Guayaberas, also known as Mexican Wedding Shirts, originate from Latin America. Guayaberas impart a very casual, comfortable, yet refined fashion to men who wear them. I myself wore a guayabera shirt to my cousin’s (relaxed yet tasteful and fun) wedding a few years ago and received many compliments!

Cuban legend says that a poor seamstress sewn a number of extra pockets onto her husbands shirts in order for him to carry more guavas (or guayabas). Actually, these guayaberas shirts have near-worldwide renown: in Britain and Australia, they’re known as safari shirts. Mexicans also know them as Yucatans.

There are a number of good online tattoo design library sites on the web. Owing to the incredibly popular television shows, “L.A. Ink” and “Miami Ink”, do you know anyone who doesn’t have a tattoo?

You’ll probably spend most of your time at the “Design Gallery” page. It includes a keyword search box at the top, but it may not give you the results you hoped for. The tattoos are also categorized into headings (at time of writing, 40 categories). Following the category name is a number in parentheses - you guessed it, that’s the current number of tattoo images in that category. (See how there’s only one Scorpion Tattoo? that’s a category that seriously needs to be better populated. Scorpions are like the kings of the insects, no?)

You’ll actually probably enjoy just thumbing through all the images of the categories that interest you. But, look in the categories that don’t seem to immediately hit you. There’s some gorgeous artwork in there. This is your membership site, and you can download and use those images elsewhere, if not on your own epidermis.

Some of the tattoos are in black-line only, and may have full color and shading alternatives also. The Japanese tattoo section carries a lot of the very popular Kanji style tattoos - and there’s usually a corresponding English meaning shown. Let’s just hope that the “Dream” kanji tattoo you emblazon on your arm doesn’t really translate to “Stapler” in Japanese. More pointing and laughing may be the result, all at your unknowing expense.

Currently, at time of writing, tattoomenow boasts over 3,200 individual tattoo images. this is a fair amount, for sure. Other sites have twice the number, but, you guessed it, cost quite a bit more.

The tattoos are divided into 40 categories, including Angel tattoos, Patriotic tattoos, Celtic tattoos, belly button tattoos, lower back, Japanese, animal tattoos (insects, sharks, wolf, tiger,…) tribal tattoos, fantasy, dragon, flower tattoos, and many more. As you see by the screenshot, some categories are much more represented than others, as you may expect. I had a lot of fun exploring the categories to see what tattoo designs and images were available to me to print and save.

The category that really impressed me the most was the tribal tattoos and celtic tattoos. Not only are you given a wide array of tattoo designs to browse, but their image quality is usually very good. At time of writing, there are 354 images in the Tribal Tattoo category, and most of them are awesome:

By comparison, some of the tattoos in the ‘Fantasy’ category are small, the images aren’t of good quality, and the designs are just freakin’ ugly. To wit:

A flying, drugged-out frog? Put this on your body, and I’ll point and laugh. It’s a cool image to use on the web, particularly if you’re writing a review on tattoo sites. But I digress.

What’s neat about the site, too, when you’re browsing images, is that you’ll be taken to other tattoo sites. You’ll save a boatload of time looking for tattoos. Click a tattoo image and sometimes you’re transported to its master library website and that will springboard you to similar tattoos of the same genre.

My first perusal of the site gallery, I looked up and 90 minutes had passed. It was fun.

Tattoo Image Quality

Most of the images’ quality in the gallery are super. Not all tattoo images are created equally, and it’s no different here at tattoomenow. But, before you worry about the quality of an image that you really adore, remember: your neighborhood, friendly tattoo artist is just that, an artist with (we presume) the talent to embellish (read: fix) any image you present to them. Let’s say you really, really want that flying frog tattoo on your tummy, but would prefer angels wings instead of butterfly wings. Your tattoo artist professional is more than likely able to alter the image to just what you want.

Remember, this is an image and design gallery site, and it can be seen as a place to start, not necessarily finish. Want to have your froggy smoking a cigarette? Holding a Starbucks(r) mug? It can be done. Most tattoo artists, I bet, actually like to put their own creative spin on images that are brought to them.

Tattoo Membership / Site Features

Okay, so a one-year membership to tattoomenow is $24.95. In that time, you can view and download and print out every stinking tattoo in their library if you desire. Heck, how much would a good clip art collection of 3,200 cost you? But - the site’s collection is added to regularly.

Well, there are bonuses, too, with your subscription. Chinese Designs is a free downloadable design book. You also get the wildly popular “Got Ink?” tattoo guide ebook free. This book has hundreds and hundreds of more actual tattoo pictures that tattoomenow doesn’t have. Alien tattoos. Knock me out.

Seriously, if you can’t find a lot of tattoo ideas or images to get you running to the nearest tattoo shop in this 176 page “Got Ink” bonus book, I really can’t help you.

Another fun part to the membership area is the Member’s Gallery. Average Joes and Josephines are more than happy to upload pics of their own special creations, and you’ll have hours of browsing joy.

Tattoomenow also gives you 7 downloadable pdf ebooks on fitness, cooking, and other topics.

There’s a pretty decent directory of tattoo shops that are in your area, indexed by state.

I wasn’t sure about what to expect when I bought my $24.95 Tattoomenow membership, but I’ve really had fun looking at the immense galleries. If you’re looking for tattoo ideas, just the consolidation of search the site has done for you is worth the ticket. No more Googling “celtic cross” images and blah de blah timewastes. It’s all here. I’m glad I hooked up with tattoomenow. It may not be the slickest tattoo design gallery site / membership available, but it’s probably the most affordable - and the greatest bang for the buck.

Bowling Shirts By Color: Pink is the New Pink

We’re busy over here at bowling-rockabilly-shirts.com, thinking of ways to make online shopping for cool retro bowling shirts easier. Some of the more desirable, unique colors of shirts will now be showcased in their own category. Recently, we created the Pink Bowling Shirts page, our best pink bowling shirts captured on one page.

And, here’s a little coupon code to use when ordering a beauty from this page: brsnewpink82702 for an immediate $2 off each and every pink bowling shirt you order. Coupon code is good until September 27th, 2007.