Leaderboard

Finished these ones yesterday. @Scott Sylvia did the skull on the right, Freddy Corbin on the left. These were done over a week and a half. It was a fuckin honor to be tattooed by both. Fuck sorry about the size.

That ship is awesome; @Graeme! I managed to snag a cancellation with Grez yesterday to do a Panther Rose Morph. I'm pretty friggin stoked!

Ron Wells finished this one on me yesterday. It's so beautiful and I couldn't be happier with it:

As I am want to do on my days off, I found myself outside The Pearl. Today Tim Pausinger did a couple pieces of Higgs flash for me. He did a druid and this creepy clown.

Thank you so much Tron!!!

I kind of feel like I ruined this month by posting my back piece, no one else wants to enter so I'll post some more :) - - - Updated - - - Done By Tim Hendricks at Frith Street Tattoo

Thanks @Iwar I also got this Panther off Matt Arriola at Frith Street the day after

I'll go ahead and get this month started - edit: almost!. All months should really have a panther tattoo, shouldn't they? I'd love to see Aaron Coleman three-peat.

Ok I'll go First done by the totally awesome Valerie Vargas at Frith Street Tattoo, around 40 hours work, finished a couple of weeks ago.

Convinced I'm getting too old for this shit, but pretty proud of sitting through the outline on my belly last night.. though I did feel like a crazy person when we finished. All I could think was, "There's no way I can start my back.. there's no way I can start my back.." The worst part is the shitty sleep, though. I sleep on my front, so I basically spent last night dozing off and then having to get comfortable on my side again. Waaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

Next week is looking good. Getting a Fudo filler from Glenn Flesjaa on tuesday, and coloring my wolf chest by Marius Meyer on friday.

Long way to go, but I Totally love it. It's impossible to selfie it, but here it is (sorry, couldn't get my phone to upload the picture) http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/gallery/member/16281-first-session-on-winged-unicorn-sleeve.html&imageuser=35536

People who freak out over choosing their first tattoo forget the most important thing: Picking your first artist. Make that decision well and the first tattoo will be the best for you

Drew Flores from State of Grace just posted these (added to a Paco Excel sleeve): To me, they're perfect. Very simple, but just right.

Got this from Scott Sylvia over the weekend, very happy with it (stole the pic from blackhearts IG). Gonna go back to Blackheart for their walk in day in a couple weeks too.

I couldn't find many examples either for kitsune ideas when I was looking around, but I just asked Seth Wood if he wanted to draw one for my back - fortunately he was interested. I think you just have to find someone you trust and go for it!

Jen Lee, Tattoo City bad month to enter because of that ridiculous vargas back piece….fuck it

This is exactly it. I inquired at a shop I frequent about booking with an artist and was surprised when they jumped all over it and told me to use their name when contacting the artist and to include them on the email, etc. and I would get right in, no problem. And that all came because I don't bullshit them and sit well, show up on time, and so on... It may be the long route getting in with an artist that's tough to book, but if you show people you're serious about collecting tattoos for the long run, those hard-to-reach artists are suddenly really accessible.

I'm going to post some more pictures I found, and when I have time I'll try to find out who made all of these so I can credit them. I've been doing some research on kitsune since I decided they were cool tattoos. Some are considered servants of the deity Inari, and are considered more trustworthy than wild foxes. According to Japanese tales all foxes are capable of magic, however, and wild foxes can be both good or evil. Here are some links about foxes in case anyone wants them. Kitsune, Kumiho, Huli Jing, Fox - Fox spirits in Asia, and Asian fox spirits in the West Kitsune Lore Kitsune Kitsune Page - Myths and Ancient Stories - Japanese Kesa thru Kodansha Main/Kitsune - Television Tropes & Idioms I'm thinking of going down to the NYC tattoo convention to try to get this done. The website says the Horitoshi family will be there. I don't know how easy it will be to get something like this done though, I've never gotten a tattoo in my life and I've never been to a tattoo convention.

Wow I'm so glad I've never had to do any of this kind of stuff. I've never emailed an artist, and the only time I've had to set up an appt besides in person or a quick call was with actual real mail, and only because we were not previously friends but still within 1 very close degree of separation. Granted, he doesn't even have an email address, and neither did I at that time. But the point that I'm getting to is that getting a hand written (not a printed one in my opinion) letter gives a more personal touch and adds an air of serious intent. I'd suggest that if there is a shop address it's probably worth doing. Real letters via real mail; It's way cooler than email and prob a good chance it's gonna get you noticed and possibly put you closer to the top of the stack.

Yeah saw that on IG as well; I officially have tattoo envy. Good one homie @Graeme

'Bout time Kai! ;) Can't wait to see that thing finished!

Ha, we'd love to meet you. He (or we) will be going up to everyone there, "Lance? Lance?" Wait, wasn't there supposed to be some type of code word for LST-ers to find each other in a crowd? I do have an LST t-shirt...

Oof, that's a shame. But getting tattooed def trumps looking at a tattoo. If you are able to make it later, cool. Or if @DJDeepFried attends, it'd be great to meet you both. This doesn't help at all, but look for the long haired pudgy Asian with glasses and black and grey tattoos. Needle in a hay stack.

So as a momentary aside, the last few posts made me curious. At what point do you or should you give up reaching out? When does it get to the point that you are just badgering the person? I remember in the past, before I ultimately decided to go completely traditional Japanese and stick with 1 artist, I reached out and tried emailing or phoning other shops but had no response. These were all highly regarded artists. After months of waiting with periodic calls to the shops or emails through their web sites (I couldn’t stop by the shops as they were international or across the country) I ultimately decided I didn’t really need tattoos from them. The artists tattoos were cool, but didn’t blow my mind enough that I couldn’t go to another awesome artist that specialized in the same style that I liked equally. Where as in the beginning, the Artist who I go to, the opposite happened. I hounded her till I was able to get a hold of her and schedule a consult, then appointment, and nothing was going to stop me from getting that appointment. I’m sure I annoyed my way into having her take me on, after a bit I was starting to feel bad. ;-) You could say some artists may even make it difficult to contact them so as to weed out those who don’t really want tattoos by them bad enough, which actually works because as I mentioned earlier, I did exactly that by walking away from people who didn’t respond to me. I can also assume some artists don’t respond because they are not interested, others though are simply busy and will get back to you in time. So when do you cross the proper etiquette line?

All pieces i drool over on instagram happen to be on people who are on LST. Congrats on that piece, its awesome!

If children know that their parents are supportive of what they want to do, the lines of communication stay open and parents can hopefully help their kids make better choices in life. Kids are going to get tattooed if they want to, anyway, 18 or not, whether their parents support it or not. Some people are mature early in life and can think things through and make good decisions on a lot of matters, tattoos or otherwise. Some people will make bad decisions their whole life. The number 18 is arbitrary at best, there is no magical age of maturity. When somebody thinks they are ready, they will get a tattoo, 18 or not, and realize the consequences of that decision. Hopefully they do not start with a face tattoo. I would let my kid get tattooed before 18 and I would help them get an awesome tattoo.

Lol. Thank you for that, it was funny. Every little bit towards education and information helps nudge the Tattoo Scene in the right direction, farther away from the clutches of the leaches who are ruining it for all of us. Sincerely Idealist Victor...

This is by Diego Azaldegui

Girl head from Valerie in just over a week!

Might just leave this here ;) Alex “Kofuu” Reinke Horikitsune | heartbeatink.gr

I only pop on here now and then but fuck @Russ I had to just log in and say awesome tattoos man....

Saw this one from Dana Helmuth. What can I say, I'm a fan of his work.

Different shops, different rules, different jobs. If there's a price in the wall most shops just charge it beforehand. Payment in advance usually avoids complications. Most street shops charge beforehand, fairly standard. A lot of 'custom' shops charge afterwards, but some will start with a deposit of the predicted first session. Example would be; a predicted 3 hour session with a shop standard $50 deposit requires a $150 deposit.

I can finally contribute to this dang thread!!!! First of 2014 with Hector Fong! Stolen from his Instagram account.

I think the most important thing here is to go to an artist who does tattoos that you get excited about and that you trust, give her your ideas and let her figure out what will or won't work. In general though, I'd say that it's better to keep things simple and not try to fit too much in a single tattoo, because that's what other tattoos are for. Also, don't worry about giving her ideas that in retrospect might seem stupid...I'm sure we can all look back at some of our tattoos and think "what the fuck was I thinking asking for that"...part of the fun of getting tattooed is that there's this whole learning process involved that you can really only get from actually getting tattooed.

Had 3 hours on my stomach/sort of groin area, and a bit here and there... Why do I do this to myself.

now I remember why I like LST so much..it's all the looove and nice tattoos!

I'm getting tattooed by Chad Kopelinger this month. Super stoked. I'm still not 100% sure what I want from him; there's so many things that he does well, it's a tough choice.

Sorry for the delay folks! The winner of Tattoo of the Month January 2014 is @embers with yet another amazing Bryan Burk tattoo! Congrats dude!!! Please PM @steve1461686340 with your shirt info (size and male or female) along with your address. Thanks to everyone for your submissions! New contest will be up later today.

Eagle is definitely next on my list, like the different colours used in this one by Lars Lus Lips in Germany

For your consideration. Just got this yesterday from Beau Brady while he was at Invisible NYC this week and a few forum members suggested I put it up in here. Thanks!

Here's a healed shot of the rose and dagger I got from Scott Sylvia at the Richmond Convention.

:p You can tell which are Jondix and which Mike´s.

new ones...

There's a lot of great advice here from David Bruehl about nutrition and tattoos that is well worth considering: Nibble and Sip Revisited: Tattoo Nutrition « Occult Vibrations Also be well-rested. This, in my experience, is the most important factor in managing the pain. It probably won't be the greatest five hours of your life but at the end of it you're going to end up with a great tattoo. Plus you'll have tough guy bragging rights here for doing a five hour session on your ribs.

All I know is if I had gotten every single tattoo I wanted when I was fifteen, I would have a shitload of garbage on me that I would probably be super bummed on. Right now I'm covering up pretty much a full sleeve of tattoos of stuff like Shaggy from Scooby Doo and bongs and shit that a guy got when he was 15. It's not the moral and societal issues that worry me, it's the subject matter that a 15 year old might think is bad-ass that might not seem so so badass to a more mature young adult/adult...