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Hadn't seen a thread for this?.. saw the page yesterday on facebook, can't wait to see it - https://www.facebook.com/TattooNationMovie "New Feature Documentary Film, Coming October 2012 Tattoos used to be a sign of rebellion. A middle finger salute to the rest of the world. Outlaw bikers got tattoos. Sailors on leave in Singapore got tattoos. Lifers in the joint got tattoos. Now, your mother’s got a butterfly on her ankle and your kid’s sporting a tramp stamp. What happened? How did tattoos go from the renegade, readymade, carney cartoons inked as fast as possible to the art form they’ve become today? That transformation is the subject of the new documentary film, TATTOO NATION. TATTOO NATION tells how a few incarcerated but very talented Chicano artists changed the world of ink forever. It follows three tattoo pioneers, Charlie Cartwright, Jack Rudy and Freddy Negrete, and shows how a new, fine line style using detail and shading to achieve a remarkable realism revolutionized the world of ink. In 1975, Cartwright and Rudy boldly opened the first tattoo parlor in the heart of East LA’s Chicano community. They hired a recently paroled teenager who, while in jail, unknowingly established iconic images that spoke to an entire generation of Chicanos. Freddy Negrete became the first professional Chicano artist employed by a mainstream tattoo parlor - a tattoo parlor that was embraced as a new vehicle for self-expression by the Chicano community in East Los Angeles. For the first time, these legendary figures tell their stories in a feature-length documentary film. Included are other important figures such as David Oropeza and “Chuco” Caballero, winners of many prestigious tattoo competitions. Their victories brought international recognition to the uniquely American approach known as “Black & Grey”. The world of tattoo, and the way we regard tattoo, was forever changed."

pay me 15,000 and ill tell you all the "secrets" better make that 20,000 i just realized how many there are

Forgot I didn't have pic of these up here. My 3rd tattoo- Inside right bicep from Ezra Haidet, Triple Crown Tattoo, ATX

My .02, All of them (and myself) are influenced by symbolism, Russian constructivism, and Art Noveau:

on me, by Chad Koeplinger.

New piece from Tim S. @ Anthem in Gainesville, FL.

Hell yeah! Scored an appt with Jeff Gogue!! Fucking stoked!!

I'm a dumbass. I posted earlier that Anderson Luna does Conn-esque work. I was wrong--it's VICTOR KENSINGER I was thinking of. All you New Yorkers look alike to me. ;) Anyway, here are some girl heads that remind me a lot of Conn, but are all done by Victor Kensinger (soon to be at King's Avenue):

Did somebody say seventies?!?!?!?! So, these aren't strictly tattoo pix, wasn't posing to show off the work, just pix from back in the day that happen to show tattoos. In two of them, you can see an original first-edition Chicago Tattooing Company tee-shirt. In the first pic, the guy doing the restraining is wearing ink he got in Milwaukee in the early 60's. Can't see it, but he had a tat we called the "jumping green jesus" on his chest that he got when he was 15, probably the single worst piece I've ever seen come out of a "professsional" shop. The other two pix have work by Dale Grande from CTC in them.

Again, looks like conn but no where as good. I wouldn't get one.

Morning after shot to show placement.

Straight from a 70's film set - Chicago Tattoo Company .Instagram

@autosdafe Post some fucking photos of your work already. So we can tear it to shreds.....................

Stell

@Jennifer Stell awesome especially dig the knee and death rose heres one from yesterday

Since Chicago Tattoo has been on the same 2 blocks for almost 40 years we get alot of people who come in with old work from Cliff Raven and Dale Grande so i try to take photos of these tattoos to document them. I often see old timers walking around the neighborhood or in the grocery store and see their tattoos and try to ask about them and photo them, there is just something about talking to old dudes about their tattoos that gets their attention and for the most part gets them into talking about where they got in and when and sometimes they can remember who it was. Im sure we all do this so i wanted to start a little thread and put up pics of old tattoos that we have all documented. The first three tattoos where done at Cliff Raven Studios (Chicago Tattoo) by Cliff Raven in approximately 1970.. since i cant figure out how to make these images larger you can click on them to get a better look. i look forward to the pics Nick

20k 6 weeks and youll know everything ;) "guns" and ink not included. additional fees and surcharges will be added upon graduation

@thebadnewshughes fun one! @Joel Ang nice! Can I ask about those little frog dudes? Hangin out, not givin a shit.

But you still got suckered in @dcostello... didn't you.

And here's the same corner today...only thing that's the same is the head shop/sex shop/whatever shop across the alley, and The Alley. The pic posted above was taken on Belmont looking west from the south side of the street, and this pic was taken on Belmont looking east from the south side of the street. Note that where CTC was is a yuppie restaurant. Desecration.

We children of the 80's call the Q-Bert cubes

Jack from way back .

Cheers.

Yeah, the spelling is "Miranda", wonder if he put "rights" under it.

M.C. Escher did a ton of work using variants of cubes and other mathematical figures...necker cubes and penrose triangles, tessellations, or "tiled" cubes such as the pic you posted. He also used polyhedra and distorted geometric figures. Not my cup of meat, but hey, to a mathematician, I guess they're pretty hot!

Going in June 2 to get a tudor rose on my elbow, with a compass rose above it covering up some old garbage, my birthday is the 3rd so its my present to myself. Stoked to finally cover up that old tattoo, and i just got out of a job where i couldnt have tattoos visible with a t-shirt, so im happy to finally be able to go on/below the elbow!

Ha ha. Worst thing I've had is tops of both feet & they were like ham hocks the next day, they wouldn't fit in my shoes but they weren't all that bad after that I don't think. I am 100% put off knees now! Sod that.

My wife gave me her old Peavey. She used it in her band all throughout the late 90s. I don't play it nearly as much as I should. She also gave me her early '90s Japanese Strat that has a weird Floyd Rose-style bridge and a graphite nut. It is crazy awesome. I love that woman. The best amp I ever had was a Sovtek Mig 60 that I painted bright red. That amp could drop a man at 20 paces. It would shit all over every Marshall/Laney/Bogner/Fender it was up against.

Sweet. That was a rough-ass 'hood back then, bigtime. Great place, tho', Cliff, Buddy, and Dale always had some craziness going on. You went east a bit on Belmont, you were at "Chickenhawk Corner" of Clark and Belmont, you went west a half-block, and you could see the look-outs on the rooftops and in the alleys with their walkie-talkies, ready to tip the dealers to the cops. It was always fun.

Ahh yeah nice one thats it, the white ink has settled in now so looks a lot more subtle. I also took my copy of his book over there hoping he would sign it for me, he asked me to leave it with him a few days so i did, when i came back to collect it he had done this for me, as you can see i was pretty happy with it haha. Such a nice bloke.

I like the way the uncovered lead from the machine is laying across his leg. But it's ok cause he's wearing gloves.

I just got back home from Amsterdam where I had the great pleasure of getting tattooed by Zurich Mick at the museum. About two weeks ago. Experience of a lifetime!

Tattooed by @mario desa @Frith Steet Tattoos. The picture is from Marios Instagram/Frith Street Site. It's on the inside of my thigh.

Yeah....Seth is really a bad example to try to use....and agreed a very random name to throw out! I am sure the guys on the Read Street Forum would love to answer that question for you though! And the answer is yes.....seth has been tattooing on occasion....I have gotten two from him in the last couple years! ;)

Aside from showing respect to this forum, you have no respect for your craft, no respect for your mentor. and no repect for yourself. get over the internet, it's not how you learn the trade or solve problems. i dont buy that excuse that you cant get tattooed at another shop go to the next county over. your fucking people up and aew not even making a real attempt to solve your problem. google is not for tattooers. but i supose i am beating a dead horse. and what do i know i am just an apprentice who slaves 80 hours a week in trade for proper training in the craft. so fuck what i say. but you should be working harder.

This photo isn't so much funny, as it's more just awesome

I can't help but read this as "I'm too busy making money to properly learn the craft." Maybe I'm missing it but I don't see what shop you work at and your gallery appears to be empty. Maybe you can shut us all up with the quality of your work. You came for advice and got it and I know for a fact plenty of the people offering the advice you're not willing to accept are coming from a place of experience and offering their clients work of marked quality. If not them, who are you willing to learn from? I may be a hardass about this stuff but it's older than all of us. I count myself blessed to be a part of it and have seen far too many people walk fresh faced into it demanding that it change to suit them. This thing wasn't designed to suit the overly eager and unbending. It was designed to weed them out.

Its just a matter of respect to the forum. We were asked and agreed to not ask Tattooing related questions and you did. Thats why you are catching so much shit. The sad part is you dont understand, so far all you've done is make excusses of why you asked it. Then you went on further to throw oters under the scratcer bus. Yes some of once were but the reason we still aren't is because we had enough respect of the craft that we are doing to step back and learn properly and ask questions the proper way. On a side note: How is someone gonna get pissed because your going to spend money in there shop. Maybe you need to look at the common denomonator in this picture and adjust the way you ask shit and pay attention to the rules, written or unwritten.

Good on him. I watched an interview of him once where the interviewer asked him what he was drinking. He yelled "ITS FUCKING GIN!" and threw the bottle or some object across the room. I love that man.

his fake teeth look rotten.

Whenever I feel down, I remind myself "fuck. At least Im not Shane McGowan". Cheers me right up.

i'll just leave this here...

Exactly. There's "is it worth it" and "is it worth it for me". For me- nah. Not really. Conn's stuff is super clean and I love looking at it, but has never struck me as someone I'd get tattooed by. Even if his rate was $200 instead of $500. Conversely, if Robert Ryan called me up and said he raised his rates to $500/hr.... I'd just save up and work with that as my budget because getting tattooed by Robert resonates with me and would qualify as 'worth it'.

Well for whatever reason Mr. Conn isn't replying to our emails. Having heard that he's charging $500 an hour though, I kind of don't care now. Anything I'd want from him would be at least a two hour deal and there's no way I'd pay anyone $1000 for a hand sized tattoo. Fuck that. He's an amazing artist but I can get just as good of a tattoo from Mike Wilson, in the same town I live for $150 an hour.

Never seen the show (just googled it). I must now watch this show.

You win. No more fucks given.

Some Stell roses...

And another thing, Sully, this is such a bullshit statement: "Sue does not keep a Facebook or EVER advertise her work online and keeps her success and work popularized only by word of mouth and not internet hype in the TRUE FASHION of REAL tattooing." I would love to play up the "I don't participate in the internet" crap because WE ALL HATE IT TOO, but dude, doing hipster tattoos in Brooklyn you don't need to advertise on the net. Brooklyn/New York is it's own thing and really with the amount of people tattooing there, you'd expect the place to be dog eat dog, but it's not. TONS of people getting tattooed. Try doing that shit in middle of nowhere or some suburban town with five other shop. The language of the world nowadays, unfortunately is the internet. I hate it, but that's what people speak. In this economy, it makes sense to speak French in France.

Order placed! Please make white ones next time 'round. I have a thing for white t-shirts for some reason.