Tattoos

[thestrangequark]

A new celebration of body art thread, because it's been a long while since I made one, I've got a lot of new ink since then, and I'd love to see other BBSers' tats and hear about their experiences -- pictures please!

Personally, my latest tattoo was a bit of a shock. I didn't know that tattoos below the knee or elbow tend to swell, so I was slightly freaked out when I woke up the next morning with a Popeye arm.

Anyway, show us some (inked) skin!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I've seen some of your tattoo photos on Facebook and I think they look great.

I would post my own tats, except I don't have any. Maybe someday.

I look forward to seeing what everybody has to show off!

 

[Kommander]

I still only have the three I've posted pictures of before, but I'll show them again.

This was my first one, I got it like nine-ish years go. Right upper-arm. I learned from this one that I do not have the artistic ability to draw my own tattoo stencils freehand. I was going to have someone do some touch-up work on it, but ultimately decided to leave it as it is.

This is my second one, from about five and a half years ago. Left upper-arm. I designed this one in Photoshop. The artist kind of rushed and made a few mistakes. Getting this one fixed is on my list of things to do.

My newest one, done a year and a half ago. Left ring finger. This one I pulled an image off Google instead of designing it myself. This one is simple, but the artist I went to is awesome and I'll be going to him for all my future tattoos. That, and he gives me good discounts because I sell chain mail jewelry through his shop.

This will be my next one, I just need to figure out where to put it:

(note: This is just a joke and I will not actually be putting this on my skin.)

 

[thestrangequark]

^I love the red in the middle tattoo, and the styling of the treble clef is beautiful. What exactly will you have changed when you get it touched up? Is the third tattoo a wedding ring?

Here's my most recent, a pair of marigolds (which I posted on the BBS already, but it's gorgeous and I want to show it off!). This is the one that made my arm swell up a good 30%. Of all my tattoos it was the least painful to get by far -- in fact, I'd hardly qualify the experience as painful at all. However, it was the most painful in terms of healing!

 

[Kommander]

^I love the red in the middle tattoo, and the styling of the treble clef is beautiful.

Thank you. I spent three weeks designing it.

What exactly will you have changed when you get it touched up?

Mostly reshading and reinking some of the lines. For some reason, my skin is resistant to black ink. The artist that did my last one spent several years researching and trying out different inks, and he found what he believes to be the best, to the point where he requires the other artists and apprentices that work out of his studio to use the same brand of ink. My newest one looks as good as the day that I got it, o he's probably right.

Is the third tattoo a wedding ring?

No, it's a polyamory symbol. I've heard people say "I wish single people would wear signs so I stop flirting with married people" or something similar countless times, and being polyamorous essentially means "perpetually available depending on what you mean by 'available,'" so I got the sign tattooed on. The ring finger seemed the best place to put it, considering people like to check for rings. also, it makes timing the "I'm poly" conversation easier, I just wait until she asks about the tattoo. I agree with the belief that things would be a lot easier if sexuality was easier to determine, so instead of complaining, I got to doing.

 

[ThankQ]

(note: This is just a joke and I will not actually be putting this on my skin.)

It would be so boss if you did.

 

[thestrangequark]

Kommander,I have the same problem with ink on my upper arm. My skin holds ink exceptionally well over the rest of my body (especially color), but I have KP on my upper arms (it's a normal variation of skin type that something like 40% of the population have, where the skin is just a little drier, redder, and rougher), and skin like that doesn't hold ink very well.

Here is my work in progress. The treble clef was my first tattoo, and the truth is that I'm a bit bored with it. I got the bubble chamber images around it to make it part of something bigger and better, but I'm still not quite satisfied with how it looks. I'm going to have the clef outlined in black, and have some of the scribble effect that is in the marigold tattoo added as well, so that there is a bit more coherence with the bubble chamber image and it all comes together as a complete piece. This was a bitch to get pictures of, BTW. Also, there is a leak in my bathroom but it's only leaking boiling hot water, so the entire apartment is like a 95º sauna -- hence the bandeau in January:







Ugh...insulin pump is showing.

The quote is from Sir Francis Bacon, father of the scientific method. Though it is often misattributed to Edgar Allen Poe.

My next tattoo is going to be another hummingbird opposite the one I have, for symmetry, and I'm having the current bird outlined in black, again for coherence. Better shot of the hummingbird:


I'm getting that at the same time as the clef touch-up, in March. I can't wait!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

You both have pretty awesome tattoos.

I used to consider getting tats myself, but my skin has a habit of raising scars pretty badly, which I understand would be likely to happen with tattoos, as well. Guess I am just prone to it. I'll have to settle for admiring other people's ink!

 

[Kirby]

Nice tattoos. I think if I ever got one I would obsess over what I didn't like about it over what I did, and would make myself miserable trying to constantly get it fixed.

 

[1001001]

I have my fraternity letters tattooed on my left ankle. Nothing special, not worth a picture.

After 27 years, it is starting to fade a bit anyway.

My daughter and I have been talking about getting a Capricorn symbol done, but we haven't pulled the trigger as of yet.

 

[sojourner]

Thestrangequark, that tattoo on your back looks like particle accelerator tracks, pretty cool.

 

[thestrangequark]

^If you read my post, you'd see that that is exactly what it is, goofball.

 

[sojourner]

I did read the post, just wasn't aware that bubble chamber referred to the same thing, lol.

 

[Kemaiku]

I'm hoping to comission an artist friend to make an Elvish design of my name (sort of) at some point this year.

As to where to put it, is the main problem.

 

[Mr Awe]

Very cool discussion about tatoos!

 

[selina]

A thread about tatoos. How cool is that ?

I still only have the three I've posted pictures of before, but I'll show them again.

This is my second one, from about five and a half years ago. Left upper-arm. I designed this one in Photoshop. The artist kind of rushed and made a few mistakes. Getting this one fixed is on my list of things to do.

Wow, this is really great. I wish I'd be skilled enough to design my own tatoos. I believe, there is no way you can get closer to what you actually really want on your skin than by designing it yourself. If the artists made some mistakes, they seem to be minor. It looks very good on the picture.

Here's my most recent, a pair of marigolds (which I posted on the BBS already, but it's gorgeous and I want to show it off!). This is the one that made my arm swell up a good 30%. Of all my tattoos it was the least painful to get by far -- in fact, I'd hardly qualify the experience as painful at all. However, it was the most painful in terms of healing!

Your arm swell about 30 % ? I had no idea that this could even happen. But it was obviously worth it. It looks awesome. When I got my first tatoo (I've only got two) I was thinking about which part of my body I wanted to ink (shoulder, back, arm, ankle) and then decided that I wanted to be able to cover the tatoos. They might not so look nice anymore once I turn 80 or 90 . Yours is on the lower arm, where you could still cover it, but maybe not as conveniently as if it would be on the upper arm or someplace else. Don't get me wrong, I think it's beautiful, but I'm curious: Do you ever worry about your skin's condition when you get older and how it might effect the tatoos?


I've got mine on the back. The first tattoo is on my right shoulder blade. I think I've got it around 2008. Sorry, my sister took the pictures with her cell phone. The quality isn't the best. The colours are actually a bit stronger. The symbol is a triquetra. It symbolizes the power of three. Depending on the cultural background, there are different meanings for it, e.g. birth, life and death or the Holy Trinity.



The second one I've got a few years later and it's on my lower back. Although I'm happy with both tattoos, the artist made a mistake with the second one. He added shadings between the lines of the celtic hearts - which we didn't discuss. Since there was already a dark background, the hearts were hard to recognize at first. I went to another artists several months later and ask him to light the shadings up with white ink. That helped, but I still wish there were just the outlines of the hearts. Well, I'm not loosing any sleep over it, but if I have to do a touch-up in a few years, I will probably look into it again and see if anything else can be done about it.

 

[thestrangequark]

A thread about tatoos. How cool is that ?

It's the coolest, really.

Here's my most recent, a pair of marigolds (which I posted on the BBS already, but it's gorgeous and I want to show it off!). This is the one that made my arm swell up a good 30%. Of all my tattoos it was the least painful to get by far -- in fact, I'd hardly qualify the experience as painful at all. However, it was the most painful in terms of healing!

Your arm swell about 30 % ? I had no idea that this could even happen. But it was obviously worth it. It looks awesome.

Thanks! Yeah, I had no idea it could happen either, and I think that, it being my 6th tattoo, the artist just assumed I'd be aware of it. With all my other tats swelling was really minimal, so this totally shocked me. But a bit of googling taught me that swelling like that is pretty normal with tattoos below the knee and elbow, especially if they are large and/or wrap around the limb. It went down completely after about 3 days.

When I got my first tatoo (I've only got two) I was thinking about which part of my body I wanted to ink (shoulder, back, arm, ankle) and then decided that I wanted to be able to cover the tatoos. They might not so look nice anymore once I turn 80 or 90 . Yours is on the lower arm, where you could still cover it, but maybe not as conveniently as if it would be on the upper arm or someplace else. Don't get me wrong, I think it's beautiful, but I'm curious: Do you ever worry about your skin's condition when you get older and how it might effect the tatoos?

I never really understood this line of thinking. I mean, there is no getting around the fact that when I'm 80 or 90 my tattoos will look old and wrinkly. But so will the rest of me...
I have a feeling that octogenarian me will have an old and wrinkly face, old and wrinkly hands, old and wrinkly boobs, and old and wrinkly tattoos!

I've got mine on the back. The first tattoo is on my right shoulder blade. I think I've got it around 2008. Sorry, my sister took the pictures with her cell phone. The quality isn't the best. The colours are actually a bit stronger. The symbol is a triquetra. It symbolizes the power of three. Depending on the cultural background, there are different meanings for it, e.g. birth, life and death or the Holy Trinity.

Cool! Why did you select it? Which meaning does it hold for you?

The second one I've got a few years later and it's on my lower back. Although I'm happy with both tattoos, the artist made a mistake with the second one. He added shadings between the lines of the celtic hearts - which we didn't discuss. Since there was already a dark background, the hearts were hard to recognize at first. I went to another artists several months later and ask him to light the shadings up with white ink. That helped, but I still wish there were just the outlines of the hearts. Well, I'm not loosing any sleep over it, but if I have to do a touch-up in a few years, I will probably look into it again and see if anything else can be done about it.

I see what you mean about it being a little dark, but it's very lovely nonetheless. I especially like the way the two tattoos complement each other. I also have a tattoo on my back:

]

I'm designing the second hummingbird I mentioned to incorporate some of the qualities of the star. It will have the same size and proportion of the hummingbird on the opposite shoulder, but with the stained glass effect.

 

[selina]

I never really understood this line of thinking. I mean, there is no getting around the fact that when I'm 80 or 90 my tattoos will look old and wrinkly. But so will the rest of me...
I have a feeling that octogenarian me will have an old and wrinkly face, old and wrinkly hands, old and wrinkly boobs, and old and wrinkly tattoos!

You are probably right. What does is matter if the tattoo gets wrinkly when everything else does too?

Cool! Why did you select it? Which meaning does it hold for you?

I liked the idea that everything is circle, the circle of life so to speak, and the triquetra symbolizes this. Furthermore, I liked it because it is a very old symbol that was already used by the old Germanic and Celtic people. That it survived until today makes it somehow powerful for me. And last but not least I think it's universal. For example, the Celts believed in the Great Mother. She was portrayed in various forms: As a child, a young mother and the wise, old grandmother. For the Christians it's the Lord, his son the the Holy Spirit. Both groups used the triquetra as a symbol. Somehow it always fits .

I see what you mean about it being a little dark, but it's very lovely nonetheless. I especially like the way the two tattoos complement each other.

Thank you! Yes, I really wanted that the tattoos complement each other and that the picture as a whole is consistent.

I also have a tattoo on my back:

This one I really like the most. I love the stained glass effect here, but as far as the second hummingbird goes, I would probably make it more like the first one so everything is balanced somehow. Then again you really seem to know what you're doing . Why did you choose a star?

 

[Robbiesan]

Tattoos have been around practically since man developed any technology. They can be extremely beautiful or they can look worse that prison tats and entirely as a function of the artist employed to make them.

I have an appreciation for them since it's a historic part of my culture. However, you should read up and anticipate the issues of them.

Inks fade as they're absorbed by mircoscopic processes to eliminate the pigments in ink. That means though technology has advanced that those colorful tats might not stay that color.

There's increasing cause for concern about MRSA, a specialized kind of bacteria, that's everywhere and might cause an infection. Go to a reputable tattoo parlor and ask if anyone has had problems in their studio.

A huge portion of people regret their tats because they applied their then lovers' names to their bodies. Don't be tempted to do that.

Quite a few people have spent a small fortune to have laser tech remove their tats. Dermatologists love this as it helps pay their bills. That tattoo design that you spent so much money on, and that took a lot of times to fill in at the studio, might be in a place on your body that will be seen by your employers and customers. All of that might interfere with your occupation. Be prudent.

Believe it or not, there were monks and nuns who got tats as a sign of their faith when practically most of the people that were known to get tats were in the military or bikers.

 

[Emher]

Awesome tattoos all. tsq already knows how I love hers

I've been thinking for quite a while about getting my first tattoo and what's mostly held me back is what it should be off. I then at long last came to think about Carl Sagan's speech about "the pale blue dot" that is our home. But i realized that just simple blue dot might be a bit boring. So I've thought that maybe something inspired by one of the photos from the Apollo missions of the Earth. I've always been fond of this: http://dennisgnosis.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/apollo-8-earth-rise1.jpg

So I've made it a goal that now that I'm making real progress with weight loss I've decided to go trough with it once I hit a certain weight. As a reward and a goal to my self. And knowing myself if I like it, which I think I will, I'll set another goal for the next one. I think that once I get started I'll keep going. Just have to keep them nice looking. Portraits and tribal symbols you'll never find on me.
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