I fancy a tatt to celebrate my father's time in the metalworking industry. It will feature an anvil and the phrase 'by hammer and hand, all arts do stand'. The tatt will probably be on my thigh.
Any ideas?

Ahh... Something I've been thinking about too. I've been thinking more of a shoulder/arm thing though. I never wear shorts so nobody'd ever see it on my thigh. Also, it might be a marriage ending event for me. The wife is VERY anti-tattoo. I've been thinking an anvil with a crosspein and a pair of tongs crossed over it. I'd been trying to think of a single word to put below it. Maybe a very short phrase of just one or two words would work also.

I have 7 tats already. One more couldnt hurt. My youngest son suggested a large anvil for a back piece. OUCH!

I have a large anvil, hammer and tongs incorporated into a large back piece. No one ever gets to see it because I'd probably scare them all away. and I normally wear shirts.

It is fun when I take my daughter swimming at the public pool though :D

I've had this recurring thought about Wile-E-Coyote standing at an ACME anvil, forge welding a length of chain, sparks flying, and an almost finished trebuchet in the background.

Well, I may oneday get a blacksmith tattoo, and if I do it will probably this image: Arms
This is the place where the motto started.

Jake, you don't think getting the WCB Arns as a tatt is misguided unless of course, you are a member.

Well, he is wanting the motto that was started by them. We use that, but I guess it could be misguiding. A matter of opinion, I feel. I see it more as paying homage to the people who created the phrase, what was it, 500 years ago or so. Plus, it would make a really cool tattoo, but if someone personally feels it is misleading then I think they should go with their gut.

How about a hammer, anvil, tongs motif with the caption "Got Fire?"

Or maybe a Joe Cool Snoopy, wearing old-school safety goggles and leather apron, standing behind the anvil with hammer in hand, sparks flying in the middle of a forge weld?

For the ladies, an outline of an anvil, filled in with scroll work style filligree.

Just some ideas.

Opinion-Hanging a framed print of the WCB Arms on the wall of your living room is one thing, hanging one over your shop, or on your arm is quite another.

Use the motto and design your own tattoo. Honor the past without trampling on our shared heritage.

That's still an opinion. What's the difference between putting it on you wall or in your smithy (or on your arm for that matter). No sure how it's trampling on anyones heritage either, unless you consider using their motto trampling on their heritage also. I think that not wanting to use it as a tattoo is a valid point of view, but saying that it is okay to get a tattoo of their motto but not their arms is just hypocritical. Either way you are using somthing created by WCB. Doen't matter if it is an image or phrase.

Also, I agree that one should be part of the WCB before getting a tattoo like that (that makes since to me), but also to use their motto.

Mike-HR. That's soo good that I might have to steal it! I was once upon a time going to get a tazmanian devil (cartoon character) tatoo but chickened out. Wonder if I can work Taz in there somehow??? food for thought.

Flames might be interesting.

Pam

:D

Flames are good. After I retired from the Volunteer fire dept. this past winter I got a bulldog, (wearing a fire helmet, & smoking a cigar) surrounded by flames on my upper arm.

well i've been searching and i like this ideea ...http://www.mclellanblacksmithing.com/images/dragon_flame.jpg

Dang I'd slap that dragon silly with my hammer if he tried to draw the temper on my anvil!

Valentin, that one has lots of potential. I like it.

Mine is on my right shoulder. It is a pink hammer striking an anvil with sparks flying out like from a forge weld. I got it on my 50th birthday.

Mine is simple, an anvil, with a hammer crossing it, The whole surounded by a burst of flame. Just bellow my elbow on the inside of my forearm.
I got mine on my birthday also.

I DON'T know about you guys, but I personally would get a big Hephaestos, in his forge, with his four(?) BEAUTIFUL golden assistants. With like a river of molten iron, coming down from a mountain with hardwood forests all over it(except by the river of molten iron), covering my entire back.

That would be good. IF you owned a bank to finance it. :)

That reminds me of one of Jeff Foxworthy's redneck lines about financing a tattoo, "..one more payment and this baby is mine".


Dave

That would be good. IF you owned a bank to finance it.

Hopefully he/she(the artist) will be a sword or knife enthusiast;).

Blacksmith Tattoos! Hum, let me look and see. Yup, I am a blacksmith with Tattoos.
But not blacksmith tattoos, unless you count a few burn scars I have collected over the years. Their message means "oooops, don't pick that up ya dummy, its still hot!
It's all in fun anyway!
I believe each individual person needs to define his/her self in the way they need to do it, as long as it does no harm to anyone else!
Be safe, don't pick up black hot steel like did at one time, it may wind up being a natural tattoo.
Old Rusty Ted

Hehe Ted, these days a new fad is branding(burning artistic scars), you are WAY ahead of the game! WHat a trendsetter!