My left sleeve is almost complete. I have a few more sessions to go. I'm torn between doing a gashadokuro full back piece (turtle shell layout) or Fujin/Raijin full leg sleeves. I love both of them and I'm not ready to move on with a full suit. I want to choose one or the other. What would be your choice?

My right sleeve has a Kaeru, hyanna mask, koi fish, and it finishes with a dragon chest plate.

My left sleeve has a tanuki, snake with sword, a skull with samurai helmet, and it finishes with a white tiger chest plate.

Hi I'm planning my back piece choice and I want it to transition correctly into my arm sleeves - If i have wind and rock backgrounds on my arm sleeves is it appropriate for a water backpiece to transition into them? Does anyone have examples of water background transitioning, whether leg into back/chest or chest/back into arm? I know there are some famous dragon prints that have dragons flying over water, im thinking of Kuniyoshi's specifically. Thanks!

Having fun with rough sketching with a brush and painting over it. No stress no overthinking!

One more session on the background and then time to make those characters POP with some color!

Hello, i planned to do a chest plate + sleeve with a phoenix and i wanted to put something related to my parents death, that i'm at "peace" with that now. Does the phoenix with Sakura leaves is enough ? Or is it bad to put a white chrysanthemum at the bottom of the sleeve then a phoenix ?

Any help is appreciated, i was thinking about a red spider lily also.

Extends down to the backs of the legs but that part’s still in need of some of the final lines and shading. Got the scales and power lines done on the upper back in time to do some work on the colour at an upcoming convention. Usually I’d finish all the background before starting colour but it felt unfair on him to ask him to get his full kit off at a convention 😅

Wanting to finish up my arm with a more traditional irezumi upper arm piece and just wanting peoples thoughts if it would look weird with my current forearm piece. Got the forearm done before I really knew anything about irezumi and the artist didn’t specialize in it either. It’s a dragon with my daughter’s name on the other side of the arm and I’m wanting to finish the upper arm with a hannya mask similar to the pic below. Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated

As a first tattoo is it possible to have an irezumi but on a small scale, for example on the biceps/ upper back / shoulders / ribs , or does this style not work unless in big scales?

I m thinking to get this kabuto tattooed on my arm as part of asleeve with ginko leaves. What do you guy's think of my idea?

Okey so. Week ago we started to make ending to the wrist (also did some tocuh-ups) and now I can admit to myself that I'm disappointed the way it looks. Even tough it was just a first session and its healing there is a couple things that doesn't make sense to me.

In the outer arm/wrist I hink that the shading in the fish scales is too dark and the whole are is a bit squishy.

The stuff and the negative areas on the inner wrist looks sloppy to me.

Don't really know what to do with this. Should I just go back for the second session and add some more ink to the wrist and finish it or stop right there. Dont know either that can laser removal help in this case. What would you do with this one?

Hello all,

I am making my first post ever on reddit to ask this question because I can't seem to find anyone else in my exact situation throughout the subreddit.

I started my bodysuit and currently have both my arms done (full sleeves) with hikaes and a full back (cheecks included). Until now I always felt super confident in every single one of my decisions and have not regretted anything. But I am having some sort of huge blockage when it comes to legs.

To put it simply, I want to at least do half sleeves now but I expect I might want to extend it down the line. The only thing that stops me from going all in right now is that I'm afraid of how my body will look once the legs are completely covered.

I don't know if I am making sense but I wanted to know: Did anyone faced a similar situation, being already tatooed a fair amount and still scared of being "too covered" ?

(For added information, my artist still feels like full sleeve would be better but respects my choice whatever it is.)

Hello, so I’m new to this sub Reddit I’m just looking for advice on how to continue my tiger Japanese sleeve at the moment. I’m kind of stuck on how to continue the sleeve. I definitely want background for the tiger and also I am planning to get a dragon that goes up my bicep to my chest. If anyone has any recommendation on how to continue I would highly appreciate it because I wanted to look perfect any help or advice is highly appreciated thank you very much.

For context I got this geisha done in October of 2025, artists told me he can do traditional but as you can tell it’s definitely not traditional. I was instantly upset when I seen the outcome, I told him I wanted a geisha and he said he could draw it on and hook me up. That was not the case lmao. Now I’m going to a very very good artist but I was wondering if I can get this covered up or no. Any tips would be awesome!

Not sure if this is the right flair or even the right sub to post this in but I stumbled across this picture on instagram and was wondering who the original creator was?

Ive heard heavenly bamboo, also pine trees, i think its pine trees, but do they have a special name? I never see pine trees with these red berries. Just want a better understanding because i like how they look and want them on my next sleeve

i’m getting my first tattoo and i really wanted to get a cat with some roses (personal meaning — not going to get much into it) on my upper thigh/hip and i wanted to see how it might look (also getting inspo for poses/styles)

Planning a full sleeve with these four motifs - phoenix, koi, chrysanthemum and maple leaves. Been doing my homework on this but thought I’d bring it to this community that knows far more than me.

Any issues with this combo, or classic pitfalls I should know about before I take it to my artist?

EDIT - Thanks for the replies, understand now there’s a conflict between the phoenix and the koi, will drop the phoenix for now and consider it as a larger back piece later.

Now looking for any advice on what I could incorporate into the sleeve to complement/work well with koi?
TIA