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Seattle Shop Tour


Pleadco
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Tomorrow is a free afternoon without the kiddos, so I was planning on visiting a few shops around the Seattle area. I don't have anything scheduled, but I'm excited to just check out the shops and chat with any artists that are available. I have a lot of open space that I would love to fill up with different styles :)

John Fitzgerald | Aaron Bell's Slave to the Needle . I really like John's work and wanted to talk to him about a back piece. On a side note, the last time I was at Slave to the Needle, Aaron Bell was there and steered me away from a really terrible collage back piece I was thinking about. Phew!

https://www.facebook.com/LibertySeattle/photos_stream I haven't had a ton of up close exposure to american traditional, but I've been wanting a ship and kraken on my right calf.

Seattle Tattoos | Jackson Street Tattoo Co.

Scott Falbo | Apocalypse Tattoo

I was also told to visit cicada in north seattle :).

There are a lot of other suggestions that I would love to follow up on from http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/3532-shops-pacific-northwest.html . If anyone has other must-go-to places, I would love to hear about em! The family and I are traveling down to Oregon next month, and we will be making a few strategically placed pit stops while down there :)

Have a great day folks!

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Phew! That was an interesting day! I was only able to hit a couple of shops, and will definitely have to make another go of it in the next couple of weeks. Traffic was ridiculous (it took me 1 hour to go 50 blocks).

All in all a good day though, with some fun moments. Got to see some good friends, pushed a ladies' stalled car out of an intersection (a homeless lady came to help, along with a giant dude who looked like humpty dumpty--strangest trio ever), and got to talk with an awesome artist at Cicada (Bryan Kachel). He was super friendly and let me chat him up for 30 minutes (he had a badass crustacean on his right hand from Chris O'Donnell). Most of that shop will be at the expo in August and I'm looking forward to talking to them again.

The only other stop I got to make was Slave to the Needle in Ballard. It was cool to check out the art, and whilst there they let me know that John Fitzgerald has a hold on new clients/consults. I'll check back in another month which is fine as I wanted to talk to him about a back piece and haven't settled on the subject matter/who I would like to do it.

So many shops to visit, so little time! I look forward to the next outing!

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I just want to say this here, that Matt Arriola rules. I had a great time getting tattooed, and I think the experience itself was very pleasant and easy going. In my opinion he is doing some of the best traditional work out there, his stuff is not wonky nor is it overdone, he really strikes that perfect balance of being able to do so much with a relatively limited color palette. My tattoo has five colors in it, Black, Red, Yellow, Gold and a little bit of white, that's it and it's perfect no more or no less needed.

Also for a guy that has been tattooing in like 5 different countries in two months, I basically only had to wait a week and a half to get tattooed, He didn't want to do a consultation and I didn't want one either, I didn't have to stand in any line, wait three years, win some sort of lottery, bid on anything on ebay, I just emailed him that I wanted one of his spiders. When I walked into the shop, he said, hey" i'm going to draw this on is that cool?" and "I'm going to get kind weird with this" That was the only discussion of design.

Everyone has their own thing, but for me I appreciate this kind of experience, and it really is my ideal situation to get tattooed. When the tattoo goes this easy, you don't mind a little bit of a drive and staying in a hotel for a night.

Also much thanks to Ernie Gosnell at Lucky Devil South and Mr Wrath and the whole staff at Bulldog Tattoo Parlour in Lacey for the hospitality. If you don't know who these guys are you are missing out.

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I just want to say this here, that Matt Arriola rules. I had a great time getting tattooed, and I think the experience itself was very pleasant and easy going. In my opinion he is doing some of the best traditional work out there, his stuff is not wonky nor is it overdone, he really strikes that perfect balance of being able to do so much with a relatively limited color palette. My tattoo has five colors in it, Black, Red, Yellow, Gold and a little bit of white, that's it and it's perfect no more or no less needed.

Also for a guy that has been tattooing in like 5 different countries in two months, I basically only had to wait a week and a half to get tattooed, He didn't want to do a consultation and I didn't want one either, I didn't have to stand in any line, wait three years, win some sort of lottery, bid on anything on ebay, I just emailed him that I wanted one of his spiders. When I walked into the shop, he said, hey" i'm going to draw this on is that cool?" and "I'm going to get kind weird with this" That was the only discussion of design.

Everyone has their own thing, but for me I appreciate this kind of experience, and it really is my ideal situation to get tattooed. When the tattoo goes this easy, you don't mind a little bit of a drive and staying in a hotel for a night.

Also much thanks to Ernie Gosnell at Lucky Devil South and Mr Wrath and the whole staff at Bulldog Tattoo Parlour in Lacey for the hospitality. If you don't know who these guys are you are missing out.

Glad to hear you had such a great experience. Matt is a good dude, and the spider is killer.

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Glad to hear you had such a great experience. Matt is a good dude, and the spider is killer.

It was a crazy day all around, Seattle really kicked my ass. In hindsight maybe would have been better to book earlier appt, but then I probably wouldn't have got to hang out with Ernie, that dude is such a character and his collection is amazing. Matt and the shop was super busy, but we had a good chat and a few laughs and yeah I love the tattoo. Wrath's place was amazing too, that guy paints so nice, and I guess having a printing company helps as well. It really is such a small community, it's crazy sometimes.

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I just want to say this here, that Matt Arriola rules. I had a great time getting tattooed, and I think the experience itself was very pleasant and easy going. In my opinion he is doing some of the best traditional work out there, his stuff is not wonky nor is it overdone, he really strikes that perfect balance of being able to do so much with a relatively limited color palette. My tattoo has five colors in it, Black, Red, Yellow, Gold and a little bit of white, that's it and it's perfect no more or no less needed.

Also for a guy that has been tattooing in like 5 different countries in two months, I basically only had to wait a week and a half to get tattooed, He didn't want to do a consultation and I didn't want one either, I didn't have to stand in any line, wait three years, win some sort of lottery, bid on anything on ebay, I just emailed him that I wanted one of his spiders. When I walked into the shop, he said, hey" i'm going to draw this on is that cool?" and "I'm going to get kind weird with this" That was the only discussion of design.

Everyone has their own thing, but for me I appreciate this kind of experience, and it really is my ideal situation to get tattooed. When the tattoo goes this easy, you don't mind a little bit of a drive and staying in a hotel for a night.

Now he's on my list too. Thanks David!

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  • 3 weeks later...
Phew! That was an interesting day! I was only able to hit a couple of shops, and will definitely have to make another go of it in the next couple of weeks. Traffic was ridiculous (it took me 1 hour to go 50 blocks).

All in all a good day though, with some fun moments. Got to see some good friends, pushed a ladies' stalled car out of an intersection (a homeless lady came to help, along with a giant dude who looked like humpty dumpty--strangest trio ever), and got to talk with an awesome artist at Cicada (Bryan Kachel). He was super friendly and let me chat him up for 30 minutes (he had a badass crustacean on his right hand from Chris O'Donnell). Most of that shop will be at the expo in August and I'm looking forward to talking to them again.

The only other stop I got to make was Slave to the Needle in Ballard. It was cool to check out the art, and whilst there they let me know that John Fitzgerald has a hold on new clients/consults. I'll check back in another month which is fine as I wanted to talk to him about a back piece and haven't settled on the subject matter/who I would like to do it.

So many shops to visit, so little time! I look forward to the next outing!

Bringing this back a little from the dead, I know, but I'm glad you got to chat with Bryan. He's cool people - all my latest work is from him and we have another appt scheduled for early September to start on some arm stuff. Any of the guys at that shop are super neat though. September seems so far away... I'll have to stop by the booth at the expo and say hey at least. I'd love to see him get more work... but then it just gets harder for ME to see him!

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Glad I found this thread! Hoping to visit Seattle in a few weeks, and hope to go get tattooed with my best friend who lives there. We both wanted tattoos for years, but put it off. Now that I pulled the trigger and got one, he wants one too. Thought it would be a nice bonding experience. Thanks!

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Headed up to liberty today. After seeing @David Flores ' spider in person and watching Matt Arriola's stuff on instagram I can't wait any longer to get up there and check it out.

.@mattarriola | Webstagram - the best Instagram viewer

is just amazing.

Matt started this tattoo last weekend. Pretty much every other tattoo that you can half see in the photo is by Matt as well. Sorry it is showing up sideways, but I am absolute shit with a computer.

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