Show Us Your Tattoos

[GOK]

I'm sure I posted pics of mine a few years ago but what the heck...it's a good image!

I also have a large tribal wolf's head on my lower back, and a small tribal on the inside of my left wrist. I have every intention of getting more!

 

[Lefty]

That is one cool photo.

 

[Lefty]

Show me your tattoo...Russian style

In 2004, my wife and I took a river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow. One of the ports was the amazing island of Kizhi. The small island is a port for the many river cruises and has just one beggar - at least when we were there. He wanted to sell us some wilted flowers - on an island that is just carpeted with them, but I was able to convey to him that it was photos, not flowers that we wanted. When I saw the tat on his arm, I showed him the one on my chest. I gave him a couple of euros and he posed for photos. The last one shows his foot, with a devil, standing on the Earth, holding - well - himself. After getting home, I immediately consulted the Russian Prisoner Tattoo books and found that the devil tat looks quite a bit like others found in those books.

The bland background in the photos is the area just around the docks.

These are film scans.

 

[Lefty]

Sinking

me, in a pool, underwater, at night.

i swear i'll get some nice crisp photos of the wife and me posted at some point.

no, i don't have extra nipples.

 

[pgoat]

Lefty that is so cool - thanks for sharing...but did you have him sign a release for online distribution?

 

[pgoat]

That is one cool photo.

I'll say!:eusa_doh:

 

[pgoat]

great idea pgoat.. imagine how cool it would be if you can just tell your friends and family stories of your travels as they ask of the tattoos.. pretty cool eh?

Indeed - my dream would be to get the scroll for the cat done in Japan, and the extra knot work in Ireland - ok, so I'm a dorklol

 

[Lefty]

I'm probably on all sorts of websites in Russia - including the "guys we've arrested in our airport" site. Don't ever try to take undeclared "antiques" (a term totally undefined by any Russian code as far as I can tell) out of the country. It's fine if you get permission from the ministry of the interior, which takes at least two weeks - the length of our trip. Otherwise, you're arrested at the airport, your goods are seized, and you're told that you can't leave (and return to your wife, who's sitting on the luggage, 1/2 hour from take-off) until you sign the statement that you made - which has been typed out in Cyrillic for you. "It's what you said, why would I lie?"

I was cooperative. When I got back to my wife, we saw a guy being led away in cuffs (I was just escorted), clearly beaten around the eyes, and crying. I don't know if the cops did it, or if he was just a drunk in a fight, but I'm not going back to Russia without a fake passport and a clean shave.

Lefty that is so cool - thanks for sharing...but did you have him sign a release for online distribution?

 

[Lefty]

This sort of thing works if you can find an artist you trust, and the price is right. I wanted a tat at Lyle Tuttle's shop in SF, but the rates were crazy. In Prague, all of the places I saw did crappy B&W monster line work - and I'm not sure how safe the shops were. A travel tat is cool; a travel Hep C infection - not so much.

Indeed - my dream would be to get the scroll for the cat done in Japan, and the extra knot work in Ireland - ok, so I'm a dorklol

 

[waffle]

Indeed - my dream would be to get the scroll for the cat done in Japan, and the extra knot work in Ireland - ok, so I'm a dorklol

naa, it sounds like a great idea.. actually i'm pretty jealous that you'll be getting a tat in ireland..

 

[waffle]

Lefty,

thanks for posting up the pictures and story.. very cool. the underwater picture is pretty amazing as well.. thanks for sharing!

 

[pgoat]

This sort of thing works if you can find an artist you trust, and the price is right. I wanted a tat at Lyle Tuttle's shop in SF, but the rates were crazy. In Prague, all of the places I saw did crappy B&W monster line work - and I'm not sure how safe the shops were. A travel tat is cool; a travel Hep C infection - not so much.

This is true! My wife is a nurse, so she'll be doing Hep inspection for me to b sure. I'll have to work in the cost of the tattoo with all our other travel expenses....I do hope I can get these done in the next five years or so.

That's wild about Russia...glad you made it out in one piece!!

 

[Lefty]

My wife laughs at guys...

who act like it's just so painful to get tats on their little biceps.
She only has 2, but that's kind of like saying that you only have 2 arms.
They're pretty significant. This one took 4 sessions of 2-3 hours.

For the people who have never witnessed how getting a tat works:

Step 1: Figure out what you want.
We've got an artist friend who adapted an old design at my wife's request.
He made two drawings, one for the feathers, and one for the girl.

The drawing is based upon the tattoo of a circus performer we found in a book.

Step 2: The transfer.
Your artist will make a copy of your design onto a thin paper, much like tracing paper. With a little bit of water, this will allow for a transfer of the design to your skin.

Step 3: Line work.
This is where you get an idea of whether or how much it's going to hurt. The areas that are right on top of bone hurt the most. Areas with muscle, like biceps, don't hurt at all.

Step 4: Shading
A different needle is used - needles are actually groups of different types of needles for different purposes. Here, there's a group of them that feel like they're shaving off your skin. This is usually more painful than line work, especially when the artist goes over the same spot for a while.

Step 5: Color
This works like shading.
Here, much of the color in the woman has already been completed, and the tattooist is working on the deco-styled peacock feathers.

Step 6: Healing.
This takes a while - around a month. It involves using baby ointment and gauze for bandaging, and hating the thought of the shower hitting your intentionally inflicted abrasion. Until the tat is healed, all of the lines raise up from your skin and you wonder if all of the color will leak out. Then there's the scabbing and itching that you're not supposed to touch.

Step 7: Saving for the next one.

The finished product.
Here's the tattoo with around 7 years worth of age. The colors always mellow, but my wife's skin keeps the ink much better than mine. The dragon, he other little tat, is from 1999/2000 and was both drawn by our same artist friend, and tattooed by the same guy that did the peacock lady.

 

[pgoat]

That's quite a piece!:eusa_clap

It really fits on her shape well, despite being a large design. I think that's key to a good design - it's art, but on a 3-D, non-static canvas. So the proportions have to work out for best results.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I am now super envious of her peacock feathers....damn you!

Thats on the list to add to mine....but budget never cooperates...


D...gets all depressed

 

[waffle]

absolutely amazing. it looks awesome.. :eusa_clap

 

[Lefty]

Thanks guys.
Like I said, keep an eye out tomorrow, because I'll have some better photos of the finished product. There's color in the feathers, and I've got a much better digital camera and lens than I did 7 years ago.

 

[RIOT]

No pain no gain, right? I once did one sitting for 6+ hours straight on a piece, after it was done I needed more. I guess my body is just used to it. [huh]

 

[Lefty]

You've got to go easy with that sort of thing.
You are causing yourself injury from which your body needs time to heal. It's not about manliness, it's about healthiness.
Most artists I know won't allow sessions of over 4 hours, and even that depends upon the customer's condition.

 

[RIOT]

Relax. It depends on your condition on how much you could take. The artist will ask if you want to continue or not. The hours in my 1 sitting was nothing new as I have seen other last longer. I have also done sessions worth 2-3 sittings.

So what I am saying here is that if you can take it in 1 sitting, go for it. If not, there is always tomorrow.. that's all.