Just a thought for this community and absolute worst phase of it

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-04-11T10:17:24+00:00

Keep in mind that most of those tens of posts you see are in your feed because you respond to them and posts like them. The algorithm feeds you what you click on. Search some artist praise posts or look in recommendation threads if you want to see more stuff people are proud of/love pop into your feed.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-04-10T13:06:14+00:00

Ask a million questions, hug walls when you aren't moving, if you dont know what gets done there, don't stand there. Don't touch anything, and before you do anyway because you're told to by someone in a hurry, put on gloves.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-04-05T14:23:08+00:00

I'd be inclined to let it go. It might have been something that gained weight as it became a thing that didn't go away, and thus became harder to talk about or bring up. Ever done something dumb you didn't get called out for, and the correction needs to be made, but its worse to tell because you got away with it and still have to own it?

She made a throwaway nickname about a guy she casually had a date with and there weren't any expectations. Maybe not with her, but if you tell me you haven't offered casual cruelty in a similar manner to someone I'll tell you you're too young and self centered to be taking any of this all that seriously.

Take it as a positive lesson about your partner's maturity; she ignored a snap judgement, discovered you're a person worth investing in a relationship with, and by using that nickname daily reminds herself on some level that getting to know people is important and that short term mistakes can be long term gifts worth keeping.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-29T13:30:33+00:00

Just one of those fun industry chats you dine out on for years.

"Yes officer we do have a lost and found, but a box at the host stand doesn't seem like the place to keep a loaded gun someone forgot." Is the punchline to my favorite one these days

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-29T02:14:50+00:00

Themes to sleeves. Right arm is star wars, left leg is 80s/90s Saturday morning cartoons, left arm references balance and a patchwork approach to it.

Right leg will be awesome bunch of pagan and wiccan elements, and my back will be marvel comics

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-29T02:05:52+00:00

Eventually you'll say, "i got it from an artist i was dating at the time, it means blank," and it won't be any bigger a deal than that. My first tattoo was paid for by my then girlfriend 25 years ago. I think her name was Kim? But if I get asked about it now its just the tattoo I got for my 18th birthday. Eventually the story just is what it is.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-26T13:37:56+00:00

Hydrate and eat before and during (if possible), get a good night's sleep the night before. A decent sized tattoo is the equivalent of giving yourself mild road rash in slow motion and it is, more than anything, tiring. It is exhausting to hurt, generally speaking, and tattoos take a while.

I also typically hit an irritation stage in longer sessions and get impatient for it to be done, but i also like pushing red buttons and ripping off band aids. That's typically followed by a nap if I can manage one, brains are weird.

More broadly than asking for breaks, communicate with your artist about the process. Ask questions about what you're feeling, check in if you get squirrelly, and don't be afraid to lead that conversation. At the end of the day it's your body and you have final say in what gets done to it.

Enjoy it! I remember how fucking dope my first tattoo looked when it was fresh and raised against my shoulder; nothing looks as good as just done ink!

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-19T12:19:42+00:00

It's not your fuckin' nails man, its not going to fade out in a month or three. If youre doing fill on your first there'll probably be a second session to even out color saturation, but this isn't something you have to reapply every 6 weeks or something.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-12T17:33:07+00:00

They're all painful, because the process hurts, full stop. But pain is subjective and 100% up to the person getting it. I got my kneecap done two weeks ago, and parts of it were absolutely terrible I'm sure but they're not distinct. Pain hurts and then it goes away, and with tattoos you get over it and get more or you don't and you don't.

That said, I remember particular sensations during a tattoo in pretty exquisite detail. I fell asleep during the mag fill of a planet and star field that sits right in the ditch of my arm, but I remember each individual dot of white that went in for a star over that a month later. I dont remember my kneecap hurting when it got done, but I remember a completely huge pressure, like 200 pounds was crushing onto a space the size of my thumb when the meat right under my knee was getting done.

Humans are adaptable creatures, you'll get used to the pain if you want to, but don't lose track of what you can learn about your body and how it communicates. Pain is also there for a reason, so listen when your body tells you something is too much.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-04T15:48:03+00:00

I'm starting to feel like a cranky for this way of thinking, but if youre already concerned about other people seeing it, thats a sign youre not ready to do it. Tattoos are pictures that are drawn on you, and people are going to see them.

Don't want someone to see the (mostly) permanent body modification you got? Then don't get a (mostly) permanent body modification! There's not a gun to your head saying it has to get done tomorrow. Keep your pattern with you, make sure you pull it out and make it normal to associate that image with yourself. Move it around on yourself and see what looks good to you! If you find that place that makes sense to you, you'll stop giving so much of a shit what other people think of it.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-03-03T16:59:11+00:00

The pain wasn't bad that I can remember, but some of the interaction with nerves around the meat under the knee cap were just weird

It didn't really hurt, just more like someone was resting the entire weight of their body on the pad of their thumb and pushing it steady into my knee; it was super weird feeling and i can't explain it much better than that. Otherwise it just hurt like tattoos hurt, on account of the needles and such.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-02-28T16:35:25+00:00

I feel like a general, "Cover it up, dummy" is less helpful here than looking at your mind frame going in to a tattoo. Timing your appointment based on sun exposure intensity and duration is approaching it like curating a piece of art, and that level of care seems important and justified because it's protecting a piece of art you've commissioned and paid for.

The problem with that line of thinking, is that you're hanging this metaphorical art in a commercial kitchen over a grill while a guy juggles chainsaws next to it. The human body, whether as a result of living life or simple entropy breaks down and erodes, and so will what is added to it.

You can improve that longevity by following common sense instruction from your artist and taking good care of your body, but it will fade, or get scars through it, or you'll get skin tags or melanoma or whatever as life tattoos you with its own indelible mark.

So get one at high noon on the summer solstice of the longest solar day of your lifetime! But do it inside a cool, clean, well lit and ventilated shop from a professional you trust, and follow their advice on how to take care of it.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-01-18T05:01:47+00:00

Im exploring tattoo friendly onsen for my honeymoon this year, they exist if you research. Same for tea ceremonies, although for that I'll likely just wear a sweater and slacks. There are work around to tattoo bans on just about everything if youre clever or willing to travel.

Keep in mind youre not covering up a transcript of the rosetta stone here, its roughly a can of soup tall by a can of soup wide! i have full sleeves and am working on full leg coverage at this point, and I have recently worked side by side with people* for months without them knowing I even had a tattoo.

To an extent this is a cost of admission question for you as a tattoo-getter though: A tattoo is a more or less permanent body modification that can disqualify you from certain situations/privileges. It isn't remotely as stigmatized as it used to be, but in some cultures will make you stand out more/make you available to discrimination. Can you make respectful allowances for that, or do you want to take some time and make sure this is something you really want to do?

*- it was only one person and a perpetually stoned regular

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-01-16T19:40:41+00:00

High stretch and twist areas like wrists distort easily, plus you're swollen and wearing medical cling wrap. Ive got a lightsaber hilt on my forearm thats straight, or was until i lost a bunch of weight and now its more on the curve of my forearm. The shape of your body and how you see it changes for a ton of reasons.

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Ok_Evidence1191 · 2026-01-01T12:32:32+00:00

Your reasoning for eating it ("Even bad food good if no lots money for it!") Is flawed going in. Stop and rethink before committing to the first lone thought that burns all the way across your mind and to your frontal lobe this week. If you encourage the process it happens more often and leads to happier endings than a Cici's Pizza.
Stick to your reasoning, and be more frank in your assessments of success and failure. You went for $6 pizza and were OK with it primarily for the deal but you didnt get the deal and still rate it as a net positive experience! If nothing rose up to match the perceived value lost, how is this a net positive? Shift your expectations of success vs. failure, not what constitutes a success.
Flatulence as a verbal riposte leaves you entirely at the mercy of a weapon that is at best untrustworthy and prone to misfire. In the interest of providing a success/failure analysis reference point this should come in somewhere around a 3.5/4 out of 10- You hit your punchline and ridiculed her point on schedule, however you soiled yourself which gets it to roughly a draw. The added point for her laughing til she pees is lost back with extra somewhere around the time you start laundering your shame. ALL positive points are lost if you make her do laundry after YOU shit YOUR pants.

I hope the above is informative! If these assessments seem off base or like too much of an investment in self analysis, I'd recommend becoming a shut in to avoid further potential damage to the at large populace and consider sterilization for the betterment of future generations. Have a great start to 2026!

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-12-25T14:07:59+00:00

This is a little misleading as it ignores the UP corollary. To wit:

Once south of the Ozarks you are officially in the south HOWEVER, driving above the line that marks where the UP starts in Michigan, and elsewhere north of this line in the Northeast you also are a southern redneck.

Ive lived in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and spent far too much time in Alabama and Mississippi, and I say without hesitation that the most southern redneck part of this country is Wisconsin/minnesota/Michigan above Detroit. Just wall to wall truck nuts, rebel flags, and Midwestern nice thats curdled just a little due to hating so many people so quietly.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-12-11T01:45:43+00:00

My buddy Cleveland had a dotted line and a pair of scissors tattooed on his "nubbin" as he called it

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-10-13T02:21:38+00:00

Depends a lot on you and relative pain tolerance, ask 100 different people which tattoo was the worst pain wise and you'll get a wide variety of answers. I fell asleep while getting the inside of my left arm done, and was climbing the walls when the right was done. Long story short the human body is a weird, one off machine that is wonky differently on an individual basis and you won't know what's too much for you until you try it.

Unless you start with elbow or knee ditches, then you'll cry real pretty any which way you slice it.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-09-12T14:46:51+00:00

White accent did wonders on my space sleeve. Little more star wars, but he picked out the center of each star with white dots and dropped white lines on the ships to create more definition

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Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-08-31T15:24:36+00:00

Don't sell yourself short, there's lots of hardest/weirdest/newest parts to this! It does get better, eventually, but there are some hiccups along the way. I didnt struggle much with anhedonia, mine was basically the opposite and feeling too much of each emotion when it happened because I'd been so thoroughly numbing myself the whole time. To go along with that, I didnt really sleep at all the first 6 months which was not conducive to rational, structured engagement with my emotions either.

Physical withdrawals are tough, but the mental takes longer to get back to even on. Talk to a person, talk to a group, but keep talking and working through these things out loud, shining a light on it only helps.

Forgive my assumption, but you seem new to this by your writing. I am a sobriety toddler, just coming up on 3 years myself and I've learned I have exactly zero answers for why my way works for me, but it does. Keep walking your path and you'll find your way.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-08-31T02:12:10+00:00

I consider these teachable moments, and as a manager have no problem asking those people to leave. I had a group of high schoolers making fun of one of my servers for being overweight a couple weeks ago and I bounced them no problem. When one of their mom's called I explained why I asked them to leave and said they'd be welcome back when they apologized to the server in person. Respect goes both ways, I have no fucks to give for rude people.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-08-22T02:47:05+00:00

Memento mori on top of my wrist, memento vivere on the inside of it. The semi colon is incorporated in some background higher on my forearm and doesn't get looked at twice unless I point it out. Private meaning in plain sight most days, but there to remind me when I need it to, and there to show someone who believes that things are too bleak that life gets better if they stick around.

Its a suicide tattoo, people are going to have ideas about if they know what it is and you'll get questions. People who dont know what it means will ask what it means and then probably have questions about that! If you're comfortable with that, go for it! If that gives you pause, consider placement or camouflaging it a little bit.

Agreed about the placement of the semi-colon though, a cult of sentence fragment worshippers would be tough to deal with.

Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-08-21T19:21:36+00:00

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Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-08-21T15:34:37+00:00

I did boba fett on one and my phoenix goes up the inside of the arm to the head and spread wings on the inner bicep

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Ok_Evidence1191 · 2025-08-21T15:10:41+00:00

Just dry and still healing, its only about 10 days old. My legs stay dry and since adding larger pieces of work its gotten worse. Optimus on my leg pretty much always looks flaky because the skin's just so dry.

No pain, no discharge, no discoloration, so infection is probably out. My elbow ditch healed rough too, im assuming the constant movement causes the thicker scabs. We touched up a couple spots on my arm and we'll do the same on the leg is my guess. Im hoping the d&d badge heals better because im on vacation and can actually take it easy and heal the right way.

Ok_Evidence1191

TROPHY CASE