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I go to 69% female college in a small middle-of-nowhere town that shares its name with a Facebook game. Most of the tattoos I see are either your cliche girl-in-college tattoos (anchors, infinities, and all that stuff). Other than that, it's usually really brainy stuff (I'm talking forces stuff from physics and the like) or gaming-related. Quite a bit of Zelda. There are only two shops in town and there are jokes surrounding them that (a) one offers laser-removal because their work is so bad you're gonna need it and (b) like half the work that the better one does is cover ups for people who went to the bad place first.

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Usually stuff you'd see on Pinterest: feathers, dates, roman numerals, paw prints, etc. 10 pounds of sentimental shit in a 5 pound bag, with wiggly lines and patchy coloring. I would call it "white trash" style, but people of all races seem to get this stuff. I have noticed in some nearby cities (Lancaster, Harrisburg, etc) in the "nicer" areas of town there's a resurgence of traditional tattoos, and the traditional shops in those areas are flourishing.

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now i m living in China, and if a man has a tattoo, it means he is from mafia :(

I use to live in China... that's where I got most of my tattoos... there is a pretty large tattoo culture there. I'll be in Beijing next monday!

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"Shitty" must be a style. Sure, I see plenty of nice tattoos, but most of what I see is pretty crappy work.

Same here. The funny thing is that shitty comes in all genres of tattoos: among the younger folk I see a lot of shitty traditional and shitty mandalas. It makes the nice work stand out all the more, but goddamn, most people don't know how to get a tattoo.

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"Shitty" must be a style. Sure, I see plenty of nice tattoos, but most of what I see is pretty crappy work.

Same here. The funny thing is that shitty comes in all genres of tattoos: among the younger folk I see a lot of shitty traditional and shitty mandalas. It makes the nice work stand out all the more, but goddamn, most people don't know how to get a tattoo.

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"Shitty" must be a style. Sure, I see plenty of nice tattoos, but most of what I see is pretty crappy work.

Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones. A drive throughout my town you'll see the Unwritten Inks, Teddy Bear Ink (not kidding) and a house that just has a neon sign up in the window that says TATTOO.

When I traveled to Portland to get tattooed it was a breath of fresh air to see a ton of people on the streets with work that was very good and a majority of what I saw was american traditional. A few times I found myself wanting to stop people dead in their tracks and ask for a closer look and where they got them done. It was definitely cool to see a style of tattooing thriving in a city for sure.

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Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones. A drive throughout my town you'll see the Unwritten Inks, Teddy Bear Ink (not kidding) and a house that just has a neon sign up in the window that says TATTOO.

When I traveled to Portland to get tattooed it was a breath of fresh air to see a ton of people on the streets with work that was very good and a majority of what I saw was american traditional. A few times I found myself wanting to stop people dead in their tracks and ask for a closer look and where they got them done. It was definitely cool to see a style of tattooing thriving in a city for sure.

you in Slayerville?

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Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones. A drive throughout my town you'll see the Unwritten Inks, Teddy Bear Ink (not kidding) and a house that just has a neon sign up in the window that says TATTOO.

When I traveled to Portland to get tattooed it was a breath of fresh air to see a ton of people on the streets with work that was very good and a majority of what I saw was american traditional. A few times I found myself wanting to stop people dead in their tracks and ask for a closer look and where they got them done. It was definitely cool to see a style of tattooing thriving in a city for sure.

you in Slayerville?

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Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones.

It also seems like people just literally do not know what a good tattoo even looks like, or why it's a good tattoo vs. some other tattoo that they've seen. They get impressed by the wrong things, and they don't really know better. I'd blame this on social media, but I'm really not sure that's possible, given that, as you say, bad shops seem to outnumber the good ones, anyway. But I've had good friends of mine -- people who have a pretty good eye for fine art/other mediums -- ask me about portfolios from shops that have made me go 'eeuuussgghh.' They just don't know.

It's harder to find places like LST than it is to find terrible advice, unfortunately.

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Man.... isn't that the truth! Living in NJ and working in NYC I feel like a majority of tattoos that I see are flat out bad which to me is mind boggling considering the quality of shops that are out there between the two states. Then I remember that for virtually every good tattoo shop there is about 3x as many bad ones.

It also seems like people just literally do not know what a good tattoo even looks like, or why it's a good tattoo vs. some other tattoo that they've seen. They get impressed by the wrong things, and they don't really know better. I'd blame this on social media, but I'm really not sure that's possible, given that, as you say, bad shops seem to outnumber the good ones, anyway. But I've had good friends of mine -- people who have a pretty good eye for fine art/other mediums -- ask me about portfolios from shops that have made me go 'eeuuussgghh.' They just don't know.

It's harder to find places like LST than it is to find terrible advice, unfortunately.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Female college student. Among other girls the "pinterest" tattoos are very popular- small white ink, small symbols in B&G, etc. Yesterday there was a girl in the gym in front of me that had some weird black shape. Once she stopped running I realized they were tiny elephants. Guys are very into the tribal and the black out style pieces.

That being said, I do see many people with larger, bolder tattoos. A girl who sits next to me in Chemistry has an octopus that covers her entire chest. Another girl I've seen on campus has two large Alice in Wonderland images done on her thighs. There's also a lot of nerdy tattoos: Harry Potter, Supernatural, gamers, LOTR, etc. I truly think that's a generation thing, because many of these things have come to define our generation.

Good tattoos aren't a rarity, but they get overshadowed by the lower quality ones. I think a lot of it, especially with the women my age, are still associating feminine with small and dainty, and that tattoos are still in the stages of becoming widely accepted

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm on Long Island NY and I see lots of great work around. My recent work is good and I'm happy to be in with a few good shops. Styles vary from oriental, old school traditional as well as newer styles (walls of text..., etc...).

What I am seeing is younger people seeking out the better shops and better artists. They're also going with bigger work that takes a few sessions, another milestone.

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Richmond VA is pretty heavily tattooed, and I have to agree with some comments above that most I see on an average day are shitty. Poor quality, random and trendy content, poorly executed and poorly placed. No reason for that in this town, but life is a process, and you don't know what's good without seeing the bad. Everyone seems caught up in it here, crossing all levels of society, and many aren't doing their research, and want what they want, NOW. They can get it now, too, no problem.

Lots of owls/monocles/top hats/feathers/infinity signs/flocks of birds/ironic type tattoos, but a ton of traditional and new school. Lotsa bad portraits, too.

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There are a wide variety of tattoos in my area. I am lucky enough to live within short walking distance of two talented artists. However I still see the majority of people have tasteless tattoos whether cliche or poorly done...

Sent from my Z755 using Tapatalk

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