I’m a medical student but love ink and when I came up with this Rod of Asclepius inspired tattoo, I couldn’t resist. I love it. The artist is Yurii Ionin and Ionin tattoos in Philadelphia

Have others had this experience?
I got my first tattoo at age 41 last year after years of thinking about it. I spent a very long time researching and finding an artist Whose work I liked and whose style I thought fit my idea well.
Don’t get me wrong, my tattoo isn’t bad by any stretch (IMO) and I like it, but when I see the other work my artist has done it’s just not THAT good, and it leaves me feeling a little disappointed.

Is it typical for artists to heavily cherry-pick what they share online? Was my artist just phoning it in that day? Or wasn’t that into my idea and just kinda went along with it?

All started with the goofy dog on the back of my calf, just above the sockline.

Then added the skull in the helmet, higher up on the side of my leg. I ride bikes and this is my "momento mori" kinda tattoo.

Then i got the tiger on front, off centre of my leg. i was in siargao, had cash to get rid off, wanted one and i like the tiger designs.

But idk what to do now. the tiger feels a bit lonely and i eventually want to fill up the whole leg but all of my tattoos are a completely different vibe and style so idk how to approach this.

Any advice pls?

A small fineline design incorporating puppy ears and puppy's birth flower. Disclaimer: I am still learning to tattoo

Artist - Ali D from Melb, Australia

@ali.d.ink

Took two sessions 12-13hrs

Had a blast designing and tattooing this!

Hey all, new here thanks. Looking for a design of similar to bear on California flag and smaller bear inside/under. No colors per se. Dark for big bear on one light on little and dark for little one on other, etc. It's for me and my daughter. Thanks in advance. Don't know how this works. Cheers

I have this tattoo of DEATH. I want to extend it so it wraps around the leg. To do this I would like to include references to other Discworld characters and stories. Maybe even a nod to Terry Pratchett, but I don't want humanoid figures in the tattoo.

What Icons can I include to bring in the wider world of Discworld?

So happy to finally finish off my symmetrical but not matching patchwork sleeves! My third and fourth tattoos from Caleb and he absolutely knocked it out of the park!

I added UV ink to my cyber biomechanics tattoo and I love how it turned out! What do you guys think of this effect?

Woodcut/engraving/ medieval etching style wolves. My client wanted 2 wolves intertwined in a Celtic knot style. I’m glad they chose the lower back placement too. Thanks for looking!

Hey everyone,
I'm currently planning my first tattoo project: a full forearm sleeve (wrapping around my inner and outer arm). I’m going for an illustrative black & grey style featuring bold solid blackwork, chaotic sketch lines, and fine dotwork gradients.
I wanted to get some honest feedback from the community on the overall composition, visual flow, readability, and the story behind it, but also if this is a good idea for the First tattoo.
Here is the concept breakdown from bottom to top, including the meaning behind each piece:

Im 20yo and i want something personal that defines me as a Person. I want this First tattoo to be the First chapter, my „First 20 years“. And leaves Space for the upper arm yk

1. Wrist / Lower Arm (Inner/Front): "The Roots"
   Motif: A nostalgic, clean line-art illustration of a father placing a caring hand on his young son's shoulder (inspired by classic German comic art, *Vater und Sohn* by Erich Ohser). Clean outlines with the father's vest filled in solid black.
   Background & Meaning: This represents my hometown and family ties. It serves as a constant reminder of where I come from, the foundation laid by my family, and what truly matters in life.

2. Middle / Outer Forearm: "The Drive & Balance"
   Motif: A stack of US dollar bills tightly wrapped by a classic luxury stainless steel wristwatch. On the watch face, there is a small, retro-style cartoon character playfully dancing.
   Background & Meaning: This symbolizes my ambition, discipline, and drive for financial independence and security—not out of pure materialism, but to build a stable future for myself and my family. The dancing cartoon character on the watch face adds self-irony and humor, reminding me never to take myself too seriously and to keep life lighthearted despite all the focus and hard work.

3. Upper Forearm / Near Inner Elbow: "The Unshakable Mind"
   Background & Meaning: This stands for personal growth, self-mastery, and mental strength. It represents the process of building my own character, knowledge, and stability brick by brick through daily effort, rather than relying on luck.

4. Connecting Background Element: "The Overthinker“
   I honestly dont know about this one. I Like the motif because im a huge overthinker and it made me the Person i am today. It has Its disadvantages but for me also some huge advantages

I would love to hear your advice, thank you!

Hi, first tattoo, 2 years old. obviously pretty shitty placement I know, wanna finish my back first then get more tats, need some ideas please :)

I found this on Pinterest it's a snake trident ( something related to Shiva) it's a hindu God. I like the design is it good to get it done as a tattoo on my back? Can you suggest placements? and is it a good idea or not?

Got this about 3 weeks ago. I'm not sure how I feel. I want to make changes. I like it overal. I'm not sure what you would call the style I was going for. But there was a lot of white, now almost all the white faded. What changes would you suggest, if any? I feel like there's some areas where the illustration could be stronger. I think I also had very high expectations. I'm new to tattoos, but I did go to art school. So I have a bit of an eye.

Hello everyone, I have a genuine question.

I started to think about my first tattoo (first 3 pics)

This old shoulder black and white tattoo, made it probably 20 years ago originally as a full tribal, and partially covered it up around 9 years ago with a big black illustration cause I felt like it was time to change it.

The result was really nice for my taste, but of course it became quite dense due to the coverup.

I just want to say that I still really love it, so i don't want to fully cover it, but somehow with the time and the other tattoos I got, this one stands out a little too much for my current style.

Also the coverup didn't completely cover the old tribal so there is my back with a residue of the old design.

do you think is possible to rework it with black and white to lighten it up or work around it to the give it a new life? I don’t do colours, so I might need advices on black, grey and white only.

Or maybe do a partial blastover and cover the elements that I don’t like much anymore and keep what I like (I would love the eyes of the lion to be bigger and whiter rather than realisticc and the symbol in the forehead to be more predominant as if is coming out, or make the blurred edges more defined and cover the old tribal residue with black ornamental design).
I attached some images as a reference from Pinterest (image 4-5)

About what I like about the original design and the idea, I like the horns and the water (Aquarius and Taurus are my parents), the woman is me (Virgo) and the lion was simply cause I had a small black cat on a black moon tribal there, but my arm was super skinny at 18, so when I became older and bigger I decided to evolve the cat into a lion. maybe the next step can turn it into an energy feline.

Do you know any artist that works on those white touch-ups, possibly in EU (I usually travel between England, Poland and Italy in case but i can move around if organized properly)?

Thank you again!

So I love Frida Kahlo and I'd like to get some tattoo inspired by her or her work but I don't want it to just be one of her portraits so I've cobbled together this idea with pieces of her work but I can't figure out if it actually looks good or not so please be brutally honest! I'd have the hearts connecting with a line that goes around my thigh and the main piece would be on the outside of my thigh.

Insta: @canada_tattoos
Shop : Built 4 Speed Tattoo
I specialize in mashup tattoos , (a style that blends multiple styles together) I like having any and all opportunities to make tattoos that are as whimsical and ridiculous as possible. These doodle bodied skulls was a series of designs I had done up a while ago and it was so much fun to get to do!

I also like doing mashups because they make it easier to allow for different styles to be next to each other. Have a bunch of traditional tattoos and think it would look weird with realism next to it? Use this style to transition over! Same works for any style. It also adds a more unique element to it so there’s a lot you can get out of these kinds of tattoos!

Hello! I’m looking to get the sun/moon tattooed on me next week. The only really noticeable tattoo I have is the one on my left arm, on the inside and bottom of the upper arm. The sun/moon tattoo will be around 2-3 inches around. I’m thinking it would look better on my right arm. Placement advice? Thank you!

For example I have asked an artist to make a design of a "bold bee" and suggested I could be a bee holding a sword or something like that. They answered it would look stupid. I guess it can be because of mixed styles? That a bee drawn realistic would look stupid holding a sword or posing in a "bold way"?

I just don't understand it. I mean, if you can think it you can draw it? And the artist could just draw it not stupid? Or tell me "I am not able to draw that".

What should I say to a tattoo artist to make them draw my idea? Or what style should I look for in a tattoo artist?

I’m really interested in getting a No Longer Human tattoo. (No Longer Human is an English translated book from Japanese from the author Osamu Dazai). I really loved the book, it spoke to me in a very meaningful way. I’m obsessed with “As long as I can make them laugh, it doesn’t matter how, I’ll be alright. If I succeed in that, the human beings probably won’t mind it too much if I remain outside their lives. The one thing I must avoid is becoming offensive in their eyes: I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky.” Especially “I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky”. I’ve done some research and it seems there’s no exact (or close even) Japanese translation for just “I shall be nothing, the wind, the sky”. I’ve seen tattoos of “No Longer Human” in Japanese ( 人間失格 ) which is also a good tattoo idea BUT I am a white American (European descent) that doesn’t speak or read any Japanese at all. Opinions on getting 人間失格 tattooed?

trying 2 stick with american traditional but cant come up with any ideas also trying to stick to black and grey! if yall have references that would be great too!

Open to any and all feedback, composition, styling, etc. its the first tattoo I have designed, not sure if I did anything silly. Does it look balanced? I trimmed the outline of the island back from compass rose too keep it from looking crowded, was that a mistake or does it work? Should I rotate the lettering -45 to match the rotation of the compass rose? Does the inverted coloring on the white orca fit?

The background is the island I grew up on. Orca are kind of big deal around here and I have had a number of profound experiences with them. I am in the PNW so I tilted the compass rose to point PNW instead of north and put our area code on the other points. The I Ching and yin yang just resonate with me and my own philosophies so I thought to incorporate them, especially fitting I thought with orca being black and white also.

An ancestor of mine designed one of the only weapons produced by the Polish Army/Resistance during their occupation in WW2. The weapon was named the błyskawica or "lightning" due to the butt plate you see here. I'm a bit worried about how it may be perceived due to the German use of lighting bolts in that period and general neo-nazi aesthetic. What do you all think? Placement on the upper right side of my chest, as if the weapon itself had made an imprint. Still deciding if the bolts or the space in the shield would be the negative space.

If any of yall saw my previous post about advice on how to paint/draw chrome I figured it out! Thank you to those that where helpful on that post!

art done by me or 2in_the_ink on Instagram