@ArniVidar 137634 wrote:

I think the reference is to your username, not your post 🙂

As for him calling your text silly being rude, perhaps. That really depends on your own personal attitude. Around here that’s simply called telling it like it is. Text can *usually* be replaced with an image that looks so much better, which is why you won’t find much love for text in general. As for the text not hindering your sleeve, we can agree to disagree with you on that.
If you’re happy with them and they are what you wanted, they’re not silly at all.

One thing I’d like to point out to you, however. Aside from the fact that you felt slighted and got upset, which is all well and good, I sense a very dangerous attitude from you.

This is the attitude of “my tattoo and my tattooist can’t possibly be anything less than perfect”. Generally speaking, this is almost always 100% false, and we’ve had people come in here and leave again without realizing this. Most people in here can tell you first hand how they made their mistakes and got sub-par ink, but later learned and are now getting better ink.

So please, post your pics. Let us tell you what we think of your tattoos.
Post a link to your tattooist, and let us tell you what we think of him/her.

Understand that this will mean some criticism. Read it and choose to act on it or ignore it. We just want you (and everybody) to have excellent tattoos 🙂

As for the picture uploads, almost everything to do with that system is broken right now, so your best bet is to do as Jerry said. Pick a photo-uploading site like imageshack or something, and paste the Forum/BB links from your uploaded image, in any post.

Well said Arni and with tact that I will ever produce

@angryassdrummer 137635 wrote:

whether everyone on here or just you finds “text” tatts silly or not i could care less. i didnt get them to impress anyone i got them for myself.

This is it in a nut shell. If you’re happy that’s fantastic. I was as proud of my early tattoos as a dog with two dicks. I then join this forum and people tell me they suck. I went to a local shop that had some old, experienced artists that I thought were good. Then I started looking around and I found out I could do much better. I still don’t have “world class” tattoos, but I’m much happier with what I’m getting done than I would have had I not found this forum.

Back to your original post, you asked for our advice.

My rules for a good tattoo; 1) No tribal (although if you are Polynesian, it may work) 2) No text (a picture is worth a thousand words) 3) nothing that you have to explain to people. 4) No portraits. 5) they’re tattOOS.

This only my opinion, but I think you asked for it.

And that’s the beauty of tattoos, just like any other art; No one agrees. But there is a general consensus on certain things, such as Monet and Salvador Dali, and that text tattoos are generally a waste of space and imagination. (And I have a text tattoo myself, which I thought was utterly perfect at the time. It’s not. It’s awful)
But, some people love text tattoos and I even think they can be wonderful sometimes when properly made. Typography is an art in itself. A girl I know just got a very silly text tattoo in a silly location, but it’s amazingly well done and I can appreciate that. She also knows that I think it’s silly, but she loves it and we’re two different kinds of tattooed people.
Some want a meaningful tattoo upside down on their wrist because it’s “just for them” and it holds so much meaning. Me, I want to cover my body in art and am very very passionate about tattoos and the industry in general, it’s not “just for me” at all, it’s a lifestyle I’ve chosen. Some buy a knock off painting at Ikea, others become collectors of high class art and would die for a Munch painting and gladly pay the price for it. There is a spectrum here, and I believe that’s to be respected.

Now. This forum has quite a lot of tattoo collectors who belong on one end of the spectrum – the dedicated snobs. (I say this with love, I’m one of them) They will give you criticism and will think most text tattoos are very silly. Personally I think text on the edge of lower arms belongs to ghetto kids who need to prove their toughness and musicians making “tough” poses for a band shoot. I don’t like them. But that’s me. You love yours – Great! Like you said – other peoples meaning doesn’t matter. But you came here asking for advice completely on your own, but I suggest maybe you have a look at older posts etc before you get far too defensive and see that it’s how this forum works.

Now, they will make it harder to place a full Japanese sleeve around, because text + Japanese don’t go together very well, and it will set certain boundaries on what kind of design you can have. It’s not impossible, but it’s not optimal either. But if you indeed have a great artist who does Japanese well, then I’m sure you two together can work something out. I’d love to see the result, because I think challenges are fun, and mixing Japanese with a text tattoo like that is indeed a challenge!

@peterpoose 137639 wrote:

I have to disagree with number 3 Sam 🙂

Okay Peter, I guess I have to agree with you. How many custom tattoos are self explanatory anyhow?

My wife can’t understand why I got my Volkswagen tattoo. I never had one, but I drove a Ford Pinto wagon for 12 years. The Pinto is long gone but the Volkswagen Beetle is still around.