sophistre

My big piece was finished last night. Sooo now becomes the deliberation of what I want to do next, where I want to do it. I'm stumped. Was going to talk to my artist last night but I was so focused on pretending it didn't hurt..
Husband has put his leather armor on hold and went w/a new artist, starting this tiger. He loves the new artist so that's great. A dragon is going on the back of the calf there and everything will be in color.

Had a blast at the convention!  Was great to meet @polliwog @Fala and was also great seeing @Graeme and @Pugilist.  Briefly saw @Shaun1105 which was cool but missed @BrianH due to walking past every booth except the one he was being tattooed at. Feel pretty dumb about that since it was directly behind the one I was hanging out at. Also bummed to have missed seeing Sam  whose handle name eludes me at the moment.  (Mitslam??)
Got this by Nick Colella on Saturday in the same booth and at the same time as @Graeme was getting an awesome tattoo by Robert Ryan. Absolutley love it and had a great time talking to Nick. Such a great dude and awesome tattooer. This is my first leg tattoo. On the side of my left calf. 

Lil' anchor by Josh Henderson

Here are my yokai made by Dave Cummings. Love them so much. 
@a_beukeveld your hannya is gorgeous but that's no surprise! I bet it's already healing super well!
I also got a great little skunk from Nick Colella!
 

Recieved this from Dave Cummings at the Montreal convention. He did an amazing job.

Got this today - crappy picture so it's hard to see the colors. I'll post a better pic tomorrow after it is a bit less irritated and in better light. This is my 9/11 Pentagon survivor nod. I had the artist perch the eagle on a pentagonal-shaped piece of rubble. Had originally wanted to have the date 9-11-01 in the center but, after getting feedback here, decided against it. I'm glad I left it out. I asked him to create some clouds and show the sun beginning to peak out - really based on my desire to speak to the focus on the future and not just the event itself. I was very, very lucky to survive that day - this piece has much meaning.

Started this in January (i posted the lines here before)... this is 5 sessions in w/ 2 hrs each time. Again, I want to thank the LST community for leading me to Jason Brooks -- I could not be happier w/ the results :D

I posted an update in the Initiation forum, but realized it isn't as widely seen. Here is a condensed version:
Session 3 on the dragon sleeve is done. I went in thinking we would color it in and I'd be done or nearly done. Nope! 5.25 hours of green and red. In the ditch. Ouch.
April:

May:

Last week:

I'm very happy with it so far, but dying to get the final touches of detail into the dragon.
I count 120 cherry blossom pedals all the way around. Given that 2 min each average is four hours, I'm doubting we will even finish next time.

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.
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 

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!).

I didn't get in for Washington state. :( But, he emailed back to say that he'll keep my number in case there's a cancellation, and he's going to be back later in this year and we can definitely do something then, soooo, ultimately a win. :)

Going to be discussing my back/ribs with Dave on Sunday while he tattoos me.
With just my own input as of now, Im thinking full "turtle" backpiece extending down the thighs, just before the knees, and wrapping around the torso with 2 opposite images on either rib, with the "river" down the front. I already have a traditional chest piece so we will have to work around it.
Im stuck between the goddess Benzaiten with her bowa and a white dragon, the pearl diver and dragon, or just a dragon. As for the ribs Im thinking a Nue on one side and a Kirin on the other. I enjoy the contrast between the two. As for the back of the thighs Im not sure. It depends what goes on my back. Im thinking Tennyo would be nice. I look forward to his input.

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.

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. 
 
 

Session two with Horitomo! Almost done with the lining and am looking forward to the shading. 

I guess these aren't technically my newest, but they are only a few months old. (Friday 5/13) they were new to me in several ways, and I love them. I also wasn't' sure where else to post them!)

I wasn't really that big of a Traditional American fan until I saw Dave Kruzeman's winning back piece from Ink Master. Side note: I'll be seeing Dave for a piece on my knee in a little over a month. I'm super pumped.  It pretty much blew me away, made me dig deeper into tattoo culture and to do a ton of reading and researching on Norman Collins and his apprentices. 

That lead me to the Friday the 13th tradition and got me thinking about some fo the bad luck I had with tattoos when I was younger. When I saw this rework of Jerry's "Superstition is for Sissies" black cat, I knew it was time to choose my own tattoo luck, and pick better artists and tattoos  So, I made sure I always have a black cat in my path. Ian "Jonezy" Jones did these for me at True Tatoo, Hollywood and was insanely fast getting them in.  I think the whole thing was under 90 minutes and the shading was my most painless shading I've ever had.  After the fact, these hurt so bad I mentioned them in the "most painful tattoo" thread.
This is the un healed picture, but they healed nearly perfectly.  This is just the only picture of them where my actual feet(not the tattoos) don't look super gnarly because I can't take a good picture of them with my phone, and I don't want to bother anyone else to take pics of my big gnarly man feet.

Well, my 2nd session with Garver went down this past Friday.
This pic was taken right when it was done.
Best part is, he asked if I was interested in sleeving out my arm.  I obviously agreed and more sessions are to come.  Going to connect my Back to the Future portraits with some other elements.

Got this yesterday!  A lot of firsts for me here.

First real post on this forum(barring the introduction thread), first real large scale custom piece for me. It was also my first time under a rotary, and first time trying a new healing method.
The machine felt quite a bit different than what i was used to, but this was my first leg tattoo, so that could simply have been the tighter skin on my legs.  In general, more of a light pressure, then a pinpoint stab. 
James Mullins of Lotus Tattoo, Hemet CA, was very patient with my 3 or so hours embarrassingly twitchy leg, and constant nervous tattoo chatter.   (Also my neurotic aftercare questions, and emails.)
Obviously, yes, I'm a Fallout Fan.  I put a mid way tattoo up because I honestly thought he was nearly done here. I laid back and let him finish the final pass without looking too much.  When I saw the final pass, I was pretty much giddy.  He asked, just before I sat down, if he could go a little crazy with the color.  I was super glad that I agreed.
I hope it's ok to post this pre-heal!  If not, I can pull it down and repost when it's done!

Totally spontaneous addition today. Had the day off so I stopped into Royal Tiger in Austin to drool over BHR's new flash sheets. Bailey was there with nothing to do sooooo about two hours later, I walked out with this beauty. 

So I wasn't expecting another large scale piece. But Steve Byrne loved my basic idea, and I DID specifically tell him, apparently, quote "go nuts". 
I am a wreck this morning kids.

Link to video: 
 
 

Haven't posted in quite a while so i'll update you all on a couple of new(ish) additions.
First up is from the Bristol tattoo convention in June, done by Stewart Robson:

And this one i got a couple of days ago from Marcos Attwood at Broad Street Studio, in Bath

Not particularly great photos of either one but i'm sure you get the idea

Its just normal bruising. Both your new tattoos look great.
Relax guys, the lines are fine. @Jason687  go back and see whichever tattooer you jive with. Or try someone new, enjoy your time at the shop.
 

The guy at work who swears it's infected is an idiot. It's fine. 

His stuff looks clean and bold. Don't worry about the money so much. Seeing as you'll have this the rest of your life the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive artist becomes minimal if you divide the cost by the number of days you'll have it on your skin
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