Tattoos

[mamaboy]

kinda blasphemuos

[Peasant]

Completely blasphemuos

fixed*

[nictan]

^My tattoo artist is a bit gnarly. He drew up a tattoo of Jesus masturbating through the hole in his wrist. Yep. Sorry to share that with you. No takers yet.

that is..... wow. im not surprised there aint any takers yet. but still, cool idea though.

[thehouseofdis]

My ex has a large Comme des Garçons asterisk on her back.

[Peasant]

If it's going to be a solid, full sleeve, it's best to stick with one artist. Unless they're extremely similar in style. Also, I'd definitely have them draw everything up before anyone starts tattooing. You can take the sketches to the different tattooists and piece them together like a puzzle. It'll give you a good idea of how everything will blend and flow together.

[Peasant]

Keep in mind that different artists are better at different styles of tattoos. Some guys are great at one aspect of tattooing (say, traditional japanese) and others are better at others (Classic American). So hopefully your man is cool enough to say when he can't tattoo something as good as another.

[SuperTurboTaco]

I know one really solid artist so I will stick to him, although he can not do all the drawings perfectly.

I would think about another artist then. Or least change the tattoo to his/her speciality.

Also, don`t try to fit a ton of different things into one tattoo! That being said, you can fit a lot into a sleeve. The elements of your tattoo sound like they could work together in the hands of the right artist, but your tattooer will know best. Often what people have in their head and what will look good on skin are not one and the same. Picking the right artist is the utmost important thing.

As for styles of tattoos, like subject matter don`t try to fit to many things into one. Styles can be mixed, for example classic American and Japanese styles can work together(again artist VERY important). I would never mix more than two! Your ideas sound very Japanese to me.

Remember that this is for life! Who you are, life style, and cirumstances in life often change. I have a full sleeve as well as other large tattoos that I love but where I live in Japan I must keep them covered 24/7 unless I leave the city I am in. Even at my girlfriends house I must keep them covered as her father would freak out if he knew. I have been kicked out of Onsens for my tattoos as well!! I wouldn`t change my tattoos but they can make life difficult sometimes. Just something to think about.

[kuugaia]

Yeah, but you can't exactly blame the Japanese for making life difficult for you. As you probably already know, the heavy connotations that tattoos carry in Japan make many business not want to handle you. Very sensitive culture...but I guess it's that very 'strict cultural visage' that gave birth to so many awesome underground groups. I've always wanted to get a tattoo done, but I'm also worried about the branding by others I'll receive by others once I do. I guess getting it in a place easily covered is a good choice.

Your ideas sound good Eternal, glad to see you're pulling the trigger on getting the sleeve done. I've personally never been a fan of coloured tattoos due to it's temporary nature and color distortion after awhile.

[SuperTurboTaco]

Well just to make it clear, I did not blame anybody. All I said was things in your life change and that is something to consider when getting a tattoo. You might have to alter your lifestyle in order to fit in to a culture, which is what I have done and I have no problems with. Actually I quite like the fact that nobody knows I have tattoos. I never flaunted them in the first place, I got them for myself and nobody else.

[kuugaia]

Ahh no accusations intended. Sorry, I re-read my message and that's the impression it sounded like. Was just adding information to the discussion since a Japanese co-worker of mine was explaining it to me. I was planning on getting a tattoo and he said I should do it after I visit Japan so I can have a easier time around, especially if I got to public baths.

Tattoos are a highly personal thing, which is probably why I haven't got one yet. I have yet to find something important enough to put on. Just have to wait and see where life takes me :D

[sshum88]

I'm in total agreement with the poster here...I just had another one done on my upper arm but it's in a different style that I have on my other arm that runs from my shoulder down to my wrist.

You should also consider how big your arm is...which gives you the amount of space available to ink...when I first started thinking of getting my first tattoo, I had an image of a half sleeve fully colored with a dragon coming out of these waves along with some other items...but I realized that my small arms would not do the image justice. The dragon was going to be too small and I wanted something much bigger.

I ended up going with a larger head coming out of the waves and it was largely black and grey scale...my artist used this pixelation method which is not as common of a shading technique. A lot of my arm is not covered in ink but the piece works very well this way...oh it the piece curves very nicely along the muscles in my arm.

I would start grabbing images off the net, books, magazines of the items you are interested in and start assembling the puzzle as if it were on your arm. You can just use tracing paper to get a sense of where the images would end up. It will help your tattoo artist too when you can be more specific about the sizing of each of the images. I gave my last artist the exact image along with the composition I wanted on my arm down to the little details.

Sorry to be so long winded...hope this helps.

If it's going to be a solid, full sleeve, it's best to stick with one artist. Unless they're extremely similar in style. Also, I'd definitely have them draw everything up before anyone starts tattooing. You can take the sketches to the different tattooists and piece them together like a puzzle. It'll give you a good idea of how everything will blend and flow together.

[thehouseofdis]

mine in the order i got them:


XS


A Murder of Crows


right arm


Crossroads - Kara Walker

New as July 2012:


0 through 9 - Jasper Johns


Nine Circles

[jules]

Hi i'm new to SZ so here's my first pix

[AKA*NYC]

thod: love the right arm tat. what inspired this?

[thehouseofdis]

thod: love the right arm tat. what inspired this?

Ann Demeulemeester S/S 1998

I had to piece together the text from tanktops I have and hand draw the font for my tattoo artist to follow.