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So this is what happened yesterday, last tattoo of the year and until scottish convention in march (if I got extra cash by then) Tattoo by Iain Mullen, original design by myself. It is super strange, but it makes me super happy, that some tattooers that I REALLY like pressed "like" on this tattoo. When I checked yesterday it also had Thomas Hooper and Greg Christian on the list. I mean, who am I?

@Avery Taylor here is my ladyhead added to the arm ditch by Jack Rudy.

Just got this croakin' hypercolour lizard yesterday: by Teddy Kardos IG: teddytattoos Teddy is doing a guest spot at Shades of Grey in Edmonton, AB. He works in Newcombes Ink in Halifax, NS under King Len Langille. He is also the lucky(?) bastard that wears the infamous full torso reaper made by OllieXXX. We had a great time doing this technicolour bearded drago! Stay tuned for next week...I have a 9am hallowe'en appointment to get a pretty epic neck/collarbone piece hehe (!!!). Saw the sketch this morning and WOW I am pumped. Very exciting month tattoo-wise for me.

Just got back from my second session with Nick Colella. So far outlining and shading done. Next appointment for color on November 22nd. At that time we are adding a traditional rose as well. Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

I am also stupidly broke and I feel like I did not even make a tiny dent in everything I wanted to buy. Also I'm a genius and forgot my camera at my coworker's house and my phone died so I didn't take any pictures. BUT-- I met Thom DeVita, Ed Hardy, Jill Bonny, Valerie Vargas, Deno, Jondix, Micah Caudle, Dawn Cooke, Deb Yarian, and ran into a whole bunch of other people I already knew. It was overwhelming, to say the very least. I had a blast though, everyone was just so damn nice.

Get a brand new tattoo somewhere else -- then you'll stop obsessing!

this is my girlfriend's newest from ashley love at ny adorned in nyc, I am way too jealous

Show us why! I saw that awesome Arriola print on your Instagram. Speaking of: thanks to the illustrious and praiseworthy @Avery Taylor, I have an appointment with Matt Arriola at 4pm today.

I was sitting in my lawyer's office earlier in the week (deposition for my car accident case) and we were talking about people we both knew from my town (mostly drug dealers and shady lawyers...) and we got around to kids today, how hard it is for them to find jobs even with 4-year degrees. Then he mentions how they are into drugs and getting inked. I was going to pull up my shirt cuff, but let it go. Other lawyers there have seen my ink, but this was my first meeting with the big kahuna. After a tough few hours, it was the highlight of my day. Rob

From quotes to the other extreme: inkblots! Definitely a pretty original idea, but the finished product might look exactly like that.. a bunch of blobby black that you may end up regretting as much as the original quotes. Tattoos don't need to be literal. That's why you can get a reaper and have it mean death or life or party time or nothing at all. If you're going for full arm coverage start checking out some large-scale work. LST is a great place to start.. Maybe start with a portrait of Rorschach himself if you're really into it. I mean, he's not an unattractive man: Hermann Rorschach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm so fucking broke now

I've been turning the latest Jesu offering. This is the reason it's my favorite music group that has started in the last 10 years.

Here is my bleeding moon. I posted this a long time ago. Matt Brotka in Richmond, Virginia, but that fine gentleman is now at Left Hand Black in sunny San Diego.

This seems to be a current thing I have been seeing in a lot of tattoos recently, my most recent tattoo included. Lots of lady heads with moons, or animals and moons, etc. Is it just me or is this popular right now? I didnt even really notice it until I got my moon lady on my leg, then while browsing online saw quite a bit of moons recently. Also, as a side note, if you can find any good examples of it, post to this thread. I'll start with mine

No service in the convention! (If you have AT&T) Back to the table. Met @Scott R and @ian already! This is fun, guys. :)

Nice @trill been noticing a ton of boxer babes lately, too. My wife got one from Virginia the same week she just happened to do two others. Next trend: lady owl boxers with wolf hats and monocles and geometric patterns.

Or a Charles Maggio portrait?

partial coverup/rework, script and anchor was already there, the rest is the coverup ie. rose, leaves, banner, rope etc... done at Belfast City Skinworks, Northern Ireland

Just Paul. And Theo Mindell. And Stuart Cripwell. And Bryan Randolph. And Aaron Hodges.

John Sultana of Saved Tattoo - moon/dagger project

Moon phase moth by Brian Thomas Wilson. http://instagram.com/p/f7HEcXRQxE/

One cool little fucker by the looks of it.

Planned on heading up to the Bay Area Convention this weekend then early in the week realized I have an appointment with Tony Nilsson in NYC tomorrow. Taking the red eye out tonight, getting tattooed, then flying back to California right after my appointment. I am literally flying across the country just for a tattoo appointment and coming back. I'm also considering doing a day trip to the bay in the next few days to get something from Todd Noble while he's at Skull and Sword. I think I'd be super bummed if I passed on the opportunity to get tattooed while so many awesome artists are in town.

Pumped! My wife has an appt with Mr. Stewart Robson of Frith St. today at opening, so I'll be hanging around there if anyone wants to come say hello. Me: Long hair/Acid King T-shirt.

I adopted the most utterly adorable leopard gecko last night. I've been wanting a snake again for some time, so I think this will be a good transition. It's previous owner was a piece of shit who neglected the poor thing. One of its eyeballs was dried out like a raisin, it's missing a bunch of toenails from joint suffocation, and its tank was filthy with shit, dead crickets, and dead maggots. Gonna pick up some crickets today, I have no idea when was the last time it ate. Kinda stressing on the possibility of it getting sick from its previous conditions, and hoping more toes don't fall off (there's still shed skin stuck on em). But I'm in love with it and can't wait til it's all settled in. LOOK HOW CUTE!!!!!!

This journey is finally complete...just a little bloody. By Chris O'Donnell

mine doesn't have a lady head or anything with it but here's my little moon man from Justin Hyde

Ashley Love at New York Adorned gave me this badass mermaid and anchor this afternoon at New York Adorned. I would see her again in a second for any traditional work I was looking for. Love her line work and her tattoo demeanor. Seek her out if you're in NYC and want quality traditional work, or phenomenal chubby girls - her chubby girls rock the house!! - - - Updated - - - Ashley Love at New York Adorned gave me this badass mermaid and anchor this afternoon at New York Adorned. I would see her again in a second for any traditional work I was looking for. Love her line work and her tattoo demeanor. Seek her out if you're in NYC and want quality traditional work, or phenomenal chubby girls - her chubby girls rock the house!!

Just came checking for photos, too. PEOPLE! Of course, Instagram is blowing up... but I'm wondering which ones of those are on you guys?

I'm jealous of all of you who are going. Take lots of pictures please.

Shit, too many windows open. Just caught my error. Anyway, for some time, there's going to be condescending opinions of women with tattoos. Look how they portray female artists in these TV shows: Stupid sluts. Generally, the percentage of professional males wearing visible ink is much higher than their female peers. We have different standards. Don't kid yourself. However, not being a beauty anyway, my strongsuit has always been longevity and my history. I'm not going to push my luck and tattoo my face and neck, because I love what I do more than stuff on my body. However, when it comes to the personal, take me or leave me.

We raised almost $3600 for people affected by HIV/AIDS. My time wasn't stellar, but I ran the 5k on two hours sleep and nursing a chest cold, so I'll accept my 29mins gracefully. There were a few LST folks who contributed- I hope my thank you email made it to you... if not, thank you SO much for helping the team and I- and more importantly people who really need the services your donations help provide.

This post needs photos! I love, love, love Ian's work.

The problem with the idea of tattoos needing to have meaning is that it usually seems like the design of the tattoo is overlooked in favour of its meaning, which more often than not leads to bad tattoos. I literally have no idea what "A Beautiful Chaos on my front shoulder with almost water color looking glass" would look like, or even what it is. Maybe there is a tattoo artist somewhere who could take that idea and do something great with it, but then again, maybe not. I'm going to suggest that based on what you've written here about the tattoo you have that you had a profound experience last weekend. There is something about tattooing, something about willingly putting a permanent mark on your body, that had a deep effect on you in ways that you might not be able to articulate. It brought you out of your regular routine into an unfamiliar and exciting world, it made you feel strong and beautiful, it made you feel like regardless of what other things are going on in your life and around you that you have some measure of control. Or maybe other things, or maybe none of them. I'm also going to suggest that you would have had this experience regardless of what you had tattooed on you. You would have felt similar things if it was a rose, or a swallow, or a dragon. That's where the meaning of tattoos is. Obviously you still need to choose imagery that appeals to you, but if you want to convey a sense of beauty there is no shortage of tattooable imagery that works for that...you can absolutely never go wrong with birds and flowers, for example. You'll end up with a far better tattoo that way.

one from today

fun one from a couple of days ago

I went to Chicago (first time!) for a very short work trip. However, I did manage to squeeze in an appointment with Nick Colella: He wedged my wife's name into a little spot below my left knee ditch and right under a girl head I got that looks just like her. I didn't tell her I was going to do it; when I got home last night, I said, "My leg hurts. Can you look at it for me?" Fortunately, she loves it as much as I do. Nick was awesome. He did the whole thing in about 15 minutes, then I hung out and soaked in his beautiful shop for a while. Nick, Erik, Frank, and Matt were all super gracious and chatted with me for a long time. I can't recommend Great Lakes Tattoo highly enough. And they take walk-ins all day!

Skull and Peony on the inner side of my elbow by Chris O'Donnell. Future appointment to add leaves, water, wind bars, etc. to tie it into my existing half sleeve.

Okay folks, quick update after yesterday's session. Great experience as usual over at Kings Avenue Manhattan. As I stated in my previous post, I took the summer off from tattooing and just jumped right back into it with a 6+ hour session with Mike Rubendall on my back piece. To get the real effect of this, check out the first two pics. Started off during the day and ended well into the evening. Needless to say I'm very happy with how things are turning out so far. LOVE the colors. Will be seeing Henning at the end of this month for upper back portion of this collaboration. Enjoy the pics and my goofy commentary: The man himself laying it into me...noon time shot Almost end of the session...about 7pm or so You want to talk about a shop with heavy hitters? Rubendall, Grez and way in the back....O'Donnell. And each one of them super down to earth and funny as well. Can't really ask for anything more. Messy and yes...painful Full on progress shot, what we managed to get done Left cheek and right inner thigh Right cheek

This is what happened to me today: Rudy Fritsch, of course. I encourage anyone who as a chance to get something from this man, very inspiring and unique in every way. Well worth the trip to Trieste (nice town!) where his studio is. I think that's it for me, no more tattoos until spring. Ciao! edit: not really necassary to comment on how much I love this tattoo. I do. A lot.

I was always like "I won't go below elbow" then I did. Then I said "I wont go hands", then I did. I also said "I wouldn't do neck", and now I am. I never pictured getting a full suit when I first started getting tattooed, well, that has drastically changed. I plan to have full coverage other than face, I'm saving my back for the person I want to do it and when I can afford it. Other than that, it's just putting them where they will fit. My arms, legs etc are just pieced together... but my torso/back I want to be planned out and done as a full back piece. I guess you can't say never.

I don't like talking about money either and call me old fashion...or just plain old, I prefer to bring gifts. Books, bottles of alcohol, some type of food or treats. Sure cash can be king, but this works for me and the artist always seem to appreciate it.

We went to this Irezumi art opening in Hollywood Thursday night. https://www.facebook.com/irezumiartshow Saw some great art there from the likes of Stewart Robson, Tim Lehi, Mike Rubendall, etc., etc. Bob Roberts and Oliver Peck were there. Corey Miller's band played and we met him as he was bringing stuff to the stage. Our little 5 yr old excitedly told him that she's going to be Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. He seemed impressed. Sweet guy.

When you get to the point where you don't rely on other people for your self esteem, it's a very liberating feeling. It took me more years than I'd care to admit.

Don't think it has enough of the "wow" factor to win it this month but here is my entry: By Todd Noble at the 2013 Montreal convention

Here are some ideas: There is a "tattoo shops" link above. Click on it and see if any shops near you are reviewed. Instagram-when you start following one or two artists you like, a world opens up and you start discovering more and more artists to follow and you start to see so many good tattoos every day you have to realize you can't get tattooed by them all but you have so many choices. Watch the video interviews on here plus Gypsy Gentleman and Vice's Tattoo Age... Some of the artists you see in these places might not be in your area but many of them travel and do guest spots. You'd be surprised who you could end up getting tattooed by if you look around more. The TAM blog has a directory and monthly (or maybe weekly?) featured artist with pictures. Do you live in Chicago? Chicago has a ton of good shops/artists... What comes to mind is CTC and Great Lakes Tattoo...don't think you could go wrong there... Great Lakes Tattoo I would not rely on google searches or yelp reviews. But that's just my 2 cents. Good luck!