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I wanted to apologize and give an explanation about something that has been bothering me. I realize my presence here has been quite scarce in recent months, nonexistent, really. When this forum first began, I was excited to participate- as there was not another forum that I wished to be part of. So, I looked forward to being a part of this one. In the beginning I enjoyed the, forum, blogs, interviews and participants and online comeraderie of both tattooists and non tattooists alike. But, what I found happening after awhile, was that my replies and responses were very often, and increasingly defensive and hostile. So,moderators- for that I apologize. I should have found a way to communicate my thoughts and opinions ( as a tattooer of 30 yrs + ) to tattooers and non tattooers alike. Looking forward to participating again Thanks

Got this from Antonio Roque today @ Black Label Tattoo Co.

Took my girl to the museum of natural history to look at dinosaur bones and meteorites and other cool shit, ran around fao schwarz like little kids, and proposed to her on a mountaintop on the blue ridge trail.

No apology is necessary, @Deb Yarian. It speaks volume of your character that you made one at all. Sometimes, people come across as defensive or hostile online without intending to, but I don't recall your posts coming across that way. I know I speak for LST when I say that we're excited to having you contribute again.

But I will amend the above and say that the first 10-15 minutes of any tattoo tend to suck. I always liken it to jumping into a pool. At first it's freezing, and you can barely stand it. Then the feeling normalizes a bit, and you acclimate. But if you get out of the pool for a while and jump back in, it feels cold all over again. For me, it's the same with taking breaks during a tattoo. Good luck, and definitely report back!

Cory Ferguson's name is getting skipped over here, and he def has been doing this for quite a little while without biting anything from Jondix/Hooper/etc. Just wanted to give some credit where it is due.

Have a couple of kids. Time starts to go real fast.

I think I have more of an issue with the "human canvases" than any other issue. I've had clients empathize with them- over poorly done tattoos etc., but my thinking is - they get what they ask for. They voluntarily submit to being on the show without knowing which tattooist they will get tattooed by, and often don't even have much of a say about what they are getting. So they get what they get and deserve it, imo! Really, just so they can be on tv? Why don't they support their local tattooers? I would not have much sympathy if one of my customers went on tv and was less than pleased with their tattoo.

Marius Meyer

Plans for 2013, horiyoshi in january, mick and sabine in april. i wish time could speed the hell up :rolleyes:

I wish this style didn't have a name. As soon as a style is given a name, it seems to give others the impression they can do it too. The reason I don't do this stuff is because I like Hooper, Jondix and Albrigo as people and friends. They each seem to take direct influence from each other while still retaining some individuality and nuances of design and layout that make it possible to identify which one of them did it. The same goes for Binnie, Xed, Tomas Tomas, Mike from Athens and Curly. I love the work of each of those guys. I can't say the same for anyone else doing these styles. It seems to be a "Me too" attitude. They let the first few guys take all the risks and learn what works and find select clients who want to trust in something new. Then they make technically clean but hollow facsimile of something that was interesting. Maybe thats a bit strong coming from someone who doesn't have a style of his own, but I try to work in existing, classic tattoo styles and sometimes have a little fun with them. The reason I don't do this pattern/skull/mandala/pointilist stuff is the same reason I don't do Biomech, Pacheco painterly colour or straight-up cholo tattoos: They are styles that were developed by people with a specific set of interests and inspirations that managed to filter them into a style of design and execution. Also those pioneers are still alive and working. Maybe I've opened a nasty can of worms... How soon is 'too soon' so imitate an iconic style? Do we have to wait for the pioneers to die before crotchety fucks stop complaining? To be honest, I'm not interested in the answer. I just notice that every week the internet spits out a new guy who sticks a skull over or under a doily and it's held in the same regard as work by Mike, Jondix and Hooper. The same as we distinguish between Aaron Cain or Guy Aitchison Biomech, we shouldn't try to coin new phrases and just refer to Thomas Hooper, Jondix or Tomas Tomas Blackwork, dotwork or whatever. Use the name of the guys that made it what it is. We at least owe them that if we're gonna encourage other people to try it and get it tattooed from the rest of the pack. note: I'm certainly not anti-new styles and I'd like to say that I'm eagerly awaiting the second generation of artists influenced by these guys who take it somewhere new, now that there's a body of work by a group of artists. That could be exciting!

@irezumi: Love you, buddy! I missed the pics here, but man, I'm glad I checked 'em out. Congrats! My wife just completed her PhD dissertation (also in History--US) last weekend, so I know how involved it is. Huge kudos to you. She's at UC Berkeley. Where are you?

I believe these our yours and your lady's. awesome tattoos.

Went to congress st. tattoo this past sat to get tattooed by the gentle ginger (Jason Scott). Was a great time with great people who love tattooing for all the right reasons. I got the higgs inspired tattoo (jug fulla sun eyes in it!) and my wife got a great strange UFO/lobster/rose thingy. Got to hear great stories from Jason and see some amazing higgs,whitehead,bink,and bswelt tattoos amoung other things. I love these kind of tattoo trips! . @jasonscott523 | Higgs Inspired! | Webstagram - the best Instagram viewer . @jasonscott523 | Ufo!! | Webstagram - the best Instagram viewer edit: I guess click the @ symbol to see the tattoos, I have a hard time consorting with those of the robot race.

Last time I talked to Thomas H. about people starting to do this style more and more he said something like "Someone needs to, I dont have time to do them all". I still agree that it waters it down, but I still love my thomas tattoos. My favorite thing about Thomas is when he mixes the classic tattooing/woodcut style with the patterns and dots and less the patterns and dots only.

after joking about it a bit a few months ago, i'm booked in on a day off two weeks from now with my boss to do an eagle on the back of my head, with the wings wrapping around onto the sides. hopefully it waits a few weeks for it to go full winter on me, otherwise my ears may fall off.

Brock - Will do. Got my piece worked on about 2 weeks ago and still have a bit of scabbing. I'll post some when my gf swings by. Graeme - I've had work done by Kore Flatmo and Caesar from Caesar Tattoo in NYC (I will travel anywhere to get work done). Marie Sena does arguably the best traditional tattoo work in the area. I like her work! But unfortunately, I like other styles more. Forgot to add in the earlier post that I am 28 yrs old.

Exactly. I don't have a friend who went on Inkmasters, but she is a server at a bar/music venue and was convinced to let some apprentice tattooer work on her. She came to the shop with kind of a jacked up chest piece and the tattoo she got was the only good tattoo she has. Well she got tattooed by apprentice, and she is unhappy, everytime i talk to her I try to downplay it, but she just keeps wanting to bring it up. I kind of feel like I'm not mad at her for not coming back to the shop, but since you gave your money to some hack instead of your friend you don't get the luxury of bitching about how you got a bad tattoo. I feel like the human canvases represent all the pain in the ass cheap skate customers, and while I don't want anyone to get a shitty tattoo, I kind of like being able to say I told you so.

Sir, does your name happen to be Chuck Norris?

Came to Chicago this weekend and got this one from Nick Colella.

Reviving this thread partly 'cause I love it, partly because I have something to add in terms of awesome things I've done recently. This afternoon I successfully defended my PhD! Yikes! I am still kind of wrapping my head around the enormity of it, and so spewing my crazy wired energy wherever I can. :)

Some killer stuff in here! for perspective: Done by Greg Christian while he was in NYC at Wooster St Social Club I had made this appt a while ago and was really looking forward to it. Thought for sure it would get canceled after the Hurricane happened and flooded the city, leaving downtown Manhattan without power all week. Luckily, Greg made it to NYC last minute and I got this tattoo from him a day after the power came back on. It was a really cool ending to a very shitty week. Very fortunate.

Just heard about this from my brother-in-law of all people. They're from the same town in Canada, and ManWoman was a family friend of his. Small world. Sad to lose anyone, especially when that person is so dedicated to spreading a message of peace and understanding. The swastika book he put together is great, need to finally get my hands on a copy.

Could still do it for the wedding ring exchange!

This guy.

Eisen777- awesome!! I saw those on host Instagram page!!! I am hoping to get over to congress street sometime in December for something from him.

Last night a girl asked me why I had a butterfly tattooed on my hand, I told her "Because when you're an actual tough guy you can get whatever kind of girly tattoos you want."

What an inspirational thread! Picked this one up today. Tony Nilsson Blue Arms Tattoo Oslo, Norway

My son's first tattoo for his 18th b-day by Ezra Haidet- Triple Crown Tattoo, ATX

Can we talk about the ZZ Top riding an alligator gar for a minute? Ultimate Texas tattoo and then some.

Some really great work this month! I thought I'd throw mine in as well. Tony Nilsson Blue Arms Tattoo Oslo Norway Tony did a great job! I couldn't be happier!!! Here's a link to Tony's work via.... Instagram

You're allowed to do whatever you want, as long as it's something you're not allowed to!

Oh what the hell, probably crazy to enter a tattoo here given what's already posted, but whatever, I'm not here to make friends: Done by Seth Wood, Saved Tattoo. Mostly finished October 2011 so the thing is healed a year, but the illustrations in the book are fresh and were done a couple of weeks ago. Apologies for the giant pictures.

My husband and I are big fans of horse racing...we decided, almost on a whim, to get this particular mare off the track and retired to a good home. We had been following her for three years and she was quickly disappearing into the cracks, so I felt compelled to at least TRY to get her. Local writer for the Daily Racing Form caught wind of our project and did a little piece on it, it was really cool, and I hope it inspires other people: Retired racehorses: One fan does her part to find mare a home | Daily Racing Form

Congrats to your wife Hogg! And to you too--all partners of dissertation writers are saints. For real. I did my PhD in the UK but have been back in Canada for a few years now, so defending meant a whirlwind trip back to the UK (I arrived last Thursday morning for my Friday defense and just got back yesterday), which I am still recovering from. INTENSE.

Great stuff!

Hi my name is Steph, I'm 22 and I have two small wrist tattoos and full back angel wings 1/3 of the way done (which I plan on finishing asap!).

Actually yes, he´s a friend of mine...small world

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.

We'd be blessed to have more input from you. Was getting tattooed this weekend and saw the so you want to be a tattooer book and fun was had by all reading it.

really????Lol Some works:

From a En guest spot at IN2U .

Bonus shot sent to me by someone who saw my finished tattoo on my instagram and commented that they took a pic while I was getting tattooed. This is what they texted to me :D

My latest, finished a few months ago by Matt Brotka at Salvation Gallery in Richmond. (he didn't do the pumpkin on my ass haha)

Hannya Mask, Chest Panel as part of a sleeve. Did the outline about two months ago, color yesterday. Done by Jesse Tseronis at Sakura Tattoo in Winchester, VA. We've been working on the sleeve since February. One more session!

ditto

Ahoy. Great to see another awesome tattooer posting here.

awesome! welcome to LST Noi teng Viet?

Howdy

I'm currently finishing up the final mixes to my new album that I've been working on for just over a year now. I'm super proud of how it's turning out and I can't wait to get it released!