rarehardtofind

El Carlo recently finished my fiance's chest...

Most mindblowing thing in the thread so far, for me at least. :D

Got this one a couple of weeks ago from El Monga @ Aloha Tattoos, Barcelona. Left shin, right below the knee, which the ears kinda wrap around a bit. The rest was pretty bearable, but those bits hurt like hell.

Some people like to fool around with varied iconography and the philosophical and mythological aspects behind those icons, it doesn't necessarily have to mean they profess belief in anything in particular. Sometimes it's simply an aesthetic appreciation for religious art and how powerful it really is. Keep in mind religious art is created either as an expression of love and passionate religious fervor, or as a propaganda tool (or both), so it's bound to be powerful and moving. Also, people can also have rather unorthodox relations with particular deities or areas of faith. My girlfriend, for example, is not religious, but back where she is from (southern Spain) people tend to have a certain cultish devotion to certain catholic icons by themselves (pretty pagan if you ask me), and so she has a tattoo of the one virgin that her family 'roots' for.

Saw this on Instagram, lucky you! I'd love to get something by him

Got this one a couple of days ago from El Carlo @ Aloha Tattoos, Barcelona. Always a great experience getting tattooed by him, and the shop and everyone there is amazing. Picture is kinda so-so and does not do it full justice, but you get it.

This.

I got my last one a couple of days ago from Alvaro Llorar, who is now working out of Barcelona Electric Tattoo (in Barcelona, obviously). Awesome work, very creative and a good balance of different styles. His paintings are unreal too. Clicking on his name links you to his blog, but it hasn't been updated in months, I guess his FB has more recent stuff.

I was recently called this twice in about a month...first time when someone tried to convince to give a shot at getting some work from the uh, 'less-than-stellar' shop her friend was working out of and I politely declined, and then when pointing out to an acquaintance that her forearm tattoo was upside down. I did feel kind of bad after this. Whatever, I think people pull the 'snob' card when they realize you've one-upped them at something they thought they knew a lot about (tattoos, music, whatever...), but just don't want to admit it.

Most of my tattoos I got from Carlo, working out of Aloha Tattoos in Barcelona. He apprenticed under Monga and while you can definitely see that quirky influence, he definitely has his own thing going... Rötor is also working there and while in a completely different and weirder direction, I think his stuff is also amazing...come to think of it, that whole shop is nuts..

This. I was actually quite skeptical of this whole thing, but it's turned out to be awesome so far.

Looks good, thanks. I used to walk around that area a lot as a teenager cause of a certain punk venue being a few blocks away from that shop. It was still sorta sketchy back then. There was an awesome occult shop/palm reader nearby with the most awesome neon sign EVER.

Yeah, I know how to work my way around the internet ;-) , I was just fishing for more personalized tips. Thanks anyway!

Interesting...I'm flying out to NYC for a bit over a week at the end of the month, having lived there during my childhood/teens, I know the city well enough, but I haven't been there in over 10 years, so I'm way out of touch with the million changes it has gone through since...I know a bunch of stuff/places I want to show my gf (who has never even been to the US), but It'd be cool if somebody could point me in the direction of good places to shell out my hard earned cash in exchange for records, books, and fashionable menswear.

Before I knew anything about Lyle Tuttle or tattoo culture in general, I always saw (still do!) spider web tats as mandatory for skinheads (either on the elbow or shoulder) and I was explained it stemed from jail tats and that it had gotten popular amongst the skinhead populace as a way of saying we are all in a way 'prisoners' in society. Just a theory. Of course all of this means zip to your average ironic hipster client. I saw one of these the other day with some very visible russian prison tats (taken straight off the books, cyrillic script and all) and I'm sure that won't fly too well with certain people. Too bad. Never heard the racist thing though.