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I just got this from my friend Matt Brotka at Salvation Tattoo in Richmond, Virginia. However his full time gig is at Left Hand Black in sunny San Diego. Pic pilfered from his instagram .

I pretty much disagree entirely with this. First, it presumes that you understand the reasons why people get the tattoos they get. I read recently, it was either on here or on IG, a tattooer (I think for some reason that it was David Bruehl, but I'm not certain about that) talking about how there was a point in their career where they were tattooing a lot of yin yangs. The tattooer asked those clients what religion or philosophical belief that the yin and yang belonged to and none of them could give an even close to accurate answer, but that regardless of this, they were seeking to achieve a kind of balance in their lives. Horiyoshi III says in an interview in the book JBxH3 that a lot of people who get tattoos of Buddhist deities don't even know what they mean. They like the appearance or the name of the god, and maybe they learn more about it after. So even within what you describe as a "culture" people are getting tattoos that are outside of their realm of familiarity. Second, it's useless to talk about culture as this monolithic thing. If you want to talk narrowly about western traditional tattoos, a lot of those are sailor tattoos or military tattoos, or are deeply rooted in those cultures and traditions, and if you want to talk about people "staying within their own culture" a lot of us wouldn't have the tattoos we have. Third, at this point in time there are very few tattoo traditions that are "untouched" so to speak and aren't influenced by tattoo traditions from elsewhere, and I don't see this as in any way a bad thing. Shit, this isn't even a new thing. I read or heard somewhere...maybe it was from an interview with Horiyoshi III again?...that Japanese tattooing and this whole body compositions were originally influenced by Polynesian tattoos. You look at classic Western tattoos and you'll see all kinds of Asian influence there with dragons and what not--George Burchett went to Japan and observed the masters at work--not to mention that way that Sailor Jerry took that Japanese influence and brought it into Western tattooing with those incredible backpieces he did which have been so influential on the way we get tattooed now. What about Ed Hardy, who synthesised so many things into his tattooing? What about Thomas Hooper who does very European tattoos but is very open about how much he's influenced by Polynesian tattoos? I'm going to say that most of the exciting things that have happened in tattooing have happened precisely because people didn't "stay within their own culture".

I've done it and I think one of the super fun things about tattooing is walking into a shop not really knowing what you want and getting something that feels right at the moment. I'm thinking of trying to get a walk-in somewhere next week when I'm visiting my parents. Spontaneous tattoos rule.

I've done this before. Frankly, I find it a great deal of fun to pop in and get something done.

Tomas Tomas just got on Instagram: Instagram I really hate that Dotwork Damian tattoo posted above. It looks like a grandmother's lace doily.

Congratulations on a great collection of tattoos! Please post healed pictures in a few weeks/months. Also I nominate you for new LST member of year because you listened to the collective "wisdom" of LST even though some of the initial responses to your first posts were a little blunt/mean.

^^^I agree. People get what they like, love, or otherwise identify with regardless of it being "within their own culture" or not. One world.

Miah Thomas at Sri Yantra in Oakland Instagram

All-time favorite is on a friend of mine, mostly because of how silly it is. What do gorillas think about? Bananas, duh. By Drew Rash. Additionally, here are three I've seen on Instagram recently that I've loved. Another Tim Hendricks. Squeezing a readable ROA on there blows my mind. Grez. Does it get better than classic roses on a hand? Grime. And to totally tweak out the classic rose, a rose skull morph.

Here is my latest. Done on Tuesday by Aaron Coleman (Immaculate Tattoo, Mesa AZ). I asked for a crawling panther plus "whatever, as long as it's fairly traditional". Got a sword and some roses and I am extremely pleased of course. Done in only 2.25 hours as I mentioned in the 'fastest tattooers' thread.

Horitomo cat from a few months ago ... sorry for the dark picture

New one from Chris O'Donnell. Flaming traditional dragon head.

The *original* NYC Tattoo Convention - NYC Tattoo - Home Its on for 3/7 to 3/9 in NYC at the Roseland Ballroom. My artist, Studio 69 Tattoo, will be working and I have plans to take a couple of hours of chair time one of the 3 days. It would be nice to see some people from here show up too. Rob

I felt kinda like a crazy risk taker before, but it's good to know I'm a bit more normal.

@Graeme @JAllen If you dig that retroey psychey proggey sound , check out Wolf People.

Howdy all! I found this forum yesterday and subscribed today. Got my first tattoo on my 18th birthday and have been adding to my collection ever since. I've been looking at gettin' a chest piece done, but I'm still looking for my inspiration. Lots of really good artists on here and I'm looking forward to contributing to the community.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

This is a style of tattoo that I really like. Obviously there are those who do it phenomenally well and those who seem to jump on the band wagon. For those who are looking into the style for the first time and don't know where to start then the artists mentioned in previous posts are really good but also the Black Tattoo Art books by Marisa Kakoulas and published by Edition Reuss are fantastic. Looking through them I found a lot of really interesting artists and ultimately went and got a calf piece done by Patrick Huttlinger who is now based in Germany. There's a picture of the piece in my gallery or below just here:

That wretch! She was supposed to let me know that she was on her way so I could take her place!

Somebody should correct me if I'm wrong, but it's a Jerry design that he took from an advertisement for ammunition. If you want the flash, don't ask for it here, go to a shop and ask because if they can't find that particular piece of flash they shouldn't be doing the tattoo anyway.

@hogg Oliver Macintosh is too good , this is one of the toughest tattoos ever

Hawk wrapped around my forearm by Timothy Hoyer

Half sleeve now finished. Thanks to everyone here for advice and thanks to Nick Colella for the awesome art. Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

By Scott Sylvia last month at Blackheart.

Knee hurts like fuck! 5 hours on this by Piotr Deadle :)

Second session just finished on my thigh. 6 and a half hours in. Swollen, bloody and inky but here is a pic. Tried to get some details in on the right side pics.

Saint Christopher is considered the patron saint of travellers. My grandfather had a Saint Christopher medallion which he wore throughout WWII (including getting shot down and parachuting out of a flaming lancaster and evading the gestapo with the help of the Danish underground, but that is another story.). The medallion got passed down to me which I wore instinctively at all times and felt safe or protected by it. My other grandfather and my parents always had a Saint Christopher statuette on the dash of their vehicles. They all believed that it protected them from the dangers of the road because the one time the statuette was not in the car was the one and only time each of them ended up in severe car accidents. My first tattoo was of Saint Christopher. May 6, 2003 to be exact. Hours later I am leaving the tattoo shop all bandaged up. A friend of a friend picks us up. 2 blocks from the tattoo shop, some dude runs a stop sign and T-bones the car on the passenger side. Nobody was injured thankfully but the car was a write-off. To this day I can't settle on whether that post-first-tattoo car accident was either a) God punishing me for getting the tattoo of a religious icon OR b) Saint Christopher protecting me from serious injury. It still haunts me. But at least I got some fodder for the story of my first tattoo :)

Anansi Boys is great fun.

My wife also loves our dog very much. Our dog is a major part of our life, he pretty much influenced us to better ourselves. For my wife, our dog got her to start running. They run 5-8 miles a a day together and my wife now runs marathons. So what we did was buy an ink pad and took our rottweilers paw print. She then had a 26.2 inscribed in the middle of it which is what a marathon length is. Here is a picture, it was done by Erik Gillespie. He did an amazing job, looks exactly like the paw print we gave to him. Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

Thomas Hooper does my favourite squidmitts. A couple of examples stolen from his instagram:

Tattooed byTONY DE RIGO Chronic Tattoo Elyria Ohio shes about 12 hours old sitting in ditch of my arm. Morph skull and roses to be added along with an exact copy of her but with flames coming out of eyes wild hair placed on outside of foream.

Well since a lot of you have seen me on IG and in person, and not only do I look dashing in this picture (RARE!), but my arm and shoulder tattoos are visible... enjoy!

Yep, Rhode Island or New Hampshire. Strongly leaning towards Rhode Island at this point for a number of reasons, and me and @Pugilist have talked about including a visit to Boston as part of the trip. No firm plans made yet, mind you. A New England LST meetup would be great.

me in my big pimpin days.

Just dropping in for a quick moan about my elbow. Had the upper 2/3 done yesterday which hurt a bit, obviously. But fuuuuuuk is it sore today. Not to mention hot and swollen. Oww. Am well chuffed with it though :o - - - Updated - - - here, just after clean up with quite a bit of warping from the swelling and the position it was taken from. The one above it its not quite settled in yet.

@deadsp0t, yeah we got a new sport now...how many hours under the needle championship!

Hi. Personal styles and tastes aside, I can't see anything really "off" with your tattoo. Best advice in these cases: Get another good tattoo and you'll stop focusing so much on this one. - - - Updated - - - Hi. Personal styles and tastes aside, I can't see anything really "off" with your tattoo. Best advice in these cases: Get another good tattoo and you'll stop focusing so much on this one.

Here in the VA Beach area I've been tattooed by Dave Voegeli at JD Crowe's Ancient Art, he's done my entire lower leg and just did my knee this past Saturday, my buddy Nicolas Fox at Classic Tattoo in Richmond, and Rempe at Hold It Down in Richmond. Nic is starting a big fudo myoo on my back at the beginning of the year, but other than I can't get a lot of visible ink due to being in the navy, so that sucks. I also plan on getting some stuff from Scott Sterling in the near future since he works at Crowe's shop, he is one of my biggest inspirations and an awesome guy to talk to.

Best week of your LIFE.

...so on wednesday i flew out from germany to poland to meet up with one of my favorites, rich hardy. he started my back piece...and i`am more than glad that i chose him - i`m absolutely in love! one the one hand it was such an amazing and satisfying experience for my mind but on the other hand it was so horrible for my body. i wouldn`t call myself a pussy when it comes to tattooing but this time i was almost ready to start crying and stopping this whole thing; but somehow i made it through. :)

Who: Shawn O'Connor shawnocconor.ca What: bad assfrog (Sailor Jerry flash!) Where: Ink Machine, Edmonton, AB Canada When: at a touchup appointment...station was already setup, however i wasn't in the mood for a minor neck touchup. Why? because it's a god damn sailor jerry battletoad! we were shooting the shit and i was flipping through a jerry flash book. i was like yeah buddy that's a sweet frog! shawn is like yeah buddy i've never done a frog before! we looked at each other and than said let's go buddy! add some pink in the belly! done on whim! took like 15 minutes lol RIBBIT :cool: this retarded little frog tattoo captures everything i love about the tattoo experience. the best. - - - Updated - - - also got this cool headless owl from Jon Gray (from Hamilton, ONT...guest spot at Lucky Strike in Edmonton, AB). It was from Jon's own painted flash. 2hrs. Ollie walked by and turned up the volts on the machine and Jon was flying. it was funny. good time and good tattooer! <nuff side ass, en joy>

Really love the cowgirl! I got some roses off Rich Hardy last weekend whilst he was back in the UK.

I'll second this. And I'll add yet another echo of "If the shop doesn't have the flash, you shouldn't be getting tattooed there." @Synesthesia I personally don't see any qualm with you bringing in a print-out just in case, especially if you're going to a shop that would most likely have it anyways.

You know where there are better references than the internet? Tattoo shops. You know who has a shit ton of flash/books? Tattoo shops. You know who is well acquainted with these collections? Tattooers. Do some initial poking around, then find a tattooer or shop, then go say, "Hey, I saw this Jerry wolf, the full body one with his tongue hanging out," or whatever you want, and they'll say, "Oh yeah, lemme see, was it this one?" And more than likely, they'll pick out one of the SJ books they've undoubtedly got and flip to the page and you'll say, "Oh yeah, that's it, that line drawing is way better than the one I found online."

Well thankfully I went with the advice from all the veterans here. I chose to use Nick Colella. I posted this elsewhere but wanted to keep my progress all in one thread. The pictures below are where I am at and go for color on October 25th. I am so excited I can't wait. I do have one dilemma, I am not sure if I should try to get one more image in the spot between the racing flag and dogs ear in the last picture. I don't really have anything else in mind for this arm and looked at daggers, roses etc and don't think they will mesh will the other tattoos on my arm. I plan n asking Nick his opinion too. When I left, we planned on 2 more sessions. One for color the other for filler. So I have to decide fairly quickly what to do. Picture before last is the filler I planned on asking for. Thanks again guys, great advice! Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

New overalls. - - - Updated - - - I almost went with this one, but that's more the fitness thread :D

my apologies, i was in a bit of a hurry and just did a quick google search. David Chaston did that tattoo.

well Isaac Fainkujen is awsome! i have haad some contact with him before and hoping to get tattooed when he comes to denmark this summer. i have to promote swedish artist Peter Lagergren. Let's get tatt'n