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If you could only be tattooed by one tattoo artist for the rest of your life... who would it be? Explanation is required. Shop talk, personal conversations and general work done plays a huge role in every experience and hopefully we will get some good stories out of this. (I haven't posted on here in a while, so I hope this didn't get brought up somewhere else.) It was a hard choice, but I know that if I could be tattooed by anyone else for the rest of my life... It would be Freddy. 1. I'm lazy and its a 1 mile walk to Temple 2. He is hilarious 3. I could hear him talk about India all day. 4. Jason, Derrick and Heath are awesome to talk to as well. 5. The shop is beautiful. 6. Every time I go in, I just want to get a million jesus tattoos. Your turn.

I'm gonna add, I'm so glad I don't have to pick just one.

Andrew Loomis books: Save Loomis! Various old drawing books: Drawing Books - Open books for Creative Minds!

Well I started my back last week. Marie Sena, now at Lifetime Tattoo in Denver, is doing it. She recently worked at Stay Gold Tattoo in Albuquerque, and was in town for the Duke City Tattoo Fiesta, so we did my first session at Stay Gold. 2.5 hours, and we were able to do the bulk of the lines - only a few details left to outline for the most part. Pain-wise, it wasn't as bad as I expected, I guess I prepared myself for the absolute worst. The area over the kidneys was pretty rough, but she said I took it like a champ, so I guess I handled it okay. It hasn't been very sore or bothersome, pretty itchy though - currently wishing I wasn't single, but I'm lucky that I have friends willing to help me lotion up those hard to reach spots. Super psyched to start such a big project, can't wait to work on it again!

Yikes! Just booked an appointment with Mario Desa at Great Lakes! This is turning into such a great summer.

I was riding the bus to work this morning and even though the bus was full and people were standing, there was one empty seat...the one right next to me. I believe it was @CultExciter who once said on here that the purpose of visible tattoos was to attract mates and deter foes, so I'm halfway there.

made this one the other night.

Easy choice for me, Regino Gonzales. Just about all my tattoos are from him, and I plan on going to him until he retires or I run out of space, whichever comes first. His style is a 100% match for what I like, and he seriously puts down a killer tattoo whether its a more simple traditional tattoo (like my gypsy lady) or a huge super-fancy tattoo like my entire leg dragon/Raijin tattoo he is still working on. I've seen a ton of his work from just being in the shop, plus my friends get work by him, and I can say he nails every style amazingly. Another big contributing factor is Invisible NYC. I cannot say I've been in a better shop. Even from day one everyone was super cool. Every time I go there it feels more like visiting a friends house than going to get tattooed. I will say that a very close second would be Stewart Robson, for very much the same reasons, he is just too far away.

Big scheme of things bud, it's not a huge deal. You've got many years and options ahead of you, so just take a deep breath and try not to sweat it too much. Glass half full is that it's easily covered by clothing until you fix it if that's what you want and you presumably have a ton of other space on your body to cover with really killer tattoos. Start diving into the art and culture and you'll be so into what you are getting next that you'll most likely forget what was bothering you in the first place.

I'm subscribed to it, but it just bums me out more than anything. Not to sound holier-than-thou or like I'm some sort of authority on tattooing, but it further reinforces the sentiment that most people don't know anything about tattoos. Some good stuff definitely does pop up from time to time, though. I've actually posted a couple of my tattoos on there.

Figure & Gesture Drawing Practice ToolFigure & Gesture Drawing Drawspace.com - Lessons great resources!

@CultExciter thanks heaps!! I know of a great supply store. Death to Michael's, haha You asked for constructive crits, I have a couple of tips/questions. When you compose your sheets, do you have line drawings that you trace onto the painting page or do you draw them right on? The snake looks pretty good, actually. The only thing I'd suggest is keeping a bit more negative space within, so those lovely rich colors can really pop out. Panthers.. oh panthers, how I love you. Such a beautifully simplistic and yet difficult design. One of the things I'm noticing in those panthers are the shoulders. One shoulder is right out there on the inside arm, and the outer shoulder is hardly visible. The most important thing to take into consideration when drawing panthers is the surrounding space created by the shapes of the animal. I think that the tails on the panthers and snake could create more interesting negative spaces if you played around with them a bit more. Consider how the eye moves through your design. Where is the focal point? What part of the image is my eye drawn to first? Where do my eyes end up when I've finished looking at it? Are there any unnecessary details present in the design that prevent my eyes from moving through the image smoothly? Tracing old designs, line for line, is super educational as an exercise. Always give credit to the original artist if you do an exact reproduction, of course, but it really has helped me learn a lot about composition and the impacting nature of traditional tattoos. It's apparent that you have a keen eye for design, and I think that if you work out some of those kinks, your work will really shine. Cheers!

When you go back in, thank him for that. I've heard that it's not good to tattoo them because you wanna be able to see if the mole changes color. However, that didn't stop a certain someone from blasting right over a raised mole on my arm. It stung like you would not believe and I bled like a stuck pig (stuck Hogg?). I have moles all over my back that didn't get tattooed over. Luckily, my backpiece is a snake with a million dots, so it worked out well.

A couple of paintings from this week, constructive criticism highly appreciated!!

Oh shit, now that's a tough question. I think I can only speak for artists that have already tattooed me, as personality is a huge factor when getting tattooed. I think I'd go with Sonju from Tattoo 13. I like that guy's brain. His ideas about inspiration, creativity, the birth of images, and laws of tattoo aesthetic are ON POINT. He's also an odd bird who don't give no fucks about no stupid social stature of any kind. Good dude to hang out with, very funny, and we share birthdays. Go team Sancho :)

Awesome question...my first thought was to pick one of the big names, like Shige, or Filip Leu...But I think I would genuinely have to go with the artist who I have the most work from, the person who taught me more about tattooing than anyone else I have ever met - Mark Armstrong, Sacred Art, Manchester. I have full sleeves and full chest done by him, and we just started a full Japanese backpiece (neck to knees). He is not a big internet name, but I couldn't give a monkeys, I count him as a great friend and a great artist, he knows a lot about the history of tattooing too. He used to work at Herbert Hoffmans, he apprenticed Tomas Tomas and Matt Black as well! I also worked for him for a couple of years. I have been to other artists, for smaller tattoos, but I always seem to come back to Mark for the really big stuff!

So here is a sketch of the parrot and anchor and I'm going to get this Saturday. The only change I'm possibly having the artist do is to change the head of the parrot from a macaw to a sun conure. I'm not sure how this will work out, so I'm open to keeping it as a macaw but with sun conure colors (I own a sun conure and he is the inspiration behind this tattoo). So while I would like it to represent my pet as best as possible, my priority is having a solid design. I do have one question about placement. The new tattoo is 30% larger than the one in my avatar. The artist thinks it would would look good on my opposite shoulder blade, but I'm worried it would look a little out of balance. Another option would be to place the new tattoo between my shoulder blades and then get another on my right shoulder that is roughly the same size as my original tattoo. And yet another option would be to scale down the tattoo so it's roughly the size of the original. My only hesitation is that I will lose detail. Thoughts on both placement and design? Thanks

Ok, I'll join in with the turn this thread has taken. I just got a chance To do this yesterday with my Kevin Riley liner. I'll post a pinup girl in the near future too.

Going to do everything I can to avoid laser...but I hear ya...how I got screwed...i'm feeling worse and worse about this shit everyday.

Pick one of these clubs and I'm there. Best strip clubs in New York City

Get tattooed by Lucas Ford and welcome to LST.

I can't sing her praises enough, and I am so, so, soooooooo stoked on this piece, so here is my finished leg by Stephanie Tamez. Such an awesome person, and I'm gonna miss spending so much time at Saved! Except for a couple details, everything here is healed. Definitely one of my favorite tattoos.

Just got me an appointment with Chad Koeplinger when he guests at Great Lakes this August. I'm fully and completely stoked for the tattoo.

Got this Grimm tiger yesterday from Fergus Simms. Here is a pic of the three thigh tattoos I have off him so far taken after the appointment. Safe to say I am very happy with all of it.

Look at this blackness! It was a bloody mess. Kongo Yasha is really going to pop once this background is done.

So the shop got this gem sent to our facebook yesterday...

You will love him. He is a class act.

Welcome! From the looks of it that shop is damn solid! I'm personally more into Ryan Gagne's super simple bold style, but Lucas Ford looks like a killer tattooer! Definitely in a good place. What are you getting tattooed?

@SpaceGuerrilla listen to @Pleadco and don't worry about immediately fixing this tattoo. spend some time checking out artists in your area and maybe even get started with a new piece on the other arm. i recommend checking out Kore Flatmo https://www.facebook.com/pages/PluraBella-Studio-Kore-Flatmo/197233313366?group_id=0

Precisely...most of the good stuff is from LSTers anyways (like you). Regardless, I beg everyone to not mention LST on there!

That is a true nightmare.

I've booked an appointment with Chad K there in August, and I'm trying to work in an appointment with Mario Desa as well that same week.

I'm getting to the point now where I feel like I'm droning your ears off complaining about how bad it hurts. It was bad. 4 hours and I had to tap out. I was frustrated with myself, I really wanted to see that whole side finished.

One I finished up a week or two ago... @youthcrewalex That skull is insane!

Tattoos are permanent, which I'm sure you're aware, so the limits to changing an existing piece to your liking is difficult. My suggestion? Laser it. Take suggestions from members on this forum for quality artists near you that WILL care 200%+ about your tattoo. And basically start over. I know, I'm an asshole. Forgive me. Welcome to LST! :)

I'm not impressed, if you are going to troll you have to be more subtle and more believable.

Mav Mess just dropped this book by the shop today.

LST is always 5 clicks away from Hitler, like Wikipedia.

I'm going to be hanging out with Pushead on Sunday. You know. No big deal. I'd love to hang with you folks, but... he wins :D

Guess not. I feel like people don't have as much respect for each other as they should. There was a guy who used to tattoo at our shop and he left for a year. Now we find out that he's renting a tattoo shop a few stores down from us. I'll be honest I was kind of hoping he wouldn't pass inspection, but he did. It's not the fact that I fear of competition, I simply think that it is an asshole move.

@Rob I that snake makes me think of this: Very rad!

Had Chad K. finish my eagle this past friday night at Congress Street Tattoo in Portsmouth. Love it. So glad it's over.. A brutal couple of hours, but so worth it.

Got a traditional Jason mask tattoo from Skylar G. at Current in San Jose and then a sandwich at Ike's. Going to Temple on Tuesday.

This is not on me--it's on my wife--but it's too good not to post here: By Paul Dobleman, Spider Murphy's Tattoo. I booked with him for next month--can't wait for my turn!

You'd be a smart lady to do so. She's great. I also am a big fan of Vinse One!

Todd Noble Tom of Finland heads:

this one from greg christians instagram today:

Aaron Bell Carlos Torres

Aaron Coleman is up there too.

My favorite part is when Chris Nunez said, "That tail is too small to propel the koi's head." I love that critiques included details like hydro-propulsion theory.