sophistre

Here is my submission for this months contest.
My whole backpiece has been done in a 6-month period (just 31 hours in total) by Bonel from Corazon Santo, Arnhem, The Netherlands.

I also have a full size picture available HERE

Got this started last Wednesday by Mike Stockings, he was guesting at Black Garden Tattoo in London.
Few more sessions to go and other bits and pieces to add! Super happy with how it's started.

Poking my head up from lurking again to post here, because I'm excited. After my last appointment fell through (artist cancelled visit to the states), I tried to get a booking in with Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat, closer to home. Took 3-4 months (and a dropped ball by his previous assistant), but now I'm booked for Sept. 18th. He's been doing more traditional stuff lately. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing! Mermaid or fish and birds and flowers? Dunno, don't care. Gonna be a good time. :)

Here's a panther I got from Eli Quinters a few weeks ago as a walk in.

1 shot Zeis Tiger/Snake by Jason Phillips at FTW in Oakland, CA.
Jason slays both Japanese and American traditional. If you're ever in the Bay Area, you should definitely book an appointment with him. So happy with how this turned out. So glad I don't ever have to tattoo my chest ever again.

done by steve bryne at rock of ages in austin tx.

My pug the day I got it done, first tattoo :)

Poking my head up from lurking again to post here, because I'm excited. After my last appointment fell through (artist cancelled visit to the states), I tried to get a booking in with Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat, closer to home. Took 3-4 months (and a dropped ball by his previous assistant), but now I'm booked for Sept. 18th. He's been doing more traditional stuff lately. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing! Mermaid or fish and birds and flowers? Dunno, don't care. Gonna be a good time. :)

Poking my head up from lurking again to post here, because I'm excited. After my last appointment fell through (artist cancelled visit to the states), I tried to get a booking in with Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat, closer to home. Took 3-4 months (and a dropped ball by his previous assistant), but now I'm booked for Sept. 18th. He's been doing more traditional stuff lately. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing! Mermaid or fish and birds and flowers? Dunno, don't care. Gonna be a good time. :)

@MsRad hasn't posted on here in a while due to school business. Anyways, she got engaged today! Congrats!

#1) Everything REALLY DOES look better with GOOD tattoos. (Even douchebags wearing Ed Hardy shirts...:rolleyes:). Whatever you're self conscious about ain't no thang when you've got a bad ass tattoo. Why would it be? You're too busy being stoked about the awesome tattoo. IMHO.
#2) Keep watching, @growltiger, because it's not anywhere near finished yet! :) And if you wanna talk backpiece stuff feel free to PM me for anything!
#3)
It really is. Like I said, I've spent a lot of time (years) changing scripts in my head and weeding out the shaming stuff - btw totally get rid of anything that has advertising and/or commercials in it...anyway - I visited a friend who I had not seen for 3 years recently, and some of the first words out of her mouth were about how heavy she was and her weight - in response to a question that had nothing to do with anything at all about her or her weight!
Because I don't have that particular shame-script running through my head any longer I was sort of shocked and surprised - and then really sad, because it sucks to have that awful, shameful, guilty, not-good-enough feeling running through your entire being at all times, and a lot of PEOPLE (all of us, regardless of gender) have that subconsciously ruling our lives. Just behind all of our other thoughts. And I felt sad for my incredibly talented and awesome friend who after three years, it was the one of the first things she wanted to communicate to me :(.
FWIW, when I was younger, I realized that when I saw a woman who was clearly confident and also fat or somehow unattractive, my thoughts went along the lines of "who does she think she is? she's fat! she can't do/wear/say that!". I became afraid to go into public for awhile, because if *I* was thinking that then what were people thinking about ME? Literally would not go in public unless I had to for work or groceries. I began to wonder why I had such a sharp reaction, and such a negative one, at that? And what kind of asshole thinks that!! So I actively reversed my initial instinct and began admiring confidence in all who had it. (Why am I writing all of this? This is embarrassing/painful to admit, geez )
I think that there was something in me that was jealous of them for having confidence when I couldn't - if that makes sense? Like how could you be confident if I am not? (How dare you!) I think society gets mad when people go off script.
I didn't like the way those thoughts made me feel, the way that negativity would sort of take over and poison me.
A quick aside:
Can I be honest, in the middle of this writing, and say that I am feeling a little bit of shame at ever having had such poisonous feelings...and feeling very grateful that I was able to literally change my mind....but wow, how petty and shortsighted and young. Life is a work in progress, always.
Anyway - I traced a lot of my anxiety, guilt, fear, shame, and poisonous negativity to some of those thoughts I was describing (and of course many other thoughts and patterns in my life) - and I realized that I didn't have to accept my part of the deal. Just because society or some jerk or my mom or WHOEVER offered me this deal (i.e. be 'fat'! = feel shame, you're worthless!) didn't mean I had to participate.
My thoughts are kind of falling apart here, but I think I'm trying to say - remove yourself from the equation. It takes some time to shed what we've been fed our entire lives, and you have to actively identify what is making you feel bad and then actively change it. Listen to your body. Do you feel bad? Knots in your stomach? Headaches? Active guilt/shame? Identify what triggers those feelings...dig deep if you have to...and then remove yourself from the thoughts/people/environments that are causing it.
Ugh, word vomit, in the end just go get a big, awesome tattoo. I think that encapsulates what I'm trying to say...

Poking my head up from lurking again to post here, because I'm excited. After my last appointment fell through (artist cancelled visit to the states), I tried to get a booking in with Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat, closer to home. Took 3-4 months (and a dropped ball by his previous assistant), but now I'm booked for Sept. 18th. He's been doing more traditional stuff lately. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing! Mermaid or fish and birds and flowers? Dunno, don't care. Gonna be a good time. :)

Poking my head up from lurking again to post here, because I'm excited. After my last appointment fell through (artist cancelled visit to the states), I tried to get a booking in with Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat, closer to home. Took 3-4 months (and a dropped ball by his previous assistant), but now I'm booked for Sept. 18th. He's been doing more traditional stuff lately. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing! Mermaid or fish and birds and flowers? Dunno, don't care. Gonna be a good time. :)

Poking my head up from lurking again to post here, because I'm excited. After my last appointment fell through (artist cancelled visit to the states), I tried to get a booking in with Greg Whitehead at Scapegoat, closer to home. Took 3-4 months (and a dropped ball by his previous assistant), but now I'm booked for Sept. 18th. He's been doing more traditional stuff lately. I'm not exactly sure what we're doing! Mermaid or fish and birds and flowers? Dunno, don't care. Gonna be a good time. :)

The resurrection of this thread makes me so happy. There are so many places to investigate after I visit Scapegoat in September!

Went to KC for the weekend and managed to snag a walk in with Noah Moore, he filled in a pretty awkward spot with this rose:

(Photo stolen from his Instagram)

I just spent two hours reading this thread and looking at the amazing stuff in it. It just reinforces how little I actually know about the recent(ish) history of tattooing. So fascinating.
I'd contribute my stepdad's tattoos, but I'm not sure he'd let me take pictures of them -- I think he's self-conscious about them. He was placed in an orphanage in Chicago along with several of his siblings in what had to be the early 40s...and at some point got his hands on a bottle of ink and decided to tattoo not only himself but most of his siblings, too. The Sisters at the orphanage finally caught him, though, so some of them escaped, heh. I was always amazed he didn't have any from his time in the Army, since he lied about his age to get in (maybe he does, and just didn't tell me about them). Just crazy stories about backing a tank into an officer's car, and playing drums in Chicago with all-black jazz bands before that was a comfortable thing for a young Italian guy to do.

I just spent two hours reading this thread and looking at the amazing stuff in it. It just reinforces how little I actually know about the recent(ish) history of tattooing. So fascinating.
I'd contribute my stepdad's tattoos, but I'm not sure he'd let me take pictures of them -- I think he's self-conscious about them. He was placed in an orphanage in Chicago along with several of his siblings in what had to be the early 40s...and at some point got his hands on a bottle of ink and decided to tattoo not only himself but most of his siblings, too. The Sisters at the orphanage finally caught him, though, so some of them escaped, heh. I was always amazed he didn't have any from his time in the Army, since he lied about his age to get in (maybe he does, and just didn't tell me about them). Just crazy stories about backing a tank into an officer's car, and playing drums in Chicago with all-black jazz bands before that was a comfortable thing for a young Italian guy to do.

Last session for a while now. Drove on as long as we could before shop closing time. Fire, robe designs, more hair, details on the faces.... lots of little thin lines for fun!
Dana Helmuth
Read Street Tattoo
From his Instagram @danahelmuth

I don't really understand this line of argument. Words bother some people. You are free to choose to use them, sure, but what is the point of stubbornly insisting on using words that bother other people when there are plenty of other functional words that don't?
I mean, I guess I would understand it more if it was cussing and you were trying to make a point, maybe, by messing with people's conservative something-or-other. But this is just...words for tattoos. Choosing the ones that bug people when there are other ones that get the job done isn't shocking or subversive, it's just kinda...weirdly obstinate. Like...you're choosing words that the community hates, for ...no reason with associated value, other than just doing it because you want to, in spite of knowing that it bugs people. I don't think that rings resoundingly with respecting said community.
WTF do I know, though. I'm a newbie and should probably shut my cakehole.

I don't really understand this line of argument. Words bother some people. You are free to choose to use them, sure, but what is the point of stubbornly insisting on using words that bother other people when there are plenty of other functional words that don't?
I mean, I guess I would understand it more if it was cussing and you were trying to make a point, maybe, by messing with people's conservative something-or-other. But this is just...words for tattoos. Choosing the ones that bug people when there are other ones that get the job done isn't shocking or subversive, it's just kinda...weirdly obstinate. Like...you're choosing words that the community hates, for ...no reason with associated value, other than just doing it because you want to, in spite of knowing that it bugs people. I don't think that rings resoundingly with respecting said community.
WTF do I know, though. I'm a newbie and should probably shut my cakehole.

I'm loving the sad longing looks of the girls that Danielle Rose has been producing:

Okay, this is just a first pass - nothing is done except maybe the sea snake but there are no highlights or shadows for him yet either. On the right, hidden are two unfinished clownfish in an anemone. He'll keep laying things out to get the whole design before he goes back to finish each part completely. Next up will be some fish and coral on the right, and in the middle will be the deep blue with some shadowed critters in the distance. Kinda frustrating that nothing will be finished until everything is finished at the last minute!
FYI - This is a sea scene made from a number of pictures I've taken while diving. The sea snake I chased all over the bottom trying to get a close-up of him, only later to find out how poisonous he is! Oops! And I just love my eels!

Some progress on my Marius Meyer backpiece last week. He did all the green/scales ..

I don't really understand this line of argument. Words bother some people. You are free to choose to use them, sure, but what is the point of stubbornly insisting on using words that bother other people when there are plenty of other functional words that don't?
I mean, I guess I would understand it more if it was cussing and you were trying to make a point, maybe, by messing with people's conservative something-or-other. But this is just...words for tattoos. Choosing the ones that bug people when there are other ones that get the job done isn't shocking or subversive, it's just kinda...weirdly obstinate. Like...you're choosing words that the community hates, for ...no reason with associated value, other than just doing it because you want to, in spite of knowing that it bugs people. I don't think that rings resoundingly with respecting said community.
WTF do I know, though. I'm a newbie and should probably shut my cakehole.