What’s worse?
I had a mix on my phone cranked and had to keep pressing my earbuds in because I really needed to hear my music to get out of the pain zone and some other zone that’s pleasant. Plus, the dub was so loud over my music, all I could hear at times was non-beatmatched stuff.
Oh well, the tat came out awesome. And yeah, rib tattoos hurt like a sumwhich. In fact, it still does two hours later…
Since you wrote it for our entertainment I don’t feel bad saying I like not being you there 
I had a 7hr session on a poly half-sleeve I’m having done recently. Another 7hr booked in for December…
I love rib tats - but the are known to hurt like a bitch!
I’ve only got two now, both around 2 hours - one on my left chest, this one on the right ribs. I’m not sure how I’d deal w/ a 7 hour session…for my chest piece - I was really starting to get aggravated at the end. Just get this crap over with! It wasn’t that it was overly painful. The ribs were a different story though. Seemed easy the first hour - some spots weren’t bad at all, others were horrible. Then all the sudden no matter what he did and where it hurt. But the crazy thing is the pain even after the gun stopped. Skin just feels raw! Still this morning. Just washed it and it’s just sensitive as hell.
You need to post pics of that sleeve when it’s done dude.
Well played sir! 
I’ll take number 3!
Little bit of glare, and I think this may be the first documented time of me ever taking a selfie picture with my phone, but…
Ebola
Probably less painful.
That’s very well done, man. Probably worth the skrillex.
Let’s not get ridiculous here
LOL, thx. I dig his stuff. He really took my ideas and ran with them putting what I thought were nice artistic touches in there while keeping the stuff that was important to me. And he’s good at Kanji.
Whatever the artist wants to hear when they’re drawing something permanent on my body…I think a happy artist = a better tattoo. He did have some old school trance on there as well, notably a tune from PPK that I remembered hearing on mp3.com in the early 90’s or whatever, thinking…why are they just selling this song on mp3.com and not putting it out on CD? Plus, I could just listen to the song however many times I wanted without paying if I remember correctly? How times have changed.
Oh, and the shop is actually a hip hop shop. They always have hip hop playing, but my artist was in a back corner where he could blast his own stuff.
You may be right.
I don’t remember what was playing when I got my first (on my sternum…that hurt). I assume there was music of some kind.
You should’ve played some gabba. At high enough volume (which isn’t too much), those kicks can pierce through your brain. 
Not really a fan of white guys with Chinese/Japanese characters but at least it’s love.
LOL, the tattoo is for my father who passed away in May. He spent two years in Japan while in the military (hence the 1st Cavalry patch next to the Kanji) and loved Japanese culture and speaking Japanese to unaware sushi chefs and shocking the hell out of them. I actually “bought” him a trip to go back to Japan with all the miles and hotel points I’d earned from traveling for work, but he didn’t take me up on it because my mom wouldn’t go with him. The Kanji character is Kanji for love, another thing my dad was famous for by those who knew him.
I can certainly understand your point, but in this case and ironically my other tattoo which contains Kanji characters meaning Harmony - both have a deep meaning and a particular reason for having Kanji characters as opposed to English. I think many have Asian language character tattoos because it’s different, (and dare I say they think it’s cool?) but in my case I thought out deeply what I wanted, and why I wanted it that way as opposed to in English or another method of expressing what’s written in those Asian language characters. So you’re more than welcome to un-fan me in the tattoo world, but truthfully it doesn’t matter to me. My pieces are for me and not anyone else.
Well that is the best reason yet I’ve heard for one. I just feel that tats should be personal, and many times the kanji ones don’t seem so to me. Usually there is a disconnect if you know what I mean. Once on a long plane ride with a guy going to Japan who told me how he was a reborn samurai and his soul was from the East and showed me his tat, then I sadly told him that it was mistakenly the west.
I agree wholeheartedly with you that tattoos should be personal and meaningful. But, let’s be honest. Tattoos have become “in” or “cool.” I’ve wanted a tattoo for years, but never felt I had anything meaningful enough until just recently. I’ve seen so many of what appear to be ridiculous tattoos on people, and my immediate reaction is that these guys just wanted another tattoo. (box of pop tarts on the back of each calf and a necktie tattoo all the way down the sternum are two primary examples - that guy had to have lost a bet)
The barbed wire tats used to be the in thing here in the states, followed by the tribal tattoo, and unfortunately it appears that Kanji/Chinese characters are now taking those places. At some point, they too will fall out of style and become passe. People will think they’re douches for having it done in the first place and likely think the same of me. (if they ever see me without my shirt on) But it won’t matter because as mentioned - there was a specific reason to include the Kanji in my two pieces so far.
But in the end, it’s their choice and their body. I’ll worry about mine and let them worry about theirs.
I think the issue with Kanji/Chinese/etc. calligraphy tattoos is because they have been popular for a long time. I don’t remember which comedian said it, but it was a while ago…
“Yeah, your asian-language tattoo means you’re spiritual. In case you didn’t now, it’s over the crack of your ass and translates to ‘beef with broccoli’…you’re not spiritual, you’re just high.”
I’ve seen more than my fair share of those. But yours, ImNotDeadYet, is obviously not one of those. The problem comes from people who just think the calligraphy looks cool and have no idea what they mean.
My tattoo, as well as the next few in the queue, is a memorial. It’s a religious symbol that has specific meaning to me despite being the symbol of a religion that I, largely, detest. Fortunately, it’s in the middle of my chest, so the conversation doesn’t come up very often. The next ones are going to be 2 specific flowers (on my calf and shoulder blade) and a Masonic symbol (on my other calf) despite not really liking flowers and not being a Mason. After that, I’ll start with the ones that mean something just to me with a Fraternity symbol…but I have to figure out if it’ll actually hurt my career because that one will be visible most of the time.
At movement in detroit this year dubstep and trap were on the smallest system yet the over-compressed audio actually bleed through to other dance floors. The vip area was overwhelmed with it!
For some reason I pass out cold when getting ink. I passed out twice during my first and three times during the second. I haven’t gone back for more. I have a phoenix and a yin-yang wrapped in a recycle triangle.
