LadyGabe

Haha. I like that. Smashed it in! That's what it's about...load it up & drill it in.
Ever time I've hit real painful areas, old mate says...there's two ways we can tackle this.
Good attitude ;)

Hello all!
I am frequently here reading through the threads, but it is only today I have decided to set up an account to contribute. Quiet day at work!
Known as Gabe (artist name LadyGabe), 25, female, in the UK. Already a member of other forums, passionate collector, and especially love Traditional / Neo Trad work.
As a creative little spud I like to illustrate, paint, create eco crafts, upcycle and practice as a freelance Make up Artist. My full time job is an Account Manager (boo boring) but working hard to move into a self employed creative position. Starting to study web design, photography, and hope to be working as a tattoo apprentice soon.
Not here to try and gain any interest in my personal work / gain apprenticeship, so dont worry I wont be spamming you with my art!
I just want to chat to other collectors / artists, who especially appreciate solidly lined tattoos. I appreciate realism / watercolour etc... in their own way, but give me a solid line any day!
Here are some pictures of a few of my collection so far.


Much love and inky cuddles
Gabe

There's a wealth of information on these sites:
Prints of Japan
irebokuro
GODS of Japan, A-to-Z Photo Dictionary of Japanese Buddhism (Buddhist & Shinto Deities)
And this article is well worth reading:
ANCIENT ART OF THE JAPANESE TEBORI TATTOO MASTERS | INK IN HARMONY « The Selvedge Yard

A lot of the warrior prints are based on the story of the 108 Heroes of The Suikoden or Water Margin , sort of a Chinese / Japanese Robin Hood and an extremely long novel . Here's some notes I took from material written by Horiyoshi III which may be of use -
Suikoden 108 fellow ruffians in possession of 108 stars of destiny, tenko stars and chisatu stars , who were guided by strange coincidence and fate .
1120- A gang of anti-authority thieves led by 36 great leaders with Soko as the head robbed around the valley of the Yellow River by use of waterways . Based on this fact the story of the Suikoden has been told .
The author is said to be either " Shitaian" or "Rakanchu" when the story was finally written down in book form .
In late Northern Sung Dynasty , under the reign of the elegant Emperor Kiso , people were immersed in unprecedented period of peace . As a result of indulging themselves in luxury , the signs of decadent and excessive maturity were finally showing . People have been deluded and uncertainties gradually prevailed .
A young man with a chivalrous spirit " shisin" burnt down his house were he was born and left home . Having tattoo of 9 Dragons all over his body 9 ( Kumonryu ) and Tenbi star of destiny in his hand . People called him Kumonryu Shishin
Later on the strange destiny sailed like a whirlpool and summoned up fellow ruffians . The great Yellow River bore it's fangs and the mainland started wavering .

Awesome intro. Awesome tattoos. Inky cuddles right back at ya! Welcome.

Welcome! I love that scorpion tattoo. Got any new tattoos lined up?

welcome!

Welcome to LST!

hey mate welcome to LST, can i ask who did the lion on your foot? its badass!

Cheers dude! :D Congrats on the epic beard

Hello all!
I am frequently here reading through the threads, but it is only today I have decided to set up an account to contribute. Quiet day at work!
Known as Gabe (artist name LadyGabe), 25, female, in the UK. Already a member of other forums, passionate collector, and especially love Traditional / Neo Trad work.
As a creative little spud I like to illustrate, paint, create eco crafts, upcycle and practice as a freelance Make up Artist. My full time job is an Account Manager (boo boring) but working hard to move into a self employed creative position. Starting to study web design, photography, and hope to be working as a tattoo apprentice soon.
Not here to try and gain any interest in my personal work / gain apprenticeship, so dont worry I wont be spamming you with my art!
I just want to chat to other collectors / artists, who especially appreciate solidly lined tattoos. I appreciate realism / watercolour etc... in their own way, but give me a solid line any day!
Here are some pictures of a few of my collection so far.


Much love and inky cuddles
Gabe

Face, hands and neck are a no for me. Though I think they look awesome on others!
After getting my foot blasted last week, I think that it would be right to say the other foot is a no too...we'll see but OUCH. I am usually nails (modest), but this made me want to tap out within 30 seconds. Still looks fucking awesome though and I am sure I will forget the pain soon!

I recall reading a book about Dragons (History, Origins, Variations etc - it was a big book) which specifically mentioned that you shouldn't put too many Dragons on you; Apparently if there are too many they begin to fight each other and the good spirits and protective nature they convey gets lost and instead chaos ensues. I think it said four to six dragons is okay, more is not good for you. Thats western Dragons however, I don't know how it is with eastern ones or the coexistence of both. You can't have too many virgin damsels in distress, tough.

And the winner of March 2014 "Tattoo of the Month" goes to....
@Eilin
with her jaw-droppingly super tough Tiger vs. Dragon tattoo, done by my fellow compatriot Marius Meyer
Congrats Eilin!!!

Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address.
Thanks to everyone for your submissions! New contest will be up in a jiffy.

One of these times I'm actually going to not be broke around this weekend, and I'll get a Saturday the 14th tattoo.

Full rebel 15, obviously!

For what it's worth I feel no animosity towards panthers. My thought process when thusly:
"What's the toughest thing I could possibly get, so everyone can see how nails I am?"
"I know, A Panther"
"Wait, with a fucking dagger through it"
and then that turned out to be too much tough for me to handle, so there's a butterfly as well:

Seriously though, it looks cool. What more reason would you like?

it is a sexual thing. the dagger symbolizes a penis.
i have a dagger stabbing through a skull and eagle because i love skulls and i fuckin love america.

Just because you got something stabbing through your head doesn't mean that you're having a bad time

it only becomes awkward when you have close friends who bitch openly to you ( or on social media) about having no money ever, or being in trouble financially (like worrying how to pay for rent certain months) and then they go and get tattoos (or piercings, or buy whatever other material things). My thoughts are…. perhaps you should save up some money so every other month you're not putting yourself in the same situation. Also, having the cash piggy bank for tattoos means you also have a cash back up supply for emergencies (like helping your kid repay his car, etc).
Especially when these are pals I've helped out financially in a bind…… I don't expect to be paid back, it just sucks to see skewed priorities months in a row.

When did "selfish" become the new catchcry for living your life how you choose and doing things you love?
I'm apparently very selfish for choosing not to have children and spending all my money on me, and was also labelled selfish when I had my motorbike too (OMG you'll fall off and DIE! So selfish!)
People need to live and let live, and mind their own damn business.

I had a mate a while back now bust my balls because of the extent I have myself tattooed, saying he could never justify the amount of $ spent for such a selfish interest.
It kinda blew me away a bit, & the only reason I engaged the conversation is because we grew up together.
A) you don't know how much I spend, you only guesstimate going by average "shop hours"
B) I don't go out pissing my money against the wall
C) my family are provided for, kids are schooled, clothed, fed, dance, swimming, martial arts, piano, violin, orchestra, swimming ...the list goes on...all paid for.
Isn't it fucked how people feel they have the right to call you out on your priorities when all they see is what they see sitting in front of them.
It's like another dude I know said riding a motorcycle is a selfish mode of transport. Like, WTF? How can that be selfish when my 11 & 9 year olds and Mrs love riding with me.
I think we only feel guilty sometimes because it's pushed upon us by fuckers who should be looking in their own back yard before commenting on ours.

That's really nice that you dipped into the tattoo piggy bank to help out your son.
I have an actual piggy bank (well, it's a Chinese lucky cat bank), when I get a pretty good paycheque I go and take out 100$ or something and stash it in there, if I try to mentally compartmentalize my savings into tattoos, and other stuff I get lost, so having tangible cash for tattoos is a much better way for me to save up. When I had my last sleeve done I asked for gift certificates from the shop for my birthday, it was awesome how a bunch of my friends pooled together for a gift :)
As for my husband and I, we keep our finances mostly separate so we save for our tattoos independently of each other. That's why I want to get most of my legs done before we have kids, then I'm sure we'll actually need to budget for things haha. Sometimes I forget how easy two incomes no kids is. Props to all you guys with kids and continuing tattoo projects.