omeletta

And just came across this pretty cool one by Civ:

Thank you!!
So, as I have mentioned before, Junii usually has some inspiration right before the tattoo and our plans change a bit - now it looks like we're going back to two snakes, no hannya (maybe). And the collab? Oh, just Junii, Shad, and EVERYONE IN DIAMOND CLUB, nbd. !!!!!
At the beginning of the second day, I was looking at some frog paintings my hosts have around their home and vaguely thinking "what a cool tattoo that would be". Headed to the shop. As soon as I get there Junii says "what do you think about this?" and pulls out some frog stencils she made!! As my mind was wrapping itself around this fun bit of synchronicity, she explained that she wanted to put a meditating frog down at the bottom of my leg, and then add some dreamy clouds working their way up so it appears that everything we see is what the frog is sitting and meditating about - we have a beginning now!!
She is going to add a few more frogs, one guy with beads, another one with a coin, maybe another guy. I am so satisfied with how this tattoo is coming along - not just with the quality of the work, but also the completely organic nature of how the tattoo itself is developing. It's really incredible to be part of this experience!! ...searching for more words...I'm just into it, is all. :p
I'm booked again in July...we'll see what she comes up with next!!!!!
I've attached some action shots and one of me being just clearly insanely happy to be where I am. (Thank you for indulging me). Yes @Lance, best birthday present to self ever.
@Zillah the koi looks great!! You are a beast to sit for 7.5 hours - that shit is hard! Congrats and can't wait to see a healed pic.

How sweet!
I actually saw some tattoo colouring books at the Tate Modern shop the other day and initially thought that it was a bit over the top to get little kids into tattoos already...but your story brings a totally new perspective to this. I'm curious to see how my two year old son is going to react to my first tattoo :-)

How sweet!
I actually saw some tattoo colouring books at the Tate Modern shop the other day and initially thought that it was a bit over the top to get little kids into tattoos already...but your story brings a totally new perspective to this. I'm curious to see how my two year old son is going to react to my first tattoo :-)

And just came across this pretty cool one by Civ:

Thanks @TrixieFaux and @El Dolmago
I think she'll get over it too. I gave her a big hug and reminded her that she didn't -really- have a normal mummy anyway. She said, "oh, yeah..." Heh. I reassured her that just because I was getting an upper arm tattoo didn't mean I was going to suddenly pick her up from school in a tank top (because that's not what I normally wear).
I also printed out for her the koi design I'm getting and asked her to colour it for me. Now she's really excited and wants to show the tattoo artist her colour choices ;)

And just came across this pretty cool one by Civ:

I think this is quite sweet (by Andrea Giulimondi):

So someone with a Jigoku Dayu tattoo now sybolizes that they have yellow fever? Okay there. That's about as ridiculous as that thing about koi fish and being gay. Where do people get this stuff?
So in regards to appropriating, my 2 cents. I can get what the nay sayers are trying to get at. Especially if the thing is a bastardization of their culture. I get that they may feel insulted. I may agree with them. Or I may not agree with everything somone may say but I have to respect their feelings to a degree so I can see where they're potentially coming from. Kind of like, say Japanese tattoos. "Hey you f'ed up by mixing seasons, and coloring water blue, and the subject doesn't follow the story properly. You have no respect for tradition. You can't be bothered to learn and depict a culture's myth accurately. Thus you're spitting on my culture. You're spitting on me.". People can have strong feelings about things. Then again appropriation and modification can lead to a potentially positive thing depending on how you look at it. Say when the Japanese "appropriated" the Chinese stories of the Suikoden, added elaborate tattoos onto the subject imagery, and started popularizing it among the people and getting it tattooed on themselves. If I understand correctly (correct me if I'm wrong too) I thought I read somewhere that the Japanese translation makes no sense from the original material. "Appropriation" was also positive when Caucasian foreigners had a desire to be tattooed with Japanese and other Asian motifs when Japan had banned its own citizens from being tattooed. Something to think about. What would have happened if appropriation hadn't occurred in these cases?
Whatever your opinion, can we all just agree we're happy Chris Brand is "appropriating" from the Japanese, what they "appropriated" from the Chinese, and putting his western spin on the tales?

I think it's pretty simple and I'll use myself as an example.
Do you have a personal relationship with the imagery that you are getting tattooed?
I have three japanese tattoos that I got during my apprenticeship. One is a daruma on my inner bicep, and it has the kanji for "ginou" which means "technical skill." I got the daruma with the intention of one day becoming a technically skilled craftsman and I will probably never fill in the other eye because there is always room to grow.
The other two are designs that I picked from a book called "Japanese Design Motifs." and they are circular designs that sit on my inner forearms. They're floral, black only, and they're very beautiful; I get compliments on them all the time. Maybe a year later I learned that these motifs are actually Mon, which are the equivalent to family crests in Japan. I am not Japanese. I feel like shit about it and I want to get them covered up. I have even asked Jill Bonny about them and if I would offend anyone going to Japan with these on my arms. She said that it doesn't matter because the rules don't apply to westerners, but I'm probably going to get them covered anyway.
The daruma isn't cultural appropriation because I have a personal relationship with daruma as a symbol and a means of accomplishment within my own life. The Mon are appropriative because I took one look at the designs, thought "oh that looks cool, I'll get that tattooed" without any further thought or investigation into what they actually represent.

I think this is quite sweet (by Andrea Giulimondi):

Hi everyone!
I'm German, in my late thirties and live in London.
I've got nothing to show I'm afraid as I've got no tattoos as of yet. But I recently realised that all the reasons that kept me from getting a tattoo so far don't seem that valid for me anymore…so I started to do a lot of research and ended up lurking here.
Pretty amazed by how much nice and cool stuff is out there. I think I'm mostly into neo-traditional stuff and I've absolutely fallen in love with one particular artist (well, her work, of course) who turns out to be as far as away from me as possible, argh. Looks like it may be a while until I actually get the tattoo I'm dreaming of right now.
I guess in the meantime I will continue changing my mind ten times a day about whether to get something else sooner and if so, what to get ;-)

I think this is quite sweet (by Andrea Giulimondi):

Hey everyone, so I got the first session in on my qilin yesterday! Would've posted earlier, but I was exhausted and passed the fuck out after getting some food in me.

It was originally going to go on my arm and back but Greg didn't count on my arm being that small and the stencil looked really squished. He talked me into going with my thigh and I'm so glad I listened to him! I was also a bit apprehensive about some things like color, but he firmly (but kindly) put his foot down and told me why my ideas would not make for a good tattoo so I finally canned it and let him do his job. Couldn't be happier with the result!!
He's not too sure about the belly color yet (may go silvery blue or golden pink) but the hair will probably be ochre and we'll probably add some peonies in the third session. I could only get through about 4.5 hours before the shaking and shivering set in.

Tattooed Seniors Finally Put A End To The Question "But What About When You're Older?"

I agree with @growltiger. I don't have tattoos on my belly, so no experience here, but did have a baby and didn't get any stretch marks. The belly has a somewhat different shape than before now but to be honest I'm not doing much exercise and I'm not that young anymore, all these things may play into it. Under the bottom line, you don't know in which way your body is going to change but the tattoo would get stretched for sure, so keep that in mind ;-)

What a fantastic thread ladies !
I had been wondering about the shoulder/back/bra issue, glad to read about your experiences. Had seriously never heard about bandeaus before and had to google it...:O
Does anyone know of a supportive brand available in the UK by any chance?
Will make sure to keep some of my maternity stuff in any case...thanks for the heads up ;-)

I believe 'Baby Wee-wee' might count as a bizzaro product, a doll that wees into your face:


Can't imagine this has ever sold really.

Occasionally I see something that just baffles me in nature as to someone's ingenuity or amazes me that a room full of marketing people agreed that ___ product or ad is suitable.
I think I have to get one of these just for the sake of putting on my phone immediately prior to going into the grocery store or airport. I don't even really know anything about manga or care but this is pretty damn funny. Sorry ladies please don't be offended.
Don't scroll down if there's a nsfw issue; no nudes but might not be work safe


Need this to say this thread might wind up with a lot of pictures from Japanese vending machines.

I'm not an expert but, I think Horitomo does tebori, and it seems like white turns out a lot better with tebori. I saw this guy's arm in person, and while the white parts aren't new, they haven't discolored or faded. Besides all of the objection to white tattoos I've seen is aimed at tattoos that are white only, not white tattoos with black outlines.

So, looking at actual tattoos of the tattoed cats I noticed that most (all?) of them seem to have quite a bit of white ink in them....so far my understanding has been that white ink was a bit of a no-no due to quick discolouring/fading...
Am I mistaken or blind perhaps? Or do we not care in this case because the cats a just too cool (which they are of course)...?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, still trying to learn...
Example:

Ooops, you're right, I double-checked the convention's instagram feed and found him...how could I have missed that??
Sweet!
The forum will need to be renamed to monmoncattattoo.com then :)

I would love to hear the stories about everyone's Monmon cat tattoos and a specific thread where everyone posts them as soon as they get them... Does that warrent a new thread? Honestly, it's better for my immediate gratification to have a very direct way to see everyone's cats whenever I want as soon as they are done. :D MONmonmonmonmonmonmonmon!!!!!!!

Ooops, you're right, I double-checked the convention's instagram feed and found him...how could I have missed that??
Sweet!
The forum will need to be renamed to monmoncattattoo.com then :)

Just think of it this way - even though getting the tattoo might make you feel like screaming bloody murder like you would at an uncontrollable toddler who is knocking over glasses full of sugary beverages while waving around the remote control - the tattooing time is precious MOMMY time that you get ALL TO YOURSELF! You will love this. It will be worth the discomfort.
And get a big tattoo. Then you have an excuse to hand off the baby when he/she is in terror mode while saying, "Sorry honey, I have another session and my tattooer says I can't go longer than 3 weeks between sittings. I'll be back in about 6 hours. Love you."