Matthew Thomas

I'm not saying this speech was directed at me in particular (or that it doesn't apply to me at all). However, in my defense, I do not post for the purpose of upsetting others, nor does it bring me any sort of amusement or entertainment when someone does get upset by something I've said. I simply reserve the right to formulate my own opinions/conclusions, and I will defend that right, sometimes bitterly. As a non-conformist, the one thing I cannot allow anyone to take from me is my freedom to think for myself. Sometimes I will drop things because too many people are getting upset. I still have the right to my own opinions/conclusions, and I won't say I'm wrong if I don't think I am. I simply choose to keep certain opinions to myself when I find that too many others have become sensitive to them. But I will never change myself to please the masses, no matter how displeasing I become. However, rather than continue to be a bitter taste in everyone's mouth, I won't continue to force people to listen to my thoughts/opinions when many others find them to be offensive. And I do also attempt to make positive contributions to forums. What I think of as a troll is someone who has no interest in making a positive contribution, only in expressing their own point of view no matter who likes it or doesn't like it. And often it's not just the point of view that's being expressed, but how it is being expressed that's a problem. You can be right, but if not willing to engage in open dialogue with others who's point of view differs from your own, then you're a troll, methinks. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to change your point of view, it simply means that you're acknowledging that other people have a right to express a different point of view, and you are respecting them for it. I don't agree with certain points of view that are expressed on this forum, and I don't understand them and I may never understand them. But I respect people's right to have them, and all I ask is the same in return. We are all respecting each others right to choose how we express ourselves through the art we put on our bodies, why can't we respect each others right to express different points of view? That's all I'm saying. I've been called a troll by people who tried to force their expectations on me, yet refuse to respect the fact that I don't agree with them. I've had no choice but to protect myself from those people by placing them on my ignore list. I will not be forced into a way of thinking that I do not agree with or understand. If you can't or won't respect that, then it's paramount to me that I protect myself from you. People like that will turn the world into a wasteland one day. Everything we've tried to put behind us was brought about by those kind of people.

Being sick does not automatically mean that heavy metal poisoning is a possibility. There are specific signs and symptoms associated with heavy metal poisoning, which I'm going to suggest you research. It is understandable to be concerned with the ingredients of tattoo inks, but it's a bit of a stretch to be worried about such an extreme reaction. I have heard that red inks contain mercury, rust, and freeze-dried pigs blood, but I'm not concerned with any major adverse reactions.

My wife and I went out for breakfast this morning, and the hostess saw me patting my grim reaper tattoo (something I do when my tattoos itch, can't scratch em while they are healing, patting or rubbing sometimes helps). She realized it was a grim reaper, and asked me if it was a Sons of Anarchy tattoo. Now, my guess is that she either hasn't seen the show, or didn't pay much attention to what the reaper from the show looks like, because mine looks nothing like it. The one from the show is a bit cartoonish for my taste. I didn't get offended or upset, and I wasn't rude. I just politely said no, it's not from the show, and went about my way. I just think it's funny sometimes how people see tattoos and mistakenly compare them to things they look nothing like. Sometimes tattoos do resemble other images and sometimes are even direct imitations, but many times they are not. Still people see them and their minds make these comparisons. There used to be a time when I would get annoyed by this, but now I just laugh to myself about it.

Very cool, maybe a little touristy, but you might expect that. Pretty cool seeing all those monks with tattoos. I would expect they would use a clean needle each time, so I don't believe cleanliness should be an issue.

It's a Philly/central PA thing, lol.

25th of this month, two tattoos. My last name on the inside of my right forearm, and doing some work on an existing tattoo on my right hand.

I'm a little confused as to why, if you're not planning on going back to this person, you feel you need to ask others opinions? If you didn't connect with your artist, that's what matters here, not what other people think about an artist that you don't connect with. I would rather get tattooed by a decent artist that I connect with than a great artist that I can't connect with. My artist has only been doing tattoos for 6 years, but her and I connect. I tell her what ideas I have and she helps me find an image that matches my idea, then she bases her design on that image and idea. So far, I've had nothing but positive experiences with her, and I plan on keeping her as my artist until I'm done getting tattooed. I was briefly considering going to Philly to see a well known artist, but my current artist really exceeded my expectations with my most recent tattoo, and I've decided to stick with her because we connect and she has proven her skill beyond the smallest shadow of a doubt in my eyes. I'm rambling a bit, but my point is that if you don't feel a connection with an artist in terms of them understanding exactly what you want and doing their absolute best to make sure you are satisfied (within reason, of course), then don't go to that artist. No one else's opinion matters beyond that.

Jawn is whatever you want it to be. Short for "joint", can be an object, a song, a picture, a tattoo, etc. It's a slang word.

"BRO come here"

"uh...nah, you come here. What do you want"

"SICK INK BRAH. you do time in the Pen?"

"do you think you can get colour like this in jail?"

"ha ha ha. Good point man. sweet tatts bro. you gotta smoke?"

"later bud."

No offense, sounds like a run-of-the-mill conversation with a stoner/street rat. Perhaps mildly entertaining, but pretty much sounds like what my friend Eric would say. Maybe you've met him?

I don't recommend drinking a case of beer. Many reputable tattoo shops will not tattoo someone who is intoxicated or under the influence of anything. And in my personal opinion, they are right to do so.

Weight loss-obsessed girls eating GMO cotton balls soaked in lemon juice I looked this up because I wanted to know more about eating cotton balls (not because I want to try it lol, wanted to know why people would do it) and it gives good info, including statistics about body image issues and eating disorders. I can state that even as a man, I've had some body image issues, not to the point of desperate dieting or other extreme measures, but all through school I was called fat and ugly. For a long time I believed it. But one day I decided that my opinion of myself as a person was worth more than the negativity of shallow, superficial assholes. And I am overweight, but I no longer suffer from low self esteem because of it. I also no longer believe I am ugly. I accept that not every woman will find me attractive, but some do. Anyways I'm married and my wife thinks I'm very handsome. I could care less of anyone else's opinion of me. As far as the opposite sex goes, I don't have a specific set of standards as to what makes a woman attractive. I find women of different sizes, shapes, races and age range attractive for different reasons. I just want to throw out that not every man is a superficial jerk who only finds one certain type attractive. I do typically find bbw's more attractive than skinny girls, but that's my personal preference and does in no way mean that skinny girls are unattractive.

Keep your arm above your head when taking breaks, this will slow down the swelling. Stay hydrated and at least take a snack to keep your blood sugar up, maybe even a sandwich or two.

Hipsters are an odd bunch

I think everyone's skin is different, so slightly different techniques are better for everyone, but it seems like the basics are washing at least once a day and applying some sort of skin moisturizer. I know for myself, I will be applying ice immediately upon getting home from the shop from now on. Looking at the difference between older tattoos and my most recent, I can see how much ink has come out of the skin from allowing it to remain swelled for so long. But others may not have as much of a problem with this as I do.

These are some pretty cool stories so far. I've enjoyed hearing each one. I hope that many more are shared.

I mean, we call full arms sleeves, but pant legs sounds weird to me, I think stockings sounds better.

I thought maybe we could share some positive stories about funny or interesting compliments that we have gotten on our tattoos. I have one to share that happened today. My wife and I were in the checkout line at walmart, and a grandmotherly woman in front of us had forgotten a bag. I went to hand it to her, and she saw the grim reaper on my right arm, and she says, "I love your tattoo!". I said, "Thank you!" and she said, "I'll bet it hurt like hell, though!" I said, "Yeah, a little bit. It took about four hours." she said, "Oh, my gosh", or something to that effect, and went about her way. I just thought it was kinda funny, because she was the last person I would expect to compliment a grim reaper tattoo. But I definitely appreciated it. When a grandmother compliments a grim reaper tattoo, then you know it's high quality. That's what I say, anyway, lol. So, what are some other positive funny stories people have to share?

Stockings? Lol. Maybe.

I just got a grim reaper from elbow to wrist, and I tried something new. As soon as I got home after it was done, I put ice on it to reduce the swelling. I also used ice later that night and the next day as well. I never covered it with anything, not even gauze at the shop. I am washing it twice a day with antibacterial soap and applying a very thin layer of aftercare solution, only after washing it. The rest of the time, I keep it as dry as possible. The ice is in a plastic bag, and I use a paper towel over the plastic bag as well. I didn't even let it get wet in the shower. Very little ink leaking, a very small amount of black ink only once or twice on the towel I used to pat it dry after washing it. No ink on my bed clothes either. It's been 5 days since I had the tattoo done.

Currently all my work is on my arms, but I don't have sleeves, just a collection. I'm looking at a piece on one of my calves, but have not decided yet which one. Leaning more towards my left and "seeing" it there, but also wondering how it would go on the right. I have plenty of time to decide though, lol. At least I know what I want. A skull with roses and a dagger. Gonna go for some interesting color contrasts with it. I think I'm pretty balanced, because I have two on each of my upper arms and fairly even coverage on my lower arms and hands.

I base attractiveness on personality and attitude. I can see a beautiful woman and recognize her physical attributes, but they have very little to do with compatibility. A nasty personaility/attitude is so unattractive. I wouldn't even have a one night stand with a hot chick with a fucked up attitude. Sorry, but that's just me. Females with nasty attitudes make my skin crawl, because in that case, physical beauty is a pretty cover hiding a decaying inside.

Sorry HaydenRose, my post in no way meant to diminish how women (or men!) may feel with respect to negativity aimed at them. Your post rings very true (I'm female). It was the assumption that women may/may not get tattoos in the first place because men find them attractive that raised my hackles, and the implied suggestion that perhaps they should get fewer as that particular poster does not find heavy tattoos to be attractive.

Sorry, I'm muddle-headed today. I make no sense.

I don't think you understood my posts. What I was trying to say was that most women who get tattoos DONT care whether other people find them more attractive with their tattoos, and they shouldn't have to because it's their right to do what they want to with their body whether anyone else likes it or not. I was also saying that attractiveness has nothing to do with how many tattoos a person has. They either are attractive or they aren't, with or without tattoos. So I think you took me all wrong. I was defending women with tattoos. It doesn't even matter whether they are attractive or not, tattoos ain't gonna change it either way.

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Oh and women (and men) should get as many tattoos as they feel like and can afford. I was not implying anything to the contrary.

What it ultimately boils down to is that most women who are heavily tattooed probably don't get them because they are concerned with others finding them more (or less) attractive based on how many tattoos they have. A family member recently commented that they don't understand why I would want a grim reaper tattoo, and I not so politely and in not so many words told them that I didn't ask them to understand (I guess she isn't really family, she is my grandpa's wife's daughter, who is not my grandmother, and I don't really have a relationship with this person beyond facebook or the occasional family get together, but I would have told my parents the same thing). Anyway, males or females that are extensively tattooed don't ask for anyone's understanding or approval. They do what they want to with their bodies, and that's their right. Other people's opinions of it are irrelevant.

Funny you would say that. I'm female and if you consider Slipknot "too heavy," the metal I listen to every day would make you shit yourself. :)

Most of the time when I go into a shop around here, they're playing some kind of gangster-y rap. In one shop, they were playing some kind of ambient stuff. The shop I've been going to has like "shop music," which varies depending on who picks it that day (the last time I was there it was some really lame 50's music as a joke, but it's usually classic rock or something along those lines). And then each artist has their own little room they work in where they can play whatever they want. My artist likes metal, and he knows I do too, so he usually pulls up some metal on his iPod. Nailbomb, Type O Negative, Deicide, Job for a Cowboy, etc. Depending on who else is in the shop (they do a lot of nipple tattoos for women that lost theirs due to breast cancer, so there's a decent amount of older women that wouldnt usually be caught dead in a tattoo shop), he doesn't always feel comfortable subjecting people to that music. But if it's just me and him, we go all out. :D It's usually metal, sometimes it's classic rock, last time we ended up listening to The Beastie Boys. Not my thing, but whatever, music choice is up to him.

My best experience getting tattooed so far was a couple sessions ago where he played like 2 straight hours of the Deftones newer stuff. I have their older albums, which are hit or miss for me, and I had been avoiding the newer stuff because it just didn't seem like my thing. But he insisted I hear them, so he played their newer albums and it got me into almost a trance like state. It was a pretty amazing experience and the session seemed to fly by.

I personally don't consider slipknot "too heavy", but everyone has different tastes, though, and I try to be respectful of that. I know that plenty of females do listen to metal, and there's nothing wrong with that. Personally, I've never heard anything that I thought was too heavy. Some people play music too loud, and that annoys the crap out of me. Music doesn't have to be loud to be enjoyed. When you're at your place, play it as loud as you dare if you've no fear of pissing off the neighbors. When you're in public or have company, play it at a level where you can have a conversation or hear other things around you, unless you have headphones or other people want to hear it as loud as you do. I love to go to concerts, but any other time I can't stand loud music. But I digress. Anywho, no such thing in my mind as too heavy, but I just try to have respect for other people. I especially don't want to irritate my artist or put her on edge, because I don't want to walk out of there with a jacked up tattoo.

Unless willing to go for a large dark piece I don't see any other options then just keep it like that or laser it.

Considering the fact that the OP already spoke with a qualified and experienced professional tattoo artist who told her they can probably fix it, I don't think your advice is well founded unless you are more qualified and experienced than the artist she already spoke with, which somehow I doubt.