Forgot I haven't posted pics of mine. It's my moto tat: a stylized Eagle, Globe, and Anchor (EGA) for the Marine's, and a USMC with the S green for Michigan State (got the S about 2 years ago). Yeah, my legs are hairy, get over it. The USMC EGA: The rest of the EGA and part of the USMC: And the SMC:
As requested, my new tattoo. It's on my left inner wrist. As you can tell I really like quotes. This will be my last tattoo with wording though, I don't want to end up looking like the little kid who wrote all over herself.
Sorry for the double post, guess you can't edit or I'm just dumb. Higher quality picture. Click to enlarge. Thats the end goal.
If anyone knows a good artist in the Houston area that is really good with just black and white shaded tattoos give me a pm please. I'm in the market on getting my full torso started.
Hey can anyone here recommend a really good artist in London? I'm looking to finish and add to my sleeve.
Got my first tattoo today, I figured I'd show it off a bit before it gets all nasty and scabby and shit. It's not particularly conducive to photos-it's a stone on a sling going around my left shoulder. The breaks in the bread make it look like the cord is threading under my pectoral-we did this because the natural curves of those muscles would distort the tattoo otherwise. I got the idea from the plains Indians-it wasn't uncommon to wear these sorts of things into battle as protective talismans. This one specifically I got from a biography on Crazy Horse. The biggest part (with the actual stone) is right over my floating rib and hurt like a motherfucker. The lighting and quality in these pics is shit-the braiding is sort of mottled black and brown with non-inked areas for contrast. The stone itself is kind of slate gray, and there are little red bits at the end of the threads to give the impression it's going under the skin. Definitely feel like I made a good choice.
Some better quality pics, as requested. When I first came up with the idea, I imagined it as being very small and inconspicuous-like a small stone on a single strand. I definitely didn't expect it to evolve into the final product; it's a lot bigger and more complex, but fuck it. It's awesome. Here's the knotting at the top. We wanted to make it clear that it's supposed to be a leather thong and not a Celtic knot or something. Detail on the stone. The coloring is a mix of black, brown and blue. The cracks and edges give the impression that the stone has been worked a bit. This was the part that fucking killed, although the shading was a bit easier than the outline. The artist was telling me how he'd see lots of big tough dudes come in to get their ribs done and have a really tough time, then some tiny girl would come in and get her ribs done and not even flinch. Better pic from the front
Latest work had done a couple days ago. 5 hours, one sitting. Had a couple of old things that I didn't like anymore, so had the guy cover them up, and this is what it ended up with. Really happy with it. Had it done in Cincy.
Finally done. Going to finish my chest next. If anyone is curious and lives in Vegas, the guy who does my work is Willy Cutlip at bad apple tattoo.
I have a few tattoos and they have all been designed by me - right hip, back: two stylised dragons fighting to denote strength for myself; a red heart on the back of my left leg, above the ankle to indicate a pure heart; a black heart on the back of my right leg, above the ankle to indicate my jaded self and a henna inspired design on my left foot, just because I like the look of henna tattoos. Sorry, but there is no photography of this right now. The next lot of inking will happen in the coming weeks and is to immortilise a shared moment in time with a man (he will be having the same design done also) I have relations with - it's an anhk (or is supposed to be) and is to signify eternity of something we created which is no more... This will be placed on my back, because he always has my back and I can't think of a more fitting place. It will be roughly the same size that it appears here.
I got this on my right calf in 2004 before my first deploment to Iraq. I have 3 other tats, soon to be 4. I will take pics of them some day and put them up.
I'm wondering how everyone here feels about people asking you the meaning behind your tattoos. I have two tattoos on my back that are simple designs (a triangle of stars and a spiral sun) which do have a lot of meaning behind them, but I always feel uncomfortable if I get asked that question. Since it is (usually) such a personal thing, it almost feels intrusive. I usually just mumble something like "oh, I just like them," and that just makes me sound stupid. But, I'm not going to give a whole speech about the symbolism of something I decided to put on my body forever. As soon as I'm comfortable enough to spend the money, I'm probably going to get a third tattoo of an owl on my inner ankle and I know it's going to spark even more questions than my stars and sun. Why can't it just be left at it's obvious that an owl means something special to me so let it be? Personally, I don't enjoy being on the receiving end of this discussion either. Generally, I think people sound like tools when discussing their tattoos, or it's far too deep for me to know how to react. Like, tonight I was on the train and a drunk guy was hitting on me. I was barely answering his questions, but he started going on and on about how he got a teardrop tattooed on his cheek because his mom died of diabetes, and he gave me the year and everything. I never know how to react when I find out this kind of information from my actual friends, and I barely knew the guy. Oh, and I guess I'll throw a picture on here. This was taken right after I got the sun, so please excuse the redness and lovely bandage marks.
I hate the fact that everybody thinks a tattoo needs to have a meaning behind it. I have 3 tattoos (will have more when I can scrounge up the dough) and none of them were done for any specific reason other than I wanted a tattoo. Now, I'll admit that I've attached meaning to some of them after the fact, but thats a different story. To me, if anything, they're more of a time capsule where I can look at them and think about what was going on in my life at the time but thats about it. I like the aesthetic of tattoos and I plan on eventually having most of my torso covered with a ton of pieces, but why can't a tattoo just be a tattoo?
Because it's with you for life. I'm only saying this because I work for a plastic surgeon, and we have quite a few people come in wanting their tattoos removed. If you're going to get something dyed into your skin forever, it might as well be one that actually means something to you.
I find a lot of people put far too many meanings behind their tattoos. It's cool if you want to mark down a part of your life that has been meaningful to you and want to remember it but does it really have to also mean you're a diabetic, cancer survivor who ate 45 bags of Cheetos in less than an hour while snorkeling the Great Barrier reef and managed to help a woman give birth? That's what a lot of people are like. That one piece of art represents a billion things and to me it dilutes the root idea of it. I find myself judging people who they're like this; are you that insecure about your tattoo that you need to tell the entire world a million things in order to justify it? Are you worried they'll judge you if you don't have an elaborate story? Fuck them if that's the case. I have a huge tattoo. I get asked the meaning all the time and I leave it as simple as possible; most people don't care past the I liked the idea and zone out. I also don't like telling the story behind the tattoo because it takes a while to go through it (for the record, it's based off a wood block print and the actual fable behind it is long and pretty intricate).
Ok I see where you are coming from, and I will concede to your point a little. The tattoo you think is cool when you are 17 is probably going to be pretty embarrassing by the time you are 42. I got my first tattoo when I was 27 and really thought about it for at least 5 years prior to actually getting it done. Maybe I'm giving the general public too much credit but I'm mature enough to know what I can live with on my body for the rest of my life. I like tattoos a lot BUT I also never show them off. At this point in my life I would never get anything that can't be covered up by a t-shirt, most people would never even know I have any tattoos. If you need to be a cancer survivor or have a deceased sibling to get a tattoo*, then you are missing out on a lot of potentially great ink work. Not everybody can handle being marked for life by a tattoo... but it seems like nowadays EVERYBODY IS and I place the blame squarely on TLC and all it's crappy shows for this. If you get a tattoo to fit in with all the cool kids then you deserve the painful laser removal, BUT if you get them because you truly like the aesthetic, then more power to you. (Absolutely, %100 no offense to anybody who has a meaningful tattoo. Cancer survivors; you're my hero and anybody with a lost sibling have my sincerest condolences, I'm just trying say that sometimes a tattoo is just a tattoo).
I forgot to mention in my post that my tattoo represents myself and my son. I am the large flame, and my son is the small one emerging from it. If I ever have another son, I'll add another black flame, and if I have a daughter, I'll add a blue flame for her.