sophistre

10 hours ago, omeletta said:

But hey, I've installed new memory in my macbook yesterday, that's a start, isn't it...?

I've never in my life done anything to a laptop at all, so that's one up on me, actually!

I am closing in on finishing my first-ever computer build, yaaaay. I am quite proud of it, considering all of the things I chose to tackle for my first time building one. I crimped and sleeved my own extension cables, repainted my mobo thermal armor, hand-sawed, champfered, and routed my cooling loop with acrylic tubing, and I installed waterblocks on my CPU and GPUs. Now that I've done it all from top to bottom, I don't think I'll ever be paying anyone else to build my gaming rigs for me again. :)

Still got a little distance to go yet, but I can't wait to start using it, not least because my current box is in its death throes (and I've been sitting here staring at my HTC VIVE box for two months without any ability to use it!).

On 7/23/2016 at 1:59 AM, ChrisvK said:

Spend yesterday afternoon in the chair of Jan Willem (@janwillemtattoo) in Rotterdam. Drew a Peony on my elbow ditch with this as the result: 

 

This is broken for meeeee :(

I would not. The laser works the same way on your hair follicles that it works on tattoos...it interacts with the pigment.

Peeling full back/upper legs tattoo + norovirus = most uncomfortable, sore, itchy bed rest ever.

There comes a point when you're sick when you have to acknowledge that, even though you have a tattoo in the final stages of peeling...you really need to take a hot bath. A few hot baths. Multiple hot baths, so that you don't die of body aches.

I regret nothing.

(And the tattoo seems fine.)

-I'm sorry there's friction in your life with your family over something you love. It's interesting...there seems to be a very visceral reaction in some parents with regard to the physical bodies of their children, and it has seemed to me at times that it can't always be explained by generational differences. My mother is just about as supportive as any parent can be of their child's tendency to explore fringe cultures; as long as I'm not hurting myself or anyone else, she's pretty much fine with whatever. And though she's always positive with the things she says about my tattoos, a few things she has said have led me to wonder if she didn't have some kind of emotional investment in my personal appearance re: inherited characteristics, or something. I remember telling her early on that my tattooer told me I have good skin for tattooing, and she made some offhand comment about how she hopes I appreciate that she gave it to me, which struck me as weird at the time -- obviously I am grateful that she gave me my skin! Haha. And grateful for everything else she's given me, too.

Maybe some parents can sense that the act of tattooing can be a radical act of self-ideation on the part of their children, and they feel weirded out and threatened by it, as though we're setting out to become different people all of a sudden, and they're afraid of losing the one they've spent so long loving. I don't know. I don't have kids and I can't really say. (In addition to all of the other reasons that parents can object, obviously.)

I think for most people this won't look like much has been done, but oh well! All of the black/shading, with the exception of some clouds we're going to add, is now done. All of the lining, too. We had to line two more dragon feet and I thought I was going to die. If I never see another liner that size again, it'll be too soon! So now we get to start color after this, and I can't wait. 

Greg Whitehead and all that.

I love that gryphon lady! Man, I am such a huge fan of mythical beasties. You can take all of the coolest parts of an animal and just smash them together, what could possibly be better than that?

19 hours ago, polliwog said:

 I have had untattooed people express shock at the fact that my visible tattoos weren't awful more than once.

This usually shows up for me with strangers asking where I get tattooed, and saying 'your tattoos are really different!' But since they're not very different from other good tattoos, I can only assume this means that most of what they see is not good.

Having spoken to a bunch of my friends after getting a bunch of my own...I genuinely think that  most people just do not know what good tattoos look like, or even why good tattoos are good in the first place. I've had a lot of friends send me links to shops near them going, 'what do you think about this person's work?' and half of the time the shading is terrible or the lines are wonky, but they just don't see those things. Even after I show them a bunch of examples of better work, they don't seem to internalize it quickly.

I do think there's something to the control aspect, though...that most look for an artist doing things like what they've imagined their tattoo will look like, even if what they want isn't going to make a very good tattoo. I dunno.

On 7/1/2016 at 1:30 AM, Guerillaneedles said:

My thigh pieces (more side of thigh for them both). 

Second one, my beautiful big red kitty from Stu Pagdin. One hit - 6hrs. I took the train. This one was more of a tricky heal, got some lovely scabs but I think he's got a heavier hand. I love to collect but I'd be covered in Stu's work if he lived in the UK. I just love it! 

Hnnnnnnngh I really love how loose and colorful the tiger and chrysanthemums are! And that tiger has a great face.

Pretty much.

One of the tattooers in a shop I was in was cracking jokes about girls who come in to get mandalas (not in any particularly cruel way, just in the sense that a certain kind of customer seems to inevitably want mandalas), but I don't think this would stop me from getting one. I'd still totally get a mandala tattoo. They're beautiful! IDGAF, haha.

Tattooing doesn't have a long history of catering to a crowd that cares much what other people think. Seems like most people who get tattooed have to some degree or other already said their goodbyes to that. (I mean, it would probably hurt my feelings if somebody said nasty things about one of my tattoos, but that would be more about somebody being a dick to me than anything else!)

edit: Apparently I've already posted this?? HAHAHA

At least I'm consistent. :p

On 6/16/2016 at 11:21 PM, cltattooing said:

Do you mind if I post that one to my IG?

 

Not at all! Go for it. :) I love it, too! (Of my tattoos, one of my cousins likes it the most.)

I am by no stretch of the imagination even half as tattooed as most of the people here, but even my personal experience has taught me that all of these things are really individual and there just aren't any rules about it. Examples:

The tops of my thighs didn't hurt, really, but the outside, over the IT band, hurt like a sonofabitch. All of them healed REALLY well, though -- no scabbing, not really any pain, and they barely even peeled. Contrarily, most people's complaints about where they've been tattooed on their backs, the worst spots, were not the worst spot for me; mine was in a weird spot between my shoulderblades -- not even the bit in the crease of my butt/thigh could compare with it, and that was no picnic either! My back has also taken a shockingly long time to get to a 'settled' heal state, where the lines aren't super raised, too...it's all just depends on the person. Trying to predict what anybody else is gonna feel seems like a fool's game to me. Plus, some people just do not feel pain like other people do, and that is science fact.

Anyway, this thread is about thigh tattoos, so here are mine! I'm including a healed pic of the one that @cltattooing did on me, too, since I don't think I ever sent her one!

It's very difficult to take pictures of your own thigh tattoos without warping them.

This is very timely, because my friggin heat pump is apparently broken, so I have no AC. It is 85 degrees in here right now. x.x BOOO HEAT

Slightly less 'wearing a onesie full of mosquitoes' feeling this time around, but...not by much.

Not...by...much.

I am pretty excited about it. :) Hard to picture what it will look like when it's finished, though. I'm always amazed how much tattoos evolve as they near completion.

Did some shading with Greggles today. Not even in the same league as lining, though anytime he gets close to that one area on either scapula I have to bite leather. That will probably always suck. But hey - since we focused on the upper body this time, I didn't have to be completely naked in public for a whole day! Bonus. 

I am finding that 4 hours is about the time that I consistently have my pain response start to fail. Tattoo flu every time. 

This is so strange. Do people not realize that you are changing the texture/appearance of your actual skin when you get a tattoo...? Even if you didn't care about tattooing tradition, I mean...it's not like your skin is a whiteboard that you can just erase and re-tattoo over and over again.

Unrelated, but I have a plugin for chrome that replaces millennial/millennials with snake person/snake people respectively, and it never fails to entertain me. 

Driving to Portland today. Next session on my back tomorrow. 

I always forget that it's convention time in Portland at this time of year until I go to book a hotel for my tattoo appointment and discover that there are virtually no rooms left. It's a good thing there are so many pet-friendly options down there, or I'd be totally screwed!

Very pretty piece!

Thanks buddies. :) I feel kinda like death warmed over today, but I'm happy we were able to get through all of it. Now it's back to saner amounts of discomfort, I think! (Can't imagine doing a backpiece over a few days -- more power to the folks that have, but I think I would die!)

Today I learned that the posterior of my body is home to multiple portals to hell! Seriously, I kept expecting cenobites to show up and drag me off with hook chains.

Whoever said the butt crease is magical sure knew what they were talking about. But the most surprising thing for me (and for Greg, actually) is that there were a couple of spots near my shoulder blades that actually made me burst into tears instantly! It was the strangest thing...it wasn't like I just bottomed out and couldn't take it anymore, it was a huge surge of adrenaline and emotion that felt completely involuntary. And just in those spots! We tattooed well into armpit territory and it was honestly a relief after those other spots. So strange.

I would post the Instagram but I'm on my phone. :( it's on his page, though, butt crack towel and everything.

I played in the beta and really liked it. It makes my machine realllllly angry for some reason, though, so I'm trying to hold out until my new box gets arrives!

I am getting ready for the release of the Vive. 8)

Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones.

It also seems like people just literally do not know what a good tattoo even looks like, or why it's a good tattoo vs. some other tattoo that they've seen. They get impressed by the wrong things, and they don't really know better. I'd blame this on social media, but I'm really not sure that's possible, given that, as you say, bad shops seem to outnumber the good ones, anyway. But I've had good friends of mine -- people who have a pretty good eye for fine art/other mediums -- ask me about portfolios from shops that have made me go 'eeuuussgghh.' They just don't know.

It's harder to find places like LST than it is to find terrible advice, unfortunately.

- - - Updated - - -

Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones.

It also seems like people just literally do not know what a good tattoo even looks like, or why it's a good tattoo vs. some other tattoo that they've seen. They get impressed by the wrong things, and they don't really know better. I'd blame this on social media, but I'm really not sure that's possible, given that, as you say, bad shops seem to outnumber the good ones, anyway. But I've had good friends of mine -- people who have a pretty good eye for fine art/other mediums -- ask me about portfolios from shops that have made me go 'eeuuussgghh.' They just don't know.

It's harder to find places like LST than it is to find terrible advice, unfortunately.