# What’s your tattoo story?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-tattoo-story/972858>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 7, 2022, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-tattoo-story/972858 "2022-10-07T00:22:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

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**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2022, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-tattoo-story/972858/6 "2022-10-07T05:49:50Z")

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I [started a](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-prepare-for-my-first-tattoo/485111) [couple of](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-tattoo/489005) threads about it way back when 13 years ago. Unfortunately the picture links are broke. The thing about tattoos, though, is still there:

[[Album] Shark Tattoo ![](https://i.imgur.com/QDiFWBs.jpeg?fb "Shark Tattoo") ](https://imgur.com/a/lmQh3tJ)

Story? I wanted to A) face my fear of needles, B) commemorate our trips to and love of Maui, and C) mark how I’m enamored with sharks. I’ve had a number of encounters with sharks there while scuba diving. At a gallery in Lahaina I saw a sumi-e style drawing of a great white, which i tried to adapt into a tattoo. I brought a sketch to a tattoo shop down the street on our last day, but the artist showed me how it needed work.

So I took out home and worked on it, following his advice - dynamic line thickness variation instead of even lines. I simplified the gills and changed the nose and face to the sleeker blue shark.

I brought it back to the same shop on our next trip. Wish I coulda gotten the same artist, but the guy I got did a fine job.

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