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By WT Norbert today. Its a bit bloody in these pics. Saw Chad Koeplinger at the shop, if I knew he was in town I'd have booked in with him too! Bummed by a missed opportunity there.

I get it now. The cl in your name is short for Cthulhu.

Kyle Sajban from Red Rocket Tattoo NYC. Back hurt A LOT more than I thought it would.

hhhnnnfghbhllffrrrhhbblllll

ok so I have finally finished researching everyone's amazing suggestions ! what can I say ? wow!! thank you all so much! @Dumpleton : wt Norbert! I checked that link and fell in love with what he does! one pic says he is in Sydney which is only about4.5 hrs from me, so not too bad travel wise! I would love for him to do my thighs or just one seeing I also checked Rose Hardy and was very impressed! she is brilliant! @Gregor : like I had said earlier, I saw Crispy lennox in a magazine I have here and got all excited. I think I need to add him to my list ! no idea for what, but I really like his work. I checked out Ali, she is in Brisbane. thanks for suggesting her too!She is a wonderful artist! would love to get something by her at some point! god you people are going to send me broke ;) @Amok : I ended up finding the article :) I also looked him up on the web and remember why he stuck in my head. brilliant! @Graeme : not sure I would get Trevors work but I really did enjoy looking through it! thank you for the suggestion! I do enjoy looking at Japanese tattoos, and reading about the tradition and how certain elements go together and others just don't. so again! thank you all for suggesting these amazing artists! now I must think a bit harder and save a bit more. definitely don't want to just rush in to my local artist for my thighs now, happy to wait a bit more and hopefully get something by some of the above artists :)

So the knee torture is finally complete. My knee/thigh demon by Matt Van Cura done at Invisible NYC.

My two latest lowdowns! Cat-lady by Valerie Vargas at Frith Street Tattoo, and start of tiger and dragon thigh piece by Marius Meyer ( will post a better picture of this later!)

Made me think of this lol I hope someone gets this reference.

It's both frustrating and really fortunate that I have tons of space left. Fortunate, because I want to keep getting more, but frustrating because I'm tired of not having more of my body tattooed.

Oakland police department is corrupt as fuck and has zero interest in serving the people of this city. Can't say that's true for all police departments, but with the growing militarization of the police force, my respect for the people serving this system is rapidly dwindling. I do think there is honesty and integrity in the ideal of law enforcement, but I have yet to see much of that in action. But yeah, I have no idea who you are, where you live, or what your job is like, so I can't say much on your situation.

@InkedMumma glad to hear it! There's plenty of fine artists to choose from here and you're on the right track. Slightly off topic but I'm getting tattooed by Norbert right now! Foruming distracts from the pain a bit.

I highly recommend Warren Ellis' "Gun Machine" It was a good, creepy, page turner. Gun Machine: Warren Ellis: 9780316187404: Amazon.com: Books I've been on a crime fiction tear over the last few years, plowing through police procedurals. Ian Rankin's John Rebus series is great and I've recently discovered Duane Swiercznski's "Hell and Gone."

No problem, folks. Glad you're enjoying everything. Forgot to post my friend's folk bird.

lady head by Valerie Vargas skull drawn on by Stuart Robson

Big Brent from Mastodon has your answer !

I got both my thighs tattooed this year by Ade Stacey at Nine Tattoo in Brighton. Awesome guy and I love the pieces that he did for me. Baku on one side and Kirin on the other. Something a bit different. The picture of the Baku has come from Ade's own website as you might have guessed from the water mark. In terms of the twitching I got a bit of that towards the bottom of the muscle near the knee but otherwise it wasn't too bad for 5hours+ of tattooing each time.

Oh come on dude not every single tattooer is that jaded.. or can afford to be that picky.

I would be too! Chest isn't fun It was a good day, he's a nice guy and I'm happy with the outcome. I posted a few pics the latest tattoo lowdown thread but here's one. There's a few blood spots there that have gone now.

My sentiment exactly....... My local BOH regs state walls must be of light color. My guess is they feel a brighter, lighter area will be less likely to hide biohazard material splatter..and also must be sanitize able 36" from floor level... This is probably some sort of OSHA reg from Food service areas...made to adapt into tattoo shops.. Like I said, they adopted a lot of outside information into the local regs...it's insane. I'm preparing certain change proposals for next year...along with a couple local guys.....hopefully if all our ducks are in a row we can make the changes without screwing ourselves with these people. - - - Updated - - - To illustrate further the out dated regs we have... We originally had beautiful pressed tin ceilings in the entire shop. They had a great vintage feel..and actually had to be dry walled over because the BOH felt the ceiling should be free of texture to prevent bacterial growth....lol....unreal.... One of the changes we will address...hopefully

That's what she said.

For some reason lately, we've had a barrage of couples at the shop who think it's okay to make out on the tattoo floor and lean on the tables/be publicly affectionate. Like.. come on, guys. I am at work. Working.

Here's something to think about, you just made a broad generalized statement about folks who do tattoos. And then wonder how it is that someone can make a broad generalization about police officers.

I am two assignments away from finishing a holistic health program I started over two years ago! Woot!

I just picked up the first 6 copy's of Brother Lono . I have only read the first one and it's waaay out there , I loved 100 Bullets so I'll stick with it , however it's been really gratuitous so far. - - - Updated - - - @Graeme I love the sound of that. I can't get enough Lovecraftian horror

Yes!!! I finally have an appointment for a NEW tattoo! It's been soooo long!

@slayer9019 UGH I LOVE THAT! So fucking tough. Perfect for a knee cap. So many high fives for you.

ha no excuse needed , I still look at my tattoos daily the eagle especially keeps me enamored

Nice dude!! And @slayer9019 finally done! Those FLAMES dude..

this looks cool

You won't be disappointed. Their first album, if emotion still burns sounds just like what you're looking for. The second album, the plague is real good too but its a little more thrashy with less atmosphere like at the gates.

Best post timing ever. A guy I work with is getting his chest done by Norbert in 1 weeks time, he is shitting himself ha ha.

butterflys are badass...as long as it's a tattoo it have to be.. i have butterflys and roses and other flowers. still man enough. haha!

I know Warren Ellis through his comics, I didn't know he wrote novels though. I'll keep that book in mind, but I'll probably hold off on it for a while given that the subject of the book is probably a little too close to my day-to-day at the moment for it to be much of an escape.

I have been reading a fair bit of Thomas Ligotti lately. I read Songs of a Dead Dreamer and I'll probably finish Noctuary tonight. I wouldn't mind rereading Teatro Grottesco sometime soon, but that is a lot of darkness in a short period of time so maybe I'll give it a bit of a break. Ligotti is amazing though, he's this contemporary horror writer who writes supernatural horror maybe not so far off from Lovecraft in the sense that his stories often feature some kind of malevolent evil beyond human comprehension and understanding, though the evil is a lot more vague and nebulous that it is in Lovecraft's universe. Sometimes his stories are just weird. I highly recommend him to people into that kind of thing.

It is. A super gritty crime drama on a Native American reservation. Crime, drugs, sex, murder, alcoholism, gambling. What's not to like!?!?! Haha.

Well excuse me for saying so but those are some great looking thighs.

Blaine the train!

I've tattooed plenty of cops, no big deal. Lots of cops have tattoos. To think that most or all tattooers hate them would be similar to saying all cops are dicks. I know it's not the case, I've met plenty of good decent people in an underappreciated public service with a through-the-roof danger rate. I appreciate the people that truly believe in their job. There are plenty of people that don't entirely trust or feel comfortable around police, whether it be deserved or not, but I know that's not new to you and it encompasses lots of people besides tattooers. Are there some asshole tattooers out there? Yes. Are there some cops out there that are bullies and abuse their power? Yes. We're all just people, and if you're a dick then that's just who you are no matter what field of work you are in. If you are not comfortable with your artists, then don't get tattooed there. I wouldn't want to pay someone that hates me either.

@Graeme I think he'd be suspicious of a rose tattoo. He was one of the first of my friends to get into tattooing back in the mid-80s. That said, we never agreed on what makes a good tattoo. We've drifted apart over the years. I ran into him this summer and all he could do was crap on my tattoos. He had just come from getting his baby's hand prints tattood on his chest. So, yeah. Chacun a son gout, I guess.

While acknowledging what you hint at about the complex issue of masculinity, I'm going to say that I think that butterfly tattoos are actually pretty tough.

I went to London. Twice. And I didn't get any tattoos. More fool me.

Thanks ross! Yea after it was done I was like holy shit...that's loud.

That hand/dagger/roses though...

Pictures didn't take, here again Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

@Graeme, I've got a lord vicar track on a comp and it was all it took to make me want to get all their albums. that new noctum sound good as well. i'm kinda blown away by the amount of really good albums that came out in the last few weeks. in just one day toxic holocaust, warbringer, skeletonwitch, and entombed all put out albums. http://youtu.be/JYdJZgkJ9SI and completely switching gears

You just made an amazing point. It's true, I personally do not celebrate watercolor tattoos because it is a bit of a lie to the client. Because she posts it publicly on her website, I don't think it is a problem saying this, but she charges $300/hour for something that isn't going to be there in 5 years. That, to me, is a travesty. Same with Bose! You can spend the same amount of scratch on an audio receiver that is superior quality and with more longevity.

A little pineapple my wife and I each got after our honeymoon to Costa Rica.

In November 1979, Louie Lombi tattooed a large koi on my right upper arm. Large? it stretched from the top of my shoulder to below the elbow, and wrapped around from mid-biceps to mid-triceps. That was before ink-transfer stencils, and it was an acetate stencil he'd made, by hand. Anyway, the outline and shading took 12 hours, and the coloring (a month later) took 13 hours. Now that I think about it, yeah, that included breaks... lol. Now? When "Painless Jimmy" Hankins did my back piece in 2005/6, the longest I could go was three hours (the outline) -- talk about painful!

I've made a little collection of photos of (mainly) tattooed circus ladies here: http://www.pinterest.com/FrankieFrankie/circus-tattoos-and-stuff/ while researching some stuff. Love 'em all. Beware: nakedness and visible breasts. Must say I was disappointed by Bodies of Subversion, but maybe my expectations were too high. - - - Updated - - - Oh, these are interesting too - plenty of photos INK Part 1: A History of the Tattooed Lady http://www.transversealchemy.com/2011/02/ink-part-1-history-of-tattooed-lady.html?zx=8e7d635280bb0d60 INK Part 2: The Sideshow Girls http://www.transversealchemy.com/2011/03/ink-part-2-sideshow-girls.html?zx=e1573d9c2aadafce

Gotta have some ethics. It is up to us. I don't support the "fuck it" mentality.