Zillah

This doesn't really answer the question, but is related; I always liked my tattoos that I had got in my early twenties before I came here last month, but now that I know that they are not great quality (or perhaps not good choices?) I have become a bit ashamed of them.

In some ways that's a shame, but in other ways it is good because now I have a better idea of how to look for quality work.

(new band name is Moon Sugar)

Does that happen to be a Morrowind reference?

I graduated today with my Bachelor of Nursing :o

RIPT is another one: https://www.riptapparel.com/

...you might like this t-shirt I saw on TeeFury today:

Mother Of Dragons by davequiggle

One Shirt A Day - Cheap 24 Hour Limited Edition TShirt Daily | TeeFury

Free temporary tattoo even ;)

Only 15 hours left though...

I totally would if I wasn't geographically challenged.

29-30 November 2014. TSB Stadium in New Plymouth.

NZ Tattoo & Art Festival

Guests attending so far:

Justin Big Meas Wilson from Ohio

Jon Mesa from Bang Bang Tattoos in New York

Shaun Topper from Dan Smith's Captured Tattoo in California

Dan Smith from Dan Smith's Captured Tattoo in California

Erin Chance

Cindy Maxwell from Slave to the Needle in Seattle

Kiwi Matt from Slave to the Needle in Seattle

Jared Preslar from Lucky Bamboo Tattoo in America

Megan Massacre from Wooster Street Social Club

Chelsea Shoneck Art from America

Joshua Couchenour from Baltimore in the U.S.A

Randy Engelhard "Heaven of Colours" from Germany

Bernd Broghammer from Tätowierstudio Hautnah in Germany

Sebastian Schatz (Bob Fizz) from MINT CLUB · Tattoo Atelier in Austria

Eva Schatz from MINT CLUB · Tattoo Atelier in Austria

Foerdl from Vienna Electric Tattoo in Austria

Sam Rulz from Vienna Electric Tattoo in Austria

Leo from Naked Trust Crew in Austria

Davee from Poland

Ben Laukis from Pure Vision Tattoo in Melbourne

Adrian from Frankie Lees Tattoo Parlor in Melbourne

Pauly from Frankie Lees Tattoo Parlor in Melbourne

Kitty Dearest from Melbourne

Fabz from Melbourne

Kristen Sorrenson from Brisbane

Laura Marshall from Garage Ink in Brisbane

Mimsy from Mimsy's Trailer Trash Tattoo in Brisbane

Suzi Q from Holdfast Tattoo in Perth

Peter Nieves from Studio 13 in Cairns in Australia

Chris Veness from First Blood - Pierce // Tattoo // Scar in Australia

Josh Roelink from Rock of Ages Tattoo Parlour, Lennox Head, AUS

Skye from Hammerhead Tattoos in Tauranga

Tom from The Tattooed Heart in Auckland

Adam Craft from The Tattooed Heart

Dean Sacred from Sacred Tattoo

Matt Jordan from Matt Jordan's Ship Shape Tattoo

Steve Butcher from Matt Jordan's Ship Shape Tattoo

Tim Lehi/snow leopard battle!

big enough box :)

When I first glanced at the picture I thought it was a black panther with snarling jaws. I guess that's what working late shift does to you...

SO BUMMED the cat and carp is out of print.

I just went to get that one and saw the same thing. Oh well... anyway I saw that the shipping to NZ was $31.95. Sheesh.

So I'm waiting for my booked tattoo at one place, when I come across another local tattoo shop that actually has an artist recommended to me by @beez (Capilli Tupou)

Capilli Tupou | Sacred Tattoo Shop

I really like this guy's stuff too:

Dean Sacred | Sacred Tattoo Shop

Dammit. Now I want to go there. Oh well, have to get more tattoos then.

This was done by Paul Dobleman while doing a guest spot at Frith Street.

That's really beautiful, I love it.

I knew I was bound to reveal my tattoo ignorance at some point. How embarrassing...

Nah, I wouldn't say it was tattoo ignorance. We can't all be Japanese mythology scholars, I'm certainly not- I just started learning about this stuff myself.

Really there is no way around this. I was a phlebotomist for 11 years before becoming a nurse and I was a good one. I rarely had to call upon someone else to get something I missed, but you quite often have to "fish around" for veins. It's only in a fantasy world that every poke would go directly into it's target.

Ah, ok. We were told in class never to do it, but then what you get taught in the classroom is always the most ideal situation; I've already found that what actually happens on the wards and in the units is quite different, and I think at the end of the day everyone just tries to do their best for the clients.

Peonies are beautiful. Like others are saying--a peonies incorporated with hannya would probably look amazing since you're mixing something feminine with something more masculine.

I thought Hannya were female?

Most nurses are pretty nice and can get the vein on a tattooed arm first time. But I have had a lot of amateurs poking me and then fishing around for the vein which has left me bruised, so I have a hang-up and a lot of anxiety now when drawing blood from recent negative experiences.

Fishing around? No... I hate that! It is such bad practice. They are just cutting tissue left right and centre when they do that. I had a surgeon once tell me (pre-op) he was the best ever at taking blood, then proceeded to fish around causing more pain and bruising than any other time I've had it.

On a surgical ward I had placement at as a student, the nurses would try 3x and then get someone else. I heard a lot of, "oh, you have really difficult veins". Load of bullshit.

Phlebotomists are the best, obviously. I always thought if I needed to get trained to cannulate I wanted to learn from one of them rather than another nurse. I don't need to where I work though, they have a phlebotomist come in every day to take bloods from the clients, lots of toxicity and drug levels need to be done.

I am so happy there is a geek thread. :) I just got a tardis tattoo not long ago and I'm trying to decide what else to add to that arm. I'm not sure if I want a DW theme or just scifi. I'm a big Star Trek fan (original & TNG, not the reboot) so maybe the Enterprise? But then I would want to work in Firefly and Alien and my arm isn't that big. lol

Ships of sci-fi! Heh. I briefly thought of getting a space scene with the TARDIS, the Battlestar Galactica and Serenity it it...

I got flu shots straight through tattooed areas. Nothing strange happened.

Yeah, that wouldn't be an issue because it's intramuscular- so as long as you know the location of the muscle, you can't miss.

As for feeling for the vein, that makes sense, thanks. I should mention that as a psychiatric nurse (and a new grad), I'm not trained in taking blood and probably wont be, so I'm not familiar with the process. As a patient, the nurse or phlebotomist always seems to squint at my arm! So I wondered :)

Well, technically this isn't really a myth. If you share needles you could get hepatitis or HIV (both STDs... even though you're not contracting them via sex).

Ah, I see- it's an issue of semantics. Technically I would only call it an STD if it was transmitted that way- but I totally see what you mean- if you look at any STD chart, hepatitis and HIV are definitely included. Though if I contracted hepatitis through a needle stick injury at my job, I would balk at someone saying I had an STD!

That tattoos can give you STDs! I just saw this on a tattooist's website.

"Tattooing carries a risk of STDs and other nasty things infecting you, and you wouldn’t want to catch any of those."

If you're getting sexually transmitted diseases from a tattooist, it's not the needle they're sticking you with.

Absolutely! Doctor Who is cool.

Bow-ties are cool.

As a registered nurse, I've been wondering lately how you would cannulate or take bloods from someone who had full arm coverage.

Has anyone here had difficulty when they needed to have a blood test due to the nurse finding it hard to locate a vein? Or had other experiences where medical care has been compromised due to being tattooed?

I just had my upcoming tattoo moved back 2 1/2 weeks, which was disappointing enough! I've never heard of such a long wait in NZ, maybe our tattooists are not as good compared with overseas.

I don't know if it's the same issue, but the Facebook login button was missing for a little while today, and refreshing didn't help, so I couldn't login. It returned later...