his face to take the picture and then been admonished by the divemaster after the picture was developed), a queen angelfish and a hammerhead shark. In the center are two spotted eagle rays and the broken mast of the Nippo Maru, a Japanese supply ship sunk during WWII by US forces in Truk Lagoon, Micronesia. When I look at this, I don't just see a tattoo of fish. It's a diary of my favorite diving experiences. Each part has such different memories of the location, the people I was with, and the experience on that dive. (Yeah, poisonous sea snake. Whoopsie on that one. And the clownfish was actually guarding a little ring of day-old eggs. And trying to photograph moon jellies in a surge without being hit is like playing a 3D video game. And that I really really wanted my spotted moray eels but Sean said the pattern wouldn't age well, so with resigned sadness, my handsome spotted moray had to morph into a leopard moray. Sniff Sniff.) All of this flooding my brain at the same time. And then I get this goofy grin on my face thinking about walking around with this huge awesome back piece that anyone I know would be shocked to learn I have. He put up a little video where you can see the ribs, too: Video of SeeSea's Back. Healed pics coming to an LST contest near you. I want a T-shirt, dammit :D

Welcome! If you like the reference, get it. It doesn't matter who anyone else thinks it's "meant for." It's not anything controversial or wildly inappropriate or anything.

Thanks! I love my Hammie. The 30+ was how long it's been since the session ended. This tattoo took more than twice that. It is sooo nice to write that in the past tense.

It's done. We're done. Except for a touch-up and tweaking session after this heals. Did the left ribs from love handle to arm pit (none of which you can see here), detailed the 3 fish on the left, finished up the eagle rays, ship wreck mast and the blue. Right now it's 29 hours after we finished and I'm still trashed. Healing this one is going to be special. But of course, since it didn't show up on his Instagram, all I am left to share is an in-progress pic he posted about 7 hours in! (Which coincidentally was the same time I was complaining over on the "Thread to post while getting tattooed" thread that I was running on fumes.) This is just before the final push to finish the eagle rays, ship wreck mast, blues and highlights in the middle. (Funny enough, at the time, I didn't realize it was also the final push to finish THE WHOLE TATTOO!) We're taking healed shots in a few weeks and I'll post the final results. For now, I'm just gonna curl up on the couch and nurse my tattoo flu.

Welcome! Ditto on the share?

Yeah, me too. I swore when I came here it was just for one tattoo. This is a very bad forum to belong to. It isn't necessarily the peer pressure, but the exposure to awesome tattoo artists, great ideas and solid information that plant all those extra ideas in your head.

I'm, he wanted to go for 8.5 because... We just finished! Surprised me!

[Expletive deleted] 7 hours in and he wants another 1.5 out of me. I am running on fumes. Calgone take me away from this hell. Why. Do. We. Do. This???

@beez, DAMN, girl! :D

Wow - sorry to hear that. Wow. That is great subject matter - i would get someone to finish it out and then expand with something around it so it feels like it is not just something designed by a murderer. You've got a lot of open area around it to add some other sea elements and make it a new piece. Voting no on the coverup.

Wow - Colin Dale's stuff looks really cool.

@omeletta - that is a cool story and great conversation! Your mom sounds fun.

Welcome! That sounds like neat imagery, and it's cool to think about representing how you are breaking the chains. But I wonder if down the line, when you have really broken free, if you want a memory that still reflects you being somewhat chained (or roped) down. Is there a neat image that can represent where you are heading, instead of where you have been? Anyway, just a thought. But a cool idea.

I don't wear a bra for any work done on my ribs or back on the bra line. I stopped running the week or so that I am healing (that has been hard to swallow!) Rubbing is the issue. I haven't tried anything under a sports bra, but I suppose distributing the squeeze over a large area is better than a single strap digging in. I've considered putting a piece of Saran wrap under my bra so that any rubbing is across the wrap and not my skin. I haven't actually tried this yet so I don't know if it would work. Probably, though.

I think we both just stepped into the same hole. I believe that @Graeme is referring to a common confusion - "fonts" are for displaying letters on screens and on printers and not for putting letters on skin, and he is thrashing us for misuse of the term. What she is looking for is hand-drawn "script." If she really wants words in the tattoo, then the advice to get very readable script is the right way to say it. I've seen some script that is beautiful and very readable. Now, if @Ashley76 wants entire lines or paragraphs, then the tattoo will get pretty big to make it legible, and then yeah, it will completely overshadow the flowers. And since she wants a medium sized tattoo, it could be hard to make it readable. So @Ashley76, the message is - if you want to get words in the tattoo, let your tattooer choose a script that will work with your overall goal.

Welcome! Ditto on the legible font and the threads that @Hands On beat me in quoting. At least you are choosing an area where you can hide the tattoo when needed. Keep us updated on your progress!

@Ashley76 - welcome to LST. You'll get some feedback and welcomes if you start a new thread and ask questions in the Initiation thread here: Initiation | New to Last Sparrow Tattoo | Last Sparrow Tattoo

@Tornado6 - cute!

Everyone is different, even though there are some spots that tend to float up to the top of the list. Well well discussed thread: http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/crazy-tattoo-stories/358-whats-your-longest-tattoo-session.html

^^^ HA!

@scubaron - amazing manta! I can't wait - the water looks soooooo clear!