SeeSea

I guess I deleted the original pic from my IG, so here is the mighty kung fu mantis again by Bryan J Turnbull (from my LST gallery). I just got him touched up last week, so he's lookin crisp and crunchy like a bug should. This pic is is pre-touchup at the 2 year mark.

...and a couple new ones to buzz some life back into this thread:
"BUZZ OFF" by Jonny Murdoch

"ZEN SPIDER" by Jonny Murdoch

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And I wanted to give this special lil guy his own write-up:

I call this one "TESSERACT ANT"
It is tattoo #36 and now is the smallest tattoo on my body (about the size of a quarter)...so small in fact that it isn't readable until you get close enough and squint
...this is a concept tattoo I've been planning on getting for some 'time'...
You may recognize the black n grey tattoo on the peripheral as the Escher dragon on my ribs, which happened to be the first "big" tattoo I got in 2005.

The Escher Dragon is a 2-dimensional piece of art that tricks the eye into seeing 3-dimensions by manipulating depth and perception.
Now, did you ever read the book 'Wrinkle in Time' by Madelaine L'Engle when you were a kid?

So...herein lies the concept...I got this time-travellin' ant tattoo, in 2015...that has found it's way INSIDE the Escher Dragon that was made 10 years ago. So now, I've gone and made this a 4-dimensional tattoo...by adding "time" as a new variable...
I know some of you are thinking...geez Bongsau, trippy, that's some interstellar shit maan...maybe wanna lay of the shrooms...
It was made by Bryan Turnbull at the Edmonton Expo (comic con).
Edmonton Journal newspaper showed up and took our picture for the paper:

The photo is actually pretty funny...it probably looks like I'm getting work on an epic backpiece to the uninformed public, but in reality it was the big man Bryan putting on my smallest tattoo LOL
"Only in our imagination do we live in more than two dimensions, and with its help we attempt to enliven the flatness of our image with depth. All of a sudden it may dawn on us how foolish we are, we faddists of the two-dimensional picture with our constant urge to achieve unobtainable depth."
-M.C. Escher, 1947[1]:
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...now to take this concept one step further...the ant is so small it may eventually fade and blow out...in which case in 10~20 years I will probably black it over, erasing the ant from the future and leaving it as a wrinke in time from the past...far out maan..

I haven't really been an active poster lately, but I just wanted to check in and say hello and hope all is well.
I've been super busy since my mentor and I decided to start up our own shop in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. I'm currently working 12-16 hour days balancing a job and tattooing. I've been able to tattoo super consistently since we opened up though and I've seen some improvements (albeit nowhere near anything I'd hope to be) in my technical ability. My pal Cody works with us as well, and yeah, it's been good. I'll try to check in more regularly, but I still peruse the board.
Miss y'all.

FaceTime'd with the granddaughters and watched them blow out birthday candles from 250 miles away. How awesome is technology?

FaceTime'd with the granddaughters and watched them blow out birthday candles from 250 miles away. How awesome is technology?

5 weeks - good enough for chlorine, but not healed enough to provide the same protection against sun. Comparing 4 and 8 weeks with sun and chlorine variables is probably not possible to state a difference, although 4 weeks is likely fine for chlorine if it healed ok - I would still make sure to wash with soap, probably antibacterial, afterwards. For some reason I recall 3 weeks being a good number to shoot for.
Use of sunscreen regularly is a newer phenomenon with the growing knowledge of skin cancer and the sense that the sun is stronger since we were kids, so yeah, those with newer tattoos might be taking better care of them as a result of that as well.
Aftercare - everyone is probably different. I suspect the folks on this board are more likely to protect their investments.

Finally got to visit State of Grace and get my Molly Monmon Cat from Horitomo!
He did an amazing job. Just spectacular. I sent several pictures of her and some descriptions of her favorite things, her personality and her character. She *loved* shrimp sushi and got an entire order for her 16th birthday, right before we lost her to cancer. Horitomo created a picture of her in heaven with a halo and surrounded by her favorite things - including that she is surrounded by catnip! The face is perfect. I gave him a decent size square footage and told him he could expand beyond the cat and add other elements. Her face is perfect. When he showed me the sketch, my eyes just teared up.
It was neat to be tattooed on the platform in the shop. It is a little sanctuary with neat drawings, books and items on shelves. He is a quiet gentle soul.
I tried tebori for the whites and I probably would not do it again. For many areas, I didn't even feel the first 4-5 pokes. It just felt like a shoving pressure but there was *no* pain. Then the last several shoves were painful. But around my hip was bad all around. I'm glad I did it, though.
Crashing out now holed up in the hotel with mom. <3 <3 <3

5 weeks - good enough for chlorine, but not healed enough to provide the same protection against sun. Comparing 4 and 8 weeks with sun and chlorine variables is probably not possible to state a difference, although 4 weeks is likely fine for chlorine if it healed ok - I would still make sure to wash with soap, probably antibacterial, afterwards. For some reason I recall 3 weeks being a good number to shoot for.
Use of sunscreen regularly is a newer phenomenon with the growing knowledge of skin cancer and the sense that the sun is stronger since we were kids, so yeah, those with newer tattoos might be taking better care of them as a result of that as well.
Aftercare - everyone is probably different. I suspect the folks on this board are more likely to protect their investments.

FaceTime'd with the granddaughters and watched them blow out birthday candles from 250 miles away. How awesome is technology?

If you're happy with working in digital and traditional art mediums, good for you buddy. If people like your stuff, then that's great - but there will always be room for improvement with every piece of art you do, and while tattooing is no different, it is a completely different ball-game. I suggest that you do your research on the industry, travel around to different studios and get tattooed by highly reputable artists (yeah, you will have to travel, but this is small price to pay for a beautiful piece of art that will be on your skin forever). Collect a few tattoos and talk to artists about your own artwork, ask for their criticism or advice - if they like your personality and work, they MIGHT just give you a shot...just be prepared to work for it (and I mean SERIOUSLY work for it). Be yourself, be humble and remain open-minded and ready to learn. BECOME AND REMAIN TEACHABLE.
Tattooing is serious business - either go for it 100%, or leave it to the professionals. Just my two cents...

I'd put away the tattoo machine for now and not touch it until you are safely under the direct supervision of a professional and very experienced mentor. I believe the word for the day is "Apprenticeship".

I'm at my machine shop job this evening and a part time programmer stops in to check on a job we're running. He's seen me in a sleeveless shirt before but stops and says, "geeezzzz.. you have a lot of tattoos".. no kidding.
I wonder what's up.. and out it comes. He has 2 daughters, age 16 and close to 18 and they're both dying for their first tattoo. Of course he and his wife say to wait until the girls are 18.. but his wife now wants to get one. So he's in a bit of a bind. He's no fan of the art form.
He asks me if I have any regrets, I say no. I have no problem, but the rest of the world might. I just told him not to make that big of a deal out of it... teen girls... can be quite rebellious. And once they don't need permission, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. I advised him to talk to them about going to a reputable shop when the time comes and avoid "artists" who work out of the kitchen while the parents are at work.

Saved the erf!

My power bill is sky high due to electrified hobbies like aquaria and orchids. This should make a dent.

file:///.file/id=6571367.9108508
file:///.file/id=6571367.9108467
This is the best I can do right now, both upper arms by Horimatsu from Osaka, done at Stockholm Classic Tattoo (except for the lines on the left arm, they were done at Tatuata in Helsinki). The left arm is not finished.
I actually tried to post two different photos but I'm too stupid to manage that task...

Dude I know what you mean. Spare time is few and far between.
Looks like my first tattoos were total crap. Luckily most of them were on myself. The good that came of that was having a slight understanding of what those needles were doing, so watching my mentor afterward was more beneficial. I've done a few more now and am really trying to buckle down and get this technical stuff down. 7 days a week working, drawing, reading, tattooing, and asking questions.

I agree with you about place of tattoo. Selected open spaces or hands or even face - it's bad for the first tattoo.
But not size.
You told that people can regret about first big tattoo in future because thei will not like the quality of tattoos or will not like the choice of picture. But! Maybe I'm naive tattoosrtist but i think that people must choice a picture for tattoo and tattooartist very seriuosly before first or not first tattoo. And if the choice of the person to be really serious as the choice of the master he will not regret the tattoo later out-dependence of the choice of the size of the tattoo.
In addition, for some reason, if a person is going to do a little tattoo it less serious approach to the selection of the master and often gets ugly result. Large size also contributes to the fact that the man carefully chooses what he do and for whom. it's just an observation but it still takes place.

Hello everyone! My name's Kirk, I own a private studio in NJ and do geometric / dot work stuff. Simple introduction.:)

here are some of my tattoos rufio
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The ones visible here are done by Bunshin Horimatsu, Jondix, Jonas Pedersen, Iain Mullen, Cheyenne Sawyer, Matti Sedholm, Alex Reinke Horikitsune

If someone is interested in some powerful bold irezumi, lines made with machine and all shading with tebori, I can warmly recommend Horimatsu (@bunshin_horimatsu on instagram). He travels a lot, especially in Europe.
My first experience of getting tebori done was a juzu bead around my ankle, by said Horimatsu, and it pretty much felt the same as a machine tattoo feels. Then a few months after that he visited Stockholm again and did a half sleeve on me, with some cover ups in it, in five consecutive days . He did all lines and also background (because of the cover up situation...) with machine. That took three days. Then he shaded all colour in two 3-4 hour sessions. The arm felt pretty bad after three days. I think the tattooer stretches the skin with more pressure when doing tebori tattoos, so the last two days were kinda rough. I think what I'm trying to say is it doesn't hurt more than machine tattooing, unless you have huge areas of freshly made tattoos around the areas being worked on with tebori tools. The healing was a bit different on the tebori bits, it kind of flaked off faster than the areas made with machine.
Also, maybe ot, I know it may sound stupid for someone to get tattooed five days in a row, but I really wanted the arm finished. And it was a pretty cool experience:)

Finally got some half-way decent healed photos of my Hooper musician leg.
On the other hand, trying to paste together such a single photo is near impossible, at least for an old geezer like me.

I'll reactivate the squidpants thread by putting this there, too . . .

Here's mine from Friday at the London convention, done by Tony Hundahl. So unbelievably happy with this one!

Nicked the picture from Tony's instagram as my camera is broken

reactivating this thread with my Thomas Hooper piece:

Fresh one...

@SeeSea - thanks dude, that means a lot. I was simply a naive person who knew no better - I now know for a fact you should never pay anyone to teach you, because you're just as expendable but you stand to lose a small fortune if anything goes wrong. I lost three and a half grand that I'll never see again, but it was a learning experience. In the words of Myke Chambers, one of my favorite artists and sort of a hero of mine: 'May I remain teachable until the day I die' :)

Finally got to visit State of Grace and get my Molly Monmon Cat from Horitomo!
He did an amazing job. Just spectacular. I sent several pictures of her and some descriptions of her favorite things, her personality and her character. She *loved* shrimp sushi and got an entire order for her 16th birthday, right before we lost her to cancer. Horitomo created a picture of her in heaven with a halo and surrounded by her favorite things - including that she is surrounded by catnip! The face is perfect. I gave him a decent size square footage and told him he could expand beyond the cat and add other elements. Her face is perfect. When he showed me the sketch, my eyes just teared up.
It was neat to be tattooed on the platform in the shop. It is a little sanctuary with neat drawings, books and items on shelves. He is a quiet gentle soul.
I tried tebori for the whites and I probably would not do it again. For many areas, I didn't even feel the first 4-5 pokes. It just felt like a shoving pressure but there was *no* pain. Then the last several shoves were painful. But around my hip was bad all around. I'm glad I did it, though.
Crashing out now holed up in the hotel with mom. <3 <3 <3