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Aw man, everyone is getting such great stuff lately. I haven't been tattooed this year yet. I think tomorrow I will be making an appointment with some friends to get one existing piece touched up and another finished. Way overdue for that, so there's something to look forward to. Anyway I think most of you have seen this on the 'gram, but here it is again

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!

I decided to make this...the TattooDo(ge)

i can now offer even cheaper tattoo designs!!!! just give like 100 bucks and i'll draw something cool and unique for you! (yes, you!) i draw any style, like tattoo style and not so tattoo style!!! cheap!!! good!!! design!!

Got a consultation with El Monga Monday at Tattoo City. Go back the next Monday to get the work done. STOKED. Not sure how it's going to play out exactly yet...I plan on tossing out the following and seeing what sticks: SKULL CANDLE WINGS LIGHTENING BOLTS

Scott's was the worst. From what I can tell, the area in general is fucking horrible to have tattooed. Scott managed to finish the tattoo in a little over two hours. God damn it was fast. Freddy's was still miserable, but much easier to get through. @SStu here is a really shitty pic of the two semi-together. It's hard to get a good shot on both sides of the belly. (excuse the shitty tape marks).

What the fuck is this? What the fuck is a 'Tattoo Designer'? More importantly I had a look through their Instagram Instagram and I can see work regramed/reposted by Tattoodo from Chad Koeplinger Horiyoshi 3 Tim Hendricks Scott Sylvia Stewart Robson Etc, Etc. (not sure how to tag names on here - help? mod?) I'm pretty sure none of these artists would be happy about their work being passed off and associated with this sort of thing. In the murky world of the internet this is going to be rife. Still really fucks me off, even more so after watching the FST: Shoulder of Giants film seeing the hard work, passion and love for the industry that these artists have spent years working toward and seeing people break it apart with diluted souless actions as these. It blows my mind that people are willing to pay $300 for a 'design' over the internet?! Makes my blood boil.

@irezumi The trade off is that you're not a scumbag though

A very large tattoo by Mike Rubendall.

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.

appt with @David Bruehl march 27 38 yrs old and finally doing spring break right!

This and @Graeme's are two of the best rose/panther morphs I've seen. Congrats!

not even if ever! thats whats gonna bring ragnarök upon us!

So true and exactly what I did. What was surprising for me was even with good artists there were some tattoos in their portfolio that really did not look good to me. It was usually a certain subject. Women's faces for example. Some artists seem to have a knack for it while others struggle.

I have a Todd Noble native american girl head that is a little smaller than my hand and looks good that size. Maybe your "hand sized" is smaller than mine. There needs to be an international standard for the terms hand sized and palm sized. My hand is roughly 4" x 8" and my palm is 3.5" x 4.5". Anyway I am currently leaning towards a wolf or gorilla head from Tony Hundahl because I want to check out their recently expanded shop and show Steve Byrne the year old tattoo he did on my last spring.

Going to check out the shop is super important. I visited quite a few shops before I even thought about booking a consultation for my first tattoo even though I knew which artist I wanted to tattoo me. It helped to cement my decision and allowed me to dive into the experience knowing without a doubt that I was working with the right artist and shop for me. I waited months for a consultation, then months again for my first appointment. Waiting wasn't a problem because I had more than enough time to save up what I needed to for the tattoo I really wanted, from a great artist, got the tattoo I wanted (and feel like I am not quite good enough to deserve.) It was a great learning experience, that I'm still thankful for - especially since I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! I didn't find out what my artist's hourly rate was until after our consultation was finished - while cost is certainly a factor, it isn't everything and shouldn't be the primary factor in your decision making. Nor should the wait list, you'll have the tattoo on you for the rest of your life, what is four months compared to forty years or more? With choosing an artist, I looked at countless portfolios until I found the artist whose portfolio I kept returning to, because it had that "special something" that I was looking for.

Haha yeah I've never been accused of that - - - Updated - - - Quite frankly I'm amazed, and bummed, that they found (supposedly) 1800 suckers to do work for free.

I am constantly trying to figure out the next get-rich quick scheme. I am amazed by what simple ideas people get that net them huge amounts of money. Case in point; The way employees that work at Applebee's get paid is through a bizarre system of a bank that holds all of Applebees's employees money, but holds onto it for 2 days or something. On payday you can log into the Applebee's bank and make a transfer from their bank account to your own bank account. This process takes 2 to 3 days sometimes to make the transfer complete. In the meantime that bank is collecting interest during those couple of days on every Applebee's paycheck in the country. What an amazing scheme. This is the kind of shit I wish I thought of first. If the person who made the site makes a few hundred thousand dollars through some bullshit effort that they didn't do themselves I'll be kicking myself for not thinking about first.

I guess another one of these websites was on the Canadian version of Dragon's Den, which prompted Kyle Hollingdrake who tattoos at The Okey Doke Tattoo Shop in Toronto to write about why these sites are wrong. I don't think it's possible to direct link to the post so you have to scroll down a little bit: News relating to Kyle Hollingdrake and his excellent tattoos | Hollingdrake Tattoos | Tattooing at the Okey Doke in Toronto, Ontario Canada This sites are parasites and are counting on people's ignorance about tattoos. There's no room for shit like this here.

Thanks and nothing in particular for the calves except on leg day!

I'm on Rubendalls priority booking list for sometime in 2016. Got a long wait ahead of me.

I'm getting a lady head from nick colella tomorrow afternoon on my inner calf. I'm not sure what he's going to have in store for me, I just asked him to draw up something rad. I'm pretty stoked, I know he'll nail it.

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

February 2015 appointment. Waiting since June 2013.

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.

No. No. And no.

J.R. out of Vicious Tattoos in Rochester Hills MI did great work as always. Sorry for the crappy before pictures, I took them the night before, I should have let him take one.

@ian ^

Whale shark is in progress. 2nd session in 2 weeks. Artist is using dot shading. It's creating a nice depth and shade transition. Yeah Galapagos was incredible. I was face to face inches away. The experience is why I chose a whale shark. Which artist is doing your work ?

I would suggest the walk-in. I enjoyed my experience at Smith Street, choosing a design on the spot. It actually led to a funny story. Bert asked me if I wanted to have it say LIBERTY or NYC in the banner, and I said NYC. The design is a Jonesy Lady Liberty. Anyway, I decided on it saying NYC, since I was on vacation and wanted a memorial. The next day, I got to Bailey's studio, and was showing him the tattoo, and he says, "That's a really cool tattoo; funny though, says NYC on a statue that is owned by New Jersey." I just laughed it off awkwardly, but I like thinking about the story now.

Haha that's very true. I hadn't considered varying palm/hand sizes. Regardless, my point being those designs lend better to larger more complex pieces, so that could narrow down the best choice.

@growltiger I did, thank you! @Graeme Thanks dude! I had a blast with it. @hogg Cheers, thank you! You should get one! They're such gorgeous flowers, I think those are called Hagoromo Chrysanthemums. Been wanting to do one for a while but always been intimidated by the structure and complexity of the design. Turns out they follow a pretty simple formula.

We need to give Pro-Pain some love.

@9Years @bugxjuice I actually read that list as one cohesive idea... it could work :)

Would you consider a cover up/blast over? In my opinion a traditional crawling black panther would look great blasted over that.

@keepcalm I just stopped in the Atwells location of Providence Tattoo when I was in town a couple of days ago and that shop is so ridiculously nice looking. I want to get tattooed at that shop just so I can spend some time there.

I'll hook you up for your back @gougetheeyes! No problem :) The shitty sleep is the worst!

Nothing til July with Grez, and then again with him next January. Nothing else for a while, I fear. Broke as hell due to a bad tax situation/mistake, so tattoos are on the back burner for a minute.

I love Kim's tattoos ! She does super nice work especially flowers. I love the squid and girl that she posted recently! - - - Updated - - - I'm not sure you can call what I had connections. I think there are many factors that is involved when artist pick clients to tattoo. I think some people can be inpatient (me included). It can get a bit frustrating but even though I get inpatient I always follow a super respectful and nice approach and this usually always works out. I don't really have an answer how I get these appointments from artist like Garver, Corey miller, Tim , etc. Waiting for me is sometimes a good thing because it gives me time to make sure on the design and also save money.

I've been on Hooper's "out-of-town" list since Nov/12. Last time I talked with the shop manager he said that Thomas would be planning out his summer in late April or early May and to call back then. And that's just for the consult! Actually if I just ended up waiting 2 years for him I'd consider myself pretty lucky.

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.

No. No need to buy a (shitty) pre drawn design if you choose a competent tattoo artist.

Girl head from Valerie in just over a week!

I suggest checking both schedules for Shun Ho and Horimitsu and emailing either right away if you are serious. I think Brian Kaneko is currently at NY Adorned but probably fully booked for the guest spot and show. Good luck, LOVE Horitoshi Family work!

Just got finished watching and it just solidifies the spot on my bucket list to go and get tattooed at Frith Street. There are just so many amazing people with a wealth of talent and heart that work there. Awesome interviews and already anxiously awaiting the second part. Amazing job Stewart!

thank you! we're off to a very busy start. just looking for the right talent to add to the roster.

Haha...that's my shop, Tattoo Technique in Bremerton Washington...all my other tattooer friends think I am crazy...really love the Olympic lifts and try to practice during slow times.

You're in New York? Why go for "a lot of potential" when there people in NYC who do unbelievable Japanese work? Just off the top of my head, look into Chris O'Donnell, Mike Rubendall, Troy Denning, Shinji, Kiku, Chris Garver.

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.